Loving Your Enemies by Fritz Chery, biblereasons.com

Loving Your Enemies

by Fritz Chery, Feb 15, 2015, biblereasons.com

Bible verses about loving your enemies

This topic is something we all struggle with at times. We feel like how can I love someone that keeps sinning against me? They give me no reason to love them. To me this is a reflection of the gospel. Do you give God a reason to love you? A Christian sins before a holy God yet he still pours out his love unto us. There was a time when you were an enemy of God, but Christ loved you and saved you from the wrath of God.

 You can’t learn to love your enemy unless you are a new creation. You can’t be a new creation unless you are saved. If you’re not saved or not sure, then please click the link above. It is extremely important.

When you are loving your enemies it helps you conform into the image of Christ. Our first response to something shouldn’t be to throw up our middle finger or to get into a fighting stance. If you are a Christian you have to remember you are being watched like a hawk by unbelievers. You can be doing everything right, but as soon as you sin once, unbelievers will have something to say.

We must be a good example to others. That coworker, family member, bad friend, or boss probably has never seen a true Christian. You’re probably the only one who can share the gospel message with them. We must remain calm and forgive. Easier said than done right. That is why you must rely on the Holy Spirit. Tell God that you can’t do it on your own and you need his help. Pray for yourself, pray for the other person, and pray for help.

These passages are not only talking about people who like us they’re talking about everybody.

Matthew 7:12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

Do good to those who don’t like you.

1.  Luke 6:27-32 “But I say to you who are listening, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who are cruel to you. If anyone slaps you on one cheek, offer him the other cheek, too. If someone takes your coat, do not stop him from taking your shirt. Give to everyone who asks you, and when someone takes something that is yours, don’t ask for it back. Do to others what you would want them to do to you . If you love only the people who love you, what praise should you get? Even sinners love the people who love them.

2. Matthew 5:41-48 And if one of the occupation troops forces you to carry his pack one mile, carry it two miles. When someone asks you for something, give it to him; when someone wants to borrow something, lend it to him.“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your friends, hate your enemies.’ But now I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may become the children of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun to shine on bad and good people alike, and gives rain to those who do good and to those who do evil. Why should God reward you if you love only the people who love you? Even the tax collectors do that! And if you speak only to your friends, have you done anything out of the ordinary? Even the pagans do that! You must be perfect—just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

David had a chance to kill his enemy Saul, but he didn’t.

3. 1 Samuel 24:4-13 The men said to David, “Today is the day the Lord spoke of when he said, ‘I will give your enemy over to you. Do anything you want with him.’” Then David crept up to Saul and quietly cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. Later David felt guilty because he had cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. He said to his men, “May the Lord keep me from doing such a thing to my master! Saul is the Lord’s appointed king. I should not do anything against him, because he is the Lord’s appointed king!” David used these words to stop his men; he did not let them attack Saul. Then Saul left the cave and went his way. When David came out of the cave, he shouted to Saul, “My master and king!” Saul looked back, and David bowed facedown on the ground. He said to Saul, “Why do you listen when people say, ‘David wants to harm you’? You have seen something with your own eyes today. The Lord put you in my power in the cave. They said I should kill you, but I was merciful. I said, ‘I won’t harm my master, because he is the Lord’s appointed king.’ My father, look at this piece of your robe in my hand! I cut off the corner of your robe, but I didn’t kill you. Now understand and know I am not planning any evil against you. I did nothing wrong to you, but you are hunting me to kill me. May the Lord judge between us, and may he punish you for the wrong you have done to me! But I am not against you. There is an old saying: ‘Evil things come from evil people.’ But I am not against you.

Love your neighbors and enemies: The Good Samaritan.

