A Theology of Work
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Introduction
Introduction
Good morning and welcome to Dishman Baptist Church.
Conservative estimates claim that you will spend 13 years of your life at work. Other estimates that I’ve seen claim that you could spend 1/3 of your life there. And while in some instances this may sound like drudgery - it is significant to note that this has always been a part of the plan that God established as a part of His created order. Within the first five words of the Bible we see work playing a part in what God is orchestrating.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
God created - He went to work. Following the creation account in Genesis 2:2 God rests
On the seventh day God had completed his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.
Just prior to this God established work as the standard order for mankind giving the command in Genesis 1:28
God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”
Be fruitful, subdue the earth - work the beautiful and bountiful creation in which I have placed you. It is interesting don’t you think that God worked six days and rested one - and of course we recognize that in His sovereignty over all of creation that even on that seventh day He was still working to sustain His creation. And if that is the case then why is that statement there - that God rested? It is to establish for us the expectation of work as the norm of life. The fact that God rested carries an eschatological or end of time promise for us that one day we will be able to enter into the rest that the Lord has promised us. But there is also an applicational point of this for the here and now and that is that there is a balance in our lives between work and rest.
As a result of the Fall of Adam and Eve work is now considered to be a bad thing because it is hard. For some their job can seem a drudgery - something they loathe getting out of bed for every day. I can openly confess that there were days when I was in the Navy that I felt that way about my job. And so we seek to establish ideals like a four day work week and to get more time off for more opportunities for rest. In fact rest becomes a goal, a pursuit and in some cases an idol where we will neglect things that need to get done just so we can get some “rest”.
On the other side of this challenge, there are also some for whom work becomes too much of a joy or too consuming of their lives and they can never rest. There’s always the next task, the next goal, the next rung on the ladder for them to climb. Work becomes their obsession, their identity and their idol.
The point is that, just as God demonstrated in Creation, there is a balance and a proportion in our lives where we work and take time to rest. When we try to force that balance to be what we desire it to be rather than what God has established it to be the inevitable result is an idolatrous lifestyle that doesn’t honor God.
Now hear me when I say this that work is not a bad thing - work is a part of God’s original created order and there are many who believe that in the new earth we will still have work responsibilities. But that’s another can of worms for another day. This morning we have a text of Scripture to deal and wrestle with as we try to formulate a theology of work. And just a brief side note - we should understand that theology is not just some high minded, ethereal science that is studied only in the ivory towers of Seminary. Theology is the study of God and then, having an understanding of Him, how that impacts every aspect of our lives. Theology impacts everything we do. Last week we looked at a theology in the home - how God structured the home, the impact of the Fall and what our God-ordained responsibilities are in the home. This week we’re going to shift our focus a bit and develop a theology of work - not of works as in works based salvation, but of work meaning the tasks that we have been given to accomplish every day.
So with all of that preamble in mind, turn in your Bibles with me to Colossians 3:22 and we’ll be reading through to chapter 4:1.
Slaves, obey your human masters in everything. Don’t work only while being watched, as people-pleasers, but work wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord.
Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people,
knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Christ.
For the wrongdoer will be paid back for whatever wrong he has done, and there is no favoritism.
Masters, deal with your slaves justly and fairly, since you know that you too have a Master in heaven.
I immediately have to address an issue that can distract us from the primary and most important lessons we can glean from this text. It is the issue of slavery. And the issue can really play itself out in this text in two ways - each depends on your viewpoint. The first is that clearly Paul must have been in favor of slavery because he doesn’t speak out against it here given the chance. The second is the flip side of that question and it is if Paul was against slavery why did he choose not to speak out in the writing of this letter?
One thing that we should recall and keep in mind as we examine these two questions, is that as this letter is being read, just as was the case with the children, Paul is assuming there will be slaves in the room while this letter is being read which would be, in itself, revolutionary in the way that slaves were treated. They were property, not viewed as people, and so would not have normally been addressed but instead would have been completely ignored. Also, standing right next to Tychicus during the reading of this text was a man by the name of Onesimus who was a runaway slave from Colossae and from a member of this church. We have some of his story in Philemon.
That brings us back to the question of either why didn’t Paul speak up or did he actually support the institution of slavery. And we also need to briefly understand that our concept of slavery - meaning chattel slavery that was practiced in the western nations during the 18th and 19th centuries - is skewed with respect to the institution of slavery in the ancient world. The answer to Paul’s reaction of seeming inaction in regards to this institution is both and.
Did Paul support slavery - No. In fact by addressing slaves directly in this text he is assigning to them a personhood that no one else in society was and so he was undermining a key view of that institution that they were merely objects of no more human value than a piece of furniture. But he also doesn’t seek to change their station or call for some sort of slave revolt to throw off the evils of slavery. The social revolution that was brought about by the new testament and first century church was accomplished through the preaching of the Gospel and that’s what Paul’s goal here is - to tie two other aspects of life as slaves and masters in the case of the first century culture and the employee and employer in the twenty-first century.
