I am thankful to www.beakpoint.org for promoting the DVD study “Doing the Right Thing”, an exploration of ethics. In the session on ethics in the market place, it suggested that we write our own guidelines, using the Scripture discussed during the session. Here are mine.

1. Be truthful.

2. Be transparent.

3. Set goals.

4. Don’t fear to invest what God has given you.

         material possessions

         time

         talents with which you were born

         learned skills

         spiritual gifts

5. Trust God for increase of investment.

6. Give glory to God for all you accomplish.

7. Don’t covet what another has.

8. Don’t become a slave to work.

Have some fun. Make your own. Following are the suggested Scriptures; but you might want to use your own.

Proverbs 4:20-27

Matthew 25:14-30

Exodus 20:2-17

Matthew 22:34-40

Ephesians 4:17-24

Romans 12:1-2

You may be reading this and thinking that you are no longer in the market place and so you no longer need these kind of guidelines. Not so. Whether you are a stay-at-home parent, a homemaker, a retiree or disabled, you are still a consumer and you can use these guidelines to check out those with whom you do business. These are also standards you can apply to yourself.

Now look again at your guidelines and answer the question, “When and how did they develop? When I did this exercise I was surprised to find that none of the above guidelines were taught to me by my parents. So where and when did I learn them?

I became a Christian when I was 27 years old; and, not having read the Bible until then, I had an insatiable curiosity about what was in it. I read, and read, and read, and still do. So it must be the Scriptures at work in my life that developed my ethical guidelines for the market place. Amazing! I didn’t even know that it was happening.