Sitting in a management-training seminar, I observed a seasoned presenter address typical communications issues found in most organizations. Solutions were offered and then practiced through team exercises. The foundation of the training was the assumption of human potency, which, for the purpose of this article, means that man, in and of himself, has the power to do whatever man wants to do and therefore can solve any problem. If you subscribe to an orthodox biblical worldview, then you believe in the fall of man. The fall of man is a reference to man’s state as a result of the rebellion of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve, the first humans, were given one commandment but disobeyed that commandment and suffered the consequences of sin and death. The moment they sinned they were predisposed to rebellion against God. They immediately suffered spiritual death (Romans 5:17) and ultimately would suffer physical death (Genesis 5:5). Because of the principle of reproduction according to kind (Genesis 1:12), Adam and Eve’s descendants also suffer under the judgment of sin and death from birth (Romans 5:18–19; 1 Corinthians 15:22). This means that every human being is born with a bias to sin and therefore unable to do enough good works to be acceptable to God. Theologians call this state “total depravity.” Total depravity does not mean that human beings cannot do some good works that please God, but it means that humans cannot do enough good works to be acceptable to God. And without God’s acceptance, human beings are doomed to suffer eternal judgment for their sin (Romans 3:10–20). Though unable to ever do enough good works to be acceptable to God, human beings have some limited human potency to make choices that please God. This is known as “common grace.” Common grace is the universal ability of human beings to speak and act in ways that, to some degree, please God. This means human beings can be honest and treat each other well, although this is not natural and never perfect. In our natural state, humans deceive, mistreat, and lie to one another. God, however, through the gift of common grace, empowers fallen people to be able to align with his values and principles well enough to survive temporarily on earth. There is, however, a way to live beyond just survival until death in this life. Those who truly accept Christ are reconciled to God based on the substitutionary work of Christ, which means they will not suffer eternal death and are empowered, in this life, to a higher level of alignment with God. This alignment should be manifested by a superior level of work. Such people are true Christians. But Scripture seems to intimate that the number of true Christians is relatively small (Matthew 7:13–28). If so, the vast majority of people live and work in a fallen state. Furthermore, most humans, even many true Christians, don’t correlate the challenges and difficulties of the workplace with sin. The pedestrian assumption is that sin is a spiritual matter and work is a physical matter, hence, the two don’t intersect. Therefore sin has little to do with work. This was the view of the aforementioned seminar presenter. I had the opportunity to have lunch with the presenter, who claimed to be a Christian. I asked the presenter to explain the role of sin in the workplace. I received a blank stare; this professing Christian had no concept of sin in the workplace. Consequently, the presenter's teaching was humanistic; that is, it assumed human potency, which implies that humans, limited to common grace, can do whatever they want to do. I pointed out the assumption and mentioned that it was biblically incorrect. The presenter was speechless, unable to reconcile the seminar teaching with Scripture. Sadly, the seminar presenter’s pseudo wisdom is common in the workplace even from the mouths of professing Christians. If you want real wisdom for the workplace, you must seek a biblical perspective. Given the fall of man, you must recognize that business is the state of sinners doing business with sinners. This begs the question, how can a person work in a fallen world and expect enduring profitability? The key is alignment with the will and ways of God. I offer the following thoughts regarding how to facilitate alignment with the will and ways of God and therefore enduring workplace profitability in a fallen world. Biblical Worldview: Everyone has a worldview—a way of seeing and understanding reality that drives their lives. Furthermore, every worldview is based on a view of God and there is only one God (John 17:3); therefore, the only correct worldview is a biblical worldview. Hence, to work well in God’s universe, one must view the universe as God does and must work in alignment with God’s values and principles. To live any other way is to live in rebellion against God, which will only bring judgment (Genesis 3). Meta-narrative: From a human perspective, there appears to be much randomness in the world. From God’s perspective, and his is the only true perspective, there is no randomness. This means that biblically there are no accidents; God is working all things together according to the counsel of his will (Ephesians 1:11). Part of his will is that each person is created for a specific purpose (Romans 9; Ephesians 2:10). Therefore for a person to find his or her life purpose, he or she must see it in the context of God’s greater purpose expressed in the meta-narrative. Business works best when organizations discover their roles in the meta-narrative and seek to build with the right people in the right positions doing the right things for the right reasons. Success: The pedestrian metrics of success are fame, fortune, and power. But Jesus’ metric for success was different; he measured success by alignment with the will and ways of God (John 17:4). Therefore true success is denominated in terms of obedience to God not fame, fortune, and power. Hiring: Most managers assume that people are fungible. Therefore hiring is not a sacred matter of finding the right person. Just finding a person who has the skills and some character will do, so we think. In reality, hiring can be a vexing challenge because of the ubiquitous bias to sin in human beings. The people who hire and the people hired are infected with the sin bias. Therefore it is doubly difficult to discern the right people. And if God has a will for everything, and he does (Ephesians 1:11), then hiring is a sacred matter of finding God’s appointed person for each position in an organization. And even when the right person is hired, it is incumbent that they grow and mature in Christ if they are to have enough victory over sin to be highly productive. Needs: A common saying about business is “find a need and meet it.” The problem with this perspective is that human beings are fallen, which means their view of their needs is often skewed. To best serve people, organizations must discern and meet the real needs not the perceived needs of people. These are just a few examples of issues a person must adroitly address to do business well in a fallen world. Each one is challenging. Indeed, alignment with the will and ways of God in the workplace is exceedingly perplexing. The only way to meet this challenge well is to view work as a spiritual exercise that must be rooted in a biblical worldview. Every organization and person must see their purposes in the context of the will of God as expressed in the meta-narrative. Success must be denominated in terms of obedience to the will and ways of God. Organizations must hire the right people. And organizations must discern and meet real needs not perceived needs. Work in a fallen world is not easy; it is daunting. Failure to recognize sin in the workplace is to live in deception and deception can only lead, in the end, to failure. The only way to enduring success in the workplace is alignment with the will and ways of God. May the Lord grant us all grace to learn to work aligned with God, that is, to work biblically so that we can appropriately respond to the fallen state of people and enjoy enduringly profitable work that will bring glory to God.