There are so many books written on how Jesus wants us to act in the marketplace. Did Jesus really intend for us to live our lives within the marketplace?
I recently read a management book on how to manage like Jesus. It compared the 12 disciples as the leadership team for Jesus’ ministry. Somehow being a leader like Jesus is within the meaning of being Christian.
Jesus was a great leader; there’s no doubt about that. In my communication classes, the prof mentioned over and over again how Jesus used various forms of media and communication strategies to effectively reach his audiences. This is all true, however, what made Jesus who we was (from the human perspective), was not his leadership but the message he delivered. He delivered the message embedded in God’s revelation for all man. His leadership skills only served in propagating this message.
Satan is also a great leader. Somehow he convinced and successfully led the revolution of one third of the angels of heaven against God. Somewhat like a spiritual George Washington or maybe even like Gandhi since I don’t think any of the angels actually died in the revolution. He’s not fairing too poorly these days either. He clearly possesses great leadership and management qualities. Why don’t we see leadership books on how to lead like Satan? In fact, the Screwtape Letters, as satirical as they are, could easily be a textbook in any mba marketing class.
As one of my profs likes to say in his somewhat broken english, “Never bifurcate.” Not sure if he actually knows what bifurcate means, but my prof’s message is never alter the revelation delivered by God with any other message we want to derive. Our own message may make sense and may even be “moral”, but the minute we do “bifurcate”, we end up with a gospel that is not what God intended.
The Bible is a large voluminous book which spans all of time. But in all of that text, there is only one simple message transmitted from God to man. In Matthew 22:36, Jesus summarizes this message perfectly. (The salvation brought by Jesus is not the message. It is the back-door God allows for us because he knows we will fail at comprehending his message. Christians often forget this.) If you can successfully convince yourself that this message is adhered to within the marketplace, then you are a wiser man than I.
Convergenism 