May 24
“Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1)
We pick up today where we left off yesterday, discussing how important it is to consider not only the consequences of stumbling into temptation (which we will discuss more in the Resisting Principle 3: Remember the pain, destruction, wrath, and judgment that results from sin) but also the blessings that successfully resisting temptation brings to us. Keeping in mind the blessings and rewards for obedience is key to victory.
When large corporations evaluate and compare investment opportunities, they calculate not only the actual, tangible costs of each of the various options, but they will also calculate an opportunity cost, that is, they calculate the cost of not being able to get the benefits of choice B if they choose A. Likewise, we must learn to think of sin in terms of costs (negative consequences) and opportunity costs (the benefits of obedience that are lost if we choose sin). Imagine that you are an employee of a major corporation working on products worth billions of dollars in sales. It is your job to present the business leaders with two options: Option A results in much higher costs, requires a lot of new investment in costly equipment, uses a manufacturing process that is very difficult to run and results in a lot of waste and lost production time, results in a loss of valuable employees and expertise, will probably create many unhappy customers and loss of market share, will increase environmental pollution, will decrease the safety of the product, and very well may result in a number of long, drawn out, and costly lawsuits. Option B results in saving significant time and money, does not require new equipment, will most likely result in gaining more and happier customers, will result in being able to charge more for the product and improve profit margins, will improve the safety of the products while at the same time can reduce the potential liabilities and litigation.
Given these two scenarios, the immediate question will be, “Why in the world would we even consider Option A given all of the negatives? Who in the world would be so stupid? Why are you wasting our time even discussing this option?” And your answer is, “So and so, brother-in-law of the president of the company said we ought to consider it (unknown to you, this brother-in-law also works for a competitor, and his aim is to undermine your corporation), and it gives the customers a temporary good feeling when they use the product.” “How temporary is this good feeling?” you may be asked. “Oh, it can last anywhere from only a few seconds to a few days, but rarely does it last any longer than that. And after that it leaves the customers with a toxicity in their system that permanently damages their internal organs and shortens their lifespan, and that is why we expect more lawsuits. But it is a very popular product nowadays. And also, Option B is viewed as kind of an out-of-fashion and boring product that can require extra effort on the part of the customer to use properly, so it has major perception problems. But it is really healthy and good for them in the long run, despite its reputation for being outdated.” The opportunity cost is the cost of not being able to get the benefits of Option B if Option A is chosen. Those benefits are forfeited because you cannot do both options.
What would you do if you were the management of this company? How would you evaluate the alternatives in this case? We’ll pick up this train of thought tomorrow.