‘Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?”

This verse from the Bible has been generally interpreted to mean that Christians should only marry Christians. There are good reasons for taking this line of interpretation.

In marriage, husband and wife are “yoked together” physically and “become one flesh”. On the spiritual plane, a truly “born again” Christian is indwelt by the Holy Spirit while the unbeliever is still under the control of sinful human nature.

The phrase “yoked together” harks back to the Old Testament when God commanded that only animals of the same kind are to be yoked together to do work.

The term came to refer to close relationship and teamwork. Jesus welcomes us to Him saying that “His yoke is easy and his burden is light”, meaning that we will not find teaming with Him and serving Him burdensome or heavy.

St Paul used the term “yoke fellow” to refer to his close fellow workers.

Used in the context of marriage, the husband and wife are joint partners. If they have fundamentally different world views and spiritual loyalties, how can they agree on anything and everything? There would foreseeably be many running arguments and fights. It is impossible not to be affected or impacted by one’s life partner.

It is said that for a marriage to work, there needs to be many plusses. But for a marriage to fail, there need to be just a few minuses, or just one.

But why discuss marriage in a business blog?

My interest in this matter is that, interestingly, the same verse “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers” has been interpreted to mean that Christians should not partner with unbelievers in business, particularly in a partnership.

Since there are many forms of business – sole proprietorship, partnership, limited companies, public listed companies – and a person can be an employee, manager, director, shareholder, partner, how should we apply the teaching of 2 Corinthians 6:14?

A Christian sole proprietor can and should employ people of all faiths based on merit.

Likewise, a Christian can and should work for an employer based on merit of the employer. He should work hard for any employer and, interestingly, St Paul exhorts the Christians to work even harder for a Christian boss.

A paid director should contribute his brain services irrespective of the owner’s religion.

The only question which remains is whether a Christian should enter into ownership as a shareholder or partner with unbelievers?

The answers range from:

1. Let us not mix religion with business

2. Choose people you can trust (not necessarily correlated to religion)

3. All right to be shareholder but not partner because of the unlimited legal liabilities faced by a partner

I think, as a general rule, there is wisdom in not mixing religion with business, especially in our multi-racial country. As an employer, I consciously do not want to discriminate against anyone but employ staff and recruit advisers strictly on merit. As an employer, I do not think I should cause any offence in the area of religion even while living out my faith. Similarly, I am watchful that others of a different faith do not cause offence to their colleagues in the company. But it is not easy to draw the line.

Several Christians have joined our firm because their previous “bosses” have practised certain religions or customary rites which they were uncomfortable with. Many Christians joined our firm because they know that, although our firm does not mix religion with business, we seek to abide by Christian principles.

One of the things which I was very happy to do is to continue to pay some commissions and fees to the wife of an adviser who had been called home although the policies are now serviced by appointed advisers. We give full vesting of commissions and fees unconditionally to our advisers the moment they join. Transparency in handling money, not delaying payments, making up for missed payments and keeping true to promises made are other practices which have helped our staff and advisers to keep faith with us.

The last point I would like to make is that the “religion” which Christians should be most alert not to be yoked with is actually materialism. When asked by one successful Christian adviser what he should watch out for most in our industry, I answered without hesitation, “Greed or the love of money”. Greed drives many firms and advisers, and if they follow success principles, they would likely become successful. But Christians have to beware of the idolatrous nature of greed. Jesus said, “You cannot serve God and Mammon”.

If the company’s culture is dominated by materialism and greed, believers would be “poisoned” as they breathe in the toxic fumes daily. How many can work and witness in such an environment? One Christian said he felt called to be the light in a company owned by a person of another faith and which had been notorious for “churning” of investments to the great loss of clients. I think this thought is noble and hopefully he can reach a position where he can be influential like Joseph was in Pharaoh’s court. But on the other hand, he can be dragged into malpractices and be implicated.

The key thing to note is not “to gain the whole world and lose your soul”. This is true not only of the materialistic unbeliever who worships at the altar of Mammon, but of believers who do likewise and fail miserably as disciples.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 11th, 2010 at 2:58 pm and is filed under Blog Entries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.