Is Profit a Dirty Word?
By Dan Lacy
“The love of money is the root of all evils,” I Timothy 6:20 — is an oft quoted passage; and while most Christians would claim to understand that this principle does not mean that “money is evil,” an alarming number of Christian businessmen and women seem to run their businesses believing that it is.
Your business is your mission field and a tool that can be used by God in demonstrating the truth of the Gospel. Every day of the week people are influenced by you, and the way you run your business is your testimony to them — the only testimony many of them will ever witness. The way you operate your business, how you believe in and market your product or service, how you pay your bills, how you maintain your facility, and how you treat your employees and customers are either an indictment or a wonderful demonstration of what God has done in your life.
Those who misunderstand money will misunderstand profit. If Christians even subtly view money as evil, they cannot properly enact the biblical principles of sowing and reaping and of stewardship of resources. Consequently, their ability to effectively operate their businesses — their mission fields — is adversely affected.
Just what is profit? The textbook definition would define it as the difference between revenue and expenses. But it is really more than that. Profit is the only business goal that must be achieved. Profit is the only thing that can reduce debt, increase working capital, and provide the ability to expand in equipment, facilities, markets or personnel. Profit is the grease that keeps the business moving forward. Profit insures that new capital and credit will be available.
Conversely, businesses without profit or with profit margins that are significantly smaller than competitors, are at a disadvantage in obtaining credit or attracting new capital, meeting obligations to creditors in a timely manner, properly compensating employees and in reducing debt. These businesses are unable to grow, expand, and touch other people with their products.
One third of all new businesses fail in the first three years. Over three quarters of businesses fail in the first ten years. Obviously, many factors go into those failures, but the bottom line is, there simply wasn’t enough profit — without it, businesses become statistics.
