The Bad Boss

When I was in the Navy, and young, I worked for a man that I liked but I hated to work for. We got along as friends but as a boss he was terrible. What made it so bad was that you never knew what kind of mood he would be in from day to day. One day he would come in to work and everything would be fine. He would be easy to get along with and easy to work for, everyone knew what he expected and everything went pretty well. On his way off the ship he would be friendly and seem normal and then the next morning Dr. Jeckle would be gone an the monster Mr. Hyde would arrive. He would show up angry and in a bad mood and he would immediately start yelling and cussing at everyone he met. He would be awful to work for and nothing ever made him happy, no ones work was good enough and we knew it would last for several days. Then one day he would come back to work and be his Dr. Jeckle again.

For those of you who don’t know the fictional story of Dr. Jeckle he was a scientist who was mild and easy going who invented a potion that would turn him into a raging monster. It would make him bigger and stronger as well as basically evil. When the potion wore off he would return to his normal self but during the effects of the potion he would do terrible things including murder and other crimes.

So here I was working sometimes for DR. Jeckle and sometimes for Mr. Hyde. Because I was also his friend I knew what was going on. He was deeply in love with his wife but she was not in love with him. She was regularly unfaithful and she flaunted it in front of him. Sometimes he would come home from work and she would be in bed with another man, when he confronted her about it she would just say that if he didn’t like it he could get out. He was totally in love with her and completely committed to her but she seemed to see it as a game to see how much he could take. It was awful. I understood why he reacted the way he did but he was still awful to work for.

I have worked for bad bosses before, ones who were angry and explosive but they were that way most of the time, you knew what to expect. When you work for someone like that you learn to stay out of the way and out of his sight so that you can avoid the explosion. If you do interact with him at all you know what to expect, its going to be bad. Knowing what to expect you can brace yourself and do what you can to limit the damage.

The problem with my Jeckel and Hyde boss is that he would ambush you. One day he would go home and everything was fine and the next morning he was evil incarnate. No matter how many times it happened you never quite expected it. You were never prepared, never braced for shock so it hit you harder than it would have if you had expected it. He was the hardest boss I ever worked for.

Now conventional wisdom would tell you that a man like that was one that no one could be expected to follow. People will tell you that if your boss doesn’t respect you then you don’t have to respect him. If your boss treats you that badly you have every right to treat him badly right back. That is what the world says, but what does God say?

1 Peter 2:18–25 NASB95

Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.

That first verse there is just awful. It takes away all of our excuses.

1 Peter 2:18 NASB95

Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.

There is almost nothing in this verse that we like. First of all it tells us to submit. No one likes to submit.

Dictionary. com says:

Submit - To give over or yield to the power and authority of another.

To stop trying to fight or resist something and agree to do or accept it.

Biblestudytools.comm says:

Willingly yield to the authority, guidance, or will of another.

Acting with humility or respect.

Aligning ourselves with God’s order and purpose

It doesn’t imply inequality or slavery, but rather reflects a willingness to follow and obey God’s plan and appointed authorities.

Scripture says to submit to your masters with all respect and not just the ones who do what they ought to do but also to those who are unreasonable.

I have counseled with many a couple where each one stated “When he/she starts doing what they are supposed to do I will start doing what I am supposed to do. Can you guess what happens to a marriage when the husband refused to do what God commands him to do until his wife first does everything God commands wives to do and his wife refuses to do what God commands her to do unless her husband first does everything God commands husbands to do. No one ever takes the first step and the marriage goes right down the tubes.

Even if one of them were to really try to do what is right and fulfill all of their responsibilities do you think they would succeed? Would there still be something left undone at the end of the day, some reason that the other spouse could use as an excuse not to start? If your spouse refused to follow God’s rules for marriage until you did everything perfectly how long would it take you, maybe just a little longer than a lifetime?

But wait..........it gets worse. You might think well if my spouse would make a decent effort I would meet them halfway. If my boss would work with me I would work with him. But even that was not what scripture said.

1 Peter 2:18 NASB95

Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.

Even if the other person is unreasonable you are still to do what you are supposed to do. It doesn’t matter if the other person does what they are supposed to do or not. That’s hard. I don’t particularly like that. I want to be able to say that if the other person doesn’t do their part them I am off the hook for doing my part. That sounds fair doesn’t it? I am not sure if it is fair or not, but it is not biblical. The biblical answer is that we are to do our part even when the other person is unreasonable. When they don’t listen and won’t hear, when you can’t talk to them and they behave in a manner that makes not sense. Even then we are to submit to our boss and to those in authority, even when they are wrong. That seems terrible.

Maybe you have been thinking that this passage is talking about masters and slaves and I am not a slave and I have no master so it’s not talking to me. That seems like a very good out, except for one thing. Peter didn’t stop there.

1 Peter 2:21–24 NASB95

For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

Peter gives us the example of Jesus. Jesus who was crucified by the Romans who were a conquering oppressor of the Jews. He was led to it by the Priests and Pharisees who were not his particular Rabbi or boss or had any special authority over him other than there positions in the community and the church. He was shouted at, cursed, and reviled by the crowd, who had no authority at all. yet the scripture says he did not revile in turn and while suffering he uttered no threat. It says we are to follow that example. That is hard. When someone yells at me I want to yell right back, when someone hates me I want to hate them too, when someone abused me or mistreats me I want to get even. But Jesus says no. I could never do it alone. I could never do it without his example and his help.

My dad punished me pretty hardly at times. I was whipped with a belt, a razor strap, kicked in the but and other things. I hated it. Remembering back I think most of the time I had done something wrong. I deserved to be punished. Maybe dad punished me the way he should and maybe he didn’t but I did deserve to be punished. I spent most of my own kids lives trying not to do what dad did to me. But then I made other mistakes that made my children just as frustrated with me as I was with my dad. I remember promising myself that I would never make the same mistakes my dad did. So I made other mistakes.

When we are punished more severely than we think we deserve we become angry. In fact it is hard not to be angry when we are punished no more than we deserve. But looking in from the outside I can see where someone who is being punished might have deserved it, and maybe even more. There are murderers and rapists in prison who probably deserve even worse than they have received. In fact if we took a poll and looked at each case I imagine that we would have struggle to agree on exactly what punishment was correct and appropriate for each crime. Although we might struggle to agree on how much and how far to punish we would probably all agree that these offenses need to be punished.

But what about ourselves? I imagine that we usually give ourselves the benefit of the doubt and we probably think our punishment is often too severe. We are quick to say I didn’t deserve that. I might have deserved something but not that extreme.

But here is the thing. According to God we are to submit and show respect even when we are clearly being wronged. Scripture givest the example of Jesus who deserved no punishment at all but accepted it with grace and treated those around him respectfully even when they were spitting on him, hitting him, and calling him all sorts of names. If we have to respect people who treat us like that when we don’t deserve it that takes things to a whole new level.

1 Peter 2:20 NASB95

For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.

Do you want to find favor with God, do what is right and then when someone mistreats you for doing the right thing don’t blow up or get mad, endure it and suffer patiently. This finds favor with God. I told you that you wouldn’t like it. I don’t either. In my selfishness I would much rather God had said that if the other fellow doesn’t do what they should then I don’t have to do what I am supposed to do. The problem is that God said the opposite.

When you do right, and suffer wrongly for it, endure your suffering with patience to find favor with God. It ain’t easy, but it is the will of God presented plainly in the scriptures. So will you follow God’s word or not. I will follow God knowing that I could never do it unless God does it through me.

Pray.