When Christ is Your Boss

Well, Jesus is our Savior and He did all of that because He loved us. Well, it'll be eternally grateful to Him for the love that He demonstrated when He died for us on the cross. But you know, Jesus is not only our Savior, He is also our Lord, He's our friend, and believe it or not, He's your boss, too. That's what we're going to talk about tonight. Colossians chapter 3 beginning in verse 22, Colossians 3, verse 22, when Christ is your boss. Let's read the verses together beginning in chapter 3, verse 22, continuing through chapter 4 and verse 1. Slaves obey your masters, 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. You know that you also have a master in heaven. Now obviously Paul is addressing masters and slaves. Slavery was very common in the Roman Empire when Paul wrote this letter. In fact, it is estimated by historians that over one half of the Roman Empire consisted of slaves. There were more slaves than there were Freemann. And so slavery was a huge issue in the Roman Empire. And because of that, many of the early believers, many early Christians were also slaves. That may have been what Paul referred to in the first Corinthians chapter 1, when he said not many noble, not many mightier called, you know your background. He said God has chosen the weak things of the world, the despicable things, the despised things he says of this world to confound the mighty. So Paul may have been referring to the fact that in the Corinthian church there were a number of slaves who had come to know Christ as their savior. I think there is another reason why Paul may have addressed this in the Colossian letter. One of the people who helped to carry this letter to Colossi was a man named Onesimus. If you look at chapter 4 and verse 7, Paul says, Ticacus will tell you all the news about me. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister, and fell a servant in the Lord. I am sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts. He is coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother who is one of you. They will tell you everything that is happening here. Paul was in prison when he wrote this letter. And Onesimus, if you are familiar with your New Testament, is the man referred to in the little letter to Philemon. Onesimus was the slave that had evidently stolen some money from his master Philemon and high-tailed it out of town. He had decided he would probably go to the big city where he could kind of lose himself in the crowd of people. Something must have happened. He must have ended up in jail and ended up connecting with the Apostle Paul where Paul won him to Christ and is now sending him back to his master with this letter to Philemon, his master asking Philemon to forgive him and accepting back as a brother. Now, this master slave work relationship is very important to the Colossian church because Paul says Onesimus was from Colossi, evidently Philemon and Onesimus lived in the little town of Colossi. And these two people carried the letter to an individual Philemon and a letter to their church, the letter to the Colossians. They also probably carried the letter to Ephesians, the Ephesian church, the same time. Paul wrote all three letters at about the same time. So slavery is not only a huge issue in the Roman Empire, it is a very personal issue in the church in Colossi, particularly with one of the men who's helping to carry this letter and deliver it to the church in Colossi. They have a huge issue to address and that is, okay, what is the relationship between masters and slaves? Now, it's interesting that in all of Paul's dealings with this issue and his letters, he never tries to overthrow the social structures of his day. That does not mean that Paul agreed with slavery. It's just that slavery was so built into the Roman Empire that to try to overthrow slavery would have been really to lead a revolt against the Roman Empire. And that's not what Paul was interested in doing, that's not what we should be interested in doing as Christians. So Paul did not address the slavery issue in that way, he did, however, address it in such a way as to offset the injustices of slavery. And so when Paul dealt with slavery in his epistles, he talked to slaves about how they ought to relate to their masters and masters about how they ought to relate to their slaves in such a way that if both followed his prescriptions, then the offense of slavery would in essence be done away with, even though the institution itself could not be overthrown without overthrowing the Roman Empire. That's how Paul dealt with the whole issue. Now we do not obviously have the same distinctions today and issue of slavery in our culture today, although there is that issue being faced in many parts of the world today, particularly in Africa. But we don't face that issue necessarily in our culture. And so how do we apply these texts to us? They're literally talking about master slave relationships. I think there are some parallels and some principles that we can draw in regard to employer employee relationships. I know what some of you are thinking, yeah, my employer is a slave driver, he is a master and I do feel like a slave. Maybe some of these principles will apply more directly to some of you than to others. But I think there are some carryover principles that we can draw from what Paul says about master slave relationships to employer employee relationships even in our culture today. And that's what I would like to do this evening. So there are all slavery was the day to day job of the people that Paul was addressing here. And so there are some principles that apply to your day to day job