Colossians 3:22-4:1 | Christ At Work

Labor Day is kind of a funny thing.

We celebrate work by not working, right?

And you're okay with that, right?

I mean, if you want to work on Labor Day, some of you.

Shane's got a big thumbs up there in the boots.

You can see it.

Turn around and look at Shane.

He's got a big thumbs up.

He's excited about not working tomorrow.

This is Labor Day weekend.

I always love when God does this.

This just happens to be where we are in the text.

Just like last week, we happened to be in a text on families, and it was our family worship Sunday.

The kids were all in amongst us for the sermon portion.

Today, it's Labor Day weekend, and the text led us to talk about work.

Isn't that something?

God did that, not me.

I would love for you to think it was me, so you'd think I was just so clever to figure all these things out, but it isn't true.

God did this.

If you've been tracking with us in our study through this wonderful epistle, this letter that Paul wrote to the church at Colossae, you'll remember that in the earlier part of chapter 3, the Apostle Paul told us that if we've been raised with Christ, our life is now hidden with Christ in God.

That's what it says at the beginning of chapter 3.

He called us to strip off the grave clothes of the old self, and he listed these sexual immorality, anger, malice, and lying, and to put on the royal wardrobe of the new self, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

And then in verse 17, he gives us this sweeping mandate, and whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Well, this is Labor Day weekend.

Labor Day is about work.

I looked it up, the origins of the holiday.

We do celebrate work by not working on Monday, which is kind of funny if you think about it.

It would be like celebrating someone's birthday by not speaking to that person, right?

That's kind of the idea, right?

So we could act that out, and I could say, hey, happy birthday, Kita.

It's your birthday, it's not your birthday today, but if it was Kita's birthday, and I would celebrate Kita's birthday.

Okay, it is it is Melissa's birthday then.

Okay, they're pointing at you, so happy birthday, Melissa.

And it would be like we celebrate someone's birthday by not speaking to them, which sounds ridiculous, but that's kind of how we treat Labor Day.

So happy birthday, we will speak to you.

It does actually make sense because it is all about honoring and recognizing the American labor movement, people standing up for workers, and the work and contributions of laborers, workers to the development and achievements of our country.

We need people to work.

Work is good.

And so to honor them, we give them the day off.

Not everybody gets the day off.

I recognize that.

Some of you will be working tomorrow.

But a lot of people get the day off, and that's a nice thing.

And a lot of people shop and buy themselves something nice, like a Labor Day present, or they eat something nice, have kind of a party at their house, maybe a cookout.

That's nice too.

But this holiday should also make us reflect on work and what it means, and for Christians, what it means to God, and what it means to us in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And the Bible does have a lot to say about work, and it starts, as most things do, at the very beginning.

Genesis 1:1 is the first place we find the Bible talking about work.

Genesis 1:1

And this is what it says.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters, and God said, Let there be light, and there was light.

In the church today, we talk a lot about how God is loving.

Maybe we talk about his holiness, his omnipresence, that he is all-powerful, that he's faithful or just or true.

But we rarely, if ever, talk about the fact that we worship a God who works.

God works.

God is our example of work.

But that's the very first thing that God revealed about himself in Scripture.

In the beginning, God created.

In chapter two, we see him joyfully engaged in the work of creating.

It's significant to note that the Hebrew word malachah, which we translate work in this verse, is also used to describe human work throughout the Old Testament.

It's the same word.

We're working as God is working.

Interestingly enough, Jesus used that exact word.

He said, I am working as my Father is always working.

Every other religion says that the gods created human beings to work and to serve the gods.

We serve them.

Only the Bible says that God Himself worked to serve us.

Isn't that something?

This truth is foundational to how we, who are God's image bearers, should think about our work today.

Work isn't a necessary evil, it's not a meaningless means to an end.

Work is dignified and meaningful and good in and of itself.

And more than that, work is a godlike thing.

It's something that when we do it, we are imitating God.

