Focusing On JesusAt Work

""Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men; knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve"" (Col. 3:22-24).

Does Jesus have anything to do with your job? At first glance, many of us would have a tendency to answer in the negative, because our jobs are completely secular, but is that true?

Paul, as he wrote to the Colossians, recognized that there would be opportunities for every Christian, even at work, to show that they served Christ. As such, he instructed workers (slaves) to work as if they were working for Christ, doing whatever was necessary to show that they were ones who could be counted on to work fairly, honestly and heartily. What reasons could Paul have had to instruct them in such a way? First, it is incumbent on Christians to show themselves to be honest, and part of honesty would have been to do the job they were told to do. If they were what they claimed to be, others would know they were Christians and would judge Christianity by what they saw in them.

Even more importantly, they were to work as if Christ were their master, and indeed that was the case. Whatever Christians do, they serve Christ, and if Paul's readers worked as if they served Christ, they also served well His cause.

Today, too many jobs are separated from the spiritual world, even though in truth, it is impossible to do so. We want to have our lives compartmentalized so that we have a job box, a recreation box, and a God box, all separate and apart from the other boxes. When we do this, we reduce and insult the power of God, who is over all things.

What is needed is a focus on Jesus when we are at work or at play, and that focus should be the same as when we are at worship. In each of these areas, we should strive first to please Him, and then to please others (Matt. 6:33). This kind of focus will have obvious implications. First, any job which calls for us to sin and go against God's will for us will be wrong. Some bosses may require their employees to lie for the good of the company, but Christians cannot participate in such because they serve Christ first. Some jobs involve criminal or sinful behavior in and of themselves, and no Christian can expect to be able to work in such an atmosphere and still claim to serve God.

Most jobs do not require sin, however, so what is our duty in those jobs? To focus on Jesus at this point would be to do as Paul had charged the Colossians. That is, to work in such a way that other people know you are a Christian by your dedication to the job, by your output on the job, and by your willingness to do what you are asked.

What about when you are mistreated on the job. Obviously, in our society, you can leave to find another job, but you must not strike back at the company or the boss, taking revenge on them for their mistreatment. You must continue to prove yourself to be the kind of person everyone will recognize as a servant of God.

Jobs are a big part of the lives of most Christians, and we must live our lives so that others will want to have the relationship we have with God. We do a disservice to God when we fail to show those we work with what He has done for us.