Bottom-Line Thinking
“What’s the bottom line?” We all have asked that question in one circumstance or another. In a business transaction, it refers to the final cost of a particular item. If we are interviewing for a job, the bottom line for the potential employer might be a requirement that we be willing to work on the Sabbath. In essence, the bottom line takes us down to the foundation of any circumstance, and on that foundation, we can plot our course.
Bottom-line thinking is essential in running a successful above-board business. The same holds true in our spiritual lives. Through Solomon, God says, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13–14). That is a believer’s bottom line.
It is a wonderful bottom line, but there is more to it than meets the eye at first. John, the apostle, wrote, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8–9). We do still sin, if only in our minds, but through honesty borne of humility and repentance, God promises to cleanse us and forgive us. By this means, the bottom line remains our foundation.
The apostle also points to something that can and will, if we allow it, wreck our bottom line. “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth” (1 John 1:6). If we pretend to have a spiritual connection with God, but our fruits show that we have no heart to truly repent and confess our sins to God, we will lose the light of the Holy Spirit.
You see, it is possible to proclaim the bottom line and yet be totally foundationless. “You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written” (Romans 2:23–24). Not only does such fakery leave us foundationless, but it also encourages the unbelieving to blaspheme God!
Here, Paul reminds us how to maintain and build on that solid foundation. “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2:12–13). The Holy Spirit, which leads us into all truth, will help us recognize the areas in our spiritual lives that need to be overcome. If we yield to its lead, it will help to perfect us over time.
Bottom-line thinking comes from God through the Holy Spirit.
Marshall Stiver
