Nnaemeka sells brake parts in Ladipo market. His shop is a narrow space between a tyre dealer and a man who sells headlamps, with shelves that reach the ceiling and a wooden bench outside where mechanics sit and argue about football while they wait. He came to Lagos from Nnewi at fifteen as an apprentice, served his master for seven years, and was settled with his own shop at twenty-two. He has been there ever since.
About ten years ago a trader two shops down showed him a trick. He took a carton of cheap brake pads, the kind that wear out in a few months and sometimes crack under heavy braking, and opened a box of genuine pads from Germany. He swapped the contents, resealed the box with a heat gun and held it up. “Who will know?” he said. “You buy at two thousand, you sell at nine. The customer is happy. You are happy.”
Nnaemeka knew the man was right about the profit. Half the market was doing it. Customers came in wanting the German name and refusing to pay the German price, and the traders who repackaged fake parts were selling three times as much as he was. That year he could barely cover his shop rent. His apprentice, a quiet boy from his home town, watched everything.
But Nnaemeka kept thinking about who would be standing on those brakes. A danfo full of passengers coming down the Ojuelegba bridge. A mother driving her children to school on the Lekki expressway. An old man in a Corolla in the rain.
“I told him I could not do it,” he told me years later. “He laughed at me. He said I would die poor.”
Nnaemeka did not die poor. But his story is worth telling carefully, because it is easy to turn it into a promise it never made. Integrity is not a guaranteed business strategy. It is a way of being faithful to God in the place where you earn your bread. And that is where our study begins.
Work came before the fall
Some Christians quietly assume that work is part of the curse, a punishment for Adam’s sin, something to be endured until heaven. Genesis tells a different story. Before sin entered the world, “the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it” (Genesis 2:15). Work was part of paradise. Adam was given a garden to cultivate and protect. He was made to be productive.
The fall made work painful. Thorns and sweat came with sin (Genesis 3:17-19). But work itself remains good. When God filled Bezaleel with His Spirit, it was for craftsmanship: “in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship” (Exodus 31:3). The excellent woman of Proverbs 31 “considereth a field, and buyeth it” and makes fine linen to sell to merchants (Proverbs 31:16, 24). Jesus Himself worked as a carpenter. Paul made tents (Acts 18:3).
Productive work creates something that did not exist before. A farmer turns seed and soil into food. A tailor turns cloth into clothing. A trader moves goods from where they are plentiful to where they are needed. A programmer builds tools that save other people time. That creativity reflects the God who made us in His image. And the resources it produces can feed families, employ neighbours and bless communities.
Paul gave the Thessalonians a simple vision of the working life:
And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.
Some in Thessalonica had stopped working, perhaps because they expected Christ’s return at any moment, and were living off others. Paul calls them back to ordinary labour. “Study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands.” Notice the two reasons. First, “that ye may walk honestly toward them that are without,” so that outsiders see believers as responsible people. Second, “that ye may have lack of nothing,” so that they can provide for themselves without depending on others. Honest work is a form of witness.
Wealth gotten by vanity
The book of Proverbs has a great deal to say about how money is made. One verse captures the difference between two ways of getting it:
Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase.
The word vanity in Hebrew is hebel, the same word that echoes through Ecclesiastes. It means breath, vapour, something empty and insubstantial. Wealth gotten by vanity is money that comes from nothing real: no work done, no value created, no service rendered. It might come from fraud, from gambling, from speculation without understanding, from schemes that make money by moving it from late arrivals to early ones. It appears quickly. And Proverbs says it “shall be diminished.” Money that comes like vapour tends to leave like vapour.
PunchlineBy contrast, “he that gathereth by labour shall increase.” The Hebrew phrase is literally “he that gathereth by hand.” It pictures someone collecting little by little, by steady effort. Increase comes gradually. It is less exciting, but it lasts.