4. Luke 10:29-37 But the teacher of the Law wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus answered, “There was once a man who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when robbersattacked him, stripped him, and beat him up, leaving him half dead. It so happened that a priest was going down that road; but when he saw the man, he walked on by on the other side. In the same way a Levite also came there, went over and looked at the man, and then walked on by on the other side. But a Samaritan who was traveling that way came upon the man, and when he saw him, his heart was filled with pity. He went over to him, poured oil and wine on his wounds and bandaged them; then he put the man on his own animal and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Take care of him,’ he told the innkeeper, ‘and when I come back this way, I will pay you whatever else you spend on him.’” And Jesus concluded, “In your opinion, which one of these three acted like a neighbor toward the man attacked by the robbers?” The teacher of the Law answered, “The one who was kind to him.” Jesus replied, “You go, then, and do the same.”

Help your enemies.

5.  Romans 12:14-21 Wish only good for those who treat you badly. Ask God to bless them, not curse them. When others are happy, you should be happy with them. And when others are sad, you should be sad too. Live together in peace with each other. Don’t be proud, but be willing to be friends with people who are not important to others. Don’t think of yourself as smarter than everyone else. If someone does you wrong, don’t try to pay them back by hurting them. Try to do what everyone thinks is right. Do the best you can to live in peace with everyone. My friends, don’t try to punish anyone who does wrong to you. Wait for God to punish them with his anger. In the Scriptures the Lord says, “I am the one who punishes; I will pay people back.” But you should do this: “If you have enemies who are hungry, give them something to eat. If you have enemies who are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this you will make them feel ashamed.” Don’t let evil defeat you, but defeat evil by doing good.

6. Proverbs 25:21-22 If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, You will heap burning coals of shame on their heads, and the LORD will reward you.

7. Luke 6:35 But love your enemies, do good to them, andlend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.

8.  Exodus 23:5 Whenever you see that the donkey of someone who hates you has collapsed under its load, don’t leave it there. Be sure to help him with his animal.

Love

9. 1 Corinthians 16:14 Let all that you do be done in love.

10. John 13:33-35 “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

11. 1 Corinthians 13:1-8 I may speak in different languages, whether human or even of angels. But if I don’t have love, I am only a noisy bell or a ringing cymbal. I may have the gift of prophecy, I may understand all secrets and know everything there is to know, and I may have faith so great that I can move mountains. But even with all this, if I don’t have love, I am nothing. I may give away everything I have to help others, and I may even give my body as an offering to be burned. But I gain nothing by doing all this if I don’t have love. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, it does not brag, and it is not proud. Love is not rude, it is not selfish, and it cannot be made angry easily. Love does not remember wrongs done against it. Love is never happy when others do wrong, but it is always happy with the truth. Love never gives up on people. It never stops trusting, never loses hope, and never quits. Love will never end. But all those gifts will come to an end—even the gift of prophecy, the gift of speaking in different kinds of languages, and the gift of knowledge.

12. Romans 12:9-11 Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.

Reminders

13 . Matthew 5:8-12 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

14. Proverbs 20:22 Do not say, “I’ll pay you back for this wrong!” Wait for the LORD, and he will avenge you.

15 . Matthew 24:13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

Be imitators of Christ.

16. Luke 13:32-35 He replied, “Go tell that fox, ‘I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’ In any case, I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!  “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Pray for your enemies like Jesus did.

17. Luke 23:28-37 But Jesus turned and said to them, “Women of Jerusalem, don’t cry for me. Cry for yourselves and for your children. The time is coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the women who cannot have children and who have no babies to nurse.’ Then people will say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ And they will say to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ If they act like this now when life is good, what will happen when bad times come?” There were also two criminals led out with Jesus to be put to death. When they came to a place called the Skull, the soldiers crucified Jesus and the criminals—one on his right and the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, because they don’t know what they are doing.” The soldiers threw lots to decide who would get his clothes. The people stood there watching. And the leaders made fun of Jesus, saying, “He saved others. Let him save himself if he is God’s Chosen One, the Christ.” The soldiers also made fun of him, coming to Jesus and offering him some vinegar. They said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!”

Pray for them like Stephen did.

