Well, can Christlike virtues survive in a cutthroat technology sector like in Silicon Valley? It's a great question from a listener named Bill. "Dear Pastor John, recently the Wall Street Journal published an article titled, 'At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks.' The article detailed the culture at Netflix in which high transparency and bluntness in firings are virtues to be upheld in high regard.

It's a type of social Darwinism in that only the fittest survive. Fear of firings becomes a strong motivator to ensure short-term successes. Netflix is not the only company to rid themselves of underperformers. Amazon, Facebook, and Apple come to mind too. In light of the biblical priority on grace, humility, servant leadership, kindness, gentleness, and many other qualities, how can a Christian exhibit such character qualities in a culture that perceives them as professional weaknesses?

And how do they harm our witness? I live and work in Silicon Valley and would greatly appreciate your help." Let me begin to address this huge issue with an anecdote from my own ministry. In the early days of my pastorate, the issue arose concerning musicians who were making mistakes in public worship back in the early '80s.

One leader put a heavy stress on the need for excellence. The Lord deserves excellence and suggested that if somebody messes up, he should or she should not be used in worship services musically anymore. Now, I responded to this by affirming the pursuit of excellence but adding two qualifications. I said, "First, excellence is a category that is moral as well as musical, and so we should strive to be excellent in forgiveness and patience as well as excellent in technical musicality." The other thing I said was that there is a kind of excellence that can be just as disruptive to God-centered worship as musical flaws.

I pointed, for example, to a kind of piano solo during the offering where the keyboard flourishes are so off the charts amazing—you know, you can picture a person going, "Blah, blah, blah," up and down the keyboard, you know?—so off the charts amazing that they draw all attention to the skill of the pianist, not God-centered reverence of the moment.

There was no technical flaw in the performance, which is exactly the right word and the wrong attitude, but the ministry mindset of the moment was profoundly flawed. It was flawed; it wasn't excellent. It was a distracting excellence. So we tried to put all this together with a leadership philosophy of God-centered, undistracting, merciful excellence.

Three key adjectives—God-centered, undistracting, merciful excellence. Now the reason I share this anecdote is to acknowledge that there is a real inevitable tension between the demands of excellence or competence in needed skills, on the one hand, whether it's church or industry, and the demands of mercy, kindness, gentleness, humility, servanthood, love, on the other hand.

So let me support this from the Bible, and then we'll see how the tension is handled. On the one hand, we read, "If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also," Matthew 5:39. And we read, "Forgive a repentant offender seventy-seven times," Matthew 18:21. We read, "Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you.

Bless those who curse you," Luke 6:27. We read, "Admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all," 1 Thessalonians 5:14. In other words, we are told to treat others not merely according to what they deserve—not according to their competencies and performances—better than they deserve.

We have received freely, we should give freely, we have been forgiven by Christ, we should forgive others. That's huge, and that's the question being posed is, "Okay, what do I do with that in the workplace?" Now, what we don't often realize is that, on the other hand, the New Testament teaches that there are at least five spheres of life—spheres of life—where justice shapes the form of love along with the shaping power of mercy.

Let me give these five examples. For example, in the sphere of the family, Paul does not tell parents to turn the other cheek when children disobey, but to discipline them in the Lord. That may be right at times for a parent to turn the other cheek to teach something, to illustrate something about mercy, but not usually.

Love calls for not turning the other cheek so that children can be brought up in the discipline of the Lord. So there's one sphere where turning the other cheek is not the only way that love shows itself. Number two, the sphere of the church. It is right that there be forgiveness, but this does not exclude the proper use of church discipline, which may involve excommunication of somebody from the church.

It also does not exclude the demand that elders have certain qualifications for teaching and governing, and if they fall short of those qualifications, they are not allowed to be elders. You don't turn the other cheek to an elder who can't teach and say, "Oh, we'll let you teach anyway because that's—you'll make you feel better." That's not the way love functions at the eldership level or even at the membership level.

Number three, the sphere of government. Policemen do not protect society mainly by turning the other cheek when criminals assault people. 1 Peter 2:4 says, "Governors exist to reward the good and punish the evil." Sphere number four, business. No economic order can function where there is pervasive cheating and deception and contract breaking and fraud and corruption and stealing.

Those sorts of things will bring ruin to an economy and result in anarchy and probably the result of a dictatorship. Proverbs 11:1 says, "A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight." And when Jesus told the parable of the talents, which is the sum of money to be invested, the slothful employee who squandered his business possibilities with his talent is removed and called wicked and slothful.

Matthew 25, 26, "You wicked, slothful servant, you ought to have invested my money, you incompetent, you know, slothful person. You ought to have invested my money with bankers, and at my coming I should have received at least interest. You should have had that much competence." Sphere number five, education.

Jesus refuses to give any answer to a person who tries to answer his questions the way they do in Matthew 21, 23 following. He does not give to him who asks. In one place he says, "Give to him who asks." Well, in this case, Jesus does not give to him who asks.

He will not educate those who simply try to manipulate language to avoid trouble. I mean, two plus two is not five, and any manipulative effort to get a good grade for saying it is five is rejected by Jesus, not rewarded. So you don't give an A to a person who gets all of his answers wrong just because it will make him feel better and that's a more kind and gentle and patient and forgiving things to do.

So here's my conclusion, and my answer to Bill's question. Christians are people who bear witness to both of these realities, both the justice and the mercy of God, requiring appropriate competence in certain spheres, but also mingling mercy and patience. Our aim is to show that in this world, both justice and mercy are forms of love.

It's right to insist on competence while also being patient with everyone. Now if that sounds imprecise and attention and complicated, it is. I mean, parenting with mercy and discipline, doing church discipline with mercy and holiness, governing with a billy club and kindness, educating with the necessary standards and patience, doing business with competency and compassion, none of this is precise.

This is why our minds—I'm thinking of Romans 12 here—this is why our minds must be transformed in the renewing of them so that we can be saturated with the Word of God and led by the Spirit. Thank you, Pastor John. And Bill, thanks for the excellent question. If you work inside a high-pressure business world, what challenges do you face?

Tell us, we'd like to know. Email a question to us that we can address here on the podcast in the new year. Send it to AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org. And speaking of 2019 drawing to a close, the end of the calendar year is a big time for us budget-wise here at Desiring God.

That's because almost 40% of our annual budget comes to us in December from our generous ministry partners. 40% of our budget that it requires to fund our year-round work comes to us from donors in the last month of the year, and that month is almost over. So if you've been blessed by the many resources we offer free of charge, like the Ask Pastor John podcast, would you consider donating to the ministry before December 31st?

In fact, you can do so right now at DesiringGod.org/give. That's DesiringGod.org/give. And so many of our ministry partners listen to this podcast, and I just want to say thank you for partnering with us in this ministry of labor. You make this podcast possible, and I am deeply grateful to God for your donations and for your prayers over the many months and years that I've been at DG.

I am Tony Aranke. We'll see you on Monday as we begin a little series addressing your great questions for Pastor John on Bible reading. There's some great ones in the queue. All new episodes beginning Monday with Pastor John. We'll see you then. 1. What is the purpose of the Bible?

2. What is the purpose of the Bible? 3. What is the purpose of the Bible? 4.