The son grimaced. This was supposed to be his day off. “Dad, I’ve got plans. I can’t go out and work today.”
“Son, I’m depending on you.”
“This stinks,” the son replied as he stormed out of the room. He calmed down some as he walked through the house, and by the time he was outside he’d steeled himself for the work that lay before him in the field.
About the same time the man’s other son walked in on him. “Son, I need you to go out and work in the field today. I’ve had a change of plans.”
“No problem, Dad. I’ll get right out there.”
The father smiled as he watched the second son leave the room. The boy walked down the hallway and into his bedroom where he went back to bed. Now which of these sons did the will of his father?
WANTED: A major corporation is seeking a worker who is blameless and who does what is right. We are looking for an employee who speaks the truth from his heart. Someone who doesn’t slander or slur his fellow worker. Despising those who are evil is acceptable. Working well with those who fear the Lord is a must. This employee must keep his word even when it hurts. He who does these things will never be fired. (based on Psalm 15:1-5)
What if employers used God’s Word as the standard by which they hired employees? Would you have been given the job you now have? If your annual performance and promotions were based on that standard would you quickly rise in the company, or would your non-Christian workmates give you a run for your money?
Your boss might not know what God’s Word says, so your job description probably didn’t sound like the ad above. Most employers don’t look for employees by those standards. God does.
When he says, “Be holy (set apart, spiritually distinguishable) as I am holy.” He didn’t mean just at church. He was thinking specifically of you on your job … and at church … and everywhere else.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters. (Col. 3:23) If we live by this, and if our work is our worship and our work place is a place where the Savior sits and speaks, then we have to live according to God’s standards. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed.... 2 Tim 2:15
Remember, your job is not really about you, right? It’s about bringing glory to God. So, how can we do that? How you can you live a holy life at work, a life that is so spiritually different that the world that people notice?
How about this: Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (Ephesians 4:29-30) There are two directives in this verse: 1) don’t let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, and 2) build others up.
Unwholesome talk could consist of off-colored jokes in the break room, or it could be bashing the boss by the water-cooler. For you to bring glory to God, your words need to be helpful, to encourage, to lift up, to make the life of someone around you better. Help the haters. Encourage the inefficient. Love the losers. Build up the boss.
Yeah, he might really be an idiot, but he’s an idiot that your Savior went to the cross for. Jesus isn’t asking us to be nailed to a tree for our fellow workers, but he does ask us to die to our own pride. Those snide comments that make us feel part of the group or possibly even better about ourselves, they are anything but holy.
The Apostle Paul gave this instruction to workers, and these workers had it tougher than most of us. Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show them that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive. (Titus 2:9-10) If Paul instructs slaves to act toward their masters in this way, how much more should we as free workers support our bosses?
Did you recognize the reason we should treat our bosses this way: so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive? We treat our leaders with respect so that God is made attractive. He is glorified.
The way you act at work reflects directly on God. If you are arrogant and unkind, God’s image is distorted, made ugly to the world. The more you imitate God, the more he is seen in his beauty. You, the worker, were created in the image of the God who speaks life to the world, who gave everything for those that despised him. Imitate him.
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