Ethics: Outward Actions Based On Inner Motives

Our Mission

 To present Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord to business and professional men and to develop Christian business and professional men to carry out the Great Commission.

Psalm 90.12 asks God, Oh! Teach us to live well! Teach us to live wisely and well! Come back, GOD —how long do we have to wait?

What does it mean to live well? Man would define it by money enough to do as you please. To buy the things you need and want. To go to the places you desire. To do the things you want to do. Living well means freedom to have and do whatever you desire. To live well one must have money, a lot of money.

While most of us compromise, we don’t have or do all we want, we would still say we live well. We still have many things and we travel regularly to nice places. All of this though is measured in the short span of 80 or 90 years, if all goes well. Then we face God.

God will then base our eternal destiny upon His definition of living well. If we live well by His definition we shall live forever with Him. If we choose poorly then we shall live away from Him forever in suffering and torment with all those who did likewise including the angels who rebelled against Him.

We have this naive view that if we believe in God we have pleased God. The demons, former angels, believe but stand condemned. The issue is obedience, the doing of God’s will which demonstrates love for God which is the first commandment of God. Living well from God’s perspective, is living in right relationship with God the Father through God the Son empowered by God the Spirit.

This relationship is based upon faith in the mercy and grace of God demonstrated through the Son of God which causes us to do the works of God by the power of the Spirit of God. Without Him we can do nothing, we cannot truly live well, but in Him we will bear much fruit, we will live eternally well.

The work of God is the coming to the knowledge of Him, in Jesus the Savior, through the witness of His people who doggedly pray, serve, love and testify to the world, that God loves them and has come to us to rescue us from sin and death. To live well is to give our best time, talent and treasure to seeing His kingdom come and His will being done on earth as it is in heaven.

His Opportunities

1. 1.     Tuesday, July 17th at the City Rescue Mission from noon until 1pm is your next CBMC Rescue Luncheon. This is your opportunity to serve lunch to the men and women who depend upon the Mission for their meal. Can’t attend but wish to cover the cost for the lunch? If interested in either,  Commit Here
   
   
2.  CBMC is looking for more ministry partners in 2018. Join the Team Today.  COMMIT now.

1. Join me August 9-10 for the global leadership summit. The Global Leadership Summit 2018, is an annual premier training event. It is expected to draw some 400,000 church and business leaders from around the world to conference sites in more than 550+ locations around the U.S. and many more internationally, where talks from world-class leadership experts will be beamed live via simulcast. If enough men wish to attend we can get a group discount, or form your own corporate group. It is being held at Trinity Church in East Lansing. More details HERE, let me know if you plan to attend as part of a CBMC group.

CBMC Central Michigan 6011 W. St. Joseph Ste. 401 Lansing 48917  / 517 481 5996 www.lansing.cbmc.com

MONDAY MANNA

A service to the business community

A Publication of CBMC International

July 2, 2018

Ethics: Outward Actions Based On Inner Motives

by Sergio Fortes

Ethics has always been a challenge into business and professional world, and despite many advances and changes, it might be an even greater challenge in the 21st century. The word “ethics” is derived from the ancient Greek, ethos, which meant, “our place while human,” or “the place where we live.” In that sense, ethos or ethics can be regarded as “our home.”

This reminds me of when my father would address our entire family around the table after dinner. Concerning certain actions or behaviors that he considered unacceptable, emphatically he would say, “Here in this home, this shall not be done.” Basically, he was informing us of the “house rules,” the standards, practices and traditions he expected each of us to uphold.

Obviously our home or place, as humans, is the home where we live, our marriage, the social group which we participate, the society where we live, our city, the neighborhood where we reside, the church where we worship with others, and the company where we earn our livelihood, what the Bible calls “our daily bread.” Living according to a personal and professional code of ethics, in effect, means actions that make us feel “at home.”

The Brazilian philosopher and educator, Prof. Dr. Mario Sergio Cortella, has presented a masterful conceptualization of ethics: “It is the set of principles and values that we use to answer three major questions of human life: Do I want? Should I do? Can I do? There are things we want, but we should not (acquire them). There are things that we should do, but we can’t. There are things we can do, but we don’t want to.”

Dilemmas like these permeate our everyday lives, invading the depth of our business relationships and the unseen, inward origins of our professional actions.

The Apostle Paul points out that when we do what we don’t want, it is because we are dominated by an inner force or impulse which he calls “sin”: “Now if I do what I do not desire to do, it is not myself that acts, but the sin which dwells within me fixed and operating in my soul” (Romans 7.20).

One of the concepts of sin I have learned – I can’t remember from whom – is that “sin is hitting the wrong target.” We know what we should do, but trying to accomplish it, we have lost the target and hit something else instead.

The divine antidote for sin is forgiveness. When we admit our sins and confess it, God will help us to overcome them, providing forgiveness, empowering us to not want what we should not, and giving us the ability to do what we should: “… He will forgive our sins and continuously cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1John 1.8-9).

However, having ethical guidelines and displaying proper ethical conduct – our home” – is more than possessing the intention to follow good practices, values or principles. It requires more than a simple desire, or even the exercising of our will. It demands an inner change, a new mindset.

In Romans 12:2 we are told, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Being “transformed” is not something we can accomplish on our own. It is something that, as the Bible tells us again and again, only Jesus can do! As Galatians 2:20 assures each of His followers,” I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (by His Spirit).”

© 2018. J. Sergio Fortes is a consultant in strategic management and a specialist in corporate leadership. He also is a member of CBMC Brazil.

CBMC Central Michigan 6011 W. St. Joseph Ste. 401 Lansing 48917  / 517 481 5996  lansing.cbmc.com

 MONDAY MANNA

A service to the business community

A Publication of CBMC International

July 2, 2018

 Reflection/Discussion Questions

1. What is your concept of ethics?

1. What did you think of the original concept of ethics as “the place where we live?

1. In your opinion, what can lead someone to stop doing what is right, and choosing instead to do the opposite?

1. Do you think that the force that drives people to do what they really don’t want to do, and not do what they really want to do, is the sin? Explain what this means for you.

NOTE: If you have a Bible and would like to read more about his subject, consider the following passages: Proverbs 4:23; Ecclesiastes 12:14; Mathew 5:37, 7:9-12; Mark 12:17; Philippians 4:4-5

CBMC Central Michigan 6011 W. St. Joseph Ste. 401 Lansing 48917  / 517 481 5996  lansing.cbmc.com