Nigeria has seen this proverb lived out painfully. Many will remember the collapse of the MMM scheme in late 2016, when a great many people, including many believers, lost money they had been promised would grow rapidly every month. Others have been drawn into crypto schemes that promised daily returns, into betting, or into the internet fraud that some young people call “yahoo.” The details change. The promise is always the same: wealth without labour, quickly. Proverbs warns, “he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent” (Proverbs 28:20). Haste often pulls a person toward dishonesty, because the honest path is too slow for the hunger driving him.
That does not mean all investment is wrong or that every new technology is a scam. Wise saving and careful investment have a place, and believers should seek qualified advice before committing their money anywhere. But the proverb gives us a question to ask of any opportunity: What real work or value is producing this return? If no one can answer, be very careful.
Young people in particular face enormous pressure here. They see peers with sudden money, expensive phones and cars, and they are told that honest work is for fools. Some churches have even celebrated such wealth from the pulpit without asking where it came from. A believer needs the courage to say that money without a clean source is not a testimony. “Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel” (Proverbs 20:17).
Just weights and honest measures
The law of Moses was very concrete about honesty in business:
Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure. Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.
In the ancient market, goods were weighed on scales against stones of a set weight, or measured in containers of a set size. A dishonest trader might carry two sets of weights, a heavy one for buying and a light one for selling. Or he might use a measuring basket with a false bottom. God says plainly: just balances, just weights, a just ephah and a just hin. Then He gives the reason: “I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.” The God who redeemed them from slavery would not have them cheating one another.
Proverbs repeats it again and again. “A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight” (Proverbs 11:1). “Divers weights are an abomination unto the LORD; and a false balance is not good” (Proverbs 20:23). God cares about the scales in the market.
The prophet Amos saw what happened when a whole economy abandoned this principle:
Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea , and sell the refuse of the wheat?
These merchants kept the religious festivals, but they could not wait for them to end so they could get back to business. They made “the ephah small,” giving less grain, and “the shekel great,” charging more silver. They falsified the balances. They sold “the refuse of the wheat,” the sweepings from the threshing floor, mixed in with good grain. And the result was that the poor were bought and sold like goods.
Every one of these practices has a modern equivalent. The market woman whose measuring bowl has been dented inward so it holds less. The petrol station whose pump has been adjusted to show more than it dispenses. The fake medicine on a pharmacy shelf. The counterfeit brake pad in a genuine box. The contractor who bills for twenty bags of cement and puts twelve into the foundation. The examination centre that sells results. God sees all of it, and He calls it abomination.
Dishonesty in business is usually smaller and more ordinary than these examples. It is the trader who swears that a price is his “last price” when it is not, the salesman who says “it is original” because the customer will not check, the invoice that adds a little for the person approving it, the receipt written for a higher amount than was paid. Each one seems minor. Together they form a culture in which nobody can trust anybody, and everyone pays more because of it. Jesus said, “let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay” (Matthew 5:37). A believer’s word in the market should be as reliable as his word in the church.
Integrity in business is never only a private matter between a trader and God. It is about the person on the other side of the counter. Someone will drive on those brakes, swallow that tablet, live in that building.
The house built by unrighteousness
The prophet Jeremiah confronted King Jehoiakim of Judah, who was building himself a magnificent palace:
Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work; That saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is cieled with cedar, and painted with vermilion. Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him? He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the LORD .
Jehoiakim’s palace was beautiful, with large rooms, wide windows, cedar panelling and red paint. But it was built by unpaid labour. He “useth his neighbour’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work.” The grandeur of the building could not cover the injustice in its foundations.
Then God points him to his father, Josiah. Josiah also ate and drank and enjoyed the good things of life. But he “did judgment and justice,” and he “judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him.” And then comes one of the most remarkable sentences in the prophets: “was not this to know me? saith the LORD.” To deal justly with the poor is part of what it means to know God.
That should change the way we look at business success. A company may be profitable, a house may be impressive, a ministry building may be grand. The question God asks is how it was built. Were the workers paid? Were the suppliers treated fairly? Were the customers told the truth? A believer in business is called to build in a way he would be willing to show the Lord, room by room.
