*Edited July 9, 2015*
The next passage I'm going to cover basically testifies to the prior passage in First Thessalonians discussed in part one of this blog series. Philippians 2:3-4 says, "Do nothing in rivalry or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others." We are not to be in rivalry with anyone, including our co-workers — to not make useless competitions with each other. When management is more concerned about getting their next promotion, it doesn't suit the needs of the branch/department/organisation very well. Your subordinates will also lose respect for you and end up resenting you. It's one thing to healthfully compete with someone, but it's something entirely different to create a hostile work environment out of rivalry. For example, in the Army I would work out with one or several of my buddies to maintain physical fitness for an upcoming PT test and we would healthfully compete to see who could do more push-ups and sit-ups before muscle failure, just for the fun of it. This healthy competition enabled us to push ourselves harder than we would have if we were working out alone, thus preparing us for the upcoming PT test with better results. However, if we were to just compete to prove who's better or stronger than the other just to satisfy our masculine egos, that in turn would have created a hostile spirit in the work environment. This creates conceit, which this passage also says to avoid. Instead of being conceited in yourself, you have to humble yourself before others, which is to consider their well-being more important than your own. That does not mean to neglect your own well-being for another's well-being. Sacrifice your desires for other people's needs, but don't sacrifice your needs for their desires.
By humbling yourself, you can then look out for other peoples' interests instead of solely your own, and the way you can do this is exactly what I discussed with 1 Thessalonians 5:12-15 in the prior blog entry. There's nothing wrong with considering your own interests, but that's not all you should consider; you should also consider the interests of the employees you manage. Be considered with their growth in the company and do what's necessary to help them develop professionally by enhancing their skills or training them with new skills.
Dealing with Nuisances
Sometimes when we spend a copious amount of time with our colleagues, they start to become a nuisance — we grow tired of their presence and become irritated. The key factour to remember here is forgiveness. Jesus said, "For if you forgive people their wrongdoing, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. But if you don't forgive people, your Father will not forgive your wrongdoing" (Matthew 6:14-15). This is something that we often don't like to admit. We don't like to admit that if we don't forgive people and just hold grudges all the time, then God won't forgive us, since He forgives all sins through Christ, after all. While this is true, it is also true that He will not forgive us if we do not forgive others indefinitely. That's the problem with the American Church today. The Bible is not a bag of Trail Mix; you don't get to pick out what you like and leave the rest. If people don't deserve our forgiveness, then how do we deserve God's? Well, we don't deserve God's forgiveness, but He forgives us anyway because of His unconditional, merciful love. In the very same way, we are to forgive others through the love and mercy of Christ. God doesn't have any reason to be merciful toward us; He just is. Just because we're not comfortable with this does not mean that we should not accept it and not practise it. Jesus said this, so we must accept it and practise it.
I made this point in the prior blog entry, but I'm going to say it again: living like Christ is not a comfortable lifestyle! So why, then, do we pick and choose what we want to follow in Scripture? Because we want to live comfortable lifestyle. We don't want to put ourselves at risk for the sake of Christ, which is absurd considering that He died for us. In the Old Testament, God was the true and only King of Israel, but then the Israelites rejected God as their King and instead wanted a human king so that they could manipulate the king to do what they wanted, therefore habitually falling into the sins of the other nations that they desired to be like, for the other nations also had human kings (1 Samuel 8). (But while Israel had human kings, God still remained as the true King of Israel.) In the very same way, we rejected God's Word as the Word (ὁ λόγος) and instead create our own word just to follow and believe what we wish to follow and believe rather than doing what God calls us to acknowledge and therefore put into practise. To put it a simpler way: the Israelites rejected God as their King and demanded their own king in order to follow the ways of the other nations, and today we reject parts of God's Word (or His Word altogether) and demand and create our own word in order to follow the ways of the world. That is exactly why such controversial issues such as homosexuality exists in the political world today because we reject the Word of God. God's Word speaks against it and defines it as sin, but the world accepts its abomination, and because we want to be accepted by the world we therefore create our own word and a flawed sense of morality instead of accepting God's authoritative Word just so we can be accepted by the fleeting world. We have to make necessary adjustments in our lives that we're not comfortable with. Forgiveness does not just come down to friends and family; it comes down to the workplace, school campuses, random strangers throughout the day — every single person on this planet. Just because someone is simply your colleague does not mean you get to exclude them from the grace and forgiveness of God, nor your own. Forgive them of their trespasses even if they don't deserve it because God forgives us even though we never deserve it, and that hostile spirit in the work environment will disappear.