and your relationship with the one who is over you in your job. What does Paul address in this letter by way of employee employer relationships? Well, first of all, he addresses the employees for the most of this passage he's dealing with employees or with the slaves and how they should respond to their masters and basically gives two commands, two things that every employee should think about. And this applies to you and your job, whatever job you do or if you're already retired, you can think back to what you should have done. Okay, well let's do that this evening. The first thing Paul says to employees is obey sincerely. Obey sincerely, verse 22. Notice what he says, slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything. We just take that phrase for a moment. Notice there are earthly masters. It's very easy for us to think that once we're saved, we don't have any masters. We don't have anybody over us except Jesus. Now we're going to see in a moment that our ultimate boss is Christ, but Paul does admit that we do have earthly masters over us. In relationship to our work, those who may be over us, if you're in that kind of a structure obviously where you do have someone as a boss or someone who's over you, those who are over you are your earthly masters. As it regards your work, you are to respect them as such and to be obedient to them, which means basically that you are to consult his will or her will, not your own on the job. You're to do things his way or her way, not yours on the job. Basically means that you are on his time or hers, your boss, not yours. Obey those who are over you, earthly masters in everything he says. Obviously as with all of these commands, there is a higher priority to obey Christ if there is a direct conflict between what an employer expects of you and what Christ demands of you. If an employer says I want you to falsify this report so the company won't get in trouble, then you have an obligation to say I'm sorry sir, I would love to help you when we can but I can't do that. There is a higher obligation to Christ but given those rare exceptions, the Bible teaches that we need to be obedient in all things to those in our earthly occupations who are over us and would be considered in this terminology masters over us. Now notice the next phrase that he says, obey your masters in everything and do it not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor. In other words, don't work hard just when the boss is watching. See I think there are kind of three levels of work that we accept as being commonplace in the workplace. One is when the boss is watching, man I'm really going to perform. I am going to do my very best. When he's watching, I want him to think he's got the very best employee he could possibly have in me. That's one level. Second level is when the boss is somewhere around but he's not actually watching. You may not be in the same room but he could show up at any time. Now in that situation, the thing that many people do and I'm not suggesting this, not teaching this but the thing that many people do is they kind of have things arranged to where if he does show up they can make it look real quick like they're working real hard. Okay. The third level is when the boss is on vacation. Now what is it like in your workplace when the boss is gone when he's not there and you know there's no chance he'll show up. What is it like? Is it party time? Is it slough off time? Is it run off and do everything else time? You know what Paul is saying here? Paul is saying even when the boss is on vacation it ought to be just as though he's sitting in the same room with you. Don't work hard simply when he's watching you, Paul says. Only when their eye is on you and to win their favor. He's saying obey your masters, obey sincerely no matter what the situation is. Even if he's gone and there's no chance he'll be looking over your shoulder to see what you're doing. Now notice the last phrase in that verse which tells us a little bit more about this obeying sincerely thing. You obey your earthly masters and everything do it not only when their eyes on you to win their favor but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. In contrast to the above. In contrast to working hard only when you're being watched. Only when you're being noticed. Paul says give undivided service. Work sincerely that means with a pure heart with a focus. Even when you are not being watched or there is no possibility that someone will know what you did or did not do that day. Sincerely means to work with purpose, to work with undivided focus, with sincere focused attention with your heart always in it. And the whole point he says there is out of reverence for the Lord. Our duty is to please him first because you know what? He's watching all the time. Even when the boss is in another part of the building or the boss is on vacation and gone entirely. Jesus is watching all the time. And so Paul says we ought to work in such a way and obey sincerely in such a way that even when nobody else is watching we're doing it because we know Jesus is watching. Out of reverence for him we are to work diligently and work hard. So obey sincerely and then that leads me to my next point and that is work diligently. By the way I heard about a guy one time that was filling out an application for a job. There was a line on this job said have you ever been fired and he wrote no. The next question was why? Now you know how that's supposed to work right? I mean if you answer no to the question you don't have to answer the why. The why is only there if you were fired they want to know why you were fired. Well this guy