The Christian at Work

And we’re going to look tonight at Colossians chapter 3, the final verses, and one verse of chapter 4. This is going to be one of the shorter studies in Colossians, but when some of you recall how long some of them have been, that isn’t a great encouragement to you. Nevertheless, Colossians 3. I want us to conclude this section so that in the new year, when we resume our studies, God willing, we’ll be able to pick up the final section at 4:2 and conclude these studies in the realm of freedom and fullness.

Colossians 3:22:

“Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win 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 men, 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 his wrong, and there is no favoritism.

“Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.”[1]

A prayer together:

O Lord Christ, we pray that in these final moments of our worship today, as our hearts are open to your truth, that you will be pleased to take your word and quicken our minds and our receptivity so that as a result of what we share together now, men and women—we as men and women—may be different for your glory. For Christ’s sake we ask it. Amen.

Since the beginning of chapter 3—since the very first verse of chapter 3 and right through into the beginning of chapter 4—Paul has been providing what is a well-balanced description of the normal Christian life. If you want to know what chapter 3 is all about, it is about the normal Christian life. And he has first of all, in the first eight verses, dealt with the Christian and Christ. He then, in verses 9–17, dealt with the Christian and the local church. In verses 18–21, he deals with the Christian and their family. And now, from verse 22 to 4:1, he deals with the Christian and his daily work.

For the individual tonight who is truly a Christian, faith is not something kept in a box by the door. Rather, faith is, for that individual, both the foundation and the framework of their life. And Paul makes it clear that being a Christian transforms personal relationships, so that within the home, the Christian is different—a different dad because he is a Christian, a different mom because she is a Christian, a different child because they know Christ. And so, says Paul, what is true within the secrecy and privacy of our homes must also then display itself in the lack of privacy which we confront in our daily employment.

One of the books which I’m presently reading is this book here by Mark McCormack, What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School—a quite excellent book containing fourteen fascinating chapters. If I have the privilege to meet Mr. McCormack—and I hope that I do—I’m going to graciously suggest to him the possibility for a fifteenth chapter, and I’m going to tell him that the key to chapter 15 lies in Colossians 3:18 to Colossians 4:1. For certainly the principles which are laid down here offer radical input to corporate life in America today, to small business, to industry, to schoolrooms, to factory floors.

For the individual who is truly a Christian, faith is not something kept in a box by the door. Rather, faith is, for that individual, both the foundation and the framework of their life.

Organized religion at the same time, in light of all of this interest, has recently been making its voice heard. First of all, here in America, I’ve been interested to discover the incredible interest given to a letter written by a group of Roman Catholic bishops—quite unbelievable amount of airtime given to it, tremendous interest in the media, all sorts of things, as Roman Catholic bishops have moved into the world of economics and politics, making statements as per their particular views. That is not unique in the United States. In a newspaper that I just received this weekend that came from Great Britain, there is an article right on the front page concerning statements made by the Anglican bishops in Britain, again in the realm of economics and politics. And one man’s reaction to their statement is this, and the quote is right across the head of the paper: “They,” referring to the bishops, “can no more pontificate on economics than the pope could correct Galileo on physics.” And those of you who remember your history at all will understand that the pope did not do a very good job at physics at that juncture in history.

Now, the man is making a very, very good point. Obviously, the Scriptures have things to say concerning every aspect of our lives. But what we find from organized religion is such an approach that cares more about what men say about the Bible than what the Bible says about men and the revolutionary impact of the truth of God’s Word into culture and lifestyle. This kind of “bishop mentality,” if I may refer to it in that way, has produced, on the one hand, the liberation theology which has bedeviled South America and is hitting some African countries, and, on the other hand, the other extreme, has sought to marry theology to extreme right-wing politics. And the Bible does neither, and deliberately so. Some cynic has said that under communism, man exploits his fellow man, whereas under capitalism, the reverse is the case. And as far as I’m concerned, to a great degree, that sums it up, and we are foolish to assume any difference. Now, that opens all kinds of questions which I will evade and move on.

The real challenge that is presented to the church is not to endorse Keynesian economics. It is not to endorse monetarism or some other theory. It is not to embrace a sociopolitical stance. It is to take the revolutionary Word of Christ, the gospel message, and see its quite phenomenal impacts on a culture through individual lives. Organized religion has closed its Bible, no longer believing it to be authentic, and has pontificated on the basis of organized religion. Consequently, the great truths of Christianity concerning the Christian in his workplace have been sidelined, and religion has been ignored once again.