18. Acts 7:52-60 Your ancestors tried to hurt every prophet who ever lived. Those prophets said long ago that the One who is good would come, but your ancestors killed them. And now you have turned against and killed the One who is good. You received the law of Moses, which God gave you through his angels, but you haven’t obeyed it.” When the leaders heard this, they became furious. They were so mad they were grinding their teeth at Stephen. But Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit. He looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at God’s right side. He said, “Look! I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at God’s right side.” Then they shouted loudly and covered their ears and all ran at Stephen. They took him out of the city and began to throw stones at him to kill him. And those who told lies against Stephen left their coats with a young man named Saul. While they were throwing stones, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” He fell on his knees and cried in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” After Stephen said this, he died.

Don’t make fun of your enemy or rejoice when something bad happens to them.

19. Proverbs 24:17-20 Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice, or the LORD will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from them. Do not fret because of evildoers or be envious of the wicked for the evildoer has no future hope, and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out.

20. Obadiah 1:12-13 You should not gloat over your brother in the day of his misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast so much in the day of their trouble. You should not march through the gates of my people in the day of their disaster, nor gloat over them in their calamity in the day of their disaster, nor seize their wealth in the day of their disaster.

21. Job 31:29-30 “Have I ever rejoiced when disaster struck my enemies, or become excited when harm came their way? No, I have never sinned by cursing anyone or by asking for revenge.

Let the past go.

22. Philippians 3:13-14 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

23. Isaiah 43:18 “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.

Advice

Colossians 3:1-4 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Proverbs 14:29 Whoever is patient has great understanding, but one who is quick-tempered displays folly. A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.

Bonus

James 1:2-5 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you are involved in various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But you must let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing. Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to everyone generously without a rebuke, and it will be given to him. 

Pope's New Year's message: Help the youth by Brooke Seipel, The Hill

Pope's New Year's message: Help the youth

by Brooke Seipel, The Hill

© Getty

Pope Francis spent his last hours of 2016 in St. Peter's Square where he called on followers to help the youth find purpose in the new year.

The pope used the evening prayers to bring attention to youth, noting that while culture "idolizes youth" it has made no place for the young, according to The Associated Press.

“We have created a culture that idolizes youth and seeks to make it eternal. Yet at the same time, paradoxically, we have condemned our young people to have no place in society,” he said.

Francis said that young people have been "slowly pushed ... to the margins of public life, forcing them to migrate or to beg for jobs that no longer exist or fail to promise them a future.”

The pontiff said the world owed young people "a debt" as they've been deprived of "dignified and genuine work." Instead of promoting genuine, dignified work allowing youth to actively participate in society, society has demanded that they be “a leaven for the future," he said.

At the same time, Francis argued, society has pushed to "discriminate against them and condemn them to knock on doors that for the most part remain closed.”

Francis urged followers to not be like the innkeeper who refused a room to Mary and Joseph, but to help youth and provide opportunities.

To help the youth, Francis said, society should push for "true inclusion" that "provides work that is worthy, free, creative, participatory and solidary."

The Cost to Drive a Nail by Allen Laudenslager

Why is the cost to drive a nail in sub-Saharan Africa so much cheaper than in North America? After all the physical effort and knowledge is exactly the same in both places. The stock answer is that the nail driver in Africa is willing to accept less than the nail driver in the U.S. This begs the question: is the buyer taking advantage of the seller’s situation and/or ignorance and if so is that an honest transaction or a form of coercion? 

The nail driver in Africa is only willing to accept that lower wage because there are so few nails to drive. If the foreign company building their products in Africa paid the same wages as they would pay at home, how long would it take for that country to pull itself up from poverty? Most of the price difference between making that product in the U.S. and those in developing countries is not in the cost to the consumer, it is in percentage of profit to the corporation. The fundamental question remains, is putting profit in your pocket at someone else’s expense a form of theft?

Reaping What You Sow...My Years With PHILIPS!

Reaping What You Sow...My Years With PHILIPS 

by Bryan J. Neva, Sr.

Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.  - St. Paul (Letter to the Galatians 6:7)

I recently called an old friend to wish him and his family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We were friends and colleagues for almost two decades first with a company called ATL Ultrasound and then with PHILIPS Medical Systems (the famous old Dutch electronics firm).

In the years before PHILIPS acquired ATL in 1998, the company's management style was quite progressive, fair and supportive (which was the management norm in the 1990s). After PHILIPS acquired ATL, the management style slowly reverted to a 1950s style of top-down management by fear and intimidation. We were frequently reminded that we should be thankful just to have a job while our workloads steadily increased and our salaries steadily decreased.

And when the 2008 recession hit, the company's management style went from bad to worse, and we became even more overworked and underpaid. Especially at the end-of-the-year when PHILIPS wanted all their new systems installed so they could record the sales and show a huge profit for their shareholders. They couldn't be like normal companies and end their fiscal year on September 30th; they had to end it on December 31st during the holiday season. There were many, many Christmas Eves and New Years Eves when we were all out installing new systems just so PHILIPS could record the sales. I don't think we ever had the chance to enjoy the holidays when we worked for PHILIPS. And the thanks we got for working our tails off was, "Well, you get to keep your job!" Several years ago, my friend and I both quit in disgust.  He had almost 30 years with the company and I had almost 20!

PHILIPS management behavior is quite typical of a Mergers and Acquisition (M&A) firm.  They buy profitable companies, drive out the competition, and then start making draconian cuts and disruptive changes all while managing with an iron rod in order to quickly recoup their investment and earn double-digit returns for their shareholders.

The standard modus operandi for M&A firms like PHILIPS is to first realize cost savings by consolidating back-office operations like human resources and payroll.  Then they make cuts in management (they keep the mean, bad managers and rid themselves of the compassionate, good managers), and then they eliminate redundancy by downsizing the workforce (they rid themselves of the higher-paid, experienced workers (like my coworker and me), and keep the lower-paid, inexperienced workers).  After these, they target salaries by restructuring pay-plans, freezing salaries, and making it extremely difficult to even get a measly cost-of-living pay increase. Then they'll cull the workforce by requiring managers to rate their employees: the big raises go to the top-rated employees while no raises go to the bottom-rated employees (the mean, bad managers will use this to get rid of employees they personally dislike regardless of their actual measured performance). Then they'll try to increase productivity and sales revenue by working their employees even harder (12 hours a day/60 hours a week is the norm). And finally, they'll cut production and manufacturing costs while keeping the sales prices high. (The customers are essentially paying more for a lower quality product.) The problem is that there are not enough cuts in any company for an M&A firm like PHILIPS to recoup their initial investment within five years or to make the double-digit returns their shareholders demand.

For PHILIPS, making a profit wasn't even the issue, it was how BIG of a profit they were making, and it was how quickly they could recoup their investment. And they lived up to the old Dutch stereotype of being penny-wise, pound-foolish, and big cheapskates! Their motto back then was, "Sense and simplicity." We used to sardonically say that PHILIPS' motto should be, "Senseless and stupidity!"

As progressive as they might seem, the Europeans are actually notorious for their hard-nosed, winner-take-all, profit-at-any-price management style. To PHILIPS employees aren't even human beings with hopes and dreams and families they’re trying to support, they're just easily replaceable resources, cogs-in-the-wheel, units-of-production, or line-items on a spreadsheet. The managers and employees who thrived at PHILIPS probably had some degree of narcissistic sociopathic tendencies without an ounce of compassion or empathy for others.

ATL made state-of-the-art, top quality, and highly reliable ultrasound systems that lasted years (many of them are still in service today).  Most of their manufacturing, including electronic circuit boards, was done here in the United States. After PHILIPS took over, most of the manufacturing slowly shifted overseas to China (they only assembled the final products here in America); the circuity, cabling, and structure were not as durable or as reliable as they used to be; and they released products long before all the hardware and software bugs were all worked out. The results were quite predictable: their quality and reliability declined precipitously. As for us field engineers, there weren't enough hours in the week to keep up with the high demand for repairs.  