So let’s look at the points that Paul brings out and see how they apply to us in our own work contexts. As we examine this text we’re going to see three things - our method of work, our motivation for work and our memory at work. Our method of work, our motivation for work and our memory at work.
Our Method of Work
Our Method of Work
Colossians 3:22; Colossians 3:20; Matthew 6:22
And speaking of work have you seen that guy? You know the one I’m talking about - he’s (or she) is the one at work who shows up every day, does what he’s told with a smile and then goes home. That guy. We can’t stand that guy. He’s always so cheerful, always in such a good mood, always does what he’s told. He’s the guy that gets made fun of in movies - the Ned Flanders character. The problem for us is that that guy is the standard Paul is calling us to in this text.
He says obey your human masters in everything - and with the exception of a few words that he’s changed it is the exact same statement that he made to children back in verse 20.
Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.
Slaves, obey your human masters in everything. Don’t work only while being watched, as people-pleasers, but work wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord.
And in this verse as in the earlier verse addressed to children - everything means everything. We don’t get to choose to be obedient in some tasks because we like or prefer them and then not to perform other tasks because they’re not as cool or we don’t like them. When I was in the Navy we had a few rules that, if you followed them, guaranteed that you would be successful. The first was always show up on time. The second was in a clean uniform and shaved (if that was required of you) and the last was ready to work (basically don’t be feeling the negative effects of whatever you did last night). It is amazing how many people struggle with just those three basic rules.
It reminds me of the inspirational video of a SEAL Admiral delivering the commencement speech at the University of Texas where he said if you want to change the world start off by making your bed. Do this one simple, small task and you start off by accomplishing something every day which leads to more tasks accomplished. If you want to succeed in your workplace - start off with simple obedience to everything you’re asked to do, whether the task is small or large.
Notice here that
Paul doesn’t predicate your obedience on the type of boss that you have.
He doesn’t say if they are a swell person then you should be obedient or anything of the sort. He’s going to get to the reason for our obedience in a moment. Here he simply makes this statement requiring obedience but hidden in it there’s a subtle promise. Do you see it? He says obey your human masters. He’s reminding the slaves that “this too shall pass”, that these are only human masters and that their control over them is only temporary. He’s hinting at what he’s going to say later in the text regarding do all that you do for Christ. This is not a fatalistic “grin and bear it” promise but instead a gentle reminder that really there’s only so much they can do to you and that you have a higher purpose a higher reason for obedience. But we’re not quite there yet - there’s more in the text to address before Paul gets there.
Have Integrity
Paul admonishes the Colossian slaves to not work only while being watched, as people-pleasers.
This is to have integrity in your work.
To do the right thing whether someone is sitting there watching you or is off handling their own tasks. Having integrity at work is also a safety for the worker. Zig Ziglar says it this way “With integrity, you have nothing to fear, since you have nothing to hide. With integrity, you will do the right thing, so you will have no guilt.”
The Bible gives us a great picture of a man who had impeccable integrity in the person of Joseph. Even though the wife of Potiphar was attempting to seduce him, he maintained his integrity and refused to be engaged in that way even though his master was not present. And he went to jail for it - but he could go there guilt free knowing that he had maintained his integrity and God worked it out for the good of so many people. His quote to his brothers that what they had meant for evil God meant for good could easily have included Potiphar’s wife.
When I was in the Navy we had lots of times to call into question a person’s integrity. One that I will never forget was when I was onboard a Guided Missile Cruiser and we were in Charleston, South Carolina to load the ship. When liberty call goes down the crew generally scatters like rats and it was much the same on this night. And since we were in the United States you didn’t have to have a liberty buddy going with you. We had one Sailor who was charged with taking out the trash from the mess decks. This was back in the late 90’s when we still used large paper bags to collect our trash. In his hurry to get off the ship and because he didn’t really want to take the trash out he figured it would be okay to just throw that bag of trash over the side before he walked off the ship. The bag was paper and it would disintegrate and no one would know the difference. The problem for him was that the port had surrounded the ship per standard procedure with an oil boom and so that bag came apart and all that trash just floated there between the ship and the boom. We had to drop our paint punt (a little 12 foot john boat) and he had to paddle around with a broom to pick up all that trash. The really ridiculous thing was that the trash dumpster where he should have put the trash was about 50 feet from where the liberty buses were picking everyone up.
