The sponsors of the Tower of Babel projectⁱ sought to build a city and tower that would make them famous. Their motive was, however, inconsistent with the character and nature of God, who does not support human self-glorification. Rather God’s desire is singular—his own glory.

The idea of glory is to manifest or make evident the attributes of a being. The God who created the universe and is best revealed in Scripture desires to be revealed to his creation and, in particular, wishes for his highest order of creatures, mankind, to rule his creation in ways that manifest him.ⁱⁱ

Given this charge, mankind is mandated to know God to be able to reveal him in every area of life, including organizations. Organizations are simply groups of people who have joined together to accomplish various missions that are expressions of mankind’s mandate to rule God’s creation according to his will and ways.

Mankind’s foundational principle for ruling well is to adopt values, principles, and practices that are congruent or aligned with God. Values are inculcated in principles and expressed in practices. Some examples of Christian values are humility, submission, and teachability. Humble organizations will not boast or brag in their advertising but will let others praise them. Submitted organizations will recognize divinely ordained authority and encourage submission to authority. Teachable organizations will have a culture that facilitates growth and continuous improvement both individually and organizationally.

When organizational leaders embrace values, principles, and practices aligned with God, then they enjoy the favor of God manifested by success as measured by stability, longevity, excellent reputation, and financial profit. Likewise, the opposite is also true; misalignment with God will lead to instability, disorder, poor reputation, and financial failure.

An example of the success that comes with alignment with God was King Jotham, as noted above. He proactively ordered his ways before God and enjoyed the fruit of his obedience.

Here is your business tip. A universe created by the God who is revealed in the Bible means that an organizational leader must align the culture of the organization with values, principles, and practices rooted in Scripture. The goal is to bring total alignment of every word and action with God’s will and ways as revealed first and foremost in Scripture. In a fallen world, this is an enormously challenging task, nevertheless, it is the way to build organizations that deliver outstanding value. Any compromise to values, principles, or practices inconsistent with Scripture will destabilize the organization and, in time, lead to failure. Success can only come through faithfully ordering the organization in alignment with the will and ways of God.

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i. Genesis 11:1–9.

ii. Genesis 1:26–28.