NuggetGod does not ask only how much you have built. He asks how you built it, and who paid the price for its walls.
Diligent in business
Integrity is not the only thing Scripture asks of a working believer. It also commends excellence:
Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men .
The word translated diligent carries the sense of skill, quickness and expertise. It is used of Ezra, “a ready scribe in the law of Moses” (Ezra 7:6). This is a person who has mastered his craft. He does his work so well that he is noticed. “He shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.” In the King James Version, mean means obscure or low in rank. Skill opens doors that would otherwise stay shut.
Joseph is the great example. As a slave in Potiphar’s house, “his master saw that the LORD was with him, and that the LORD made all that he did to prosper in his hand” (Genesis 39:3). In prison he was put in charge of the other prisoners. Before Pharaoh, his wisdom about the famine made him the second most powerful man in Egypt. Daniel’s excellence in Babylon brought him before Nebuchadnezzar and Darius. These men stood before kings because they were skilled and faithful in every situation, including the humiliating ones.
For a believer, excellence is a form of worship. “Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord” (Colossians 3:23). A Christian mechanic should be the best mechanic on the street. A Christian accountant should keep the cleanest books. A Christian teacher should prepare her lessons as though Christ were sitting in the back row. Sloppy work done in Jesus’ name dishonours Him.
But we must read the proverb as a proverb. Proverbs describe how life generally works under God’s wisdom. They are not unconditional guarantees. Many skilled people never stand before kings. Some are overlooked because of their ethnicity, their gender, their lack of connections, or simply because of the economy. Ecclesiastes observes that “the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all” (Ecclesiastes 9:11). Diligence is wise and right. It tends toward fruitfulness. But it does not give us a lever with which to force God’s hand.
From stealing to giving
Paul gives a short sentence in Ephesians that traces a whole transformation: “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth” (Ephesians 4:28).
Read it slowly, because it moves in three stages. First, the thief stops stealing. That is repentance. Second, he begins to labour, “working with his hands the thing which is good.” That is honest productivity, and notice that the work itself must be good. It is not enough to work hard at something harmful. Third, he works “that he may have to give to him that needeth.” That is the goal. The man who once took from others now works so that he can give to others.
This is the grace of God reaching into economic life. The gospel does not only stop a believer from cheating. It gives him a new reason to earn. Money becomes a means of blessing. Zacchaeus showed the same transformation when he met Jesus: “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold” (Luke 19:8). His business did not end. It was redeemed.
This also answers the question of why a believer should want to build wealth at all. Not to compete, not to impress, not to feel secure apart from God. A Christian builds so that he can provide for his family, employ others, support the work of the gospel and meet the needs of the poor. Wealth with that purpose is a gift to many.
Enterprise that blesses a city
When the people of Judah were carried into exile in Babylon, they might have been tempted to withdraw, to treat the foreign city as enemy territory and simply wait for rescue. Instead God sent them a letter through Jeremiah:
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon; Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
Build houses. Plant gardens. Marry and raise families. And “seek the peace of the city,” pray for it, “for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.” God’s people were to be productive, settled and invested in the welfare of the place where they lived, even when it was not home.
That is a vision for Christian enterprise in a Nigerian city. A believer who starts a business is doing more than earning a living. He is creating jobs in a country where millions of young people cannot find work. He is training people in a skill. He is supplying something the community needs. The apprenticeship tradition in which Nnaemeka grew up is a powerful example: a master takes in a young person, feeds and trains him for years, and then settles him with capital to start his own business. Wealth is multiplied across generations and households instead of being kept in one pocket.
Enterprise can also be turned against a city. “He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him: but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it” (Proverbs 11:26). The trader who hoards grain until prices rise, profiting from his neighbours’ hunger, is condemned. When food prices climb, a believer in the food trade has a choice to make. He may earn a fair profit. He may not exploit desperation.
