Should You Do Business with Non-Christians?

Hey Friend!

I’m going to do my best to tackle this controversial topic: Should you do business with non-Christians and non-believers? This can be related to working with someone, someone working with you, or anything in between. This is a question I get asked in my community a lot. It’s something I’ve gone through myself: sometimes I have and sometimes I haven’t. I’m hoping I can help lead you in making a hard decision that will only be between you and the Lord, and of course, Scripture. Here’s what I’ve done and maybe this can give you some guidance as well.

Is it ok to do business with Non-Christians?

I know as a Christian in the business space, it can be really difficult. It seems as if the enemy is constantly attacking. We have been facing spiritual warfare from every angle of our lives. Here we are, trying to be steadfast in the call that we have. Battling all the while with not falling prey to the world’s way. Not giving in to temptation. Staying true to who God says we are so we can serve in the way He’s calling us to do. 

I have a free gift for you. If you’ve never downloaded my “7-Step Spiritual Battle Plan” head over to stefaniegass.com/battleplan and download this workbook. This is going to take you on a journey through Psalms 18, where you will learn how to defeat enemy strongholds and spiritual warfare with God. This is something God showed me in one of the hardest – recent – seasons of my life. He asked me to share it with all of you. I pray that it blesses you, encourages you, and gives you what you need to walk through to the next victory.

3 things to consider when asking if you should do business with Non-Christians

There is no right or wrong answer here other than the answer God gives you. I am not going to say definitively that you should never do business with non-Christians. I’m also not going to say that you should always work with non-believers. I really do think that there’s discernment. That there are certain cases and situations that are going to look very different. 

To help you find the right answer for your situation, I have 3 things you should consider when figuring this out.

1. Seek God’s Guidance Each and Every Time You Do Business with Anyone

Looking at my own life, I have worked with Christians either in a coaching capacity or client capacity. Some Christians ended up not being the most beneficial relationship for me. Whether it was that they didn’t have a heart of Christ, but they wore a Christian label or our morals were not equally yoked.

I’ve also worked with some unbelievers, even in my coaching or client capacities, who ended up blessing me beyond measure. I even ended up sometimes leading them to Jesus. If I hadn’t worked with those people, could that have happened?

I’ve also worked with non-Christians who I ended up parting ways with because I was morally convicted that I couldn’t be yoked in the work they were doing. When we look to Scripture, we see Paul reference Deuteronomy 22:10. When cautioning us about doing business with non-believers: “You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.” These two powerhouse animals are running in two separate directions, so one is going to drag the other straight into the mud and it’s not going to be a good situation.

When we look at being yoked with someone, I think we have to take a look at this reference. If I’m going to help someone do something in the world that I’m not yoked up with, it’s not Biblical for me. I’m not morally aligned, and I can’t be yoked with them, but I will still love them. That is the pure and true heart of a Christian. Loving everyone whether we choose to work with them or not.

Going through that heightened discernment test. If I work with this person as a client or coach, is it something where I am able to bless them or glean from them, without having to be yoked to something that I, as a believer, cannot stand behind or help that message grow?

Loving those who have been led astray

I have a pretty firm line as in I don’t have people on my show that promote the New Age. I have friends who are into New Age and sometimes they have blessed me incredibly. They are still God’s children. We still have to love them and they still have value. Just because they have been led astray, doesn’t mean we turn our backs on them. But it doesn’t mean I’m going to partner with one of them to help them grow their New Age philosophy. Do you see that difference?

Don’t turn your back on people that you feel led to partner with in certain ways. Just be discerning over how you do business with them, ensuring that all the while you are still loving them. The greatest commandment is to love God. The second is to love your neighbor. The Lord doesn’t put a disclaimer on it to only love them if they’re Christians. To be super clear: we are to love people, but we aren’t always to work with people.

I have friends who are non-believers. I have family members who are non-Christians. I’ve worked with people who are not and had clients who are not. It’s been absolutely a blessing in my life and I hope in their life that seeds have been planted. But I don’t always do business with them in a yoke-up capacity.

2. Turn to Him

Create that quiet time and space so you can hear from Him. And you need to ask Him! Seek the truth in all things, which is God’s Word. In His Word, there are lots of different examples of His sons & daughters either being told not to work with or be yoked up with certain non-Christians, or to move forward and there have been blessings through that relationship.

