You might be wondering if we are missing a second “t” at the end of the title to this post. We aren’t (but the title would still work if we added it).

As a faithful leader pursuing faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing, you do not want your organization to be a Biblical “but,” and you certainly do not want to be one yourself.  Biblically, powerful illustrations of what that means come from the kings.

The Biblical “Buts”

The kings of Israel and Judah after Solomon did not have a great track record.  Of the 19 kings of Israel, not a single one was pronounced as “doing right” in the eyes of God.  The kings of Judah did a bit better, but it still wasn’t impressive. According to Nicky Gumbel, the reigns of the “good” kings of Judah were generally longer than those of the “evil” kings of Judah, with the 12 evil kings reigning for a combined 130 years and the 10 good kings reigning for a combined 343.

Throughout the books of Kings and Chronicles, some of the saddest evaluations of Judah’s “good” kings begin with high praise:

“He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD…”

…but.

That little word often introduces the reason the king ultimately fell short. He trusted God but left the high places. He obeyed God but not with a whole heart. He reformed some practices but tolerated others that continued to draw the people’s hearts away from God. Sometimes “but” shows up as words like “nevertheless” or “yet,” but the message is “but.” Consider these examples:

Asa: “Asa did what was right… But the high places were not taken away.” (1 Kings 15:11-14)

Jehoshaphat: “He walked in all the way of Asa… Yet the high places were not taken away.” (1 Kings 22:43)

Jehoash: “Jehoash did what was right… Nevertheless the high places were not taken away.” (2 Kings 12:2-3)

Amaziah: “He did what was right… But the high places were not removed.” (2 Kings 14:3-4)

Azariah (Uzziah): “He did what was right… Nevertheless the high places were not taken away.” (2 Kings 15:3-4)

Jotham: “He did what was right… Nevertheless the high places were not removed.” (2 Kings 15:34-35)

The biblical evaluation of many otherwise good kings wasn’t that they did evil—it was that they stopped short. They reformed enough to be called good, but not enough to transform the spiritual culture of the nation.

The “But” of High Places

Hopefully you noticed a recurring theme of the reigns of the “but” kings—not removing the “high places.” These were the places where the people worshiped false gods.  They were the idols of the time.

These kings were generally not condemned for introducing idolatry. Rather, they failed to remove the entrenched practices that competed with wholehearted worship. They were content with partial reform. The spiritual compromise they tolerated is captured well in the description of Israel in 2 Kings 17:41: “So these nations feared the LORD and also served their carved images.”

For a modern organization being led by a faithful leader, the “high places” are business as usual beliefs, assumptions, and priorities that continue to infect the culture and shape the behavior of its people.

We touched on this in in post #293 (Why “Doing Good” Is Not Enough). Sometimes “doing good” may actually be a good WHAT that comes from a genuinely good WHY. It becomes a Biblical “but” because it lives alongside—or even masks—a higher priority WHY of Profit as Purpose that is not aligned with Biblical beliefs, principles and priorities.

Pharisees exhibited outward “good” for seemingly “good” reasons while inwardly really pursuing power. A business can perform outward “good” for even genuinely good reasons while inwardly prioritizing the pursuit of Profit as Purpose.

Both display outward goodness, but outward goodness can coexist with a heart that ultimately serves the wrong master. Jesus warned about Biblical “buts” in Matthew 23:27-28:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Modern Day “Buts” and High Places

Many faithful leaders become biblical “buts.” They love God, seek to live with integrity, make ethical decisions, and integrate their faith into their business—but never address the deeper assumptions, incentives, traditions, and habits that shape the culture of their organizations.

The leader changes. The organization may even appear faithful. But the organization’s heart doesn’t change. The organization’s WHY remains aligned with the ultimate worldly high place of business as usual—Profit as Purpose, and behavior is tainted by the assumptions of Scarcity, Self-Interest, and a “Can We” culture. For example:

• The faithful leader behaves ethically and improves ethical compliance programs but unhealthy incentives to push ethical limits are ignored or tolerated.

• Charitable giving increases but compensation practices still reflect the assumption that labor is merely a cost to minimize.

• Bible studies and prayer groups thrive but work relationships are hierarchical, adversarial and competitive, with management structures creating “WE/THEM” relationships and management techniques pitting people against each other.

• A corporate mission statement and values reflect Biblical principles but payables are delayed until the last date due and practices such as dishonest or manipulative marketing and the use of leverage to squeeze suppliers are acceptable and expected.

“Doing good” as a whitewashed tomb can be seen in many faith as usual Side Roads.  Faithful leaders are implementing “good” practices (WHAT) for genuinely good reasons (WHY), but those practices exist in parallel with Profit as Purpose.

Like the “but” kings whose failure was stopping short of wholehearted reform, imagine Biblical “but” leadership generating comments today like:

“The CEO loves Jesus… but…”

“We have a statement of faith… but…”

“We pray before meetings… but…”

“We generously support charities and offer community service opportunities and company-sponsored mission trips… but…”

What Matthew 6:24 (“No one can serve two masters“) teaches us is that there can only be one primary WHY for the organization that will win out— other “purposes” get reduced to being “means” or “strategies.”  If the worldly “high place” of profit is the end toward which a business is managed, people can never be more than tools to be manipulated and managed toward that end.

No amount of Individualizing, Monetizing, Cosmeticizing, or Monastesizing can compensate for a heart of profit that results in the continuation of business as usual high places and the transformation of work into work as usual, something far from God’s good and life-giving design in Genesis.

