"Little" Actions Matter a Lot

Isaiah 58:3
cf Malachi 3:5

In Isaiah 58, God is telling His people why He's mad at them, even though they seem to be fasting all the time. Hey, that's a good thing, right? But God says that their fasting isn't affecting the rest of their actions. They're still fighting with each other. And important for our study, they're exploiting their workers, even though they claim to be serving God. This is another one of those passages that says to me that exploiting workers is a bad thing. Just because you CAN make an employee do something doesn't mean that you SHOULD make him or her do it. As a supervisor, your actions matter. And just because you are honoring God in one aspect of your life (such as Sunday morning) does not relieve you from the responsibility of honoring God in other aspects (such as Monday). God cares how you treat your subordinates. That doesn't mean that you can expect high standards. But there's a line between high standards with discipline and exploitation.

Do you know where that line is? If not, think about treating subordinates with respect and dignity. Think about whether you would want a supervisor to treat you that way (but remember not to romanticize the things you went through to get to where you are--"in my day, we had to walk up hill to and from work, and thanked our employer for the chance to work for free all day.")

Part of not exploiting workers is paying them a fair price for the work they do, rather than trying to get every drop of labor out of them while paying them as little as possible. Some might say that's just business. But your life is not just business. Malachi 3:5 says that God will testify against you if you are not paying workers what you owe them.