One more guard-rail belongs here. Enterprise can consume the people it was meant to serve, including the entrepreneur and his family. “It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep” (Psalm 127:2). The God who commands work also commanded rest, for the master and for “thy manservant” and “thy maidservant” alike (Exodus 20:10). A business that keeps its owner away from his children every waking hour, or works its staff without rest, has lost its way, however profitable it looks.
Remember who gives the power
Moses knew that prosperity brings its own temptation. As Israel prepared to enter the land, he warned them:
And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.
“My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.” That is the voice of a self-made man, and Moses calls it forgetfulness. The ability to work, the health to rise early, the mind to see opportunities, the stable conditions that allow trade: all of these are gifts. “It is he that giveth thee power to get wealth.”
That verse is sometimes quoted as though it were a guarantee that God will make every believer rich. In context it is a warning against pride. God does give power to get wealth, and He is not against His people prospering. But the moment we take the credit, we have begun to forget Him.
Remembering who gives the power also keeps us humble when others struggle. If a brother’s business fails, it may be because he was foolish. It may also be because of a fire in the market, a demolition order, a currency crisis or an illness. Wealth is not the measure of God’s favour, and poverty is not proof of His displeasure. Some of the most faithful traders I know have lost everything in a single night and started again. We dare not judge them by their bank balance.
“A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches” (Proverbs 22:1). If you must choose between the two, choose the name. Money can be rebuilt. A reputation for dishonesty follows you, and the injury done to a customer cannot always be undone.
Nnaemeka’s first years of refusing to repackage fake parts were hard. He lost customers to cheaper traders. One year he had to borrow from his brother to pay his rent. He told me he sometimes lay awake wondering whether he was being foolish.
Then something began to change. Mechanics noticed that the pads they bought from his shop did not come back. Customers who had paid less elsewhere returned with worn-out brakes and asked for “the man who does not lie.” Two transport companies began to buy only from him. He started labelling his shelves honestly: original, good quality copy, cheap, with the prices beside each, so customers could choose with their eyes open. Some still chose cheap. But they knew what they were buying.
He is not the richest man in Ladipo. He owns his shop now, has built a house in Nnewi and is paying university fees for three children. Last year he settled his former apprentice with a shop of his own, stocked and paid for, as his own master had once done for him.
PunchlineOn the day the shop opened, the young man hung a small sign above the counter. It says, in his own hand, We sell what the box says. Nnaemeka told me it was the proudest day of his business life.
That is what building wealth with integrity looks like. It does not always make you rich. But it lets you sleep at night, it protects the people who depend on your honesty, and it passes something on that money alone cannot: a good name, and a way of working that honours God.
Teaching Companion
For Reflection
- Do you see your daily work as a gift from God, or mainly as a burden? How does Genesis 2:15 speak to that?
- Are there any practices in your work or business, however common in your industry, that would fail the test of “just weights”?
- What real work or value is behind the ways you earn money? Are you being drawn toward any “wealth gotten by vanity”?
- How might you grow in skill and excellence in your work this year, as an act of worship?
- What would it look like for your earning to be shaped by Ephesians 4:28, “that he may have to give to him that needeth”?
This Week
This week, look honestly at one area of your work or business and ask three questions: Am I telling the truth about what I sell or do? Am I paying everyone what I owe them, on time? Is the person on the other side of the transaction being treated as I would want to be treated? If anything needs to change, write down one concrete step and take it before the week ends. Then choose one skill relevant to your work that you will deliberately develop over the next three months.
A Prayer
Lord God, thank You for the gift of work and for the power You give me to earn. Forgive me where I have taken credit for what came from Your hand, and where I have cut corners or been tempted by quick gain. Give me just weights and an honest tongue. Make me excellent in my work, as though I were working for You alone. Let my labour provide for my family and give me something to share with those in need. Keep me from building anything that I would be ashamed to show You. Give me a good name that honours Jesus. In His name, Amen.
Truth received brings freedom. Truth believed establishes the heart.
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version. · Illustrations using first names only are composites unless stated otherwise.