The question for us, as it was for them, is how is your integrity? Do you do the right thing when no one is watching or are you a people-pleaser who only does the right thing when you’re being supervised? Or do you sneak off to check facebook or twitter or instachat or whatever social media site you post on? Do you reason that it’s just a few seconds and then I’ll get back to my work? How often do those seconds turn into something much longer? Any time we’re being distracted from the work that we have contracted to do (and whether you have an official signed contract or are simply getting a paycheck you have contracted with someone to get paid for an expected amount or timeframe of work) we’re compromising out integrity and we’re compromising on something greater than that.
Put Your Heart Into It
Paul begins to transition into our motivation for work by adding one more feature of our method of work. He says that the slaves should be obedient to their human masters, maintaining their integrity by working wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord. Wholeheartedly is rendered or translated in the King James Version as singleness of heart. This same sense is given in Matthew 6:22
“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.
The CSB translates the word as healthy but the King James Version says “if therefore your eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light”. This gives the sense of a singular focus or concentration that is devoted to doggedly pursuing a task until it is completed. It is the way that many of us pour ourselves into hobbies or past times but maybe not so much so at work. We work hard - just maybe not to the extent that this singular focus would call for, going the extra mile necessary to accomplish their tasks well. Paul grounds this requirement in the idea that to serve your human master well is actually an outworking of your fear of the Lord.
This is not the fear that would keep one awake because of strange shadows or things that go bump in the night. Nor is this a fear of something that the Lord would or could do to us as a response to our efforts or lack thereof. This is a fear that denotes complete respect and love. This is the fear that would do all things willingly so that the name of Christ would not be degraded whatsoever when our employers or fellow workers learned that we serve and worship Christ.
Our Motivation for Work
Our Motivation for Work
Colossians 3:23-25; Colossians 3:17;
Do It For the Lord
Paul continues to build on this thought as he drives the point home. He says whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people. He reiterates what he has just written in the section above but also repeats the real thesis verse that really started this whole section of rules of the household off.
And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Here though Paul specifically ties our work to the Lord. How often do we not realize that this is the case. Do you realize that
No matter what profession you are in that you are involved in professional ministry there for the Lord.
There is a quote that is attributed to Martin Luther that describes this “The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays - not because she may sing a Christian hymn as she sweeps but because God loves clean floors. The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.”
This should impact how we go about our business. And it should caution us against certain types of employment. We must be careful in thinking that just because a profession might be legal that it can also be glorifying to God. I wouldn’t suggest that anyone working in the abortion industry is in a job where they can glorify God in the taking of an innocent, God-created life. Nor would I say that anyone could go down to Sprague Avenue and get a job dancing at DejaVu in a God glorifying way. Just because a profession fits in with the American ethic doesn’t necessarily mean that it fits in with God’s ethics. But
If we ultimately do everything that we are doing to serve Him shouldn’t that impact the types of employment that we are willing to take?
Charles Spurgeon would pose the question this way “when the physician told John Calvin that he must cease from working so much or he would die because he had a complication of painful diseases, he replied, “Would you have my Master come and find me loitering?”
Oh, it was well said, Master Calvin! It were well said, too, if we could all say it. What have you done for Christ?”
We should demonstrate the ardor, although hopefully not the constitution, of Robert Murray McCheyne who served as a pastor in Scotland in the 1800s. His ministry spanned a total of seven years and he died at the young age of 30 but during that time he became one of the greatest preachers known in Scotland at the time. His health was never that great but he chose to flame out for God rather than to rust out in old age. In so doing he left us with some great quotes such as “What a man is on his knees before God, that he is, and nothing more” or “My people’s greatest need is my personal holiness.” And one that has great bearing on this point as well as Paul’s next point -
“Set not your hearts on the flowers of this world. They shall fade and die. Prize the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley. He changes not! Live nearer to Christ than to any person on this earth; so that when they are taken, you may have Him to love and lean upon.”
An Inheritance?
Much like he does with the children, Paul ties our service to God with the promise of an inheritance in Heaven. One of the reasons for this is that he may have been attempting to give hope to the slaves in Colossae for whom no inheritance was waiting at the end of their earthly master’s life. Or he could be trying to focus their eyes and ours as well on the ideal that faithful workers will eventually be rewarded.
Right now there are thousands of Sailors around the world who have completed the process of reviewing their records, taking meticulous care to ensure that every thing they’ve ever accomplished is in their record so that when the Chiefs Selection Board convenes early next month they can get selected to the rank of Navy Chief Petty Officer. A key part of that record of their service are the annual evaluations that every Sailor receives. In fact, those evaluations can oftentimes tip the scales for a candidate between selection and non-selection. The trouble with that is that it produces some workers who only work for the eye, for the people-pleasing aspect of ensuring they get a good evaluation. This is the complete opposite of what Paul is contending for in this passage. I always used to tell my Sailors, and this is more in spirit with what Paul is saying here, just do your job and do it well and the rewards you desire will find you - now in Paul’s case he is hinting to the reward of eternal life and the future that we have with Christ not necessarily temporal promotions or raises.