Or when we do it, we should be imitating God.

And it's a way that we can reflect his character to those around us.

Now I would ask you this morning, you don't have to answer out loud, but I would ask you this morning, does your work do that?

How does your work reflect God?

Whether you work in a factory or a school as a teacher or a student, students, or a shop, or a restaurant, or online, or in your garden at home, maybe you're retired and you're working in your garden, or ministry work that you do, all the different things that you do as a volunteer here and in our community, how does your work point to God?

How does it convey the gospel of Jesus?

And is it an act of worship to him?

And if it's not, how can it be?

So those are some things for us to think about.

Now it's one thing for us to sing about the supremacy of Christ and the satisfaction that we find in him on a Sunday morning.

We sing, wonderful, merciful Savior, when the light is coming through the big window behind me and you're surrounded by fellow believers and dear friends.

It's quite another thing to worship God on a damp gray Monday morning when you hit the snooze button three times and the alarm clock didn't go off and traffic's backed up on 265, and you're facing a boss who doesn't appreciate you, or facing an employee who doesn't show up, right?

It's harder to worship in that setting.

But that's exactly what God has called us to do, to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus with thanksgiving.

In verse 18 through chapter 4, verse 1, Paul addresses this with us.

First, he addressed the household.

He talked about wives and husbands and children and fathers.

We looked at that last week.

How can we glorify him through that?

How do we reflect God through our work at home?

And now in the workplace with bondservants and masters.

Now, before we read this text together and look at the text together, we have to address the issue in this passage that unsettles us, and that is the issue of bondservants and slavery in Roman culture.

I don't know if those words make you uncomfortable.

They probably should make you uncomfortable when we see the word bondservant and master.

When we hear the word slavery, our minds rightly jump to horrific, race-based chattel slavery of the transatlantic slave trade, or even the millions of folks who are enslaved today, many, many Christians enslaved today, this brutal institution that strips human beings of the image in which God created them.

But to understand the first century Roman world, we have to understand that bond servitude, the Greek word there is dolos, doolos.

It's a word that Paul uses quite a bit to describe himself.

But that system operated very differently, a deeply fallen human system, not a right human system, but it operated very differently than what we know of slavery today.

In the Roman Empire, a third of the entire population lived in servitude.

And people became bondservants in all kinds of ways.

They were bondservants because they'd been captured in war, because they were in debt, because of poverty, because of their birth.

Servants were not distinguished by race or skin color.

They worked in all kinds of jobs as doctors, accountants, teachers, estate managers, domestic laborers.

And yet, under Roman civil law, a master held total legal jurisdiction over his servants.

Servant had no legal rights, no property rights, couldn't own anything, could be sold or punished at the master's whim.

We have to ask ourselves, did God approve of that because the Bible talks about it?

No, God doesn't approve of that.

Scripture reveals that while God permitted those civil structures in the fallen world, Jesus didn't come and overthrow all of that in a political way.

But it's very clear to us that the gospel lays this kind of a bomb under human bondage that shatters it from the inside out, as we saw in Colossians 3, verse 11.

Colossians 3:11

In Christ there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free.

But Christ is all and in all.

By commanding masters to treat bondservants with justice and fairness and declaring that both master and servant stand equal before a heavenly master, Paul subverts the entire Roman social order.

He's calling here for a better way.

And so should we.

But Paul is also speaking into the culture of the day.

And so he addresses bondservants and masters here in verse 22, verse through verse 4, 1.

Let's look at it again together.

Raquel just read it to us.

Let's look at it again together one more time.

Bondservants, he says, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters.

Not by way of I 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.

Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a master in heaven.

So very quickly, three little headings here.

The first one is the worker's motivation, working is unto the Lord.

Second one is the worker's reward, serving the true master.

The third, the master's responsibility, living under authority.

Well, let's tackle the first one.

Notice how Paul addresses bondservants first.