Now, if there's literally just one person in your entire life whom you don't forgive, I don't believe God will leave you unforgiven and just condemn you to Hell for it because He's a merciful God. He'll still judge you for it, but I don't believe He'll send you to Hell just for that one thing. The mistake we often make is that we often compare God to our human limitations and ways of life. We bring God down to our level and imagine how He would judge someone based on our subjective percepetions. That's actually blasphemy. Leave God where He is. We can't imagine God forgiving somebody for something like murder or pedophilia if we ourselves cannot forgive it, but that's not how God functions. God declares, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways" (Isaiah 55:8).
Moving on, if a colleague trespasses against you several times, you still have to forgive him or her. Jesus said, "Be on your guard. If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and comes back to you seven times, saying, 'I repent,' you must forgive him" (Luke 17:3-4). As manager, if someone disrespects or disobeys you, rebuke him or her. To rebuke is to reprove their trespasses, which is to gently correct their action. (If it's something severe, however, like stealing property from a company or breaking the law in some other way, then deal with it accordingly in a serious and assertive manner.) After this is done, you must forgive him or her, especially if they apologise. When they come back with an apology, no matter how many times this happens, we are obligated to forgive them, not consider it as an option. It is our duty as Christians to forgive, no exceptions, when they come with apologies. Even if they don't apologise it is still required of us to forgive them, otherwise you'll just end up living your life in the futility of grudges.
First Peter 3:8-9 says, "Now finally, all of you should be likeminded and sympathetic, should love believers, and be compassionate and humble, not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult but, on the contrary, giving a blessing, since you were called for this, so that you can inherit a blessing." Again, there are several principles listed here as well. It first says to be sympathetic and to love believers, which translates to brotherly-loving. When someone does wrongly against you, be sympathetic. It could be stress that caused them to react the way they did or any number of things, so it's important to show them sympathy and understanding because face it, you're no different; and I'm sure you've been in a similar situation before. But if they're just someone who's difficult to deal with at work and is one of those conceited or rude people by nature (a.k.a., a "bad apple"), then we are to show them brotherly love, which is the love that Christ showed to us when He humbled Himself as a man. Bad apples need to either be reformed or terminated. It's good to try and reform them first, especially if they're a vital asset to the company, but if they refuse to change their attitude or actions, it's best to fire them because studies show that bad apples in a group of people decrease performance from 30-40% (Sutton, 2011). If termination is the end result, then forgiveness still must follow. Vengeance, or payback, is unwise and unloving, and that's not how we are to respond to such events as Christians, but on the contrary blessing them, and as a result we will be blessed in return for God's joy, for God calls us to do this. However, if termination is absolutely necessary. (One of the principles of managing is "don't be afraid to say no.") To bless people, just show them sympathy, love, compassion, and humbleness, as Peter says.
Doing all these things eliminates a hostile work environment and creates room for a positive work environment. By your actions alone, the people you work with can witness the compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, acceptance, and forgiveness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Acting in Christlike ways is against the flesh, but by practising His ways we can then control our hearts. And lastly, we must be thankful to God that we can do all this because of our Lord Jesus Christ.