The key phrase of the whole passage is when Paul says that “You serve the Lord Christ.” If you have received Christ as Lord as Paul stated back in Colossians 2:6 then all of your efforts are in service to Him as Lord. This was another tact taken to disparage the false teaching that was plaguing the church in Colossae. If Christ were not Lord, if he were just a man, then He would not be deserving of your efforts or your service any more than any other man. But if He is your Lord - the He can command your service and have a rightful expectation that you would provide what has been commanded of you.
“You serve the Lord Christ.”
Wrong-doing/Favortism
And Paul wraps up this section of talking to the slaves with a tricky little phrase - for the wrongdoers will be paid back for whatever wrong he has done, and there is no favoritism. This is hard to interpret because the wonder is whether Paul is introducing his next statements which are directed at the masters or is continuing his focus on the slaves. I think it may be a matter of both and again. Paul is reminding us that one day all of our efforts will be reviewed and tested and those that will stand will be those which were accomplished for the Lord. Those that aren’t - those that may be considered “wrongdoing” will be burned up in the fire. And those who have nothing to stand on as far as service goes will be paid back nothing for nothing.
It is just as the workers in Jesus parable of the talents. Those who were faithful with much - the ones entrusted with 10 and 5 talents were given a just reward in the end but the one who was not even faithful with a little - his one talent was paid back in kind for the effort that he put in. Nothing for nothing. This is a warning to both workers and supervisors - to slaves and to masters.
Our Memory at Work
Our Memory at Work
Colossians 4:1;
Don’t forget where you came from.
Compared to the words that he wrote to the slaves, Paul’s words to the masters may seem disproportionate. Yet there are still a few principles that we can tease out of this short exhortation. A key one for our modern context is don’t forget where you came from. There are very few people who are simply hired right into leadership in business. Not many kids walk out of college and step right into the role of CEO. All of us have to work our way up the ladder of promotion and leadership - and yet many of us, once we’re on top of the ladder, forget what it was like to be the little guy on the first rung. I frequently saw this in the Navy, and may have been guilty of practicing it on occasion, that once an individual was promoted to Chief we could sometimes forget what it was like to serve in the lower paygrades. This shouldn’t be among Christians.
One key point to recognize is that in Christ, in salvation, in our identity there are no distinctions between master’s and slaves. All of us have fallen short of the glory of God, all of us (on our own) are guilty of sin and none of us are capable of saving ourselves. None of us is of any higher status in Christ than any other. Robert Murray McCheyne said it this way “No one ever came to Christ because they knew themselves to be of the elect. It is quite true that God has of his mere good pleasure elected some to everlasting life, but they never knew it until they came to Christ. Christ nowhere invites the elect to come to Him. The question for you is not, Am I one of the elect? But, Am I one of the human race?” Recognizing this as a fact would demonstrably change the way in which we treat each other.
Just and Fair are mutually exclusive
And one of those ways is to treat each other not simply with justice but also with fairness. We need to make sure that we are treating one another justly or rightly. That we are holding standards and that we are holding people to those standards - that is justice. It is not the skewed concept that our modern world is trying to foist upon the ideal of justice. Remember, under Roman law the slaves had no rights at all. So these words had a strange ring to non-Christians, and to the newly believing master. Also, given the social conditions of the times, this command may have been more difficult to carry out than what was asked of the slaves. To give to slaves what was just would have been a testimony that something was different with their master but also would have subjected him to being ostracized by the society that he lived in. Yet we should seek to be just and to give to our employees what is right in accordance with their efforts or lack thereof.
We should be willing to hold a standard and to hold people accountable to that standard.
There is no justice to setting a standard and then, should people fall short, to simply dismiss their shortfalls and allow them to continue not measuring up.
But we also must be fair. Fairness is a big concept with my kids right now. Everything is unfair to them. For instance Bekah worked the other night and so I had to drop Adelynn off at someone’s home while I took Hayden and Jeremiah to soccer practice. When we picked her up she gleefully told her brothers that she had gotten red jello with whipped cream. This immediate caused calls of unfair to be uttered by the boys. And again I had to explain to them that this wasn’t unfair because they weren’t there and so didn’t have the opportunity to have been given red jello and whipped cream. If they had been there and only Addy had gotten the dessert then that may have been unfair.
What I’m getting at is that we certainly should give all of our employees equal opportunities and make sure that they have the opportunities they need to succeed without showing any favortism.
You serve Christ here too...
And we do this because as I have mentioned the masters in Paul’s day and the supervisors or employers in our day and age all, if they are Christians, serve Christ.
Conclusion
Conclusion
You serve the Lord Christ.
It is all about the Gospel.