Making Money, Losing Money, and Success

The last lesson was about keeping integrity in someone else’s culture. This lesson is about two things no business can avoid: making money and losing money. At the end it asks a deeper question: what counts as success?

First, the temptation of making money. Paul says, “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” (1 Tim 6:10) Notice that he says ‘the love of money’, not ‘money’. Lesson 4 said that making money is not a sin; the problem is the heart—“those who are determined to be rich fall into a temptation, a snare.” (1 Tim 6:9) People doing business with a mission can be pulled in just the same: it starts as a way to serve, and after a while of earning, they see only the numbers.

Paul’s remedy is contentment: “godliness with contentment is great gain,” (1 Tim 6:6) because “we brought nothing into the world, and we certainly can’t carry anything out.” (1 Tim 6:7) Proverbs has a very practical prayer: “Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is needful for me” (Prov 30:8). Contentment is not a lack of ambition; it is knowing where ‘enough’ is.

So what do you do when you make money? Paul tells Timothy to charge the rich “that they not be arrogant, nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches,” (1 Tim 6:17) but “that they do good, that they be rich in good works, that they be ready to distribute, willing to share.” (1 Tim 6:18) A business-as-mission business that makes money can raise wages, reinvest locally and hire more people, and support the local church and people in need. In lesson 1 we read the words of the Lord Jesus: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).

Now losing money. Anyone in business knows that many businesses do not survive their first few years. Both examples in lesson 2 lost money: the Moravians saw the price of whalebone fall by more than half, and the indigo factory Carey managed closed when its owner made losses. Habakkuk’s prayer, in a world of farming and flocks, almost means ‘every business has collapsed’: “even though the fig tree doesn’t flourish, nor fruit be in the vines… the flocks are cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls.” (Hab 3:17) The very next line is: “yet I will rejoice in the LORD. I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!” (Hab 3:18)

Carey later suffered an even greater loss. In March 1812 their printing house at Serampore in India burned to a shell in a single night: stacks of paper, type in many languages, and manuscripts of dictionaries and Bible translations were all destroyed. A friend who hurried there recorded that Carey stood in the smoking ruins with tears in his eyes and said, ‘In one short evening the labours of years are consumed… The Lord has laid me low, that I may look more simply to Him.’ Two weeks later Carey wrote that although the loss was very great, they had already begun recasting the Tamil type; as for the burnt manuscripts, ‘The ground must be trodden over again.’ The Sanskrit Old Testament historical books that were lost in the fire were translated again and published in 1815.

So what is success? Paul says, “it is required of stewards that they be found faithful” (1 Cor 4:2). In Jesus’ parable of the talents, the servant given five talents gained five more and the one given two gained two more, and the master said exactly the same words to both: “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matt 25:21). The master was not looking at how much they made, but at whether they were faithful.

So a business failing does not mean the mission has failed. But when it fails, be as honest as you were when it was running: look after your staff first, repay what you owe, and give a clear account to your church and supporters—lesson 2’s “having regard for honorable things” (2 Cor 8:21) matters even more when you are closing down. Then look at the next step together with your church: perhaps starting again, perhaps a different path.

To sum up this lesson in one line: when making money, do not trust in money; when losing money, still trust in God. Success is being called ‘good and faithful’ by the Lord.