Walk Worthy of Your Calling at Work, Part 1

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. How does the gospel change the way we think about and engage at work? Believers will see their jobs as an extension of ministry and service to the Lord. Pastor Rich examines Ephesians 6, 5-9 to show eight characteristics of a biblical work ethic.

Let's listen in on this message titled, Walk Worthy of Your Calling at Work. I have a duty to do here, verses 5-9 of Ephesians 6, Walk Worthy of Your Calling. Now it's very interesting here that we need to understand that Paul is writing in the context of his day.

So as he begins in verse 5, Bond servants, obey your earthly masters. We don't have much, and now there's slavery today, there's a huge amount of slavery actually, but we need to understand the context in which Paul wrote to the people, his readers in that day. I think John Stott will offer us a very helpful understanding of slavery in the context of that day, because it was different from the slavery that we understand in our American and Western history.

Let me read from John Stott here. Slavery seems to have been universal in the ancient world. A high percentage of the population were slaves.

It has been computed that in the Roman Empire there were 60 million slaves. They constituted the workforce and included not only domestic servants and manual laborers, but educated people as well, like doctors, teachers, and administrators. Some of your slaves were highly educated people. Slaves could be inherited or purchased or acquired in settlement of a bad debt, and prisoners of war commonly became slaves.

Nobody queried or challenged the arrangement. The institution of slavery is a fact of Mediterranean economic life so completely accepted as a part of the labor structure of the time that one cannot correctly speak of the slave quote problem end quote of antiquity. We are not condoning slavery as if it's part of God's design, because it is not, but it was the context of the day. It was how people were employed. And again, many of the slaves, even though a slave, a bondservant is the word that is used here, was considered property.

Yes, there was abuse of property was a thing, and we're going to see that. But as we continue in speaking of this, let's use a couple of biblical examples, okay? Remember Joseph in the Old Testament. What happened to Joseph? He was sold by his brothers. He was sold to Ishmaelites, and they went to Egypt, and then Joseph ended up working for Potiphar, okay? So what role did Joseph have in Potiphar's house?

He was the administrator of Potiphar's estate, and God blessed him, and he prospered. That's this kind of setting, and that was very, very common still in the Roman time. Another example in the New Testament is, if you look at one of the shortest letters of the New Testament, the Book of the Letter of Philemon, Paul is writing to Philemon about Onesimus, who was his servant. Onesimus had run away, been captured. He encountered Paul in prison, and you know, when you encounter Paul in prison, you're a captive audience. Onesimus came to Christ. Paul sent Onesimus back to Philemon, and listen to this.

He instructed Philemon, his son in the faith, he instructed Philemon, accept Onesimus back as what? Your brother. Wow.

Isn't that amazing? So that is the context of the day. Yes, there was abuse. There was abuse because slaves were considered the property of the owner.

So as we will say later on, dehumanization of another person is never according to God's character and God's purpose. But that was the context of the day, and Paul was writing. So you have structures of economic employment.

You have structures of authority and subservience. Paul is writing in the context of that day. Your context and where you find yourself in that context doesn't change the fact that in Christ, you have a calling. In Christ, you have a calling. And so what we read in beginning at chapter six, verse five, that parallels to today's employer-employee relationship. So your calling is what we find in chapters one through three of Ephesians.

So your calling is this. In the context of your world, where you find yourself in your employment, what occupies you through the main part of the day, we are called to be one new people as a radical new community. That is the church.

The grace that God has lavished upon us. There is no difference between rich, poor, slave-free, Gentile Jew. Paul makes it very clear we are all one. We're all one before God.

And so we are called to be one new people as a radical new community. That is the calling of the church because of the grace of God that has been lavished upon us. Now in this context, like what Simon Austin says, he says, both employer and employee have responsibilities to behave in right ways if they belong to Christ. Our behavior in the working environment, our attitude to those who work with us or for us, or those for whom we work, are part and parcel of what it means to be the church.

Listen to that, folks. When we leave this room, we don't cease to be the church. We are the church, and our calling isn't relegated to this time in this place. We are the church if we are in Christ as you are in Christ. Every day, all day long, we are the church and we are called to be that. The reality of spirit-filled submission to the Lord Jesus should be seen in the way we relate to those we meet in our working environment. The new humanity and the picture of the future, which it represents, pervades all areas of our lives. So what we can present this morning, verses 5 through 9, are the characteristics of a biblical work ethic.

It's not an exhaustive list, but it is fairly comprehensive. I could call it the characteristics of a Christ-like work ethic. Now these are not necessarily just things that are found in Scripture. Most of them, I think there's a couple of things that are uniquely biblical and uniquely Christian, but these are things to which we are called.

And Christian, there's a difference here for you and me. We are called to this, and if we are not this at work, we are disobedient. We are not functioning according to our calling.

We are called to walk worthy of our calling at work. Now, before we get into these eight points of a biblical work ethic, there are two bookends. Bookend number one is the recognized order of authority. It's an issue of authority, and it begins with this understanding that every one of us is under authority. Christ even gave that example as He walked on the earth, though He is God equal with God, second person of the triune Godhead. As He walked on this earth, He submitted Himself to the Father's will, and His whole life was about doing the Father's will. So bookend number one is that this is an issue of authority, because we are all under authority.

So now let's consider this. Let's unpack this phrase by phrase as we go through this. Obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart as you would Christ. So number one characteristic of a Christ-like biblical work ethic, number one is eagerness. Eagerness, where it says, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling. Now, He is not condoning the oppressive control of masters over their slaves.

That's not what He's saying by this. When He uses the term fear and trembling, that is generally in Scripture a phrase commonly used for our obedience to God. So, in the work context, the idea is readiness to do one's duty. Readiness to do one's duty. It is a healthy aversion to displease those who are in authority. And eagerness. I want to do this, the company I work for, the person I work for, there is ambition, there is a goal there, there is a product there, there is a service there, and the intent is that it is done well.

And I need to be ready to do that with a healthy aversion to displease those in authority. Industry, listen, industry and productivity are God-ordained. I'm surprised, as my growing up years, how often people can think, Christians can think, that Christianity, faith, really has nothing to do with what you do at work. That's a false dichotomy. That's a split life, right? You've got your secular life, which is your work and all the stuff that you do, and then you've got your spiritual life, which is what you do at church.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. If you are in Christ, you are in Christ at work. Think about that.

So industry and productivity are God-ordained. Pursue it with eagerness. Thankful for the trust that God has given you. So eagerness with fear and trembling.

We're going to have to go through these fairly quickly. But number two, integrity. Integrity. With a sincere heart. With a sincere heart.

Why? For the honor of good work. Part of a biblical work ethic is integrity.

The idea here of sincere heart is singleness of heart, not double-minded, not just showing up for the paycheck or having an outward show, but no interest in the benefit of the employer or the company. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's Word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace weekdays at 10 a.m.