I’ve been asked by a lot of business leaders lately how they should ethically balance the dangers of COVID-19 while keeping their businesses open and their employees safe. More specifically, since their businesses are essential for the infrastructure of everyday life, what is the correct way to evaluate profit vs people.
Even if your business is not an essential business that needs to stay open, there are ethical questions you can answer that will help govern the operations of your business in the future. If you are somebody looking for a job or an entrepreneur, make sure you know your target company’s stance on these questions, it will help you when you try to find the best culture fit for you.
From the passage below, we find two key questions we should answer in order to govern how we think about business profits as an impetus toward business practices.
For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.
Matthew 16:26-27 ESV
1. What price are you willing to pay for profits?
Jesus asks, “what’s the point of making all this money if it’s going to cost you are soul?” Think about your soul as both your eternal soul that lives forever with God, if you place your faith in Jesus, or in hell, an eternity away from the presence of God; and as your conscience, that you have to live with the rest of your life.
In the first sense of the word, “soul,” Jesus is clearly saying that there is an eternal price in making a decision toward profits here and now over profits in eternity. The eternal price begs the question: where is your trust? Is your trust in Jesus or is it in money?
In the second sense, your soul as your conscience, we must think about how can we live with ourselves if our consciences aren’t clear. Do we really want the burden of a heavy conscience on our shoulders for the rest of our lives? Especially, if that burden comes from a short period of time where we can profit? Happiness experts say it simply isn’t worth the burden of having a heavy conscience to place business profits at the pinnacle of your life.
2. What price do you place on the lifeblood of your employees?
You can boil down the value of an employee to an hourly wage, salary, and then do a hard ROI calculation. That is great. But what will consumers and employees say about you as a leader or as a business when you make a purely mathematical calculation to evaluate how much they are worth?
God loves all people. In fact, he loves people so much that when we were our worst and far away from him, that Jesus intervened in our lives that allowed us to have faith to be saved by his death and resurrection. That is the same type of love we are commanded as Christians to have, even if it costs us.
If the price Jesus paid for our soul was death on a cross and time in hell as payment for our own lives, shouldn’t that be what we value our employees’ lives as?
Promise: God is keeping score on your behalf
I know ethics questions is probably not what you were hoping for as forms of advice, but rest assured, God is keeping score. He loves you, regardless of how much your business has to tank to do the right thing. If that is the case, and then be a good leader and do good for your people, for the glory of God. He will reward you generously.
Prayer: Father, we’re hurting economically. We have to make hard decisions. Help us discern the right path and if there is a lot of grey areas, then help us find peace with our practice of our faith. Allow us to act boldly as leaders amidst a global crisis. In Jesus name. Amen.
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