In Roman society, slaves were treated as property, but Paul addresses them as moral agents, as responsible brothers and sisters in the local church, dignity-bearing human beings.

There was nowhere like the church to equal out this unequal society.

And you can imagine people from all over in Colossae, Jews and Greeks, Jews and Gentiles, people from all different kinds of racial backgrounds, socioeconomic backgrounds, some servants, some masters, some freemen in the Roman society, all worshiping together, just as we're worshiping here together this morning.

Look what he warns against.

He uses words here that doesn't use anywhere else.

The word eye service.

And being people pleasers.

You know what eye service is, don't you?

Eye service is when you work really diligently, when the boss is standing behind your desk, right?

Standing behind you.

But the moment that he or she walks down the hall, you click off that browser, you go back to whatever you were doing, you lean on the shovel, as it were.

I mean, we have a word for this today.

The word is called quiet quitting.

And it's a problem in the corporate workplace in that some people become discouraged at their job, they don't like their job anymore, and so they're still there, but they're basically quitting.

They're not working.

When the boss walks away, they click on whatever else they were doing, playing a game, they're buying something on Amazon, you know, whatever.

They're communicating with a friend, they're just not working.

They're there, but they're not producing.

Eye service would be superficial compliance driven by the fear of man and it's dishonest.

Proverbs 28, 6 says, Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways.

Don't deceive your boss.

Don't give them eye service.

If you really find you can't do that work with any joy, go find a different job.

But don't pretend to be working when you're supposed to be working.

We need to work as unto the Lord.

Paul says the Christian worker is called to live with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.

Not fearing the boss, but fearing the Lord.

And then comes verse 23.

Whatever you do, work heartily.

That's a good word, isn't it?

Heartily.

What does it mean to work heartily?

It means working with your whole heart.

As for the Lord and not for men.

The phrase work heartily there really literally translates in the Greek to from the soul.

Work from the soul.

Put your whole soul into whatever you're doing.

Because you're doing it for the Lord.

And so whether you're writing computer code or driving a tractor or flying a plane, we have people who do that.

Managing a corporate budget, changing diapers, right?

That's work, right?

Yeah?

Sometimes.

Whatever you're doing, do it from the soul.

Do it from the heart.

Sorry, this is what happens when I talk to the babies.

They get upset with me.

They're like, why do we have to think about changing my diaper again?

Why do we have to think about that?

Why do we do that?

Why are we supposed to work with our whole soul, with our whole heart?

Even if the boss isn't great, even if the company isn't great, your employer's not that great, maybe they don't treat you well.

Why are we supposed to work that way?

Why does God expect that from us?

Because we have been given this change in motivation.

Paul writes in 1031 in 1 Corinthians, he says, whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.

You're not just working for a paycheck, you're not just working so that you'll get the promotion.

You're not just working so you'll get an award or human applause.

You work as an act of personal worship to Jesus.

Richard Phillips, one of my favorite commentary writers, says this about this.

He says, for Christians, work is not merely about pleasing earthly employers, but it's about serving Christ Himself.

Paul's exhortation reminds believers that their labor, whether seen or unseen, is ultimately for the Lord.

And this perspective shapes an attitude of diligence, honesty, and excellence, regardless of circumstances.

The way for Christians to win converts in a combative society is to conduct our lives in such a way that weary worldly people will seek an explanation for the better way that we live.

If you're the only person in your workplace that is working heartily with your whole soul, the people will notice.

And they may guess your motivation is something completely different.

They may just say, man, he is always brown-nosing.

She's just trying to get that promotion that we all want.

I've been here longer than her.

You may have to open your mouth and tell them, no, God has called me to work this way because ultimately he's my boss.

I work for him.

What I'm doing allows me to worship God through my job Monday through Friday, Monday through Saturday, whenever you work, in the same way that I get to worship God on Sundays.

William Perkins, a Puritan pastor, said it this way.

These words still relevant hundreds of years later.

