Profits Are Good If You Profit Righteously Using Godly Principles

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.’ (Proverbs 11:28); ‘One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.’ (Proverbs 11:24) 

It has been over a year since the news the OceanGate Titan submersible imploded near the wreckage of the Titanic, killing all five passengers, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.  More recently, the news of the Boeing Starliner having helium leaks which help control maneuvering placed the two astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, aboard it in jeopardy and forced them to stay in space on the International Space Station and wait for a SpaceX mission in February 2025 to come rescue them, essentially stranding them on the ISS for nine months for what was planned to be a quick nine-day stay to test the Starliner capsule.

In both cases, the argument can be made that the desire to gain profits outweighed the safety concerns of the people the two vehicles carried.  Boeing was under great pressure to tout a success with Starliner after there was much bad publicity with the degrading confidence in the integrity of their commercial jets, with panels, doors and wheels falling off in what seemed to be a regular basis over the last year.  Boeing also had several years ago issues with their Boeing 737MAX jetliners that involved several deadly crashes due to faulty software in the control systems of the plane. 

In the Titan submersible, it was found there was a rush to have the vehicle in service, using unproven and cheap materials and controls to take paying customers to extreme, crushing depths in the ocean that had previously been explored by vastly more expensive but more tested and proven durable craft.  Both incidents find that a rush to obtain a favorable and profitable result ended up in failure, humiliation, and unfortunately in the case of OceanGate, the loss of life.

Proverbs 11 in its entirety covers the need for morality in gaining profit.  Much is said about ‘greedy corporations’ that focus on profit, but the fact is businesses form and operate with the primary goal to make money.  It is not the making of money or desiring profit that is sinful, however; it is how the money is made and the morals (or lack of) behind the ability to make money that determines sinful intent.  There is always a proper way, and conversely a wrong way, to perform an action.  The proper way is always performing it in God’s way with God’s blessings and following God’s blueprint. 

Some believe their money will buy them success, but as stated in Proverbs 11:28 those who trust in their own riches, whether their own abilities or their own treasure, will ultimately fail.  It is never God’s planning that fails; it is always the lack of God’s hand in planning that fails a greedy person’s endeavors.   There may not be as big of an initial sum of profit, but as we see in the two examples the quest to maximize profit at the expensive of morally protecting and safeguarding people ultimately cost not only whatever profits they hoped to make, but ruined their reputation and any trust they may have built up, and put into jeopardy their future endeavors because of their need for short-term greed.

The Righteous entrepreneur may not always succeed in terms of financial gain, but in doing business in a moral and Godly way saves their reputation and gains more than profit but respect.  Proverbs 11:24 is not only for the person who gives freely in charity, but is also for the business owner who invests to ensure his or her product is safe to use or consume.  A food company that withholds funding of performing proper cleaning of its facilities can be ruined instantly when reports their products are tainted and cause illness or even death.  A business running on Godly principles understand that spending money to ensure safety and quality will garner more business than one who is simply in it to gain a ‘quick buck’. 

Not all businesses deal in ‘life or death’ activities, but any business should strive to gain profits the Godly way and ensure that it conducts itself properly, even if it is results in lower profits as in the long run, it will have a reputation of doing business the right way, caring for its customers and gain more customers as a result.  It is not only what we consumers want, but it is how God wants us to live our lives; following His rules, His plans, and involving His wisdom in all of our actions.