205 - Employee of the Month!

You pick up your Bible and wonder, is there more here than meets the eye?

Is there anything here for me? I mean, it's just words printed on paper, right? Well, it may look like just print on a page, but it's more than ink.

Join us for the next half hour as we explore God's Word together, as we learn how to explore it on our own, as we ask God to meet us there in its pages. Welcome to More Than Ink. Hey, have you ever had a job that you felt so unappreciated in that you felt like slave labor? Or that it was meaningless. One time I had a job of cleaning 24 toilets morning and again at night.

That was meaningless labor. I do remember that. Well, Paul says there's a great opportunity in these kinds of jobs for the gospel, and we're going to see that today in Colossians on More Than Ink. Well, welcome and good morning. This is More Than Ink, and I'm Dorothy. And I'm Jim. And I'm sitting across the table from my husband of many years. This summer will be our 48th anniversary. And last week we were talking from Colossians 3 about wives submitting and husbands loving.

And that marital relationship being a model of what God wants the world to see about relationship with himself. So are you going to add something now you forgot to say last time? No. I'm just kidding.

Why could you ask me that? I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.

No, I'm just kidding. But it was a great discussion, and we could have gone on them so much longer. Well, maybe we'll devote an entire conversation to marriage at some point, because the scripture has so much to say, and there are a handful of excellent passages that speak very specifically to marriage that are just so, so helpful. Very helpful. Many times misinterpreted unless you slow down and look at them carefully. But just really, I mean, it's very counter-cultural for today.

It really is. We're going into something today, and we're still in chapter 3, and we're going into verse 22, and we're going to talk about what in the ESV calls bond servants or slaves. Or for the general application of this to ourselves, you might think of employer and employees. Right, someone who's bound to another. Right. So this is someone who works to please the will of another person. So if you're an employee, and almost all of us are, this is your category right here, is how do you work in such a way that you're not there to please yourself. You're there to please the interest and the objectives of another person.

Right. So that's where we are right here. And by the way, I'll remind you in case you don't know, back in the day, if you had a debt to somebody, many times you paid that debt back by willingly working for them for a period of time until you worked off that debt. So if you were indebted to someone because you accidentally set their house on fire or something like that, you'd say, look, next season I'll work planting your crops with you. I'll turn the field with you.

I'll work for your fields to work well, not just mine. And while this term is translated here, bond servants, it is the Greek word doulos, which is one who's in a permanent relationship of service. Right. They are bound to another person to serve them.

Yep, yep. So regardless of the issue about whether they're well treated from their master, what's your responsibility as the one who's working for someone else's interests? And that's what we look at today. So if you're joining with us and you're reading, we're in chapter three of Colossians, and we're starting in verse 22 where Paul gets very specific about what it is the deity of Christ has impact on how we work for other people.

Okay. So he says in verse 22, bond servants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.

You are serving the Lord Christ, for the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. Whoa. That's actually more words on the page that he says to bond servants than either to husbands or wives or children in this context. Isn't that interesting? I noted that too. It's very interesting.

I noted that too. But you know there might be a reason for this. Well, I was just thinking that. Go ahead.

You go first. And we won't get this for a couple of weeks, but in Paul's closing comments about the people that are with him in jail, one of them is a slave, Onesimus. So it could be that this is the result of some long discussions with Onesimus, who seemingly from the story has run away from his master, who's decided not to obey in everything. And so maybe that's why this is here.

Did you have another reason? Well, I was thinking that one of the overriding pictures, especially in the New Testament, is that we believers are bond servants of Christ. So we belong to him and we exist to serve his purposes, not our own. And each of these relationships that we talk about exemplify that in a different way.

Our relationship with God is so multifaceted that no single human relationship can encompass it all. So Paul has already dealt with husbands and wives and children, but now he's looking at this other kind of relationship that's simply one that's totally bound up in service. Yeah, and the core of it is the fact that you are not serving yourself anymore. You're serving someone else. But you are serving. But you are serving. The core of your existence is serving. And your point in life is to please the objectives of another person, not yourself. So it's interesting that he says obey in everything.

