20 Bible Verses About Business

Proverbs 11:1

“The LORD detests dishonest scales, but accurate weights find favor with him.”

Reflection: Goods were weighed on scales against weights a trader carried in a bag, and Deuteronomy 25:13 describes the fraud this allowed: two weights in the bag, “one heavy, one light.” The proverb sets the Lord’s hatred of dishonest scales against his favor toward accurate weights. Proverbs repeats the point in 20:10: “Differing weights and differing measures—the LORD detests them both.”

Deuteronomy 25:13-16

“Do not have two differing weights in your bag—one heavy, one light. Do not have two differing measures in your house—one large, one small. You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. For the LORD your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly.”

Reflection: The Law of Moses forbids keeping two sets of weights or two sets of measures, a heavy and a light, a large and a small. Honest weights carry a promise, “so that you may live long in the land,” and dishonest dealing is described with the same word Proverbs 11:1 uses: the Lord “detests” it.

Proverbs 16:8

“Better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice.”

Reflection: The proverb compares two results and prefers the smaller one: a little with righteousness over much gained with injustice. Three verses later the same chapter claims the trader’s tools for God: “Honest scales and balances belong to the LORD; all the weights in the bag are of his making” (16:11).

Luke 16:10

“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.”

Reflection: Jesus says this after the parable of a manager who is accused of wasting his master’s possessions and told to “give an account of your management” (16:2). The saying turns from the story to a rule about trust: faithfulness with a little shows how someone will handle much. Verse 11 applies it to “worldly wealth,” and verse 13 ends the passage with “You cannot serve both God and money.”

Leviticus 19:13

“Do not defraud or rob your neighbor. Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight.”

Reflection: Holding back a hired worker’s wages overnight is listed in the same verse as defrauding and robbing a neighbor, and two verses earlier the chapter gives the commands “Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not deceive one another” (19:11). Deuteronomy 24:15 gives the reason for paying the same day: the worker is poor and is counting on the money.

Deuteronomy 24:14-15

“Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns. Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.”

Reflection: The law protects the hired worker who is poor and needy, whether Israelite or foreigner. Wages are due before sunset, and a worker who is cheated can “cry to the LORD against you.” Two verses earlier, a poor neighbor’s cloak taken as a pledge also had to be returned by sunset (24:12-13).

1 Timothy 5:18

“For Scripture says, ‘Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,’ and ‘The worker deserves his wages.’”

Reflection: Paul is writing about elders “who direct the affairs of the church well,” whom he calls “worthy of double honor” (5:17), and he supports the point with two quotations. The first is Deuteronomy 25:4, about an ox treading grain. The second matches the words of Jesus in Luke 10:7, “the worker deserves his wages,” spoken to the seventy-two he sent out ahead of him to the towns.

Proverbs 22:16

“One who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and one who gives gifts to the rich—both come to poverty.”

Reflection: The proverb names two ways of seeking wealth, oppressing the poor to increase it and giving gifts to people who are already rich, and gives both the same end: poverty. A few verses later Proverbs adds a warning and a reason: “Do not exploit the poor because they are poor… for the LORD will take up their case” (22:22-23).

Colossians 3:23-24

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

Reflection: Paul addresses these words to slaves, who are told to work “with sincerity of heart” and not only “when their eye is on you” (3:22). The instruction runs both ways: Colossians 4:1 tells masters to “provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.”

Proverbs 10:4

“Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth.”

Reflection: The contrast is between lazy hands and diligent ones, and the next verse gives an example from the farming year: “He who gathers crops in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.”

Proverbs 21:5

“The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.”

Reflection: Here diligence is set against haste: careful plans lead to profit, and hurrying leads to poverty. The next verse names another quick route to money and where it ends: “A fortune made by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a deadly snare.”

Proverbs 22:29

“Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings; they will not serve before officials of low rank.”

Reflection: The Hebrew word translated skilled is mahir, from a root meaning to hurry, so it first means quick and then skillful; Ezra 7:6 uses it of Ezra as a teacher “well versed” in the Law of Moses. The proverb says a person skilled in their work will serve before kings, not before officials of low rank.

Proverbs 31:16-18

“She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks. She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night.”

Reflection: These verses belong to the poem that closes Proverbs, on “a wife of noble character” (31:10). She considers a field before she buys it, plants a vineyard out of her earnings, and sees that her trading is profitable. Verse 24 adds that she makes linen garments, sells them and supplies the merchants with sashes.

Matthew 25:21

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’”

Reflection: In the parable, a man going on a journey entrusts his wealth to his servants, and two of them put the money to work and double it; this is the master’s reply to the first. The servant who buried his bag of gold is told he “should have put my money on deposit with the bankers,” so that it would have earned interest (25:27). It follows the parable of the ten virgins, which Jesus introduces as a picture of the kingdom of heaven (25:1).

Proverbs 15:22

“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”

Reflection: Plans made alone are set against plans tested with many advisers. Proverbs makes the same point about a nation, “victory is won through many advisers” (11:14), and about going to war (24:6).

Proverbs 16:3

“Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.”

Reflection: The verse follows two sayings that set human plans and judgments beside the LORD’s: “To humans belong the plans of the heart, but from the LORD comes the proper answer of the tongue,” and “motives are weighed by the LORD” (16:1-2). Verse 9 of the same chapter puts planning and God’s part side by side again: “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.”

James 4:13-15

“Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’”

Reflection: James addresses traders who plan to spend a year in another city doing business and making money. His objection is to the certainty of the plan: “you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.” He tells them to say “If it is the Lord’s will,” and in the next verse he calls boasting in such schemes “evil” (4:16).

Proverbs 28:20

“A faithful person will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished.”

Reflection: A “faithful person” is contrasted with “one eager to get rich,” and two verses later the chapter returns to the second: “The stingy are eager to get rich and are unaware that poverty awaits them” (28:22).

Psalm 127:2

“In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to those he loves.”

Reflection: The psalm opens with “Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain,” and verse 2 applies the same reasoning to long working days: rising early and staying up late to earn food is in vain, “for he grants sleep to those he loves.”

Matthew 6:25-26

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”

Reflection: The “therefore” ties this to the verse before it: “You cannot serve both God and money” (6:24). Jesus tells his hearers not to worry about food and clothing and points to the birds, which neither sow nor store in barns and are still fed. The passage ends with “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (6:33).