Are You Building in the City of God or the City of Man?

Building a Business in the City of God

Every morning when you wake up, whether you realize it or not, you step into a construction zone. You are building something with your life. The question is: Which city are you building in—the City of Man or the City of God?

More than 1,500 years ago, St. Augustine wrote The City of God—a book so impactful that it’s still studied in secular universities today. Why? Because it doesn’t just share theological ideas; it explains the entire biblical story in a simple way. At its core, Augustine presents two cities—the City of Man, built on pride and self-sufficiency, and the City of God, built on love, humility, and surrender to Him. The question isn’t whether these cities exist. The question is: Which one are you building in?

This theme Augustine portrays runs from Genesis to Revelation.

• In Eden, Adam and Eve rejected dependence on God, choosing to seize wisdom on their own terms.

• At Babel, humanity tried to build a tower to the heavens, declaring independence from God, only to be scattered by His judgment.

• At the freeing of the Israelite slaves from Egypt, God showed His power over the greatest city of man in the world at that point.

• He did the same thing with Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar, declared, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built… by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:30). But God humbled him, showing that no human kingdom is eternal, and no earthly king can raise Himself against God and win.
  

We see this theme again and again in Scripture, on the cosmic level with Satan and God, on a political level as nations and their kings rise against God, on institutional levels as religious groups like the Pharisees try to use God’s structures for their own gain, and on the personal level as individuals try to build their own glory instead of God’s.

The City of Man is always striving, always grasping for control, always seeking glory apart from God. But in contrast, the City of God is marked by humility, worship, and trust in God’s sovereignty and goodness. The biblical narrative shows this battle playing out in every generation, and in every person’s own life, ultimately pointing us to the final fulfillment—when the City of God will come down from heaven (Revelation 21), and God’s people will dwell with Him forever, fully restored to what was lost in Eden.

This lays out a powerful reality for each of us to consider: there are only two ways to live. The City of Man is built on self—self-sufficiency, control, pride, and the desire to “be like God” (Genesis 3:5). The City of God, in contrast, is built on love for God, trust in His ways, and love for your neighbor.

The tension? We are citizens of the City of God, but we still live in the City of Man. And we have the ability to build on the foundation of self OR the foundation of Jesus Christ. If we’re not careful, we can waste our precious lives building on the wrong foundation.

Entrepreneurs and the Temptation to Play God

Let’s be real—entrepreneurship takes a lot of wisdom to do well. In order to build wealth (one of the most dangerous of all blessings) in a way that builds the kingdom of God and not our own kingdom… that takes maturity.

We entrepreneurs love control. We want to dictate the timing, the outcomes, the success. We stress over the algorithm, the sales numbers, and the five-year plan, acting as if everything depends on us.

Augustine called this libido dominandi [Latin]—the lust to dominate. He pointed out that when we chase control, control ends up owning us. We think we’re playing God, but really, we’re enslaved to our own striving.

But Jesus calls us to a different way. He reminds us in Matthew 6:33, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” When we surrender our businesses to God, when we trust His provision over our own hustle, we experience peace instead of constant anxiety.

Paul warns us in 1 Corinthians 3:11-13:

"For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done."

Everything we build—our businesses, our wealth, our impact—will be tested. If we’ve built with self-sufficiency, pride, and control, it will burn away like hay and straw. But if we’ve built on the foundation of Jesus, it will last.

So let’s get practical:

• Are you making business decisions in your own wisdom or leaning on God for wisdom in the practical, daily decisions of business? Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”

• Are you motivated in your business by your “kingdom why”, a kingdom-driven purpose or by your own desire for wealth, control, power, or recognition?

• Are you so busy trying to make things happen that you’ve stopped resting in God’s provision? Do you feel the weight of responsibility to make things happen in a way that is crippling you with anxiety?
  

We need to deeply consider these questions and reflect on them often, because working this way is totally counter-cultural. The world tells you that you are the architect of your life. That if you hustle hard enough, you can build the success you dream of.

But there are actually two ways to be an entrepreneur.

The first way is to build like the world does: eating the bread of anxious toil (Psalm 127:2). It’s exhausting. It keeps you up at night, convincing you that everything depends on you. It’s fueled by self-reliance, fear of failure, and the pressure to keep up. It’s the City of Man’s way of working—chasing success at any cost and bearing the crushing weight of it.

The second way is the way that Jesus invites us into. He calls us to lay aside our heavy burdens and take on His burden, which is light (Matthew 11:30). It starts with surrendering all we are to Jesus and trusting in Him for our hope of salvation, and it continues on every day with us casting ourselves in dependence on Him.

This is worshipful entrepreneurship—building your business with Jesus and trusting that God is the one who establishes the work of your hands (Psalm 90:17). It’s working hard but without striving. It’s doing your best but without the need to impress others. It’s knowing that your identity isn’t tied to your success or failure, because you belong to Jesus.

So today, you have a choice.

Will you build like the world—striving, hustling, relying on yourself?

Or will you build in accordance with your true citizenship: like a citizen of the City of God— on the foundation of Jesus which will last forever?