Right. He had told children to obey in this same way, which means just do it. Just do it.

Just do it. Which is not the same word he had used when he was talking to wives. That's right. Be in subjection. Be in order.

Do things in an orderly manner according to your husband as your head. So this is obey. Do what they tell you because you belong to them.

But what if you work at like a McDonald's and your supervisor is an idiot? Well, you still obey. You still obey.

Everything. Because you still are their servant. Right. And you're there to serve their objectives and not your own. Which is to sell hamburgers if you're at McDonald's. Yeah, exactly. And to treat the customers in a way that makes them want to come back and eat more hamburgers.

No, that's exactly right. But in that particular case, it's not wrong for you to go to your supervisor and say, you know what? I can serve this restaurant better if I do such and such.

Would that be okay with you? Because what you're doing is you're saying, I think I might have a good idea that accomplishes your goal. That accomplishes your goal. Right. I remember when our son went off to his first job at Wendy's. I remember this. And I remember driving him to his first Wendy's job. He had his uniform on.

We're going down the street. And I told him, hey, I can tell you the simple things it takes to be an exemplary employee. And I mean, it's really simple. It's like show up on time when you say maybe a little earlier. Do what they ask you to do. Do everything they ask you to do. And if you find any spare time, do something that will help your supervisor's objectives by finding things to do that he'll approve of.

I mean, look for extra things to do that you know he'll look at and say, well, good for you. I didn't think about that. So this is the kind of thing that even in that case where you say, I think I've got a good idea. It is serving your objectives. You're still being obeying them. You're still being submitting to them because it's not about you anymore.

It's still about them. But you can be a little vocal about that. Okay.

But Paul says this isn't just about your relationship with your boss. Right. Right. Do this with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Exactly. Right. Understanding the proper relationship with God who has placed you as a servant.

So he says, not by way of eye service, right? So make sure you look good doing it. As people pleasers, right?

Make sure, say what everybody wants to hear in order to make them happy. And we've known people like that. We all know people like that. Yeah.

I was like that. So, yeah. But with sincerity of heart, right, truthfulness in your heart, integrity, right, who you really are, fearing the Lord, right? Because God is in view. Yeah.

Yeah. And I like the phrase, with sincerity of heart. I mean, you're not trying to deceive your boss by saying, I'll look like I'm working when I'm not really working. I'll look like I'm obeying him when I'm not really obeying. I mean, and if you're an employee, you know how you can cut those corners.

You know how you can look like you're a good employee without being a good employee because you're not being as productive as you could be. Well, you know, if Jesus was in your shoes, he wouldn't be cutting corners and deceiving his boss. He'd be in there both shoulders of the wheel and just getting it done because that's important because service is service. And you see Jesus praying before the cross, not my will but yours be done. This is exactly what a servant prays. Well, he said, I didn't come to be served but to serve.

But to serve. And so, if fearing the Lord in your job or as an employee or stuff like that, it's all about being a walking model of the God who came and served us by dying for us. By putting aside his will and saying, I'm doing this for the good of those whom I love.

And this is what you do right here. You exemplify and you put into real human actions a character about God's nature that maybe would never be seen if you weren't doing it. So you know, Paul says, do this in the fear of the Lord. Whatever you do in verse 23, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men.

Well, now that hearkens back to verse 17 that he had said just a little while ago, whatever you do in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. Well, can you serve up hamburgers at McDonald's in the name of Jesus? Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. You can when you do it with God in view, with a proper relationship with God, as if you were serving the Lord. Yep.

Not just people. That your boss is not your boss. And he says, knowing that from the Lord, you'll receive the inheritance as your reward. This isn't just about your paycheck.

Exactly. And you know, we almost all routinely are riled by employees that come and say, I'm just here for the pay. I'm just here for the pay.

I'm just here. I'm just here for me, you know, and an employer and I was an employer at one time, an employer loves an employee who says, I'm here to serve what you need to be done. So whatever that is, tell me what that is and I'll even be more creative to tell you more that I could do for you. That is the heart of serving. That's what a servant is because a servant is there to fulfill the objectives of the person you're serving, the best for them, what they want. And it's again, this refrain comes back over and it's not about you.