Now, you’ll notice that slaves and masters are mentioned here. More is said to slaves than to masters. One possible explanation is that this was a reflection of the social makeup of the congregations to whom this letter was read—i.e., there were more employees than there were employers; therefore, Paul, knowing that, would say more to the larger group. In light of this, I want us to notice just three things.

The Christian’s Manner at Work

First of all: the Christian’s manner at work.

The specific historical context is clearly to slaves, but the principle applies tonight to all of us who are employees. Just look at the text, and let’s see what it says. Paul, as he lays down these principles, does not encourage revolt, but he demands obedience. It is interesting that the apostle does not challenge the system of his day. The apostle had many opportunities to stand up and shout about all kinds of political wrongs, but you check, and every time Paul landed in jail, every time he was beaten, every time he was threatened with his life, it was because he stuck with one thing. And what was that one thing? The revolutionary impact of the good news of Jesus Christ. He came to Corinth, and he said, “I determined … to know [nothing] among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”[2] Why? Because he knew that the way to change society was to revolutionize the individual. But when religion sacrifices the gospel, then it goes for culture and for society and, as I say, becomes sidelined.

Now, what extent is the obedience? “Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything.” I believe that what he’s saying there is this: if we’re going to be obedient employees, we’re to be obedient in the matters that are not only agreeable and pleasant but also in the matters that are unpleasant and disagreeable. If we might apply it to schoolchildren responding to their teachers, we are to respond in obedience to our teachers not only when they give us papers that we like to do but when they give us papers that we don’t like to do. And in every dimension, there is to be obedience.

Now, some of you are already thinking ahead, and you’re saying, “Well, what if the employer tells us to do something that is clearly contrary to the law of God? What do we do then?” Well, we may have to cease from our employment, and we will certainly, in some contexts, have to make it clear, as Peter and John did, that there comes a point where, when the demands of man run contrary to the demands of God, we must obey God and not men. Paul, however, is dealing not with that specific incident but with a general dimension.

Christian employees are to be obedient employees. They are to be the best employees, and they’re to be the kind of employees who work and work hard—notice the text—not only when the boss is watching, and not only to win his favor, but when he isn’t watching and when there is no possibility of promotion. They are still to be the very best.

You see, par for the course in most jobs—and I had a proper job before I became a pastor, so you know that I can relate to some of this—but par for the course in most jobs and in many schools (and correct me if I’m wrong) is to do only that which is necessary to attract favor or to escape punishment. It is to make the system work for the individual: “How can I get the most by doing the least? How can I slip out here and slip in there, and avoid that and avoid this, and curry favor here and escape punishment there? How may I live in an external framework that looks terrific, has an appearance of obedience and enthusiasm, but underneath conceals ill will and laziness?” The Christian employee, then, is not to be motivated by fear of his boss, but he is to be moved by a sincere heart and a reverence for the Lord.

When you move into verse 23—“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men”—it makes it clear that the Christian employee is not to be a clock-watcher. You know what it is to be a clock-watcher, don’t you? I’ve worked in jobs where as soon as you go in, someone says, “Put the kettle on, and run up there, and see what the big clock on the corridor says—because we set that a little bit fast earlier in the morning in the hope that it might help us as it gets towards lunchtime.” And the whole of your day is all about “How many more minutes is it now till we get our next break?” And if you’ve worked in one of those gangs, as I have, then you realize how hard it is to be distinctive in your lifestyle, what a challenge it is to say, “I refuse to work this way. I want to do my best. If it’s an hour, I’ll work for an hour. If it’s right, I’ll do it; if it’s wrong, I won’t”—so that whether the task is menial or grand, it is to be undertaken in a manner that is wholehearted.

Not like the man who was working on the roadway. He’d been working there for a couple of weeks, and he went to the foreman, and he complained to him that he’d been there for two weeks, and no one had given him a shovel. And the foreman said to him, “Well, what’s wrong with you?” He said, “You’re getting paid, aren’t you?” “Yeah,” he said, “I’m getting paid,” he said. “But that’s not the problem.” He said, “All these other guys over here, they’ve got something to lean on, and I haven’t.”

It’s become a joke. And I don’t know how it is here, but the number of man-hours lost in Great Britain that have only to do with these kind of fiddling of the time and the watching the clock is quite incredible. And the Christian walks out on a Monday morning fresh from church, from the enthusiasm and the joy, and he walks into a lions’ den. And there, there is to be a Christian lifestyle that reveals itself.

