First of all, I just want to say how I have really enjoyed reading some of the blog posts.<\/p>\n
My boyfriend is going through a tough decision, and I have a bad feeling about it, but I wanted to follow up with the Scripture to make sure that his decision will not be steering away from the written word. His parents are involved in a pyramid scheme type business and they really want him to join so it helps them out. I am very concerned because I don’t want him joining and getting manipulated or brainwashed, but he feels the need to help them. Are there any passages that talk about these types of jobs or situations?<\/p>\n
Thank you so much for your help!<\/p>\n\t
There are a few legitimate multi-level marketing businesses, but there are a lot of money losers as well. The legitimate ones have an actual product to sell and can sustain themselves on selling the product alone. The bad businesses only are able to make money by getting other people to sign up to sell the product. The worse examples are labeled “pyramid schemes” because there is a fixed number of people in the world, so only the few who start the business make any money and it is impossible for those who come later to make money because they won’t find anyone to sign up.<\/p>\n
To avoid being labeled a pyramid scheme, a number of businesses use a blend of having an actual product and signing up salespeople. If you are interested in such a business, the question you should ask is can you make a decent wage just selling the product. In the vast majority of the cases, the answer to that question is “no.”<\/p>\n
What is the appeal to such businesses? The product is almost always secondary. The emphasis is on who much money you can make in a short amount of time signing up people. That is when Solomon’s advice should come to mind: “He who is greedy for gain troubles his own house, but he who hates bribes will live<\/em>” (Proverbs 15:27).<\/p>\n Most poor businesses emphasize making decisions quickly. That is because you won’t take time to see if it is a good deal or not. “The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty, but those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty<\/em>” (Proverbs 21:5). If something is only a good deal for a short time, then it wasn’t a good deal in the first place. Sure, being careful might cause you to miss a few really good bargains, but in the long run, you’ll do better because you didn’t invest in so many bad schemes.<\/p>\n Notice that his parents are having a hard time making their business work already. If it was viable, they might ask their son to help in the work, but they are saying that they need his investment just to make money. In other words, whatever they are selling doesn’t make this a profitable business. They can only make some money if others sign up, so they are wanting their son to sign up to make some money off of him. The fact he will have an even worse time making money from his investment isn’t considered. This isn’t a sustainable business model and so would be a foolish investment.<\/p>\n Think of it this way: how is helping his parents lose money helping them?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: First of all, I just want to say how I have really enjoyed reading some of the blog posts. My boyfriend is going through a tough decision, and I have a bad feeling about it, but I wanted to follow up with the Scripture to make sure that his decision will not be steering…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[158,105,258],"class_list":["post-39457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-business","tag-employment","tag-money-management"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":30084,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-ask-for-lent-money-back\/","url_meta":{"origin":39457,"position":0},"title":"Is it wrong to ask for lent money back?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have lent money to some people in my workplace. Is it right to ask it back because in doing so I have to be firm, and when they don't return it I get weird ideas about them? Basically, my question is whether it is a sin to ask\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30267,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-a-christian-get-involved-in-marketing\/","url_meta":{"origin":39457,"position":1},"title":"Should a Christian get involved in marketing?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"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?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87100,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-using-a-vpn-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":39457,"position":2},"title":"Is using a VPN wrong?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 9, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I've seen that you answer practical questions from people. I've been struggling with a dilemma about using a VPN to evade geographical restrictions imposed by the commercial blockade on Cuba. I'm working on a website for affiliate marketing. I didn't consider the VPN, but that started to resonate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50129,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/we-just-cant-get-enough-money-for-lobola-in-order-to-get-married\/","url_meta":{"origin":39457,"position":3},"title":"We just can’t get enough money for lobola in order to get married","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 8, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, I have a very loving relationship with the father of my toddler. We love one another dearly, but unfortunately, we have no money. He has no money, and I cannot go on living day-to-day worried about the next meal. Our child lives at my home, where my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":70356,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-i-steal\/","url_meta":{"origin":39457,"position":4},"title":"Did I steal?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 17, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Last year, I went to Goodwill to buy books about dinosaurs and dragons because they are cool. It was seven books. I went up to the cashier to purchase the books. The cashier was someone I know. He scanned the books I wanted to purchase, but I noticed that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14974,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-husband-was-previously-involved-in-a-marriage-scam-is-my-marriage-legitimate\/","url_meta":{"origin":39457,"position":5},"title":"My husband was previously involved in a marriage scam. Is my marriage legitimate?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 9, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Thank you for reading and responding. I have found your articles and answers to be very helpful and I\u2019m happy a platform as such exists.\u00a0 I met my husband the same day he filed for divorce and things between us moved fast. We were married in less than a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39457\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}