It's not about you. It's about serving them. And since God himself is a servant to us as mankind through Christ, this should be a characteristic of us. To be so self-centered that you say that all you're there for is the pay is not to glorify God at all.

It's just totally self-consumed and there's nothing in Christian thought that is about self-consumption. But knowing that the Lord will reward us with the inheritance he's promised, right? The inheritance of being in his presence with Christ eternally.

Yeah. And that's a fascinating irony because slaves at the time don't inherit a thing. They don't inherit a thing. So what he's saying here is that you need to do it and you will receive an inheritance.

And of course he's talking about an age to come, but it is just an extraordinary play on words. You servants who realize that you have no part in the inheritance of this master you're working for. His children do, but you don't. But look, God sees what you're doing.

He has an inheritance in store for you. And beyond that, he says, you are serving the Lord Christ in your service. If it's just a dish and hamburgers to stay in our McDonald's idea, how is that serving Christ?

Well, as I am serving with sincerity of heart and with integrity and with thoroughness and doing a job well done, I am speaking to the world about the nature and the character of God. Yep. Yep. And that's the real thing in our culture today. You don't see people who are this others oriented, especially when it comes to employment.

Gee, no, everyone's in it for themselves when it comes to employment. So to have someone who says, I'm here to serve you and see that what you need to be done is done. That is just an extraordinary thing.

You'll stand out as a person in our culture and people will ask, what's with this guy? Yeah. Why do you serve so faithfully?

What is so different? Yeah. Well, because we've been changed by God himself because we have been impressed with the servanthood of Jesus himself. And so we serve as well.

And he's made me a servant and I'm serving him. Yeah. You know, I remember one of the real landmark verses in the Gospels is when Jesus confronts the apostles after they ask, you know, can I be on your left and on your right? Right.

And you can find it in Mark 10. They were constantly arguing about who was the greatest. Exactly. And you know, and he takes him to task and says, look, you know that the Gentiles, they lord it over each other. They actually exercise their authority in an abusive way over each other. They say, look, I'm in charge. But he says to them, looking in the eyes, but it shall not be this way with you guys.

You shall not be this way. And then he goes on in a very tender way to say, look, I'm the Messiah and I didn't come to be served. I came to serve. And so if you guys are following in my footsteps as my disciples, you need to go out and serve.

And that will testify to the God who came and died on your behalf. Yeah. So he was very firm with him.

I really liked the firmness. You can find it in Mark 10. It's just a great example even here. And that was in the context of him washing their feet in the upper room.

Well, that's what I was just thinking. That's in John 13. When he, after he washes their feet, he says, look, if I, your Lord and Master have served you this way, then you also ought to serve one another and you will be blessed if you do it. So we very seldom, we very seldom think of our lives as glorifying God when we think about just serving people well. I mean, we know that we're supposed to do some, but I mean, especially in the context of employment, we never think that that would in any way, shape or form glorify who God is. It does, he's saying right here.

It does. And in fact, you're not working for yourself. You're working for God himself. It's a fascinating thing that we just never connect together, but yes, you can work at McDonald's and flip burgers and glorify God in the process of how you do that. You can even work for not pay.

That's true. And glorify God. And I'm thinking of this, that we, our little church has learned servanthood in a lovely way over the years as we serve in our building at a local festival for Peach Days where we give free water. We give free popcorn, but we're all day long cleaning up messes and making sure people know where the restroom is and helping women who need to nurse babies find a quiet place to do that. I mean, it is a practical service that our little church body has learned and they enjoy it. There is a joy in it. There's no pay. Matter of fact, it costs us to do that. And we're exhausted.

It costs us energy too. But it doesn't go unnoticed in the community, which is why we do it. So that's just, that's a fascinating thing. You may not be an evangelist, but you are based on how you work with your employer.

It's an amazing thing. And how you serve. And how you serve in any context. So after talking about your serving Lord Christ, Paul goes on to kind of give us the other side of that coin. He says in verse 25, for the wrongdoer, in other words, the one who doesn't serve well or who serves for his own purposes. The bad employee. The wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done. And there is no partiality.

