The Christian Work Ethic

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is my great pleasure to share the Word of God with the church this morning.

A friend of mine recently wrote a book that’s been very beneficial to me entitled Redeeming Productivity. His book an entire ministry is centered around helping Christians optimize what they are doing in whatever vocational roles they may hold. In the book he talks about people’s motivation for productivity. It’s asking What is the drive for wanting to get things done effectively and efficiently?

There are four primary motivations the world would give you to be productive. First there is the reward of riches. People are motivated to grow a business so that they can make more profits. It is a motivation to amass as much money as possible to be able to spend indiscriminately and never have to worry about cash flow. This my define your own motivations. Maybe you know someone who would fit into this category. But this isn’t the only world motivation that drives people to work hard and be productive. The second motivation is The promise of Peace. “Life is chaotic, and you feel that if you could just get a bit more organized, you would finally find some peace. … You want productivity to earn you time, not money. … Even peace can become an idolatrous motivation for productivity.” But maybe that’s not your motivation. Maybe you are motivated by the praise of people. You want to get things done so that others will tell you how great of job you’ve done. This is the improper motivation for many in the ministry field. Full transparency, it is something I struggle with myself. It feels good to have people tell you you’re doing something right. But this is the type of motivation that drives empty religion and fueled the Pharisees! But there are still some who are not motivated by money, peace, or what others praise them about. The fourth worldly motivation is the lure of legacy. Of course we all want to be well thought of when our time on earth has passed, but while being motivated by leaving a legacy sounds very noble, it is really just being motivated by the praise of men from the perspective of a time machine.

Now if you look closely at each of these motivations, money, peace, praise, and legacy, you’ll see that they are not all that bad in and of themselves. However, they are simply not good enough. They are half-hopes when for the Christian, there is so much more to pursue. In fact they prove that we as humans were designed for a higher purpose. Go through each one of these. Some people strive for money, Scripture tells us there are heavenly riches to strive for. Some people strive for peace, there is ultimate peace in being at home with Christ. Others strive for the praise of others, either now or in leaving a legacy, but the truest form of that is hearing “well done my good and faithful servant” not from men, but from God Himself. The world motivations “are not bad because they are too ambitious but because they are not ambitious enough.” Our ultimate goal in life ought be, and as Christians is, to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

We have been walking through the book of Colossians for months now and we have seen everything from orthodoxy to orthopraxy that is we have seen what we are to believe and how we are to live it out. We spent the last two weeks walking through the God given roles within the Christian household. We’ve seen that the relationship between the husband and the wife models the relationship between Christ and the church. We’ve seen that children are called to obey their fathers and mothers. In the same way, the Children of God obey their heavenly Father. Fathers are called not be harsh with their children, God the Father cares for and provides for His children. We take the truths of Scripture and live them out practically in our personal values and relationships.

Today we are diving into the Christian Work Ethic and the relationship between workers and bosses. There are a lot of motivations for working hard and getting things done. But we will see that our true motivation should always come in serving the God of our Salvation.

With this in mind, open your Bibles to Colossians 3. This morning we are going to pick up in verse 22. As you’re turning there I’ll point out one thing interesting about our text this morning that doesn’t pertain to the overall message. Here at Durbin Memorial Baptist Church recognize the Bible as God’s authoritative, inspired Word. We build our church and our lives in the truth of Scripture in all that we do. That is our Core Value #2. All Scripture is absolutely breathed out by God and profitable for believers. With that understanding though, you should know that the editors who added chapter divisions in thirteenth century and verse numbers in the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries are not as definitive. Here in Colossians we will be going from 3:22 to chapter 4 verse 1 because clearly this division jumped the gun and this section belongs together. With that bit of trivia noted, let’s begin diving into the Word of God. Allow me to read verse 22.

Colossians 3:22 ESV

Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.

Before we can get into the proper application of this text to our lives we have to understand what is really being said here and the context that it is being said in. I do not want to be accused of glossing over a difficult topic, nor do I believe it is necessary to do so when such a topic is addressed in the authoritative, inerrant, inspired Word of God.

