Sermon Text:
Ephesians 6:5-9
God created us to work and reflect his glory in how we do that. While sin gets in the way and we live in a fallen world, through Jesus we have the ability to reflect God’s glory in how we work. All our work should reflect the goodness of God’s grace in our lives.
Sermon Transcript:
(transcribed with AI)
Well, good morning. It's good to be here with you all. It is officially summertime, right? We're into July, we're into vacations, and this is the time of the year where everyone kind of starts to take a bit of a break, right? All the rhythms of normal throughout the year kind of all change, right? We go on vacations, we're gone for weekends, we're gone on camping trips and getaways and all kinds of other things, and I don't know about you, but if you've ever been on a really good vacation and you've said to yourself in the middle of it, you know what? Maybe I'm not coming back, right? You ever had this thought of like, you know what, I'm lying on a beach in Mexico. Maybe I'm just gonna stay, right? I'll miss my flight. I'm just gonna stay here. Wouldn't that be so nice, sit on a beach in Mexico, read a book, drink some sort of fruity drink out of a coconut. That sounds like the life, right?
Right, it's hard to, especially at the beginning of summer, turn our attention and say, you know, God actually calls us to work, right? It feels a little bit out of place, but at the same time, if you've ever been on a vacation for a little while, you do also get to a point where you say to yourself, you know what? I kinda do wanna get back to it. I do kinda wanna get back to that regular rhythm and routine of life, I kind of wanna get back into work and it's actually not a bad thing.
See, our work takes up a huge amount of our lives, right, over the course of our lives, something like 90,000 hours will be spent at work, right? It's a huge amount of our time of our lives, not only during the week but just across the course of our waking lives. We spend energy, time, effort, resources, all manner of things we spend years, you know, training to get a skill or an education and then decades honing and refining our jobs. Work can become more than that, even more than just a paycheck to acquire rather it becomes part of who we are, part of our identity even our purpose in life. In fact, sometimes it becomes so much, it becomes a problem, right? We have a term, a workaholic, right? Someone who is now addicted, actually our work becomes a problem to the rest of life. Work is a large part of what we do.
But here's my question. Is that time all a waste, right? Wouldn't it be better if we just were on some eternal vacation? Wouldn't that actually be better for us? Why am I wasting all of my time, energy and effort going to work all the time? Or maybe we can ask that question a little bit more from a spiritual side, right? As a Christian, I want to honor God with what I do. So why am I going to this job that I do that has nothing to do with my faith, right? Shouldn't I then become a pastor or a missionary? Then you're really working for God. Now hear me, we need pastors and missionaries, but that's actually not the right reason to become one. Actually what we're gonna see as we open our Bibles here is actually God has a purpose for your work. For the time that you spend at your job working, it's not wasted time. If you are a Christian, actually it's for the glory of God.
So if you have a Bible here with you, let me invite you to open to Ephesians chapter 6. We're nearly to the end of our series here in the book of Ephesians. And so this morning we're going to look as Paul is writing this letter, encouraging actually the Ephesian Church to use their work for the glory of God. All right, so Ephesians chapter 6 starting in verse 5. All right, it's our tradition here, we stand as we read God's word. If you're able to, would you stand with me?
Bond servants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling with a sincere heart as you would Christ, not by the way of eye service as people pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good one does, this he will receive back from the Lord whether he is a bond servant or free. Masters, do the same to them and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven and there is no partiality with him.
As far the reading God's word, you may be seated.
Well, if you have been with us for the past number of weeks, you'll know that as we've walked through the book of Ephesians, we've been looking at what's called the household code, right? Paul has been addressing all these different relationships that we have in our lives and asking the question, how do we honor God in them, right? All the way back at the beginning of chapter 5, Paul gave this sort of overarching command. You are to be imitators of God. Reflect God in your life, and he's been walking through all these different relationships and how we're called to do that, right? So we started off, we talked about wives and husbands. Then last week we talked about children and parents. Now here he's entering into bond servants and masters. We're dealing with the realm of work.