Paul makes clear in this verse that the slave may never receive the kind of job satisfaction that he longs for. He may never receive the commendation of management. But he reminds the individual, “You’re doing it for the Lord.” In verse 17 he made that point: “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” So who are you working for, Christian? Ultimately, not your company. You are working for the Lord Jesus. We serve the Lord Christ, and that revolutionizes the way you go to work—or it ought to—and the manner in which you do it.

The Christian’s Motivation at Work

Notice also that the Christian has a different motivation from the people around about him. Whether he’s sweeping a factory floor, running the washing machine, preparing sermons, flying a plane, taking temperatures, selling components for the automotive industry, teaching a group of students, the Christian has to keep this in mind: “We are serving the Lord. We are working for the Lord.”

We serve the Lord Christ, and that ought to revolutionize the way we go to work and the manner in which we do it.

And whenever you find a Christian that doesn’t give their best to their work, I can guarantee you you’ve discovered a Christian who’s forgotten who he’s working for or whom she’s working for. Whenever there is a person whose heart is stirred with the privilege of working for Christ, it makes a difference to the way they sweep up. It makes a difference to the way they stock shelves. It makes a difference to the way they spend time.

The story’s told of a little boy in London many years ago. Procession up the mall towards Buckingham Palace—King Edward the somethingth was coming down the road—and there’s a little boy up a lamppost, and he’s hanging on the lamppost, and he’s looking down on this tremendous procession and, at the center of it all, this beautiful coach, gleaming in the London sunshine. And he’s looking particularly at certain aspects of it, and in his wonder, he falls down the lamppost, and he clumps onto the feet of a bystander. The man brushes himself off and brushes the little boy aside, and he says to him, “What are you doing here? You’re just a nuisance!” The little boy looked up into his eyes, and he said, “Did you see the king’s coach?” The man said, “Of course I saw the king’s coach.” He said, “Did you see the golden lamps on either side?” “Yes, I did.” “Well,” said the wee boy, “I polished those lamps.” You see, when you realize you’re on the king’s business, it makes a difference.

I’ve told you about my ninety-six-year-old friend in Yorkshire, who writes to us frequently. He always had a lovely, gleaming car until he was no longer able to drive, and he gave it away. And his car used to literally shine. And I remember asking him, “Mr. Yates, why is your car so shiny?” He said, “When you drive around on the King’s business, it ought to be shiny.”

Now, I don’t know what he would have done here in Cleveland this past week, to tell you the truth. But certainly the motivation of his heart would have been the same. As he drove to his architectural firm, he drove there ultimately not to serve the chief partner but to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. So every plan he submitted, every drawing he reviewed, he reviewed it as serving the Lord, as working for the Lord—as working for the Lord Jesus Christ.

The motivation is built in, because, says Paul, “you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.” Try and think what that must have meant to a slave—to a slave who got kicked around; to a slave who got paid a pittance, perhaps his food and board; to a slave who was stuck, no possibility of a move. He was in that household, and that was it—a rotten job if ever there was one. And Paul says to him, “When you put your head on the pillow tonight, remember that you have an inheritance. And your inheritance is kept for you. It will never fade away. It will never spoil and never perish.” So you may, tonight, have an empty tummy, but when you see Christ, you will have all and more, for you work for the Lord Jesus.

The Christian’s Transformed Relationship to Employees

That brings us to our final point and moves us right into the first verse of chapter 4, where masters are mentioned.

In verse 25, concerning the wrong that will be repaid, it seems to me only to make sense in relating both ways—i.e., to employer and to employee. For it is a moot question who is the greatest wrongdoer: the slave who holds back his labor or the master who holds back proper reward. It is, in the context, a completely new idea. Verse 1 of chapter 4 was a revolutionary word: “Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair.” Society to that point knew nothing of it at all. They didn’t have to do anything with those slaves. They could chain them, sell them, beat them, flog them, get rid of them, do whatever they like to them. And now Paul says, “You’re a Christian master. Now provide your slaves with what is right and fair.” Why? “Because you know that you also have a Master in heaven, and it is to that Master that we will all one day respond.”