is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. And so he answers no I've never been fired comes the next question why because I was never caught he wrote. Okay I was never caught that's why I was never fired. Well the Bible says it should never be a matter of whether or not you get caught because Jesus is always watching so obey sincerely. Now work diligently look at what he says in verse 23 about working diligently and we're going to break this down into three questions and a statement that Paul makes. The first question is what? What in other words what does it mean to work diligently verse 23 tells us what it means whatever you do work at it with all your heart that's what it means to work diligently. Whatever you do work at it with all your heart do your job hardily do your job well put your heart into it the phrase here literally the Greek phrase is literally out of soul do your job out of soul. In other words do it as though everything in you is being put into it and so the NIV translation is a good one do it with all your heart with everything in you do it that way that's what it means to work diligently. In other words our jobs are not to be just perfunctory we just okay get by with as much as I have to do do as little as I can and still keep a paycheck coming that's not a biblical or Christians philosophy of work we are to work diligently meaning that we do it with all of our heart literally from our soul we put ourself into it we don't slack off in any way. Somebody has said if there were more if there were more self starters on the job the boss would have to be less of a crank and that's true you know if more of us were self starters and just did what we know we're supposed to do then maybe the boss wouldn't be such a crank. So what does that mean what does it mean to work diligently it means to put your whole heart into whatever you do whatever you do do it with all your heart even the seemingly mundane things and significant things things that maybe nobody will ever see or notice put your heart into it do it with all your soul paul says that's what it means now the second question about working diligently is how how well verse 23 tells us that to whatever you do work at it with all your heart. As working for the Lord not for men now we have just seen that we do have earthly masters okay we do have employers to whom we are responsible bosses superintendents for them whatever you call them at your workplace you have someone who's over an earthly master but beyond that we also have a heavenly master and paul is talking about the paul is talking here about the fact that we should work not only for men but that we should work for the Lord do your job as unto the Lord in other words it is as though the person who signs your checks the person to whom you give account to whom you report is Jesus Christ Himself now that's not just some kind of mind game or psychological trick folks that's reality we do work for Jesus Christ everything we do is noticed by him and as we'll see in a moment we'll be rewarded by him all of our workplace situations are done not only for the people that pay us and the people that we work for people that we answer to quite literally your employer your boss is Jesus Christ so the consciousness of every Christian on the job should be I am working for Jesus Christ now that's how we work diligently my work is to be done as though Jesus is going to inspect it at the end of the day not just my boss my work should be done not in a mechanical forced kind of fashion but in a joyful fashion because I'm doing it for Jesus Christ you can see it's awful easy for us to think that the only people who are servants of God are what we call full time Christian workers or vocational Christian workers you know missionaries and pastors and Bible college teachers people like that who who make their living doing the Lord's work if you will it's awful easy for us to think those are the only people who are serving the Lord that's not true nothing could be further from the true If you work at a factory, if you work in a grocery store, if you work in an office, if you run a business, whatever you do, you are working for Jesus Christ. He is your employer. He is your boss. Because as a Christian, everything you do in your life is examined by Jesus Christ. And you will give an account to him for everything you've done. You see, I think we have this whole judgment seat thing messed up too. I think the judgment seat of Christ we think of in terms of when I get to heaven. Jesus is going to sit me down and ask me how many people I witness to and how often I read my Bible and whether or not I was faithful to live the Christian life like I should and go to church and those kinds of things. And that probably will be a part of it. But you know what else he's going to ask you about? Tell me about your job. Well, I'm not going to ask you to tell you about it. He's going to examine you about what you did on your job. How faithful you were working your job, I believe, will be a part of the equation of the judgment seat of Christ because that's how we live out in very practical terms our Christian life. That's part of our testimony to an unbelieving and watching world is how we do our job. And so part of what we answer for before Jesus Christ is how we served Him on the job. So that gives a revolutionary outlook, a whole different way of looking at mundane day to day vocational responsibilities. It's not just a means of putting food on the table. It is what God has given you to do and He will hold you accountable for when you stand before Him in judgment as to how well you served Him. See, we're not only serving our earthly