References
Sutton, R. (2011, October 24). How A Few Bad Apples Ruin Everything. Retrieved March 24, 2015, from http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1000142405297203499704576622550325233260
The next passage I'm going to cover basically testifies to the prior passage in First Thessalonians discussed in part one of this blog series. Philippians 2:3-4 says, "Do nothing in rivalry or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others." We are not to be in rivalry with anyone, including our co-workers — to not make useless competitions with each other. When management is more concerned about getting their next promotion, it doesn't suit the needs of the branch/department/organisation very well. Your subordinates will also lose respect for you and end up resenting you. It's one thing to healthfully compete with someone, but it's something entirely different to create a hostile work environment out of rivalry. For example, in the Army I would work out with one or several of my buddies to maintain physical fitness for an upcoming PT test and we would healthfully compete to see who could do more push-ups and sit-ups before muscle failure, just for the fun of it. This healthy competition enabled us to push ourselves harder than we would have if we were working out alone, thus preparing us for the upcoming PT test with better results. However, if we were to just compete to prove who's better or stronger than the other just to satisfy our masculine egos, that in turn would have created a hostile spirit in the work environment. This creates conceit, which this passage also says to avoid. Instead of being conceited in yourself, you have to humble yourself before others, which is to consider their well-being more important than your own. That does not mean to neglect your own well-being for another's well-being. Sacrifice your desires for other people's needs, but don't sacrifice your needs for their desires.
By humbling yourself, you can then look out for other peoples' interests instead of solely your own, and the way you can do this is exactly what I discussed with 1 Thessalonians 5:12-15 in the prior blog entry. There's nothing wrong with considering your own interests, but that's not all you should consider; you should also consider the interests of the employees you manage. Be considered with their growth in the company and do what's necessary to help them develop professionally by enhancing their skills or training them with new skills.
Dealing with Nuisances
Sometimes when we spend a copious amount of time with our colleagues, they start to become a nuisance — we grow tired of their presence and become irritated. The key factour to remember here is forgiveness. Jesus said, "For if you forgive people their wrongdoing, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. But if you don't forgive people, your Father will not forgive your wrongdoing" (Matthew 6:14-15). This is something that we often don't like to admit. We don't like to admit that if we don't forgive people and just hold grudges all the time, then God won't forgive us, since He forgives all sins through Christ, after all. While this is true, it is also true that He will not forgive us if we do not forgive others indefinitely. That's the problem with the American Church today. The Bible is not a bag of Trail Mix; you don't get to pick out what you like and leave the rest. If people don't deserve our forgiveness, then how do we deserve God's? Well, we don't deserve God's forgiveness, but He forgives us anyway because of His unconditional, merciful love. In the very same way, we are to forgive others through the love and mercy of Christ. God doesn't have any reason to be merciful toward us; He just is. Just because we're not comfortable with this does not mean that we should not accept it and not practise it. Jesus said this, so we must accept it and practise it.
I made this point in the prior blog entry, but I'm going to say it again: living like Christ is not a comfortable lifestyle! So why, then, do we pick and choose what we want to follow in Scripture? Because we want to live comfortable lifestyle. We don't want to put ourselves at risk for the sake of Christ, which is absurd considering that He died for us. In the Old Testament, God was the true and only King of Israel, but then the Israelites rejected God as their King and instead wanted a human king so that they could manipulate the king to do what they wanted, therefore habitually falling into the sins of the other nations that they desired to be like, for the other nations also had human kings (1 Samuel 8). (But while Israel had human kings, God still remained as the true King of Israel.) In the very same way, we rejected God's Word as the Word (ὁ λόγος) and instead create our own word just to follow and believe what we wish to follow and believe rather than doing what God calls us to acknowledge and therefore put into practise. To put it a simpler way: the Israelites rejected God as their King and demanded their own king in order to follow the ways of the other nations, and today we reject parts of God's Word (or His Word altogether) and demand and create our own word in order to follow the ways of the world. That is exactly why such controversial issues such as homosexuality exists in the political world today because we reject the Word of God. God's Word speaks against it and defines it as sin, but the world accepts its abomination, and because we want to be accepted by the world we therefore create our own word and a flawed sense of morality instead of accepting God's authoritative Word just so we can be accepted by the fleeting world. We have to make necessary adjustments in our lives that we're not comfortable with. Forgiveness does not just come down to friends and family; it comes down to the workplace, school campuses, random strangers throughout the day — every single person on this planet. Just because someone is simply your colleague does not mean you get to exclude them from the grace and forgiveness of God, nor your own. Forgive them of their trespasses even if they don't deserve it because God forgives us even though we never deserve it, and that hostile spirit in the work environment will disappear.
