How should a Christian who is looking for new employment consider those companies that celebrate, endorse, support and encourage sinful lifestyles? Should a Christian even work at a company that supports sinful lifestyles? Can a Christian work for a company that promotes and encourages sinful choices and behaviors?

 In this episode of the Straight Truth Podcast Dr. Richard Caldwell and host, Dr. Josh Philpot discuss the topic of work and how it relates to the Christian. Specifically, as it relates to a listener who is currently searching for a new job. The listener as a matter of personal conviction has avoided applying to companies that blatantly support homosexual issues and gender-neutral ideologies. The listener recognizes that this decision narrows down his or her opportunities and would like to know how they should proceed, given that they are being impacted and constrained in this by their conscience.

 God never calls us to sin. To violate our conscience would be to sin because whatever is not of faith is sin (Romans 14:23). Therefore, says Dr. Caldwell we don’t violate our conscience. But we can and should inform our conscience, and we do this by informing it with the truth. He gives us a brief history of Christianity for the last 2000 years. He reminds us that most Christians have lived in situations where what they believed morally was not the common viewpoint of society. Christians have had to navigate through this and sometimes suffer for it. 

Since The Day Of The Fall

This is the environment we find ourselves living in, and increasingly so in the United States. He also reminds us that it’s not just the environment or society that’s the issue, but it’s an immoral world we live in and has been since the day of the fall. However, as Christians we are to be salt and light in it, we should not to seek to separate ourselves from it by going out from it.

 Dr. Caldwell takes us to 1 Corinthians 5:9-11 and explains Paul’s teaching.  The call upon our lives is not for us to go out from the world. We are not to separate ourselves in some closed-off compound or fortress where we are separated from all the immorality that goes on in the world. We are in the world, we continue to sin ourselves and sin remains with us wherever we go. For us to be separated from the immorality and sin of the world, we would have to go out of this world. So until we pass from this life, or Christ returns and takes us out of this world, we remain. 

So we are in the world, but not to be of the world. We are to walk by the truth, informed by the truth, making choices and deciding courses of action through prayer with wisdom, which God promises to grant to all who seek without doubting (James 1:5). Dr. Philpot brings to our attention a situation we read about in scripture where Jesus is being questioned about paying taxes to Caesar. Jesus reveals how this can be sort of a tricky thing, where we trick ourselves into believing that there is a real dilemma. 

The Dilemma

The dilemma is really only a dilemma in our own minds, in our thinking and understanding. This is why we need to inform our consciences with the truth.

 While there are occupations that are off-limits for Christians and other lines of work that we should avoid, some of these are very clear, yet others not so much. Navigating through these takes both wisdom and discernment. Dr. Caldwell says there is some practical wisdom operating where an individual is not looking and applying to companies that celebrate sinful activity. We aren’t bound by the principles of the world, nor are we to retain the corrupt mind of the world. We are in fact commanded to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We are no longer to be ruled by sin and we are not to engage in the sinful activities the world promotes. 

Christians should not take themselves where immorality is being practiced and ought never to participate in it. But, a day may come when one cannot find a job where these kinds of sinful activities are not accepted as the norm.  The Christians’ calling and responsibility here is to be faithful to God in the midst of this world, even if it means working for a company that celebrates these sinful choices and activities. The Christian is to be respectful and honor what ought to be honored. 

We are to hold to our convictions in our own hearts as we go about our jobs, knowing what is right from the Scriptures and not violating that. We are to recognize sin as sin, knowing that it’s not okay. We are to serve God in our work environment and be a light to the degree that we are able. In doing this, the Christian will not have violated God’s will.