He said, Now, if we compare work to work, there's a difference between washing dishes and preaching the word of God, but as touching to please God, there's no difference at all.

And I would tell you, as a pastor, God's given me a vocation.

And God's given you a vocation.

Both of those are equal opportunities to worship God through your work.

So whatever you do, whatever I do, work-wise, God has called both of us to worship Him in our work.

Perkins also said this: he said, the main end of our lives is to serve God in the serving of men in the works of our calling.

Now, we're prone to think that pastors and missionaries do sacred work, and plumbers and accountants and mechanics do secular work.

That isn't true.

Paul says that's garbage.

It's just garbage.

All legitimate work is sacred when it's done in the name of the Lord Jesus and for his glory.

And if you can't do the job that you have in the name of Jesus, go find a different one where you can do it as an act of worship.

There are industries, certainly, where you can't in good conscience work in that industry because it's impossible to do so in the name of Jesus, right?

We can imagine what some of those might be, or what some of those might be for you, right?

We have different convictions on these things.

But if you can't do it in the industry you're in, go and work and do something different, so that your work can be an act of daily worship to the Lord.

Well, Paul goes on in verses 24 and 25, and he says, Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.

You are serving the Lord Christ.

Well, this was a big statement for bond servants in Roman culture.

Under Roman civil law, a slave could not legally own property.

They were not allowed to inherit anything.

If your master wanted to give you their house or whatever, they would have to free you first.

We see that played out in the story of Ben Hur.

How many of you have read Ben Hur?

You've seen the movie.

Maybe you saw Charlton Heston in that movie.

Have you seen the more recent one, perhaps?

We have that story in there, and the slave is freed and allowed to inherit.

Paul looks at these disenfranchised believers who can't inherit anything, they can't own anything, and he says, look up.

You have a heavenly father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints of light.

Your ultimate boss is not an earthly master.

You are serving the Lord Christ.

And we hold to this truth.

God in his providence has assigned your current sphere of labor.

And if you're working under a difficult or demanding or ungrateful employer, you may go seek a different job, but you do not need to despair or retaliate with bitterness.

Why?

Because your ultimate wage does not come from the payroll department.

Your reward comes from Jesus.

You work for Him.

And it changes our perspective when we leave the house, we get in our car, we drive to work, if that's our perspective.

If we see the fact that we are going to work for Jesus that day.

What does that mean for you?

How would that change the way that you view your job?

For those of you that are retired and yet you still have work to do, I know that men, some of you, when you're retired, you came home and your wife gave you a list and you joke with me.

I've heard you tell these jokes, and you say, I'm gonna have to go back to work to get some rest, right?

You have work to do whether you get paid for it or not.

Right?

How would it change your work if you saw it as serving the Lord Christ?

Your boss is Jesus.

Charles Spurgeon said it this way: He said, if God does not give you zeal, energy, and devotedness, you will be a curse to the church.

We must give ourselves wholly to the work, for no man can serve God with half a heart.

Spurgeon understood that no matter what your job is, whether you're you're a preacher or whether you're an accountant, half hearted service is an insult to the Savior who gave his absolute all for us.

Notice also verse 25, it says, For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.

God is a God of unbending and impartial justice.

If an employer cheats you, exploits you, or someone steals credit for your work, you don't need to cultivate revenge.

God sees every unseen hour of your toil, every uncredited task, and every injustice, and he will settle all counts with absolute equity.

There's a verse in Hebrews chapter 6, and I wasn't going to reference it this morning, but I realize it is absolutely perfect for us this morning.

Hebrews 6 · chapter mention

And it tells us this in Hebrews chapter 6, verse 10.

Hebrews 6:10

For God is not unjust, so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.

God is not unjust to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints as you still do.

And we desire that each of you show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

God is not unjust.

He sees your work.

He sees your work that you do here.

He sees your work that you do in the community.

If you volunteer with one of our partners or in another ministry, he sees your work.

It will be recognized.

He acknowledges that.