Now, if there's literally just one person in your entire life whom you don't forgive, I don't believe God will leave you unforgiven and just condemn you to Hell for it because He's a merciful God. He'll still judge you for it, but I don't believe He'll send you to Hell just for that one thing. The mistake we often make is that we often compare God to our human limitations and ways of life. We bring God down to our level and imagine how He would judge someone based on our subjective percepetions. That's actually blasphemy. Leave God where He is. We can't imagine God forgiving somebody for something like murder or pedophilia if we ourselves cannot forgive it, but that's not how God functions. God declares, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways" (Isaiah 55:8).
Moving on, if a colleague trespasses against you several times, you still have to forgive him or her. Jesus said, "Be on your guard. If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and comes back to you seven times, saying, 'I repent,' you must forgive him" (Luke 17:3-4). As manager, if someone disrespects or disobeys you, rebuke him or her. To rebuke is to reprove their trespasses, which is to gently correct their action. (If it's something severe, however, like stealing property from a company or breaking the law in some other way, then deal with it accordingly in a serious and assertive manner.) After this is done, you must forgive him or her, especially if they apologise. When they come back with an apology, no matter how many times this happens, we are obligated to forgive them, not consider it as an option. It is our duty as Christians to forgive, no exceptions, when they come with apologies. Even if they don't apologise it is still required of us to forgive them, otherwise you'll just end up living your life in the futility of grudges.
First Peter 3:8-9 says, "Now finally, all of you should be likeminded and sympathetic, should love believers, and be compassionate and humble, not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult but, on the contrary, giving a blessing, since you were called for this, so that you can inherit a blessing." Again, there are several principles listed here as well. It first says to be sympathetic and to love believers, which translates to brotherly-loving. When someone does wrongly against you, be sympathetic. It could be stress that caused them to react the way they did or any number of things, so it's important to show them sympathy and understanding because face it, you're no different; and I'm sure you've been in a similar situation before. But if they're just someone who's difficult to deal with at work and is one of those conceited or rude people by nature (a.k.a., a "bad apple"), then we are to show them brotherly love, which is the love that Christ showed to us when He humbled Himself as a man. Bad apples need to either be reformed or terminated. It's good to try and reform them first, especially if they're a vital asset to the company, but if they refuse to change their attitude or actions, it's best to fire them because studies show that bad apples in a group of people decrease performance from 30-40% (Sutton, 2011). If termination is the end result, then forgiveness still must follow. Vengeance, or payback, is unwise and unloving, and that's not how we are to respond to such events as Christians, but on the contrary blessing them, and as a result we will be blessed in return for God's joy, for God calls us to do this. However, if termination is absolutely necessary. (One of the principles of managing is "don't be afraid to say no.") To bless people, just show them sympathy, love, compassion, and humbleness, as Peter says.
Doing all these things eliminates a hostile work environment and creates room for a positive work environment. By your actions alone, the people you work with can witness the compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, acceptance, and forgiveness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Acting in Christlike ways is against the flesh, but by practising His ways we can then control our hearts. And lastly, we must be thankful to God that we can do all this because of our Lord Jesus Christ.
References
Sutton, R. (2011, October 24). How A Few Bad Apples Ruin Everything. Retrieved March 24, 2015, from http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1000142405297203499704576622550325233260
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