PHILIPS obviously did not care about their customers (the healthcare providers), the patients they treated, or the field employees like us that had to face the music every day trying to clean up their mess and make apologies and excuses for their poor quality products. Years ago when I first started working in the medical device industry, there were dozens of companies that manufactured all sorts of medical imaging equipment thereby allowing competition in the industry and giving customers a choice in who they did business with. Back then, companies competed on performance, quality, service, and price. Now due to industry consolidation, there are only a few big players left in the U.S. industry: PHILIPS, GE, and Siemens; although, in the past several years they're starting to get more competition as several Asian companies are entering the U.S. marketplace (I noticed that the reliability and performance of the Korean and Japanese medical devices were significantly better). And that's what the medical device industry needs right now as the cost of healthcare in the U.S. is exponentially rising: more competition!

Similarly, the big three American automakers rested on their laurels for years as their quality and reliability declined. It wasn't until they started getting more competition from the Japanese automakers when they finally started to focus more on building better automobiles. Competition works better for the consumer, while industry consolidation (i.e. M&A) and oligopolistic practices only hurt the consumers.

My old colleague made an astute observation, "How can PHILIPS treat their employees and customers so badly and expect to stay in business?" The answer is they really cannot. But that's the whole point of an M&A firm like PHILIPS: staying in business isn't in their long-term business plan. They buy profitable companies like ATL, exploit them for all they're worth, run them into the ground, and then divest themselves of them when they're no longer profitable! In short, they use them then throw them away like yesterday's trash. PHILIPS epitomizes everything that's wrong with Corporate America (or Europe) today with its short-term thinking, winner-take-all, profit-at-any-price attitude, and their mistreatment of their customers and employees in the name of the business.

Recently, I ran across an Internet advertisement for quality professionals at PHILIPS.  Frans Van Houten, the CEO of PHILIPS, has a video where he talks about the need to improve quality at PHILIPS.  His punch line at the end of the video was, "The ultimate cost of not being focused on quality is that we have no future." Well, Duh Frans! My colleagues and I were raising the red flag about the declining quality of PHILIPS' medical equipment years ago. Why didn't you and your fellow executives in Holland listen to us then? You don't have to be a well-educated genius to figure out that you'll reap whatever you sow. If you plant weeds you can't expect flowers to grow. It's nice that PHILIPS is finally starting to focus on improving the quality of their products, but I can assure you the only reason is that their poor quality has probably caught up to them and has begun to seriously affect their bottom line!

  

A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy by Allen Laudenslager

I keep hearing that American business can’t find qualified workers and they must look overseas for those workers. In large part the blame rests with American business itself.

When you want to make a train engine, you must have steel mills to make quality steel which is affordable and in the quantity needed to make the parts. You must have people who can design the individual parts, and you must have workers to assemble the parts. What no one not familiar with the process of making things will notice it the missing elements from my description: you must also have people who can design and manufacture the machines to make the parts such as lathes, drill presses, or welding machines. At each step in the process of making a complex product there are many other parts that must be made to make the machines that make the parts of the final product.

For many years, American business managers came from the ranks of people who actually made the products: the designers, the production managers, not finance, accounting, marketing, or purchasing. Why was that system so successful? Huge corporations like Ford and General Motors had management career paths that put their people first into manufacturing to learn the business. Only after they understood the process of making cars were they transferred for a few years (not for a few weeks or months) into financing, accounting, marketing, purchasing, and all the other departments in order to give them a solid grounding in the business.

As the cost of doing business rose, major projects needed more outside financing and the lenders demanded more participation in the decision making process and they got seats at the table. The problem of course is that financiers were trying to make decisions about processes they didn’t fully understand. They fell into the trap of thinking that everything could be reduced to numbers. One of those traps was not understanding just how much they didn’t know.

The old cliché, “If all you own is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” means that human nature will filter what it sees to fit what they already know; that we will trim a problem into the elements we recognize. This is particularly true if you have to make a decision very quickly, without time to put your feet up on the desk, ponder the problem, and consider all the solutions.

