19 Bible Verses About Entrepreneurship and Business

Proverbs 16:3

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

Reflection: The verse belongs to a run of sayings about human plans and the Lord’s part in them, beginning with “To humans belong the plans of the heart” (Proverbs 16:1). The verse before it adds a check: “motives are weighed by the Lord.” A few lines later the chapter sets a limit on gain: “Better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice” (Proverbs 16:8).

Proverbs 16:9

“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.”

Reflection: The chapter returns to planning six verses after 16:3. The proverb leaves the planning to people and places the outcome, the steps actually taken, with the Lord. Two verses later it turns to trade: “Honest scales and balances belong to the Lord” (Proverbs 16:11).

Proverbs 15:22

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

Reflection: The proverb sets two results side by side: plans made without counsel fail, and plans made with many advisers succeed. Proverbs 20:18 says the same of a larger venture: “Plans are established by seeking advice; so if you wage war, obtain guidance.”

Proverbs 21:5

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

Reflection: Two ways of handling a venture lead to two results here: diligent plans lead to profit, and haste leads to poverty. The next verse names a different shortcut and its end: “A fortune made by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a deadly snare” (Proverbs 21:6).

Luke 14:28

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?”

Reflection: Jesus is speaking to the large crowds following him, and the builder who counts the cost before laying a foundation is one of two examples, the other a king weighing whether his ten thousand can meet twenty thousand. Both illustrate the cost of discipleship: “those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples” (Luke 14:33). The example still assumes the ordinary practice of estimating costs before building, and the builder who skips that step is ridiculed for starting what he cannot finish.

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 people planning to travel, trade for a year and make money. He does not tell them to stop trading; he tells them their plans leave out that “you do not even know what will happen tomorrow,” and gives them words to use instead: “If it is the Lord’s will.” Verse 16 calls the alternative boasting in “arrogant schemes.”

Proverbs 12:24

“Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in forced labor.”

Reflection: Diligence leads to ruling and laziness to forced labor in this proverb. Three verses later the same contrast is put in terms of hunting: “The lazy do not roast any game, but the diligent feed on the riches of the hunt” (Proverbs 12:27).

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 lines come from the poem on “a wife of noble character” that closes Proverbs. She assesses a field before she buys it, plants a vineyard “out of her earnings,” and checks that her trading is profitable. The poem also says she “makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes” (Proverbs 31:24) and that she “opens her arms to the poor” (Proverbs 31:20).

Matthew 25:16

“The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more.”

Reflection: In the parable, a man going on a journey entrusts his wealth to three servants, “each according to his ability.” Two put the money to work and double it; the third buries it. The master’s rebuke to the third is that he “should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest” (Matthew 25:27). The parable follows the one about the ten virgins, which ends “keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour” (Matthew 25:13), and in this one too the master returns “after a long time” and settles accounts (Matthew 25:19).

Colossians 3:23

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.”

Reflection: Paul is addressing slaves, telling them to work “with sincerity of heart” and not only when watched. The command covers “whatever you do,” and it is followed by a word to the other side: “Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven” (Colossians 4:1).

Ecclesiastes 9:10

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.”

Reflection: The Teacher gives the reason in the rest of the verse: “in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.” The next verse qualifies any promise of success: “nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all” (Ecclesiastes 9:11).

2 Thessalonians 3:10

“For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: ‘The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.’”

Reflection: Paul is writing about believers in Thessalonica who were “idle and disruptive.” He points to his own example: he and his companions “worked night and day” so as not to be a burden, and he urges the idle “to settle down and earn the food they eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:8, 3:12). The rule concerns people unwilling to work, not people unable to.

Proverbs 11:1

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

Reflection: Scales and weights were how goods were measured and paid for, and a merchant with a light weight could cheat every customer. Proverbs 20:10 repeats the point: “Differing weights and differing measures—the Lord detests them both.”

Proverbs 22:1

“A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.”

Reflection: The proverb ranks reputation above “great riches.” The next verse sets rich and poor on one level: “Rich and poor have this in common: The Lord is the Maker of them all” (Proverbs 22:2).

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 right after the parable of the manager who, about to lose his job, cut his master’s debtors’ bills to win friends. The verses that follow apply it to money: “if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?” The passage ends with “You cannot serve both God and money” (Luke 16:11, 16:13).

Proverbs 11:25

“A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.”

Reflection: The verse sits between two sayings about giving and withholding. The one before says a person who gives freely “gains even more,” and the one after concerns grain dealers: “People curse the one who hoards grain, but they pray God’s blessing on the one who is willing to sell” (Proverbs 11:24, 11:26).

James 5:4

“Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.”

Reflection: The charge is specific: wages kept back from the workers who mowed the fields. The unpaid wages themselves are said to cry out, and the harvesters’ cries “have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.”

Deuteronomy 8:18

“But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.”

Reflection: Moses is warning Israel about a later time of success, when they build fine houses and their herds, silver and gold increase. The danger he names is the thought “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me” (Deuteronomy 8:17). The verse answers that thought: the ability to produce wealth is God’s gift, given to confirm his covenant.

Jeremiah 29:7

“Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

Reflection: The Lord speaks these words in a letter the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the exiles in Babylon (Jeremiah 29:1). Earlier in the letter the Lord tells the exiles to build houses, plant gardens and raise families there. The prosperity of their own households is tied to the prosperity of the foreign city they live in, and they are told to pray for it.