May 17, 2017
Colossians
3:22-25
“Slaves obey your earthly masters
in everything, and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their
favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do,
work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,
since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.
It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for
their wrongs, and there is no favoritism.”
Jesus tells us in John 10:10 that our
adversary, the thief, or devil has a plan for your life, and it is a long-term
goal, to do these things, kill, steal and destroy. Now I want to
illustrate how he is setting you up as a child to bring about his plan of
messing up your life by using non-compliance to obeying your parents. The
old snake may have set you up with parents that just wanted to be your buddy; a
child needs parents, not buddies, often buddies are not there to guide you in
life.
So one who enters the workplace without the
discipline of obedience will be shocked to find that the boss was not making a
suggestion but a command. He requires you to perform in keeping with his
desires, and anything short of that will not bring blessing but curses.
I'm sure each of us living in the West will understand we have the freedom,
most of the time, to quit one job and look for another. A slave did not
have that option, so change slave to an employee.
Employees work as unto the Lord, but once
more we have the discipline of obedience, and if you have not learned to obey
your parents will you obey the Lord? Or will you be like so many
employees, when the boss is away the children will play. In sales, I
found many very skilled and talented people who had never been disciplined in
obedience, and it always came back to haunt them.
My dad taught me a job worth doing, is worth
doing right the first time, and all that we do should be to honor the
Lord. When I was in the early stage of my career, it was about doing a
good job, making more money, and earning my bosses approval. But as I
grew up in my understanding of my relationship with Jesus, it became clear that
He was the source of all my skills, gifts, and talents, and it was He that I
was to please.
Will you have bosses that are not fair? Sure you will, and sometime you may not get
the job and someone who is not as qualified gets it, that’s a guarantee.
And sometimes you will work for someone who is very insecure and they will try
to harm you or even fire you. You need to go back to this verse, “Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and
there is no favoritism.” Someone told me, or maybe it was in a
sermon, to take all your troubles and trials to the Lord and leave them there,
and Jesus said to pray for your enemies, the boss could fall into that slot.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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