Businesses in the Kingdom - Bringing Justice

In the book of Psalm, the Psalmists praise God because he is just. In their Psalms they are asking God for His intervention to ensure justice where wickedness and oppression reign. For the Psalmists, justice means being honest and actively intervening on behalf of the helpless, especially the poor.

Psalm 82:3 (ESV) “Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.”

Like the Psalmists, we can pray to God to intervene, and we can take an active, co-labouring role in bringing justice in our everyday lives – in private and in business. To practice (more) justice in and through a business, we need to look at our work and how we conduct it, our products and services, our purchasing habits, and our interactions with others, asking ourselves the question if all these are helping the vulnerable or if they are hurt or harmed.

Reflecting about these statements and questions (list not exhaustive) can help to determine where a business can act more justly.

• A business should look out for the interests of others. A business should serve its employees, customers and stakeholders instead of exploiting and/or defrauding them.

• A business should seek opportunities where its products and services can heal or restore broken situations. It does not just add to a stockpile of available goods or services for a particular community, but it provides solutions that are restorative in nature. Solutions that help communities to flourish.

• Are the business supply and distributions chains cleaned up from exploitation and/or defrauding of vulnerable people and resources?

• Is the business sourcing or distributing products below a fair price so that it can pocket the difference to enrich itself?

• Is the business offering products and/or services that keep people in bondage or lead them into bondage? This could be for instance through the payment options offered that might encourage people to buy more than they can afford, leading them into dept traps.

In today’s world that values wealth and fame above loving our neighbours, kindness and compassion we need to be cautious that we are not joining the crowds who think that it is ok to squeeze their value chains without giving back a share of their profit to steadily improve the livelihoods of the people and creation that have been exploited. Without giving back, participants in those value chains will continue to be pushed to the edge of their financial abilities to sustain a living in a particular society.

Mark 10:25 (ESV) “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

Businesses who are practicing justice based on the principles of the Kingdom of God need to be aware that they ought to be different from certain common business practices of their time. These business practices might have been accepted by the people as standard, but they do not conform to the principles of the Kingdom of God.