Christ the Business Guru: Give Customers More than They Expect

Mat 5:41 And whoever compels you to go a mile, go with him two.

As we continue on Christ's lesson about giving more than expected, I am reminded of a basic principles: give customers more than they expect. As we have said, his advice about turning the other cheek and giving an opponent your cloak are aggressive actions not passive responses. Isn't it interesting that Christ's words 2,000 years ago are now common business wisdom for making money? What seemed for 2,000 years as couter-intuitive and an act of sacrifice is now recognized as a way to find success in the material world.

What does this tell us about all of Christ's lessons? Has Christ changed the world so his lessons now work on a materialistic level? Or are we just coming to realize that what he taught really works, both spiritually and materialistically, and has since forever?

Our actions communicate ideas more loudly that words. Another important idea in this section is how powerful actions are for communication tools when compared with words. Words are important because they shape our worldview. Christ makes this clear in his early statements on taking oaths. However, words are never as important as actions. This is why Christ teaches us to pray quietly but act boldly.

"Compel" is from angareuô, which means generally "to press into service." It specifically means to press into service as an angaros, which is a mounter courier. From the Aramaic word for "a letter."