Those finance wizards thought they could save a lot of money if they didn’t have to make some of the parts. So they said, "Let’s get someone else to invest in the machinery and employees to make fuel pumps. We can buy them cheaper than we can make them." But they didn't understand that making fuel pumps was a training ground for the people who would one day design complete automobiles. 

The same is true for senior management. We won’t have career paths for entry-level people in order to groom them for upper management. We can just hire that expertise from somewhere else and save a lot of money!

How does this apply to those assembly line workers? In the rush to save money the people who didn’t understand how assembly workers learned how to do the work tried to shift the responsibility for training to someone else (like trade schools subsidized by the local government). They say, workers should be experienced when we hire them, the schools aren’t training enough people to work with their hands. But the schools can’t provide the kind of familiarity with your product that actually working in your plant could. Yes, this method is going to cost a company in the short-run, but in the long-run you'll end up with a first class workforce.

Companies will retort, “if we train those workers, then they'll run down the street to my competitor the first time they get offered ten cents more an hour and I’ll lose my investment in training them!” Well, duh!

IF THEY’RE WORTH 10 CENTS MORE AN HOUR TO YOUR COMPETITOR, THEN THEY'RE WORTH 11 CENTS MORE TO YOU! That extra penny is what you don’t have to spend to train a new worker. In the same way, some of the people making fuel pump parts will be able to advance their skills and make even more precision parts. If you are outsourcing those parts, you'll never develop the workers to make those parts. That will cost you money, but it is an investment in the long-term health of your business and your industry. You are trading short-term profits for the long-term health of your company. And the one key question you, as a senior manager, must ask is, “do we want to still be in business next year, in 5 years, and in 25 years?"

The self-fulfilling prophecy is that by shifting the responsibility and cost of training workers to someone else you lose the very benefit you need, trained workers, to operate your business.

Business Is Personal!

Business Is Personal!

by Bryan J. Neva, Sr.

"It's nothing personal, it's just business!" so says the popular cliché which has crept into the very fabric of Corporate America. The actual quote, however, is attributed to a 1930s gangster named Otto Berman and was popularized in the 1969 Mario Puzo novel The Godfather and the subsequent movies of the same title.  

It's as if using this cliché somehow absolves or justifies a person or Corporate America of their bad or uncompassionate behavior towards others; it's a way of dehumanizing others by not acknowledging normal human emotions or needs; it's a way of telling victims that if they show any kind of emotions at all then they're unprofessional, overly sensitive, or not management material; it's a way for managers to look themselves in the mirror every day after they've screwed their customers, employees, suppliers, or other stakeholders in the business.

Typically people who live by this cliché have little if any emotions themselves, and there's a name for this type of dysfunctional behavior: it's called psychopathy! Having some degree of psychopathy does not necessarily mean that one is a criminal or serial killer, it just means they exhibit certain antisocial, dysfunctional, or abnormal personality traits such as a lack of emotions, empathy, or remorse; they also may exhibit egotistical, narcissistic, or amoral behavior.

Studies have shown that a high percentage of business leaders exhibit some degree of psychopathic behavior. That's why they usually rise fast in organizations where greed is good and a winner-take-all, profit-at-any-price mentality exists. Even in the public sector where salaries are a pittance compared to the private sector, psychopathic behavior is high among those in positions of power where power-at-any-price is the name of the game.  Just look at the people in positions of power within the State and Federal government and decide for yourself.  

The fact-of-the-matter is that business is personal! Because human beings are social animals, people don't normally live totally detached from all human contact. People do business with people; people work with other people; organizations are made up of people; monetary transactions occur between people; deals are made between people; marriages are between people; relationships are formed between people; anytime people interact, whether it be a casual encounter or when conducting business, they're personally interacting. So how could you honestly believe the cliché it's nothing personal, it's just business? You really couldn't; that is, unless you're a psychopath like the gangster Otto Berman!