June 24 - Colossians 3:23-4:1

June 24 - Colossians 3:23-4:1

“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.”

Paul goes on in these verses to tell us that the work we do is not necessarily for the people we work for, but we are actually serving the Lord through our work. 

How would your work habits change if you knew that every day Jesus Christ would walk into your work space?  You could tell me that your boss looks and acts nothing like Jesus, but Paul really doesn’t care about that and for that matter, neither does Jesus.  In the previous verse, slaves are told to obey their master, no matter what.  And while slavery isn’t an approved social / work situation any longer, our attitude should be the same.

Mom refused to allow us to play the “he started it!” game.  We learned quickly that the one who complained about the other received just as much punishment.

God isn’t looking at your boss’ behavior or attitude, He is watching yours.  Paul calls us to work as if we were working for the Lord.  God will take care of poor co-workers and bad bosses if we’ll just let Him be in charge. 

I love the phrase in Col. 3:25, “there is no favoritism.”  Isn’t that awesome!  Just because we think we’ve done a good job and no one is giving us enough recognition or just because we think we work harder than everyone else in the place – God simply doesn’t care.  He loves us the same as He always has.  He also loves everyone else … just the same.

During the years that “What Would Jesus Do” was so popular, those words really brought home to us the idea that Jesus was walking among us.  It changes how we live in the world when we realize that He is walking with us through our day, sitting beside us as we cry, loving us as we feel like a failure, praying with us, praying for us, hoping that we will continue to be a positive reminder to everyone we come in contact with of His love for the world.