This is interesting. So is he saying actually that if you're a bad employee, it'll come back on your head? Well because if you are a bad servant, what are you saying about the one you claim as Lord and master? Right, right. You claim the name of Jesus and yet are a bad servant, that is wrongdoing.

You are misrepresenting the God you claim to serve. Right. Yeah, that's exactly right. And he's also introducing as he gets to it, as we turn in chapter four, that God sees both sides of this. He sees the master and the slave. Right. There's no partiality. There's no partiality. And so for you slaves, don't think that your masters have any kind of edge in terms of righteousness from God's perspective. They can be bad masters and oh, by the way, you can be bad servants. And both of them, the core of both of those attitudes is selfishness.

Right. It's all about me. It's all about me.

It's just all about me. I remember when I was working at HP, I had a dozen guys working for me at one time. And I remember the first day that I stood in a meeting in front of them when I became their new boss. And I said, look, my objective here is twofold. Number one is that the objectives of this company get satisfied with us as a team.

Number one, that's just very important. We exist for a purpose. I'm going to make sure we hit that purpose. But I said, secondly, my second objective is that I'm here to make you successful in your part of that job. I'm here to make sure that you do the best you've ever done before and you're going to love doing it.

I'm here to see that your successes. And I think they all looked at me like, wow, this guy's crazy. Because we are in a very demanding service oriented group. We serve the other people in that division in a very critical computer way. And so I think they just didn't know what I was talking about. But those are my twofold aims.

The objective's important. And they need to figure out how to fit in. I'm going to be the guy to help them fit in. And when I left that group, we had a going away lunch. And one of the guys really, really tearfully said, my working with you these many years has been like working in Camelot.

It's been so magical. And he says, and you have done exactly what you promised. You made me effective in what I did. And I felt like I was worth something to the company because of that. But I mean, that's just that's the way it works. So you can be a good boss and a bad boss. You can be a good servant and a bad servant.

It's all about selfishness. And that's just the key on both of these. Because God sees both, right? That's the point of there being no partiality. We read this passage last week from Galatians three, but it's probably worth reading again.

That's true. So Paul says, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ, all of you, verse 28 in Galatians three, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither slave nor free man, there's neither male nor female, for you're all one in Christ. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring heirs according to promise. Right? And God looks at all of us on the basis of our faith in Christ, doesn't matter who we are, slave, master, Jew, Greek.

Neither one of them has an advantage or the other. And so it's an interesting study to look up the word partiality in your concordance, because there's some very pithy things that are said in Romans and in James about God showing no partiality. Yeah.

Yeah. So it's not a favoritist. So if you know, we have a pecking order in our lives on earth, and you have people look like they're more important than other people, but from God's perspective, it's just not the case. It's all about faith in Christ.

It's all about faith in Christ. And that's why we say that God is no respecter of persons. Right. That's literally what this means.

Yeah. He doesn't care if you're a CEO of a company or if you work cleaning toilets during peach days. I mean, he really doesn't care what that status is, but he does care about your heart and whether you're so self-consumed with yourself. That's a big deal.

It contaminates every relationship, not just employers, employees, and slaves and match, but everything you can do them well, if you're not self-consumed in the process. So then he turns his attention to masters, slave owners, the ones in charge in the first verse of chapter four, masters, earthly masters, treat your bond servants, justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a master in heaven. Wow.

That's so great. How did God get your attention if you are a slave owner or a master? Masters treat your bond servants justly and fairly. Now he doesn't just say kindly. No, he doesn't. In fact, it's interesting the words that he uses here.

Yes. Because I would use other things. I would say, you know, thoughtfully and I don't know. Treat them sensitively. Sensitively and you know, don't trigger them, but he says justly and fairly.

So what's he getting at that that's probably the chief error that masters go into that he's saying you need to, in the opposite sense, be just and fair. Do what's right. Do what's right. Yeah. Right. Treat them rightly.

Treat them according to righteousness, which is according to God's standard of right behavior. Yeah. Yeah.