masters. We're working for the Lord, Paul says. It's not just me that's working for the Lord and the other pastors and people like that. You're working for the Lord. Regardless of what you're doing in your vocation, you are working for Jesus Christ. So that's how we work diligently. We work for Jesus and we do everything as though Jesus Christ Himself were inspecting it every day because He is. Now why? Why should we work diligently? Well, verse 24 gives us the answer. Since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward, it is the Lord Christ you are serving. What He's saying is that faithful work will be rewarded by Christ. That's what we just talked about. The fact that everything we do on the job is going to be rewarded by Jesus Christ. We're going to stand before Him someday and that will be part of what we answered to Him for at the judgment seat of Christ. Now the word He uses here in heritance is a very interesting word. It literally means what we would think of as an inheritance. That which is given to one upon the death of a parent or someone who may leave you, a family member who may leave you some of their earthly goods. Did you know that in the Roman Empire slaves were disqualified from receiving any inheritance? They were not able to receive any inheritance. I just wasn't part of the deal in that day. And so what Paul is saying to them is you probably are expecting if you're a slave that you will leave this world with very little earthly goods. But I want you to know you are getting an inheritance. You're getting a reward when you get to heaven. And friend that reward is based not only on the Christian spiritual things that you do. What we typically think of that fit in those categories. Your reward, your inheritance will be based on how you did your job, how you performed at work. You see you are serving the Lord, you're working for him. And because of that you will receive an inheritance from him as a reward in heaven. And then he reminds us again it is the Lord Christ you are serving. It's as though he wants to pound that into our thinking because we don't typically think that way. We think well I'm working for such and such company. I work for the school system. I work for the hospital. You may work for them but you also work for Jesus Christ. You are serving him in your job. And so two or three times he says, I want you to know you're working for Jesus Christ. You're not just working for him in. That's the why of working diligently. We work diligently because we will be judged someday and rewarded for how we served on our jobs. And then he gives a warning in verse 25. He says anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong and there's no favoritism. Now commentators go back and forth about whether or not that warning applies to the slaves or to the masters. The thought continues on in to verse 1. Now I think probably it refers to both. Look at the end of the verse again. He says there's no favoritism. I think he's saying this applies to both. Masters and slaves. This is kind of a hinge verse. The gate swings back on this principle to the slaves. The gate swings forward. The verse 1 to the masters. This verse applies to both. Masters and slaves. Employees and employers. And the warning is this. If you do wrong, you'll be repaid. Not only will you be rewarded in heaven for faithful service, you'll be repaid for wrong you do. And God doesn't play favorites. Doesn't matter what your position is. He doesn't look more favorably upon someone in a high position than he does on someone in a low position. There's no favoritism of God. Treats is all alike. So if a worker does wrong, if you as a worker cheat your employer, if you do a sloppy job, if you're lazy on your job, God takes note of that. God takes note of that. And you'll be repaid. Which I think at the judgment seat of Christ means a loss of reward because of being unfaithful on the job. Same thing is true for employers. As a boss, you do wrong. If you cheat your employees, if you treat them wrongly, God takes notice. And you will be called to an account for that when you stand before the Lord. I think maybe this verse, as really this whole passage, but especially that verse has a little sting to it and may have been implied or used by Paul because of the situation there in Colossi with Philemon and Onesimus. You know, God takes note. God takes note. God took note of Onesimus when he stole that money and took off the room. He ended up in prison. God was watching him the whole time, but he came to know Christ. And God will also take note of Philemon and how he treats this man now that he's been sent back. God takes note. And we either are rewarded or we lose reward because of how we do our job. We are going to have a company put this notice up on the bulletin board in the employee lounge to all employees due to increased competition and the desire to stay in business. We find it necessary to institute a new policy. We are asking that somewhere between starting and quitting time and without infringing too much on the time usually devoted to lunch periods, coffee breaks, rest periods, storytelling, ticket selling, vacation planning, and the rehashing of yesterday's TV programs, each employee endeavored to find some time that can be set aside and known as the work break. You know, a lot of workplaces are like that and a lot of Christians work like that. And that is a disgrace to the testimony of Jesus Christ. If you are not diligent in your workplace, I want to tell you something tonight, God takes notice of that. And Paul is saying you will receive reward or loss of reward for the way you did your job because you're not only