How do we work as a Christian? Does being a Christian mean anything when we go to work? And actually the answer the Bible gives us again and again is actually yes, it makes a very big difference. It doesn't matter what you are doing or who you are working for, you are called to work for God. You are called to actually pursue what you are doing for the glory of God, as if we are working for God Himself, seeking his rewards and even leading like Jesus. Right? All work is God's work and we are called to do it for His glory. That's really what we're gonna see here this morning.
But before we even get into that, I do need to take just a few moments to the side, all right, because depending on what your Bible says, you might have read verse 5 there a little bit differently, right? Look back at verse 5 in the ESV it says, bond servants, obey your earthly masters, right? But depending on which translation you have, you might see some other translation like servant or slaves. And so immediately we have a big question that raises in our minds, because Paul here is talking about slaves and masters. He's writing in the context of the Roman Empire. Slavery was certainly a thing at the time. And so there's always a question that comes to our mind as soon as this shows up in our Bibles, does the Bible support slavery? Is that what's going on? We immediately have in mind the situation, well, we think of the South, right? In the United States, the slavery that took place there, is that what we're talking about?
The answer is actually, well, no. The slavery that existed in the Roman Empire was widely or was very different from what took place in the South and the Roman Empire had different ideas around these things. In the South, right, it was very much a racial-based slavery system. It was based on kidnapping, taking someone from their home forcibly, and then making them work for the entirety of their lives. Actually that's not what took place in the Roman Empire. In the Roman Empire, oftentimes slavery was a form of debt repayment, right? So if you were in the Roman Empire and you went, maybe had a business venture, you tried, you took out a loan, something happened, you couldn't pay it back, what do you do? Right, there's no welfare system. There's no filing for bankruptcy in the Roman Empire. What do you do? Well, how you would repay your debt was that you could sell yourself into slavery. That is, you would make a contract to make an agreement and say, OK, I will work for you for this amount of time, and that will pay for my debt. All right. And so in many ways, their version of this looked very different from what we see in the states. It was far closer even to our system of well, employment, right? Why do you go to work? You got bills to pay, right? You're working so that you can pay off bills, hopefully more than that, but nonetheless.
And so while we need to understand the Roman system of slavery was hardly a good thing. There was many problems that existed with it. There was many other reasons why someone might have entered into slavery. The Bible's not endorsing this rather, this is Paul saying, in the system, how are you supposed to act? How are you supposed to respond to those who have authority over you? How are you to work in this? And actually very much the way the Bible deals with this is what eventually leads to its abolishment, because the Bible refuses to treat people as property, right? No, actually they're equal before God and that equality was something that certainly wasn't shared at the time and eventually led to its destruction, abolishment. All right, now we could talk a lot more and there's probably a lot more to be said on this, but let me just simply ask, what are we doing with a text like this, right?
Well, like I said, we're not in this system and yet the principles that Paul's talking about of how we work for someone and how we are to lead someone very much still apply, right? This looks a lot more like an employee and an employer. How are we to work in the workplace? How do we show our faith in this? And really that's what this whole text is about, right?
So as we look into verse 5, what we are called to here is we are working for God. All right, let me look at it one more time. Verse 5, bond servants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling with a sincere heart as you would Christ. So Paul begins this section by reminding servants, bond servants, they're called to actually obey their masters. We've seen this now a couple of times throughout these last couple of weeks, all the way back, verse 5, or chapter 5, verse 18 says be filled with the Holy Spirit, and actually what that means is rightly responding to those who have authority over you, right? To obey here is the willing decision to follow the leadership of another.
So employees, what does this mean? If you work for someone. Follow your boss's leadership. Do it well. Do it honestly. Actually, you are to reflect Christ in how you treat those who are over you. But I notice here, even in the exact same sentence, Paul says, obey your earthly masters. Paul here is already pointing out, actually, hold on, this doesn't mean that your boss has absolute authority over your life, that they could ask you to do anything, any whim that happens to come across them. No. No, they're just your earthly master. You have a heavenly one who is over you, and in fact, that's exactly where he goes. Both employees and employers are both under God's leadership. We are to work as if we are working for Christ.