When we read Bondservant right there as the first word of verse 22, we need to recognize that the most accurate translation for what we are talking about here is slaves. That word in Greek is Doulos. This section is talking about the relationship between slaves and their earthly masters.

So if we are going to give this text the exposition it deserves we have to address the elephant in the room. Does the Bible condone slavery? Craig Mitchell, former professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary wrote an article on the topic of the Bible and Slavery for the CSB World View Study Bible that I found well rounded and pertinent to our discussion this morning. In it he wrote, “As one reads the OT and the NT, it is clear that slavery is part and parcel of the whole ancient economic system. … Bible readers are often confused with how we reconcile such an evil as slavery with the Christian worldview. … The first thing that we as Bible believers must recognize is that we live in a fallen, sin-sick world. With the fall of man, many things came into existence that should not be. Murder, rape, warfare, and crime are just a few of many things that are distortions of the social order God desires. Slavery must first be understood as a corruption or distortion of the social order that results from the fall. The Bible does not endorse slavery, it merely realizes it as a state of affairs with which believers must contend.”

In the Old Testament, slavery is practiced even within Ancient Israel. But it must be noted that the slavery practiced by the Israelites was very different than the surrounding pagan nations. The Hebrews never lost sight of the fact that those in bondage were made in the image of God. They afforded the slaves legal protections and the rights of citizens. This is because the Hebrews were constantly reminded of their own bondage in Egypt and God’s provision to bring them out of those conditions. The Hebrews also had a Sabbath release from slavery after six years. Slavery was not intended to be a perpetual state for those in it, unless they chose to stay.

In the New Testament, at the time of the New Testament writings, the Roman Law ruled the area. In this structure slavery was still obviously a part of society. For the most part, slaves were dehumanized and viewed as tools and property rather than people. A Roman lawyer named Gaius said, “We may note that it is universally accepted that the master posses the power of life and death over a slave.” Roman Slavery was often cruel with little regard for the life of the slave. At the same time, being associated with a wealthy family had its advantages. In that time period it was sometimes better to be a slave and part of a wealthy family than to be free but cut off from society by having no associated household.

When we look at instruction like that of which we are seeing today in Colossians 3, but can be found throughout the New Testament, we need to see that slavery is not being condemned or affirmed. Rather it is recognized as a construct in sinful world we live in and so Paul is giving instruction for how to glorify God, your ultimate master, no matter what your position is in society.

In all reality, the instruction given here is ultimately revolutionary, in time it would be used by God to bring down the institution of slavery. Though we must recognize that while American Slavery has passed as a culturally affirmed practice, there are still reportedly at least 50 million people in modern slavery worldwide today. It is good and right for us to take our understanding of the value each of those people have as image bearers of God and work to give them freedom.

But this teaching from Paul did not JUST have revolutionary impact down the road, it also had immediate value. The point of the text and where we spend the rest of our time this morning is that no matter a Christian’s social position or the challenges they face, they have been given full and fruitful lives and purpose, not determined by their circumstance, but rather their relationship to their Creator! Whether slave or master, give glory to God! In the time this text was written this would have brought these believers domestic fullness, because as slaves they would have been intensely involved within the household. For us today, the application is professional as every one of us serve in some form as either masters of people who work under us and those we hire to work for us or we serve under masters that instruct the way we work.

R Kent Hughes notes that “the average worker still today divides five or six days of their week into more or less equal periods of eight hours work, eight hours sleep, and eight hours free time. Work is so important that our society normally defines people by what they do. In order for Christ to bring fullness to life, he must bring it to what we do do for a living, whether slave or master, employer or employee.”

So let us now get into the thick of our application. First addressed is the worker.

Colossians 3:22 ESV

Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.

We have looked at the created order and authority structures from a variety of directions for the last few weeks. Here we see that the servant is called to sincerely obey those whom they serve. This means giving forth a full effort when you are given a direction.

When Paul says, “not by way of eye-service” he is referring to how the work is done when no one is looking. Spurgeon notes on this verse, “How much there is of that! How quickly the hands go when the master’s eye looks on! But the Christian servant remembers God’s eye, and is diligent always.”

