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The centrality of love 
Prayer.
Open the session with a short time of prayer.

A key objective of a complete ministry is the New Testament’s Great Commandment to love.

Activity.
Who are we to love?

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’
‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this…Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” The second is this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no commandment
greater than these.’

The centrality of love.
Mark12:28-31
How are we to love?

1. Teaching
An essential hallmark of any ministry is love. Business as a ministry is about Christians in business loving God, above all. We will now consider what it means to love God in the context of business.

Mark14:3-6
While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, ‘Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.’ And they rebuked her harshly. ‘Leave her alone,’ said Jesus. ‘Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.’

The lady had a choice. She could use a year’s wages to bless one person or many people. Why did Jesus endorse her choice?

Some oppose her choice. Consider their reasons. How do you feel about the lady’s choice?

Discussion.
.
Jesus endorsed her choice and demonstrated that He was comfortable being the focus of extravagant expressions of love. He challenged the disciples’ value judgments. We need to
share Jesus’ priorities.

Teaching.
To obey the first commandment we need to foremost discover how to love God extravagantly. This is demonstrated by the woman in the scripture. She loved Jesus more than money and before loving her neighbors. There was no doubt she loved
the Lord. Since we cannot love Jesus in this way, how might we proactively demonstrate our love for Him today? Here are two ways Jesus taught.

Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.’

John14:23
We show love for God by obeying his teaching. When we do business in God’s way, in accordance with the Bible, we are loving God.

We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

1 John4:19-21
As Kingdom Entrepreneurs, we must remember that we are loved by God. This is the only basis on which we can then proactively nurture and demonstrate love for our commercial
‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’.

We will now look more closely at what it means to love others through the activities of a business.

Christians in business need to discover how to use business to love God. This is the greatest commandment.

Jesus’ command to love our neighbor is a central characteristic of the Gospel and a hallmark for any Christian ministry. In order to better understand how love is expressed in business, we need to ask the question ‘who, in business, is our neighbor?’

Consider who in business might be considered your neighbor. We have found it helpful to think of all those people and organizations with whom your business comes into contact.

The list below is a selection of our ‘business neighbors’.

Customers Partners Public Suppliers

Colleagues Shareholders Competitors Environment

Contractors Stakeholders Family Ourselves

Discussion.
Does any of this stand out to you? Why is that?

Probably the hardest ‘business neighbors’ to love are our competitors. Discuss why this might be and how you might practically demonstrate love for a competitor.

Discussion.
Who in business might be considered an ‘enemy’?

Discuss what is means to love your enemy in business.

‘You have heard that it was said, “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…’

Matthew5:43-44
.
In Luke 10, Jesus illustrates what it means to love our neighbor through the parable of the Good Samaritan. The one who showed love to his neighbor was not one of the religious
leaders, but rather the Samaritan.

It is interesting to consider that this loving man of means might also have been a businessman. He was traveling along the busy trade route between
Jericho and Jerusalem and he seemingly stayed regularly in the local hotel.

Discussion.
Is love a characteristic you typically associate with business transactions?

Teaching.
Yahoo senior executive Tim Sanders thinks love should be a key characteristic of business leaders, and we agree. He says; ‘The most powerful force in business isn’t greed, fear, or even the raw energy of unbridled competition.

The most powerful force in business is love.’ He uses the philosopher Milton Mayeroff’s definition of love in his book ‘On Caring’ where he writes, ‘love is the selfless promotion of the growth of the other. When you help others grow, to become the best people that they can be, you are being loved – and as a result, you grow.’ What a great description of loving leadership.

Jesus demonstrated a similar approach to loving others. After a life of astonishing achievements, Jesus declares what is one of the great leadership axioms. He says to His disciples; ‘you will do greater things than these.’

There can be no more loving phrase in management than this expression by Jesus to His disciples. He genuinely wanted them to prosper. It would result in his own venture prospering. At the heart of love is the desire for others to grow. This requires the security of knowing you are yourself loved.

Discussion.
How do you feel about your colleagues, customers, and even your competitors, achieving greater things than you?

How does helping our business neighbors to grow result in our own growth?

Business as ministry involves loving all of our ‘business neighbors’.

We will now consider how our organizations can take practical steps to love some key ‘business neighbors’; firstly our employees.

Matthew20:1-15
‘For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

‘About nine in the morning, he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, “You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.” So they went. He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing.

About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, “Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?” “Because no one
has hired us,” they answered. He said to them, “You also go and work in my vineyard.”

‘When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, “Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.”
The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of
they also received a denarius.

When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. “Those who were hired last worked only one hour,” they said, “and you have
made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.” But he answered one of them, Look at how the employer acts in this story. How did his actions demonstrate love?

Jesus uses this story to challenge our value judgments. The employees did not feel equally loved. Do you feel the employer’s approach was unfair?

“I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the
right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?”’

Discussion.
The employer actively sought to provide each of the labourers with employment and promptly paid a living wage at the end of the day (a denarius in Roman times was considered a day’s wages).

