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Conflicts of Interest
March 9, 2019

Conflicts of interest occur when a person has competing interests and/or loyalties. Imagine the school board member volunteering their time when a vote comes up regarding a contract with their employer. The conflict of interest requires that school board member to abstain from voting. Imagine the good samaritan who serves not on one but two non-profit board of directors. That person will have competing interests placed on their time, and from time to time may even have the different non-profit organizations seeking access to the same set of resources. Conflicts of interest are likely. People who serve on a board need to be aware of conflicts of interest, and how these typically present themselves. Those who are Christians, also have to avoid conflicts of interests.

Matthew 6:24-34
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Jesus tells us to avoid the conflict of interest that exists betwen serving God and serving mammon. Mammon is derived from a Chaldean word and is frequently thought of as money. It could also be thought of as wealth, and the confidence that money and wealth brings. Jesus tells us very clearly to avoid this conflict of interest and to solely focus on the Kingdom God. Living in a world where money is the basis for transactions, this conflict of interest is with us every day, and just like a board member needs to avoid conflicts of interest, so must we. God promises that our needs will be provided. Conflicts of interest existed long before the earthly ministry of Jesus. Going back to the time of David, Jonathan, Saul's son, found himself living a conflict of interest when his father directed him to kill David, somebody whom Jonathan liked. Jonathan advised David to hide until his father changed his mind.

1 Samuel 19:1-7
And Saul spake to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan Saul's son delighted much in David: and Jonathan told David, saying, Saul my father seeketh to kill thee: now therefore, I pray thee, take heed to thyself until the morning, and abide in a secret place, and hide thyself: And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where thou art, and I will commune with my father of thee; and what I see, that I will tell thee. And Jonathan spake good of David unto Saul his father, and said unto him, Let not the king sin against his servant, against David; because he hath not sinned against thee, and because his works have been to thee-ward very good: For he did put his life in his hand, and slew the Philistine, and the LORD wrought a great salvation for all Israel: thou sawest it, and didst rejoice: wherefore then wilt thou sin against innocent blood, to slay David without a cause? And Saul hearkened unto the voice of Jonathan: and Saul sware, As the LORD liveth, he shall not be slain. And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan shewed him all those things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence, as in times past.

Jonathan probably didn't realize it, but living true to the later words of Jesus, Jonathan served the will of God. Even in the time of David, Jonathan would have been aware of the history of the exodus and was probably aware of the words recorded for us in Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 30:15-20
See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

Since long before the time of Jesus, conflicts of interest have existed, and through that time, the same standard is exacted. no man can serve God and the things of this world, such as money and wealth. We all have a choice before us between life and death, and the choice is freely ours to make, and we are encouraged to choose life.

All verses are from the King James Version.
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