How often do we try to do just what is necessary to get by? We act in ways that appear to avoid being chided by our superiors all the while resenting our work and slacking off whenever we think no one else is looking.

We are being instructed here to take joy and give full effort in whatever we do. Remember that we have already been instructed to do all things, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

All of us are going to have times in which we are entrusted with a job and then the one who gave us the job is out of sight. How do we act in that time? Do toss the task aside because the one gave us the task will never know the difference? Or do we rush through it so that we can spend as much time in self-indulgence as possible? The spirit-filled response would be to give it your best effort and see it as an opportunity to serve the Lord. Spirit-filled servants serve Christ on the job with what is called in the theological world, Coram Deo. It is a Latin phrase, found in Scripture that means, before the face of God. This phrase, Coram Deo, reminds Christians that our lives are entirely about God. Understanding that God sees all, is in all, is the authority overall, and all things are for His glory. We see this all throughout Scripture. In Proverbs 15:3,

Proverbs 15:3 ESV

The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.

2 Chronicles 16:9 (ESV)

For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.

And we cannot just give eye-service to this all seeing God, we serve Him with sincerity because as it is revealed in 1 Samuel 16:7

1 Samuel 16:7 (ESV)

For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

We cannot fool the Lord, nor should we attempt to fool our earthly masters with eye-service. The way that we act, even in what we perceive to be the shadows, will be seen by God. May our reverence of the Lord inspire our conduct behind closed doors.

From eye-service we see we are also to avoid being people-pleasers. What is a people-pleaser? it is a brown noser. It is someone who is falsely buttering up their superior for their own personal gain. It’s doing whatever it takes to get to the top of the ladder because that is where you think your joy will be found.

Recently there has been a very interesting, confidential survey. “One out of four workers compromise their beliefs to get ahead on the job. A[n even] higher percentage justify unethical actions on the job for personal advantage.” We by and large, professing Christians included, have taken the view that our work is separate from our faith and live not by what we say believe and the instruction the Lord has given us, but instead by moral relativism that says its okay to cut the corner, you gotta risk it for the biscuit. You may very well find earthly success through moral relativism and people-pleasing, but it should be known that everything you do that is not for the Lord will have NO eternal significance. We see this play out in the next verses from our text this morning. Look at verses 23 and 24.

Colossians 3:23–24 ESV

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

Christian this is one of the main takeaways this morning: No matter your stature in life, no matter your rung on the corporate ladder, no matter if you are giving orders or taking them, no matter if you are just beginning to engage the workforce, no matter if you are retired and starting a new venture different from anything you’ve done in the past, work heartily and do what you for the Lord. Don’t strive for the glory of others, the gathering of riches, the promises of earthly legacy, those things may come or they might not. Do whatever you do for the Lord. Your ultimate service in this life is not your boss, your family, or even yourself, your ultimate service in this life is the Lord. You are serving the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the incredible thing we should understand is that the Lord rewards us for all that we do for Him! This is grace! He owes us nothing yet we are assured of heavenly blessing for the ways that we serve God now! If we spent every waking second of our lives in complete service to the Lord we would still not be deserving of reward because we SHOULD be serving God. His the great authority over all the earth. Working for the Lord is the what is right, its what we should be doing! And even still, all throughout Scripture we are shown that God is going to reward us! This is exciting! Know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward!

Christian, you should be motivated to give God glory in everything that you do and you should look forward to the reward He has for you! John Bunyan, the author of the Pilgrim’s Progress wrote, “Whatever you do for Him, if done according to the Word, is laid up for you as treasure in chests and coffers, to be brought out to be rewarded before both men and angels, to you eternal comfort.”