One of those examples is Esther. God called Esther into the harem of the king and she was ultimately chosen to be his queen. Talk about being unequally yoked! Thankfully she had her cousin Mordecai who was checking in on her. This is why it’s important to have wise counsel in your corner if you’re working with or finding yourself yoked with a non-believer in your work or your life to keep you grounded in your Bible and in Scripture.

Esther eventually used this relationship with this non-believer to create massive change for the Kingdom of God. In the end, her belief in the Lord and in Whose she was, proved to be so much stronger than her being yoked with this king. The lesson you can glean from this is just to ask yourself if you are going to be working with non-Christians, do you feel that God has placed His blessings on that?

Be sure that you are spiritually mature enough to say ‘no’ when you are called to violate your moral compass or your Biblical beliefs. Be sure that at the end of the day, no matter who you’re in a business partnership with, or who your clients are, you are yoked to the one and only King; the one and only Jesus Christ. Nothing will allow you to falter from that.

Develop spiritual maturity

This comes back to spiritual maturity. There have been points in my life when I would not have been able to work with certain non-believers because of their positioning. It would have been difficult for me to hold my moral compass and my footing and not get lost in this person’s fame, glitter, or glamor. That would have been bad for me at certain points as an entrepreneur. I should be able to say no to doing certain things with certain people.

However, now I’m extremely spiritually mature. I’m comfortable being in a room with people who are not believers and being very grounded in who I am and just showing love. I don’t need to come in singing and slapping people with the Bible. I just have to be a beacon of light and allow God to work His magic and majesty in that room to open doors for me to plant seeds of truth in other people’s hearts. I’m more open to these opportunities now than I could have been in the past because of my spiritual maturity.

Know where you are spiritually

Be discerning about where you are in your walk with Christ. If you’ve just come out of anything, like New Age, a cult, or a deep religious hurt, that may not be the best time for you. You’re going to love them, of course, but maybe it’s not the best time to join a mastermind of non-beliving business owners. Maybe it’s not the best time to take on clients who are not aligned with your beliefs. Maybe God will bless that later, but you have to know where you are spiritually. If you’re in a deep walk with Christ, you know Him super intimately, and He asks you to work with a certain person, do it! God has a reason for planting you in a certain room. God has a reason for allowing this client to knock on your door. If God has blessed it, you should 100% do it!

3. There is a clear distinction between loving and being led.

Please be mindful and careful if you do find yourself in a situation where you may do business with non-believers or non-Christians. You’re loving them because we’re called to love and to be a light. You’re doing that and all of a sudden, you find yourself being led. I think right there is where you pause, you stop, and you start this process all over again.

Take it back to the Lord and seek His guidance again. Vett your spiritual maturity, take a look at what Scripture says, and then also listen to your discernment alarms. In the past, I joined certain business networking stuff. I felt the Lord had blessed this thing and I joined it. It was full of non-Christians who were into the New Age and all those philosophies.

For me, that is not Biblical at all. It was full of self and false teachings. I was fine in that group for a while until my discernment alarms started going off in my head. Loving people had turned into a whole lot of ick. I felt like I couldn’t be there and do business with them because I couldn’t not say something about the way these people were showing up in the world without causing division and being hurtful. At that point, I decided to leave and it was fine.

God will always help you; He will always protect you. There is no temptation that will be put before you that you will not have the strength to overcome (1 Corinthians 10:13). 

Seek discernment in The Word

At the end of the day, should you do business with non-Christians? Maybe. Sometimes yes and sometimes no. This is going to be something you take up with God that depends on your personal walk with Christ. Sometimes you’re just going to have to depend on trial and error. It’s something you’re going to look to Scripture for. To look to God for, look to your discernment for, and do the yoke test. Not as in crack an egg. As in “Am I an ox and this person a donkey?” And are we going to completely butt heads in the truth we are bringing to the world? It may not be the best fit.

I hope this blessed you. I hope it helped you. At the end of the day, it encouraged you to stand strong in love, as a Christian, no matter who you come into contact with. You never know who that person could truly be, but you do know Whose that person is, and you may be the light in their life that they didn’t know they had been secretly praying for.

I pray this blesses you!

Xo,

Stef

P.S. Also, listen to podcast episode 558 for the full training on Should You Do Business with Non-Christians?

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