City Life Starter

Written by Blesson Selvanesan

The Word

₅ Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ; ₆ not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, ₇ with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men, ₈ knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free. ₉ And you, masters, do the same things to them, giving up threatening, knowing that your own Master also is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.

Ephesians 6:5-9 (NKJV)

Interpretation

I used to work in a place where we had a person who pretended to work very hard all the time. This is true when people are around and especially happens whenever the bosses are around. This person will come to work place during the weekend and make phone calls to the boss from the office number asking about this and that in the morning and then disappear and will do the same in the evening giving an appearance to the bosses that this person works even harder during the weekends. Bosses continuously praised and promoted this person despite doing just the bare minimum. All of us saw this drama but could not do anything as the bosses were thoroughly brainwashed. Finally after several years, bosses realized what this person was doing and ultimately fired this person. Those bosses who were fooled still talk about how they were thoroughly fooled for years!

Paul exhorts all believers to excel in what they are doing and encourage everyone to do their work with sincerity of heart. Paul also tells us not to do ‘eye service’ only when our bosses are watching but to do our work well as if we are doing it to our Lord. Those who are in leadership should also take counsel to be a better boss by being gentle with no partiality. There is always a higher standard to those who are called by God and even the world expects that. Everyone has a heavenly master and we are all accountable.

Application

How do we work every day? Do we just do the bare minimum and try to impress our bosses by using all possible tricks? Do we deceive our bosses? If we are in the position of authority do we treat all equally? Are we gentle and kind? Do we glorify God through our work? Let’s be grateful to God for all good things and do our responsibilities with praise and thanksgiving. Let’s work well to receive reward from the Lord even if men don’t appreciate our sincerity.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, Thank you Lord for all the good things in life. Thanks for our jobs and positions that you have given us. Help us to be sincere and faithful in all our tasks. Help us to glorify Your name through our daily work. In Jesus name, amen.