If you're a parent, you're a grandparent, endless toil, hardest work, right?

To be a parent or grandparent.

If you're serving a spouse, you're serving a child, you're serving your parents.

Some of you are dealing with parents with health difficulties right now.

God is not unjust.

He sees your work, he acknowledges your work.

And your inheritance is coming.

Finally, in the last verse that we're looking at this morning in verse 401, Paul turns his attention directly to employers and supervisors, landowners.

And he says this masters treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a master in heaven.

Well, these are explosive, revolutionary words.

He reminds those in positions of power and authority that they are not the ultimate authority.

If you manage employees or you lead a company or you oversee a team today, hear this clearly.

Your authority is derived from God.

You are an understeward, nothing more.

You will answer to Almighty God for how you treat the people under your care.

I don't care if you're Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg or whoever's in charge of the world these days, right?

They will answer to God for the care of those under their care.

You're commanded to treat them with justice, what's right according to God's law, whether you acknowledge it or not, and what's fair, what is equitable and gracious according to Scripture.

John Owen, the Puritan theologian, said it this way.

He said, to have the word of Christ dwelling richly in us is to have the truth of God so seasoning our minds and heart affections that we naturally view all of life, all trials, and all relationships through the lens of the Savior's grace.

You don't get to turn off what you know to be true of God when you go into the workplace.

You don't get to say, well, that's how I am at church, but when I go to work, I'm going to be this way.

I'm going to be ruthless toward my employees because it's all about the bottom line.

It's not all about the bottom line.

That's part of it.

Being a good steward of the resources that God has given your company or your workplace.

But those people really, really matter.

They matter to God.

God will hold us accountable for that.

And so, whether you're a master, whether you're a worker, whether you're the boss, whether you're the lowest person in the company you were hired last week, making minimum wage, all of this for the Lord.

And when an employer understands the gospel, he realizes, he or she realizes, that they are just as much a bankrupt beggar saved by sovereign grace as the lowest paid worker in their shop.

We can't be abusive or stingy because we live every day under the gaze of a master in heaven who wasn't that way toward us, who showed us infinite mercy.

Well, I don't know how you view your work.

We've been having these community groups on Wednesday and Thursday nights for the last couple of weeks.

I'm really looking forward to our conversation about work coming up this Wednesday night.

I'm interested to hear how you view your work.

Is it a soul-crushing chore?

Or is it something that you delight in?

I probably should tell you, it'd be appropriate for me to tell you, I really love what I do.

I really love getting to be your pastor.

I enjoy myself.

I love this role and all the different things that I get to do.

I'm sure there will come days when it won't be fun.

There have already been days.

I've been here five months.

There have already been days when it wasn't so much fun.

But generally speaking, I love what I do.

I love to get to do this.

How do you view your work?

Is it an idol to you?

Is it something that it's just a means to an end that you're just there to earn a paycheck and then you don't want to think about it?

Or is it something that you could see as an act of worship?

Well, Wendell Berry died this week.

Some of you knew Wendell Berry or you read his writings.

I don't know whether Wendell Berry was saved or not.

Some of his light writings would lead us to believe that he was a Christian.

I hope that he was.

But he was a farmer, he was a poet, he was a writer, he lived about 30 minutes from here.

And he wrote a lot about work, and one of the things that he says in one of his books called The Unsettling America, which is the first book of his I ever read in college, he said, all of the ancient wisdom tells us that work is necessary to us, as much a part of our condition is mortality, that good work is our salvation and our joy, that shoddy or dishonest or self-serving work is our curse and our doom.

We have tried to escape the sweat and sorrow promised in Genesis, only to find that in order to do so, we must forswear love and excellence, health and joy.

Barry seems to have understood what Paul is driving at in Colossians, that work is not a curse, though the fall made it more difficult, for sure.

Rather, good work is designed by God as a means of stewardship and care and joy for us.

