Who Is My Neighbor in Business?

Making a positive, redemptive difference in our communities is generally listed as the third aspect of the triple bottom line, but that doesn’t mean that it is any less important than the others. Rooted in the command of Jesus to “love your neighbor as yourself,” this critical aspect focuses on the various ways a business makes an impact in its community.

What does it actually look like to love our neighbor through our business? And how does one recognize the neighbors God is leading us to love? Jesus answered a very similar question, and his answer was not a simple statement of principle, but a story.1

The Story That Redefines “Neighbor”

In Luke 10, we read of a lawyer, “desiring to justify himself,” who tests Jesus with questions about the Law and the definition of “neighbor.” The story Jesus tells in response challenges our assumptions and strikes at matters of the heart.

“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho…” (Luke 10:30)

In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, we find a vivid picture of neighbor-love in action. A wounded man lies on the side of the road, ignored by the religious professionals who pass by on the other side. But a Samaritan, someone from a group despised by many of Jesus’ listeners, stops. He sees the needs and meets them, sacrificially taking the time and paying the cost.

Jesus ends the story simply: “Go and do likewise.”

Implications for Missional Enterprise

In a previous M3 Weekly article, we examined the kindness in action of the Good Samaritan, who very likely could be seen as a businessman on a business trip. For those of us building missional enterprises, we can explore Jesus’ command to “go and do likewise” by probing the significance of various parts of Jesus’ story:

• The Wounded Man – Who are the people we tend to walk past, often without realizing it? (Persons from certain backgrounds or past life experiences, or certain socioeconomic classes…)
• Roadsides – Where are the “roadsides” in our communities, places that contain the vulnerable and broken, but that we find easy to avoid?
• Robbers – What are the “robbers” in our context? For instance, what are factors that steal dignity, opportunity, or hope? (Exploitative systems, unjust wages, predatory practices…)
• Oil and Wine, Two Denarii – What does love look like in action? What assets have been entrusted to us that can effect positive change in our enterprises and surrounding neighborhoods? (In the wages we pay, the products we produce, the workplace environment…) What are short-term expressions of love, like the instantly administered oil and wine, and what are longer-term blessings, like money given to the innkeeper?

Missional business gives us the extraordinary opportunity to live out the answers to these questions in everyday places that touch countless lives.

Verse of the Week

“Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor…?” He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘You go, and do likewise.’” — Luke 10:36–37 (ESV)

Let’s consider committing some time this week to prayerfully ponder the questions above, and trust God to empower us with his grace to become leaders who notice, respond, and build expressions of Christ-driven neighbor-love into the enterprises he has entrusted to us.