This was an employer who did business God’s way. By
paying them in accordance with Deuteronomy 24:15 he demonstrated his love for God. The employer also chose to generously pay more than what was considered ‘fair’. These
actions showed love to both the employees and God.

Jewish Virtual Library

The highest form of charity is to help sustain a person before they become impoverished by offering a substantial gift in a dignified manner, or by extending a suitable loan, or by helping them find employment or establish themselves in business so as to make it unnecessary for them to become dependent on others.

Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise, they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.

Teaching.
Deut.24:15

It is highly motivating to realize that our businesses are expressing one of the highest forms of generosity by employing people. There are many ways in which we might love our
employees. First and foremost, it is by providing employment and combining the paying of generous salaries with the provision of satisfying work. This enables others to prosper and
grow.

The Bible even has something to say about bonuses. There is an account in 1 Samuel 30 of how David divided the plunder.

The passage tells us that ‘this is David’s plunder’. After the battle, he and those who had fought returned to the men who had been guarding the supplies. The troublemakers among
David’s followers said, “Because they did not go out with us, we will not share with them the plunder we recovered.”

David’s response established an important principle for Christians in
business. It was so important that David made it a statute and ordinance for Israel. ‘David replied, “No, my brothers, you must not do that with what the Lord has given us…The share
of the man who stayed with the supplies is to be the same as that of him who went down to the battle. All shall share alike.”’

This is the way of love. David recognized that the plunder was the Lord’s and used it to demonstrate his love for all of his employees.

How might you better show love to your employees?

When a business provides generous employment, it is an act of love.

Reflection.
Luke6:38
‘Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to
you.’

A business shows love to its customers by transforming an economic transaction into an act of love. This is achieved by delivering more than is being paid for. This is about being
willing to go the extra mile. This well-known Biblical axiom is one of the core values of a successful Kingdom Business called Country Fare. They describe it as ‘we are willing to go the extra
mile because we believe our customers, suppliers, and coworkers deserve it’. What a great expression of commitment to love. Their customers don’t receive ‘the extra mile’ because it
is being paid for but because they are loved.

To better understand what love might look like in the workplace, it might be helpful to observe what it looks like when love is absent in a business transaction.

Teaching.
Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, ‘When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may
market wheat?’– skimping on the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat.’
Luke 6:38
This passage illustrates the corruption and exploitation that can all too often characterize business transactions. Love will challenge the business status quo.

Discussion
Either end of the spectrum illustrated above is inappropriate. Where on the spectrum is the win-win zone where both you and your customers prosper? Discuss the consequences of
being either too generous or too frugal on you, your business and your customers.

Discussion.

Do you agree that ‘going the extra mile and delivering more than is being paid for results in a win-win for you and your customers?

The Bible tells us that we have achieved nothing if all our hard work is without love. Love is shown in many ways but above all it is an attitude of the heart. The Bible clearly defines what love entails. It is summarised in the scripture below.

If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hope, always perseveres.

Reflection.
1 Cor.13:3-7
How well is your business demonstrating love? Place a score of 0-5 next to each Biblical characteristic of love. Consider how you might commit to improving a score that is lower than 3 and proactively seek to cultivate an attitude of love rather then exploitation towards your colleagues and customers.

Patient.
Kind.
Not envious.
Not boastful.
Not proud.
Not dishonoring,
Not self-seeking.
Not easily angered.
Keeps no record of wrongs.
Rejoices in the truth.
Protects.
Trusts.
Hopes.
Perseveres.
Total score: /70
We finish this section on the Great Commandment with a final word from Yahoo’s Tim Sanders; ‘And one last point: Behave this way not because you expect something in return — a quid pro quo — but because it’s the right way to behave. The less you expect in return for acts of professional generosity, the more you will receive.’ That, of course, is the great mystery of love. It is as we give that we will, in turn, receive.

The best way for us to love God and love ourselves is to love others. When we actively seek to love our work, our colleagues, our customers, and even our competitors, we can be sure to benefit as well. After all, we reap what we sow. It is when we lay our own lives down for others, putting their interests above our own, that we are acting in love. All too often business leadership is seen as an opportunity to love ourselves. Business becomes a ministry when business leaders commit to love their neighbors as they love themselves.

More than this, it is when we learn to demonstrate our love for God, in and through the way we do business, that we will have discovered how to fulfill the Great Commandment. When we do, we will see our business transformed into a fruitful ministry.

Ultimately, it is those activities that are carried out in an attitude of love which will define our business as a ministry.

After all, God is love, and the presence of love is a necessary hallmark in all of His ventures. Love is therefore an essential hallmark of every Christian ministry. We have seen that
business is rich in opportunities to love. It, therefore, has the potential to become a complete ministry.

The business provides many opportunities to fulfill the Great Commandment to love.

Close the session with a short time of prayer. Ask God to make your business a place that is characterized by love.