Everyone who believes in the name of Jesus Christ as their true Savior and Lord will go on to be with Him in heaven, but at the same time will each receive different rewardings based on how we stewarded His giftings in our lives. And let me say, it is good to desire God’s good gifting. It is not self-centered to look forward to what God has promised you! Reagan Rose points out that some think, “Should we really be obeying just for the sake of reward? Doesn’t Jesus say we should be good for goodness sake? No, that’s Santa Claus. Over and over again the Bible commends those saints who sought to obey God, not in spite of but because of the reward they were seeking.” Abraham had faith, he believed in the promise that God made to him, that was accredited to Abraham as righteousness. He believed God was going to bless him as the father of many nations. Similarly, Moses in Hebrews was said to have given up the lavish life with Pharoah to serve the Lord because he was looking to the REWARD. That’s in Hebrews 11:26. In Ephesians 6, which closely aligns with our text from Colossians in structure, it says “Bondservants, obey your earthly masters…knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord.”

Do you see how this can invigorate your work life? Your boss tells you something to do, you do it cheerfully knowing that your ultimate authority is the Lord! Even when your boss is bearing down on you, remind yourself that your true service is to the Lord. You can still put forth good effort despite the shortcomings of the hire ups because you know that you are serving the Lord in your vocation.

Now, this brings up a couple of interesting caveats. First, If you are truly working for the Lord in what you do, then it must be a profession in which you can serve God in good conscience. If your workplace is built on the foundation of taking advantage of others vices and addictions, I would say it would be very hard to work in such a place for the glory of God no matter how much effort you give the job. Second, you must also understand that the Lord remains the ultimate authority in all things. If your boss is directing you to do something that is violation of your conscience and the Word of God, remember that you serve God and not man. It very well mean you could lose your job if you were to stand up for biblical principles. You can still hold your head high and know that you did your best for the glory of God even if that is not recognized by fallen man.

Those of us who are in a position of authority, we must use it for God’s glory as well. Skip to Chapter 4 verse 1

Colossians 4:1 ESV

Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

The exposition was longer for the bondservants. That is probably because in the time of Roman slavery in many places slaves outnumbered masters 2 to 1. Its also likely that verses 22-25 were longer in detail because of the specific situation of a slave name Onesimus. We’ll have to discuss him on another occasion. But we can recognize for our edification and application today, that most of us have limited authority roles and often worked vocationally as the one receiving orders rather than giving them. No matter which side of the authority spectrum you are, the principles we have discussed are the same. Even if you are on the top floor of the sky scraper, you do not sit above the God of the universe! You have a master in heaven! You have an obligation to serve Him in how you deal with others. You are to treat workers justly and fairly. Everything you do will be counted and rewarded just as it is for the bondservant. “Employers if you truly realize that you must answer to God for the way you conduct yourself with your employees, you will care about what happens to them. You will be concerned that they are paid properly. You will be concerned about their illnesses, their spouses, their children, their education.” This may be a more time consuming way to lead, but it will be more fulfilling, living your life and stewarding your job for the glory of God.

Before we close this morning, you may have noticed that I skipped verse 25 of Colossians 3. I’d like to revisit that now.

Colossians 3:25 ESV

For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.

In the direct context of these verses, this is being directed towards the bondservant. It is saying that while you very well may suffer injustice by the hands of evil men who are your superior, you can have peace in working heartily because God will be their judge. There is no partiality in God. That means there is no prejudice. No one has a leg up with God because of their position in the world. That may not be true for our manmade legal systems but it is true before God, the perfect arbiter of justice. Both the master and the slave will face judgment when their time on earth is no more. It is appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment.

It is a fact that every wrong thing that has any one and every one ever has done or ever will do will be punished. The wrongdoer will be paid back. If you were to reflect upon the times when you cut corners and wronged others to get ahead in this life, this thought should cause you to shudder. All wrong doing will be paid back without partiality.

The truth is that our sin deserves this payback! It is the right destiny for the unrighteous. But God, being so rich in mercy, changed our destiny not by giving up His justice but by transferring our debt, by inflicting the payback owed to all those who would ever believe in Him upon His Son, Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2:4–7 ESV

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

If you have never understood what it is to be saved by grace through faith, would you inquire today? Would you reach out during this hymn of response? Would you find me afterwards? Without Christ we are all on a collision course with a destiny of wrath. But praise be to God He would save any of us. Maybe even you. Respond today. Let’s pray.