Banish the “But”

The goal of faithful leadership isn’t merely to become a faithful leader. It’s to cultivate a faithfully aligned organization. Scripture repeatedly reminds us that God evaluates leaders not only by what they accomplish but by what they leave unchanged. It sounds like Amaziah, of whom Scripture says, he “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not with a whole heart.”  Half-hearted did not end well for Amaziah.

Compare the description of the kings who seem to have gotten it all right—no “buts”:

Hezekiah: “Every work that he undertook in the service of the house of God and in accordance with the law and the commandments, seeking his God, he did with all his heart, and prospered. (2 Chronicles 31:21)

Josiah: “Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses…” (2 Kings 23:25)

For today’s faithful leader of an organization, we believe leading with faithful integrity whole-heartedly rather than half-heartedly requires what we have called “faithful stewardship.” It means leading the organization in line with God’s will, which includes aligning its purpose, values, and culture with Biblical beliefs, principles, and priorities and transforming its WHY–its heart–from what the world values to what God values.

Faithful leadership with a “but” is what we have called “religious stewardship.”  “Religious stewardship” is still operating in the will of the faithful leader and stops short of true heart transformation–changing the organization’s WHY from profit to Humanizing People, Beautifying the World and Glorifying God.

Religious stewardship is genuinely good—but it is still a Biblical “but.” For example, engaging in the unquestionably good faith activities along the faith as usual Side Roads is “good”—”good” with a “but.” Good but not God’s best. In the words of Oswald Chambers:

The things that are right, noble, and good from the natural standpoint are the very things that keep us from being God’s best. Once we come to understand that natural moral excellence opposes or counteracts surrender to God, we bring our soul into the center of its greatest battle. Very few of us would debate over what is filthy, evil, and wrong, but we do debate over what is good. It is the good that opposes the best.

In Chambers’ words is the key to banishing the “but”—surrender.

Surrender the “But”

Banishing the “but” requires surrendering the “but,” and that demands crossing what we call the Safety/Surrender Gap.  It is the culmination of four gaps every faithful leader must cross to move from personal faithfulness to organizational faithfulness.

As a refresher, the first three gaps are wisdom gaps. The fourth—the Safety/Surrender Gap—is the heart gap.

• “Sunday/Monday”: this gap is crossed when you understand that what you do Monday-Friday is not disconnected from the faith you practice on Sunday–you should bring your whole self (including your faith) to work or to your business.

• “Sacred/Secular”: this gap is crossed when you understand that your work or business itself has intrinsic value in God’s Kingdom–your work and the way you manage your business is a sacred vocational calling and a form of worship (you have probably heard that the Hebrew word avodah means work, worship and service).

• “Knowing/Doing”: this gap is crossed when you understand how to take those understandings and begin implementing change in your work and organization through deeds.

• Safety/Surrender: this gap is crossed when a faithful leader has fully surrendered their organizational leadership to God, accepting their role as stewards rather than owners.

Crossing the Safety/Surrender heart gap is a necessary step to transforming the heart of an organization to a bigger WHY aligned with God’s purpose for work and business and to living out true “faithful stewardship” as commanded in the Creation Mandate.

Faithful stewardship with no “buts” demands more than a “being a good Christian” kind of faith. Transforming the WHY of an organization to what God prioritizes rather than what the world prioritizes requires putting profit in its proper place as a means rather than the end toward which a business is managed and optimizing profit to maximize the flourishing of all creation touched by the organization, particularly people.

Turning again to a warning from Oswald Chambers, “Beware of stopping anywhere short of total surrender to God.” It was stopping short that defined the “but” kings of Judah.

The other side of the Safety/Surrender Gap is where good intentions transform into God’s intentions and where faithful leadership through faithful integrity truly begins to reflect God’s purpose for business and work. It is where the personal faithfulness of a leader leads to organizational faithfulness.  It is where a faithful integrity lives.

That is the difference between doing what is right and doing what is right with a whole heart. It is the difference between faithful leadership with a Biblical “but” and faithful stewardship without one.

PERSONAL NOTE (from PM): I used to blow past the accounts of the kings of Israel and Judah. I now see there is much to be learned from the many who failed, the very few who succeeded, and the several who did good, but not God’s best.

ESSENCE: As a faithful leader pursuing faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing, you do not want your organization to be a Biblical “but,” and you certainly do not want to be one yourself.  Scripture gives us powerful illustrations of what that means in its evaluation of the kings of Judah. Some of the saddest evaluations of Judah’s otherwise faithful kings begin with high praise: “He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD…” …BUT. That little word often introduces the reason the king ultimately fell short. He trusted God but left the “high places.” For a modern organization being led by a faithful leader, the “high places” are business as usual beliefs, assumptions, and priorities that continue to infect the culture and shape the behavior of its people. Many faithful leaders become biblical “buts.” They love God, seek to live with integrity, make ethical decisions, and integrate their faith into their business—but never address the deeper assumptions, incentives, traditions, and habits that shape the culture of their organizations. The goal of faithful leadership isn’t merely to become a faithful leader. It’s to cultivate a faithfully aligned organization. Faithful stewardship requires surrendering the “but.” Only then can a leader move from personal faithfulness to organizational faithfulness by crossing what we call the Safety/Surrender Gap.

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Photo Credit: Original image by Paul Michalski using Gemini
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