“I was raised to treat the janitor with the same respect as the CEO.” I’m sure you’ve heard this quote before, whether it was attributed to Barack Obama or Tom Hardy, and you saw the wisdom behind it. Maybe you even modeled your business interactions around this idea. Respecting people regardless of their social class is a good start. Our Government even requires it of us, but God has called us to a much higher standard. He has called us to LOVE.
After the commandment to “Love your God with all your heart with all your mind and with all your soul,” the most important commandment is to “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39). We’ve heard the command hundreds of times, but do we truly understand it? Do we know how to apply it to our business? We might pride ourselves in knowing the janitor’s name, but when the new intern drops the ball, do we shake our head and write them off as immature millennials? Or do we take the time to love them and figure out what is going on?
John 4 shares a very powerful story of Jesus interacting with a Samaritan woman. To give some context, Jesus was traveling from Judea to Galilee. When most Jews made this journey, they took an even longer, indirect route solely to avoid Samaria and the Samaritans they hated so much. Jesus not only traveled through Samaria but then chose the loneliest of the Samaritans to love on…a sexually immoral woman.
“The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?’ (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans)” (John 4:9).
Now, it’s hard to grasp the magnitude of what happened unless the nuances of Jewish culture and law are understood. Jesus is breaking norms left and right. Not only has he entered Samaria, he’s talking to a Samaritan, who is a woman and a disgraced woman at that and he would have been considered unclean for drinking the water she gave Him. For a regular person, this would be unorthodox, but for a religious leader, this was extreme.
Jesus didn’t care about the social backlash He would receive for breaking norms that had been in place for hundreds of years. The only thing that Jesus cared about was loving the Samaritan woman for who she was – “a chosen [person], a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession” (1 Peter 2:9).
Jesus commanded us to love and then demonstrated how through His actions. Likewise, as Christian leaders, we need to learn Biblical truths and then demonstrate them in our businesses. In a society that is predominantly moving towards inclusiveness and equality, living this out can seem normal. Our company handbooks detail our anti-discrimiantion policies, our compliance with the ADA through the accommodation of disabilities, and fair compensation according to the FLSA requirements (minimum wage, overtime, etc). In our society, we are not radical by caring for people on the fringe, we are legally required to do it. But God is honored by our hearts, not our compliance. We should choose to do these things in service to Christ, not out of obligation or social need. So how do we take these policies and radically live them out in a way that honors Christ and sets us apart?
As Christian business owners we should be pioneers on the forefront of anti-discrimination, accomodating disabilities, fair compensation and breaking social norms; not because it’s popular or legally requried of us, but because that is how Jesus taught us to love. Matthew 25 shows the alternative:
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’”
Who are the least of these? Who is the modern day Samaritan in our company or hiring pipeline? These are the people Jesus has called us to radically love. “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).
What does this look like for your company? Share your comments below.