Redeeming Work, Part IV

At work, we all have good days and bad days. On the good days, you’re productive, and you’re energized by your work. You go home feeling great.

On the bad days, it takes you (at minimum) a couple of hours to get focused and convince yourself that you should get something done today. But you’re not very productive, and you’re definitely not energized by your work. You fulfill your duties and responsibilities, but just enough to get by.

So there is this tension between how we actually work and how we ought to work. We know how we ought to work, but this knowledge just doesn’t seem to be motivating us. How we actually work seems to be more like the flip of a coin: maybe we’ll have a good day, maybe not. What does the Bible have to say about all of this?

In Colossians 3:22-25, Paul writes to some slaves who were serving in households set in a first-century Greco-Roman world. They were powerless to change their status in life. Yet they were also essential to the household, and the household was seen as essential to society. In light of all this, how ought they to work for their masters?

In v. 22a, we see that the slaves were tempted to do the same thing that we do on our bad days: just enough to get by. The natural work ethic was to work hard only when their master was looking, or to win his favor.

Over against this natural work ethic, Paul issues a call to seamless living, to a life where one’s actions and attitudes are in alignment. In v. 22b, Paul instructs the Christian slaves in Colosse to work for their earthly masters “with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.” This is a call to be the same person when the master is watching as when he is not.

Godliness in the workplace is a call to seamless living. But you cannot expect to cultivate godliness in one area of your life (work) when it is absent from other areas of your life. Therefore, we must submit to the Holy Spirit’s work in sanctifying our whole person.

In v. 23, Paul goes on to say that we should do our work wholeheartedly, as unto the Lord and not unto men. Sometimes we are tempted to work as unto our boss or our co-workers or ourselves or Mammon (the personification of greed).

But consider this: if we do not work as unto the Lord, it is only because we do not see him as a worthy Master. So ask yourself: do you view Jesus as a worthy Master?

Godliness in the workplace is a call to seamless living. And why ought we to live a seamless life? Because we have one Lord (Jesus) who is Master over all of life.

In v. 24, Paul points to eternal rewards as evidence of (and motivation for) our sanctification. To be “holy” or “sanctified” means to be (1) set apart, (2) whole or complete, and (3) ordered according to God’s design. The work of the Holy Spirit is to make us whole. Only as we submit to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives can we live our lives as unto one Master, the Lord Jesus.

Godliness in the workplace is a call to seamless living, to a life lived without the seams between work/play, public/private, sacred/secular, and all the other categories that we make up.

Imagine if we began to live this way. Imagine if we each began to submit more fully to the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, leading us to live more integral lives. What would this look like?

Download mp3