“It's not personal… it’s strictly business,” is an iconic line. What is calmly stated belies a horrifying reality. While the speaker in a mob movie really was referring to plans for killing people, “the business” will leave unseen and unmentioned weeping parents, grieving spouses and orphaned children. And blood that cries out from the ground to the LORD, our God.

Too often, especially in our culture, which is prominently marked by corporate values of profit and efficiency, “business” is what matters most until you get to the Church.

It’s personal. It’s ALL personal and it is all eternally personal.

First, the LORD, our Maker, is not “the Force” or even a force. We are persons because, first and foremost, HE is! In our very personhood, we carry the image of the One who has made us. In our heterosexual natures, we bear the likeness of the Trinity — One God in Three distinct Persons.

Second, in our sinful rebellion against our Maker, Designer and Owner, it’s personal. We may like to try and calm our troubled conscience that “It's not personal,” but we have done nothing short of reject the most amazing, most powerful, most worthy, and most beautiful Person in existence. So we are fools. He is offended, and it is personal to Him.

Third, in redemption, our entire hope rests upon the Person and the Work of Jesus Christ. God, in Christ, came to this world personally. He did not merely send errand boys. He did not just convey messages from heaven. He came in the flesh on a rescue mission that would personally cost Him more than words can describe, or our minds can fathom. But He came nevertheless to do what had to be done if we are to be rescued from our guilt and ruin. He is personally invested to the uttermost!

And lastly, His heart is for our hearts to be reconciled and restored to Him personally. His Word describes the impact of His saving love and power as new birth, resurrection from the dead, and new creation. It is not the removal of our personal natures but the recovery and healing of our hearts to be in love and personal communion with Him, both now and forever. His redeeming grace is personal. We don’t merely subscribe to beliefs or ideas; we trust Him personally.

Why does this matter so much? I believe, personally, that we may be in one of the most defining periods of Western history over the very nature of personhood. From matters of sexuality to abortion and pre-natal (and even neonatal) status, to identity politics, to end-of-life questions, radical challenges to our very human nature are being raised.

In families, schools, businesses, and especially the Church, we will have to answer these questions convincingly. A family is not merely a system. Schools are not factories. Businesses and especially ministry, is not merely mechanical. It’s all personal.

So as persons, in relationships with other persons, drawing upon and aiming toward the Greatest Person, we have work to do. We need to reckon with the vast departures that have occurred all around us, especially the hardening lies that “It's not personal… it’s strictly business,” the overwhelming new technologies, and search down deep into our hearts to repent of however we have participated in this grand lie.

Praise God that He is the Living God, personally available to us and always welcoming us home when we come to our senses and return to Him.