“Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.” – Colossians 3:22-24
Recently, SPH Media has been in the news for the wrong reasons. Having been called out for inflating their circulation figures, the integrity of the company is now in question. This saga actually reminded me of a Christian organisation who did exactly the same thing. Copies of their newsletters were excessively printed and stored up in their storeroom to be eventually discarded. Such utter wastage was engineered for the sake of reporting healthy circulation figures so that churches, donors and advertisers can be in awe of their extensive reach. I got wind of this as a close friend of mine was working in their business office at that time, which was more than 10 years back. Needless to say, my friend did not stay long in that organization, given such unprincipled leadership. Of course, one has to bear in mind that this was more than 10 years back, so things might have changed over there; individuals might have repented where neither my friend nor myself is aware of.
I have no clue as to whether the individuals responsible for the SPH scandal are Christians, but if they are, then it goes back to the fundamental question of why we work. For Christians, the clear-cut answer is always: we work as “unto the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord [we] will receive the reward.” We work to express the gifts and talents God have placed in us to be an asset and a blessing to our organisation as a testimony unto the Lord, not as “men-pleasers” but “fearing God.” But alas, to err is human. As frail human beings, from time to time, fear and greed gets the better of us and we fail to work as unto the Lord. Instead, we wind up being men-pleasers, looking to men as our paymaster and that is where the rabbit hole begins. Before we know it, we end up doing something questionable, all because we fail to see Jesus as our true Master and Boss. This inflated circulation saga is an apt reminder to us all to keep our eyes on Jesus as we work. This King of Righteousness will never lead us to inflate figures and generate deception. The more we see ourselves working as unto the Lord, the more we will think twice when tempted to engage in corrupt practices.