Right. So that's justly, but treat them fairly. That speaks to their equality. Their equality. Their equality with you as a human being, their value and worth and equity among them. Don't you show favoritism to the tall ones or the short ones or the fat ones or the skinny ones or whatever, whatever basis you judge your servants on. Because it's a, it's a common illness of employers or masters that they think that because of their positional difference from their employees, that not only are they better than them, right, but then they also look at employees in that same kind of way. This one's a better employee than that one is. These are just my tools.

I can throw them away and get some more. Exactly. Just not right. It also, they, they place themselves in a position unwittingly of being judges of the people that work for them. And so when you see just and fair, I would, I would expect these two words to be applied to a judge, not to a master, but to a judge. So judges, when you have people come into your court, you need to treat with all these people who are accused justly and fairly. Well, in a real sense, masters are in, in this, are in this position of being judges over the people who work for them because they're going to judge whether or not that person is really contributing to his interests, to his objectives. So they do judge.

I mean, that's just part of what they do. We, but the word judge in English, we only have one word, but there's a lot of shades of meaning to it, right? And we, in the term judgment means you render a verdict and seal somebody's fate. We're talking about a justice that discerns, that understands what is right. The true nature of the thing. Yeah.

Yeah. And that's the way in which masters can be in a general sense, kind. If they look at the reality of things going on, I mean, many times I've, I saw employers who were just, who jumped at wrong conclusions about what someone was doing because they just didn't understand. They weren't really being fair in, in that sense. So they're there, they're there to assess the level of contribution. And so many times they can do that poorly.

And that's what I'm talking about. When I talk about judge, many, many people who serve other people feel like they, they're not really understood. So what he's appealing here to masters is you need to really understand the hearts of the people who are doing what's going on. You need to be fair about what they are doing or what they aren't doing. Don't jump to conclusions, don't, don't discourage them by being overreacting in those situations.

You need to be just, you need to find out what's going on. Because God is. Exactly. And in this relationship, in the model, in this relationship is between slaves, ones who are sold out for the will of another. So we are that to Christ and masters, the ones who are in charge of the slaves are really literally who own them as a representation of God who owns us, all the earth belongs to the Lord. We are his creatures, right? So you as a master, remember you have a master in heaven and he is just and fair. He always does what's right.

What a chilling statement at the end of this. You masters, you think of yourself so big and high and mighty. Don't forget, you have a master yourself and you will be held accountable because don't forget the last verse of chapter three, there is no partiality with God. He doesn't care whether you're a master or a slave.

He cares about how you treat other people with respect and with dignity and with love, even if they work for you. Because he does. Exactly.

Yeah, that's exactly right. Well, before we finish, I'll just bring up one, one quick topic here. It's interesting here that when we talk about masters and slaves, that Paul doesn't put down slavery. No, he doesn't.

A lot of people are disturbed by that. Why didn't Paul come out and say, slavery is wrong? Why didn't he do that? And I'll just mention, again in passing since we're short on time, is that slavery was a universal aspect of every culture in the world at the time. So Paul wasn't out necessarily to transform the culture of slavery, but he was out to see that hearts were transformed that were following Jesus and that was a much bigger issue here. You can have bad masters and you can have bad slaves, both sides.

It's not just one side that can be an heir. So he's addressing that, the realization of that. But it is interesting that historically people who have been pro-slavery, even in our country, used to quote these passages as being Paul saying, slavery is good. He's not saying that. No, in another place he says, if you can obtain your freedom, avail yourself of that. Exactly, exactly. And so I just wanted to say that in passing, because this is not a passage where Paul's saying slavery is good. No. He's just saying, this is what goes on.

No matter which one you are, do it as unto the Lord Jesus. Exactly. And that's what transforms that institution. Well, we are running short on time and when we come back, we're going to continue on what is Paul's closing comments to the book. He has such a great thing that he goes into next time as we continue in chapter four.

And just his last instructions about what he wants us to do and be in Christ. So I'm Jim. And I'm Dorothy. We'll see you next time here on More Than Ink. Would you really? I will. Okay. Well, there we go. This has been a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City.