Should a Christian get involved in marketing?
Question:
Do you think Christians should get involved in marketing (you know buying and selling products even introducing others to the company)? I know it's only a side job for me right now but some think it will take away from the spiritual part of my life. What's your take?
Answer:
Marketing goods has long been discussed in the Scriptures. Recall that Lydia was a seller of purple dyes (Acts 16:14). Those involved in most trades have an aspect of marketing. Fishermen do have to sell their catches in order to make a living.
Where marketing gets bad is when either the seller or the buyer is not being honest in the deal.
"Shall I count pure those with the wicked scales, and with the bag of deceitful weights?" (Micah 6:11).
""It is good for nothing," cries the buyer; But when he has gone his way, then he boasts" (Proverbs 20:14).
I generally do not like multi-level marketing. Most place their emphasis on recruiting over actual products. You can see this in the way the salespeople are compensated. Most multi-level marketing plans are not profitable to the salesperson with just sales of the product. The problem is that when there is no real product to sell, the business will always eventually collapse. There are only so many salespeople in the world. Those who get into the business early make money, the rest rarely break even.
But more fundamental is that if a product doesn't have enough value on its own to support the selling of it, then it is dishonest to tell others they can make a living selling it.
A second consideration is what you are selling. A Christian should not be selling things that would be sinful to use. A Christian cannot promote evil (Romans 1:32).
