Bondservants of Christ

Ephesians 6:5–9 ESV

5 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, 8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. 9 Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.

When is the last time you went to work?

We all have jobs

We have earthly works that we do to make sure we can sustain our lives

We all have earthly Jobs and Job Titles

But when is the last time you went to Heavenly Work?

When is the last time you woke up and made sure you were going to do heavenly work throughout your day?

The Bible commands us to do heavenly work

We must be working for the Kingdom

This is part of a prioritized Kingdom

A people willing to work for that Kingdom

Today we will look at an earthly work and a Heavenly work

While also looking at our Ultimate Boss in all things

Earthly Work

Paul starts off chapter 6 with the call to honor your parents

Then Paul starts into the work ethic of the Christian

Paul’s letter strictly approaches the Christian

Ephesians 6:5–7 ESV

5 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man,

Paul calls us to a higher calling in our work

Paul tells the people at Ephesus to be diligent in their service to their boss

Paul starts by calling us bondservants

Like it or not that is what we are

We are bonded by an agreement to be servants by working for our bosses to receive our pay

we have a duty to uphold in that capacity

some versions translate it to slaves

slaves of Christ not in the torture sense but in a sense of submission to authority

It says to obey your masters with fear and trembling

what a call

especially in a world where we are taught to stand up for ourselves

we are to serve our masters with fear and trembling

there should be a form of respect for our boss

we should understand that they are in authority

With sincerity of heart

We should be sincere in our respect and our work ethic

This calling is all because our lives should reflect our Service to Christ

as we see at the end of verse 5

We are to work for our earthly masters as we work for Christ

as you would Christ

This is hard to do if you are not actively striving to work for Christ which means you are serving Him in these capacities either

We are to be diligent in our labor and respectful in our labor

This is the caution from Paul

Not in the way of eyeservice

do not work just to be seen

Do not work just to look busy

work so that you are doing what your boss or master has asked you to do

If you serve as verse 1 calls you to you will not have the issues of verse 2

Service from a sincere heart will void away any desire to serve to be seen

We are not to be people pleasers

instead we are bondservants of Christ doing the will of God

In our Job who is our ultimate authority?

God as it says in verse 6

rendering your service as if to God and not man!

What a powerful message for our earthly work

We are called to serve our earthly masters as if we are serving our heavenly one

Why?

Because you ARE serving your heavenly one

Heavenly Work

Ephesians 6:5–7 ESV

5 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man,

this passage is directly attesting to earthly work

but the text also gives us a different understanding

the text here points to a Heavenly work as well

We are to be working for God as servants of Christ

We are called to be workers in the field

Luke 10:2 ESV

2 And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

We are called to be laborers for the Lord

This is a work that does not end

This is a work that will last the rest of our earthly lives

We are here to do God’s will in increasing the Kingdom of God

Just as verse 5 says we are to serve

We are to serve as we recognized the King last week

We also need to grasp the importance that we have job to do!

We are not here to serve man

We have a duty to the Father

We are a bondservant of the most high God

We are dutifully inclined to serve His request whenever wherever

Our submission to Christ was submission in all things

We cannot be serving our earthly masters as we would serve Christ if we are not serving Christ outside of this

The thing with service to Christ is there are no office hours

But we do have a list of instruction

We have a command

He says the harvest is plentiful

Paul in 1 Corinthians 3 references that man plants and waters but God does the growing

We have a job issued us by God in service to His Kingdom

You may be here and you may not know what that Job is

Approach the Lord reverently and persistently in prayer

sincerely seeking His will

Maybe you are here and you do know what your job is, remember this you not only have an earthly boss but you have a

Heavenly Boss

As a follower of Christ you are called to be a disciple

That is the Great Commission

We are all called to be disciples who make disciples who make disciples

That is what our boss has commanded us to do

Our individual tasks for the body come through the gifts and talents He has blessed us with

We have a duty to serve our Heavenly boss

To do so with diligence

to do so with sincerity

To do so with humility

To do so with trembling

to do so in fear or reverence of who we serve

Folks we only get to live out the life of freewill once

We only get once chance to do our work for God on earth

It is the best work to do

its also the most challenging work to do

But a good boss does not give more than the servant can handle without His help also

Our God makes us capable to of doing what we can in service to Him

this is where Philippians 4:13 does apply!

Philippians 4:13 ESV

13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Your God has called you to a heavenly task

To a heavenly job of service to His Kingdom

If you do not know where that service is its time to look!

If you are not sincerely serving its time to examine!

If you are not serving YOU SHOULD BE!

This passage gives instruction for earth

But if we apply our heavenly work ethic as commanded by God to our lives

our service to our Heavenly master will be reflected by our service to our earthly masters

This ties back to recognizing the king from last week

We are bondservants to the King which we Recognize

Our Heavenly Boss is also our Creator, All Righteous, Our Savior, OUR KING

Serve Him with Reverence and Understanding!