If Jesus was not good for your business, would you change your business? Or would you ask Jesus to leave?

When Jesus commanded demons to go into nearby pigs, they committed mass suicide. And those who made a living raising those pigs suddenly lost their source of income. If you didn’t know, it was unlawful for the Jews to raise pigs. And yet they were doing so anyway. And when Jesus allows these money-makers to disappear, they ask Jesus to leave their town. In other words, they were saying that their business was more important than Jesus.

There are some business practices and types of works that are not compatible with Jesus today. But I doubt that any of us are employed in such settings – such as prostitution, meth labs, organ harvesting, porn industry, etc. So then, what application does this have for us?

Sometimes, following Jesus means taking a pay cut. Sometimes, it’s giving up on a great opportunity – business, promotion, etc. Why? Because doing so would align with Jesus being our Lord. Living by faith means sometimes making decisions that are head-scratchers. If you’ve only made decisions that are logical and sensical to everyone around you, especially to the unbelieving, what evidence is there that you are living by faith and thus belong to Christ?

Abraham, sacrificing Isaac, was non-sensical. Joseph, as a single man, choosing the prison over sexual pleasure was a head-scratcher. Moses, choosing to live among his people rather than in the palace, didn’t make sense. Yet, they were all living by faith.

Why? Why should we choose a demotion at times? Why should we take a pay cut? Why should we lay low when we could make it big? Because we are going for something much greater! We are going for the greatest prize ever! Just like olympic athletes give up temporary pleasures to attain the ultimate prize, we make strange decisions (at least to the world) in order to attain the ultimate prize in Jesus.

Don’t think of it as giving up but as investing. “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.” (Luke 18:29-30)
PH