serving men, you're serving Jesus Christ. Now that ought to radically revolutionize the way we look at our jobs regardless of how menial they may be. If it applies to slaves, it applies to you and me too. So that's the employee. And then Paul saves a few words for the employer in verse 1. He says, Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair because you know that you also have a master in heaven, two things. Basically, he says to the employer, the first is treat your employees justly. Do you see where he says provide your slaves with what is right? Let me focus on that word right for just a moment. I was talking about justice and I believe it's speaking primarily of the financial and business side of the relationship between you and your employees. If you have someone that works under you or works for you, then this is the financial and business side of things. Paul says, Treat them justly. Do what is right. In other words, pay them a just and right salary. Expect good work from them. Yes, but be considerate of them. If there are family issues, if there are needs, if there are sicknesses, whatever it may be, make sure that you do what's right by those people. Be concerned about their work conditions, be concerned about the morale of people in your place of work. Do what's right. Do what is just for those who work under you. But then he says also to treat them kindly. Not only to treat them justly, but to treat them kindly. The second word, the word fair, has more to do with the personal side of the relationship at work. To treat them justly has more to do with the business, financial side of things, the work environment and so forth. To treat them kindly or to treat them fairly as the word is in the NIV here really means the personal side of the relationship. It means literally to treat them as an equal personally. Now you may not treat them as an equal as far as position is concerned. Sometimes those dynamics need to be separated. There must be employer, employee relationship clearly for those who are working under you. But personally, as a person, treat them as an equal. Treat them as being on the same level. Be considerate, be kind, be willing to help them. Be willing to be understanding about personal needs and issues. Don't be like the boss who one day employee walked in an hour late from work, rushed in, apologized profusely to the boss. Just was all bruised up and bleeding and bandages on face and head and arms and everything. And the boss said, why are you late? Employees said, I am so sorry sir, but on my way to work I tripped and fell down a whole flight of stairs. And the boss said, and that took an hour? Now don't be that kind of boss. Don't be inconsiderate of people's needs and issues that they face. Be kind, he's saying. Treat them kindly, be fair. And the reason for that is, look at the end of the verse, because you know that you also have a master in heaven. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, right? What's good for the employee is good for the employer in this regard. Both of us are serving the same master, Paul says. The person who's in charge, the person who owns the business, the person who is the boss, has the same accountability to Jesus Christ as the employee does. And so yes, Christ is watching the employee to make sure they're serving with diligence, with all their heart, putting themselves into it, working hard, doing what they're supposed to be doing. But you know what? God's also watching that boss to make sure that they're fair, just, and kind, treating their employees properly. You also have a master in heaven, Paul says. And you will give an account to that master as well. You know, I tend to think that if these principles from the Bible were followed, there would be no management labor problems. Probably would be no need for unions and that kind of thing. Should I have even said that here in West Virginia? No management labor problems. If principles like this were followed, and I'm not naive enough to think that we live in an ideal world, it would be great if everybody in the workplace were saved, every employer, every employee, it would be great. That would be wonderful. And everybody was willing to follow these principles. But we don't live in that kind of a world. We do live in a world, however, that no matter who your boss is or who your employees are, you as a Christian can live out these principles. And in your corner of the workplace, you can make a difference. You can make a difference. In the way people see you and see the Lord that you profess to serve by the way you do your job, I believe that is what Paul is talking about. So let all of us who are saved, regardless of what vocation we may occupy, what we do for work, for a living. Let's take these principles seriously. Let's obey our employee, employers sincerely. Let's work diligently because we're serving Christ and we'll be rewarded by Him someday. And if we have people who are working under us or for us, then let's treat them justly and kindly. Knowing that we also will give an account to our master in heaven. Let's pray together. Father, we are thankful that your word is so very practical and issues that we face every day. Even down to how to do our jobs, how to relate to those that we work for, those who work for us. Help us father to be sensitive to these kinds of instructions which provide us the opportunity to have a testimony for you in the workplace. I pray that each one here today who is working a job will take these verses very seriously. May we live at our faith in our workplace so that we honor you and we'll give a good account to you someday. We ask in Jesus' name, Amen.