One other note from Wendell Berry that I think is helpful to us, he reminds us in a poem he wrote called Whatever Is Foreseen in Joy, reminds us of the limits of our exertion.

And he says this produce we must, and surely our hands must ache, our face must sweat, and yet the great joy of life is knowing that the world does not depend on our work.

When we work well, we stand confident in the promise that the world does not depend on us, but instead we make a joyful contribution as we can, and then rejoice in rest.

I want to remind you this morning that you are not indispensable in your work.

God is sovereign, his purposes will stand, he will accomplish what he sets out to do every time.

We are not indispensable.

So don't wear the weight of being indispensable.

Okay?

Don't let it weigh you down.

You think if you don't do this and you don't do that, the whole world is gonna fall apart.

It's not gonna fall apart.

And if you need help, tell us.

That's what we're here for.

That's what your church family is here for.

If work is a burden and it's overwhelming you, call us and get some help.

But you are not indispensable.

God is the one who works in all things.

That said, when you go to work tomorrow morning, if you go to work tomorrow morning or Tuesday morning or Wednesday morning, maybe you got the whole week off.

I don't know.

As happy as Shane was about it, I don't know.

It sounds like maybe he's got big plans.

But when you do go back to work, and you will go back to work, remember who you represent.

You are an ambassador of the king.

Don't let anybody tell you that you're anything less.

Work with diligence and integrity and humility and creativity and joy in such a way that your coworkers look at your life and go, what in the world is wrong with you?

How do you come in here every day full of joy?

And you get to say, it's because I'm working for Jesus.

And not because he calls me a slave, but because he calls me a friend.

Because it's my joy to work and to glorify him in what I am doing, just as he worked on my behalf at the cross.

If you don't know Christ today, realize this truth, you cannot work your way to heaven.

You cannot offer your moral resume, your good deeds, or your achievements to God.

The ultimate work has already been done for you, and it wasn't you that did it, it was God who did it.

On Calvary's cross, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, took the ultimate form of bondservant.

He worked out a perfect obedience to the Father's law that we could never achieve.

He bore the full penalty for our sins, and when he was finished, he literally cried out, It is finished.

His redemptive work is sufficient, complete, whole, and done.

Nothing can be added to it, nothing can be taken away.

And praise God, his work did not end at the cross, it didn't end at the grave.

Three days later, the resurrected Christ rose from the dead, ascended to the right hand of the Father, and even now, though the work of saving us is finished, he continues his divine work on our behalf.

The book of Hebrews tells us that he always lives to make intercession for us.

He presents his own blood before the mercy seat of God, advocating for his people, you and me.

John 14 tells us when he left, he said to the disciples, In my father's house are many rooms.

I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself that where I am you may be also.

And so the work of Christ continues.

He worked in creation, he worked in his earthly ministry, he accomplished the work of salvation, redemption on the cross, and even right now, he is interceding for you at the Father's right hand and preparing a place for you where you will rest in his presence forever.

And so my prayer this morning is that God would give us the grace to rest in his finished work, to strip off eye service and people pleasing, to work heartily from the soul, to do everything in the glorious name of Jesus.

Let's pray together.

Father God, we thank you that you are a God who works.

Thank you that you're a God who sets the standard for creative activity.

You are a craftsman.

We only have to look at a tree or sunset to see that.

We're grateful that you're still working.

We're grateful that you've called us to work, that work can be a joy.

You can show us things about ourselves and the world that you've created, even about you, that we wouldn't see otherwise.

We're grateful that you're never done with us.

That as long as we're on this work, we have work to do, and if our bodies fail us, if our minds fail us, we still have the great work of prayer.

Probably the most meaningful work that we could ever do.

So we're grateful for all of those things, God, and we pray that you would give us grace, even this week, to work heartily as unto the Lord.

That we would work in such a way that others would see our work and it would turn their thoughts and their hearts, their minds to Jesus.

May you be glorified.

In our homes, in our workplaces, in our schools, in our lives.

Amen.