You see, the revolution of this is found in this aspect: that when a slave and a master became Christians, the slave may be the better Christian. The slave may have been a believer for longer. And in the local fellowship, the slave was an elder, and the master was a member of the congregation. And so when they worshipped, suddenly the roles were reversed, and to the slave was given the responsibility of leadership and the exercise of authority. And suddenly, the man who held him in subjection was put in a totally different dimension.

And so, says Paul, “I’m not calling you to revolt. I’m calling you to new principles which will transform your relationships.”

The Horizontal and Vertical

Now, let’s just summarize this: Paul’s primary concern here is not man’s relationship with his fellows but, first of all, man’s relationship with God. And he tackles the issues first on the vertical, believing that that is the key to the horizontal. Do you understand? In other words, that he’s concerned that the individual might be rightly related to God so that individuals then may be rightly related to one another.

And that is why no political or economic system in the world will ever cut it. No matter what it is, it cannot, by its definition. And frankly, some may make a better appearance at it and a better approach than others, and some that we would resist fullest may go better at it than some that we would embrace. And that’s why as believers, we need to lay hold on what the revolutionary principles of the Word of God say. And Paul says, “Let’s get it right vertically and individually, and then we may look to developing it horizontally.”

Now, that’s very different from the world’s approach. But you see, the church has no right to speak about the kingdom of God without talking about the King. And that’s why I’m tired of all of these religious reports. Because it’s all as if suddenly, Bishop So-and-So was a great economic theorist. It’s all suddenly as if the Bible was written as a political textbook (it wasn’t), as if the kingdom of God was some kind of radical transformation in that dimension (it isn’t). And you mark my words: to the degree to which you find an alignment in the pulpit with whatever realm of politics, you will find the diminishing in that pulpit of the proclamation of distinctive Christianity. It is inevitably so. History bears it out—and, frankly, the history of the past twelve months bear it out, and they bear it out in this land.

Who is going to preach the gospel, you see? If you turn your ministers into pseudo-politicians and pseudo-economists, who’s going to tell people about Jesus, who died on the cross? Who’s going to fulfill the mandate of discipleship? Who will do it? That is why we’re called to this radical lifestyle.

Finally, Paul’s great concern is with the present rather than with the future. He addressed these letters not to the leaders of society. He addressed the letters to churches—to local churches—to help them with their present problems, to relate to their present ministries. And he wanted Christians to go out into society and to be salt and to be light, to be revolutionized from within, to be as cities set on a hill.

What’s the key that opens the door to all of this? Verse 1 of the chapter: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ…” The choir were singing for us just a moment ago, “I know now who he was.”[3] Do you? Do you? “I know now who he was.” Do you know what it then sang? Lord, God, Savior. And when that Christ comes to rule and reign in a heart of an individual, that individual becomes a new man or a new woman; a new husband, a new wife; a new parent, a new child; a new boss, a new employee. And that’s the way God planned it.

Young people, as we hasten towards the close of this century, if Christ should not return, if you want to be involved in a revolution, then let’s get going, and let’s take these distinctive things and go back to our work tomorrow morning and serve Christ. Pick up that laundry, and take it to your machine, and serve Christ. For he is our Master and the one whom one day we will meet.

Let’s bow in prayer as we commit one another to the care of God tonight:

O Lord our God, we thank you for this evening. We thank you that it is out of your Word that all our truth emerges, all our songs arrive. We thank you for them all. We thank you for the words of Christ that we shared with the children: “Come unto me, all ye that [are weak] and … heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me.”[4] And now, as we look at these principles for our workaday week, some of us have a rough situation to return to. Some of us find it so hard to be distinctive. We pray that we might go yoked to the Lord Christ, serving him, determined not to watch the clock but to wait for your return, so that however menial or however grand our position may appear to be, we’ll have our eyes on that inheritance which cannot fade or spoil, kept in heaven for us. God grant tonight that these principles may become real in our lives.

And now we commit one another to your care as we return to our homes, to the activities that will consume our attention as this new week opens out before us. May the Lord bless us and keep us. May the Lord make his face to shine upon us and be gracious unto us. May the Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon us and give us his peace, tonight, and until our Master returns or calls us into his presence, and then forevermore. Amen.

[1] Colossians 3:22–4:1 (NIV 1978). Scripture quotations in this transcript are from the 1978 edition of the NIV unless otherwise indicated.

[2] 1 Corinthians 2:2 (KJV).

[3] Ray Hildebrand, “I Know Now Who He Was” (1976).

[4] Matthew 11:28–29 (KJV).