Verse 6, he keeps going, he says, not by the way of eye service as people pleasers, but as bond servants of Christ. Actually, you are to work primarily for Jesus. He is the one that you are working for. You're under Christ. Your job is for God, you're working for him. He is your ultimate boss, right, sometimes we have this idea, well, you know, pastors, missionaries, they work for God. Everyone else, well, that's just kind of outside secular work. That's not the way God sees it. That's not the way that God divides those things.
In fact, very much God created us to work all the way back in the book of Genesis chapter 2, as God creates Adam and Eve, it says this:
The Lord God took the man, Adam, put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it
God made Adam to work. Before there was ever sin or any problem in this world, God's perfect paradise was created for work. And I know that sounds somewhat backwards to our ears because we think of paradise as doing nothing, as pure laziness, as you know, just relaxation all of the time. But if you're honest with yourself, you know, wouldn't that get boring? Yes, God did create us to rest, and actually it's a good reminder that actually if we are working for God, it means we put work in its proper place and rest in its proper place. God calls us to do both of those things, but we should reject this idea that working is somehow a problem of life, something to get rid of. Rather, God has called us to be productive, created us to reflect His creation. We're not made to eternally sit on a beach. In fact, anyone who has retired will tell you, you can't just stop. Right? You can't just stop and do nothing. Actually, you kind of go crazy at doing that. No, you're made for purposeful work. It might look different, but you're made for a purpose.
Paul writes in First Thessalonians. He says:
We hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busy bodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ, do their work quietly and earn their own living.
Work is not the enemy of our lives. It's part of how God has created us to honor him. Now, like I said, that can certainly change over your life. That doesn't mean you need some sort of 9 to 5 job. But rather God has called you to do something, accomplish something for his glory. So, moms, you are by no means exempted from this. You are doing a lot of work, sometimes arguably too much work. And you are called to do it for the glory of God. Whether you are working from home, working for a company, whether you're hauling garbage, scrubbing floors, serving coffee or flipping burgers, do whatever God has called you to do for the glory of God. God created you to work and to reflect His glory.
But the question is then, well, OK, how? How do we actually do that? How do we work at our jobs for the glory of God? How do I flip burgers for his glory? Well, first and foremost, Paul says, verse 6, not by the way of eye service as people pleasers, but as bond servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man. How do you work for the glory of God? First of all, you are not working just to please people. Right, we've all probably worked with someone and you know, as soon as the boss is there, they're busy at work, they're doing whatever. They look really good. So as the boss leaves the room, they're on their phone, bored, not doing it, complaining, arguing with everyone, and you go, yeah, all they're doing is just as soon as the boss is there, they're sucking up to the boss and that's all they're trying to do.
That's not how you honor God. Actually, if you are a Christian, you're called to honor God with the way that you work when no one is watching. When you are on your own, when there is nobody who is observing you, maybe you work from home, right? You know there's never anyone watching what you are doing. Are you honoring God in your work then? We are to present our work before God. The standard of our work should reflect how we think about God. In the same way that if you were to build something that was going to be given to the King of England, would you not put extra effort and time and energy into that? Of course you would. How much more so than for the King of kings? Should we put time, effort, and thought into our work? We want to reflect God's glory in how we accomplish what he's given us to do.
In fact, Paul says the same thing in the book of Colossians. He says:
Bond servants obey in everything, those who are your earthly masters, not by the way of eye service as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.
Notice here, it's the same command, but he gives a motivation here of the heart, wanting to honor God, to reflect his character in how you work, his honesty reflects how you work, how you speak, every part you want to show his mercy, his grace in what you are doing, right? Let's say you're in sales. How do you do sales for the glory of God? Well, it means you're not lying to people, you're not exaggerating about your product, you're not trying to manipulate them into buying this or push them to buy something that you know they can't actually afford. No, it means you're gonna be honest, you're gonna seek what is best for them and actually help them to achieve what they need to do. By the way, it probably make you a better salesman. You're gonna be honest. You're gonna actually work with integrity because people know the difference between a salesman who's just trying to get away with as much as he can and someone who is honest about their work and can help you. You're called to do sales to the glory of God.
Because here's what is going to happen. At some point, as you are working, someone's gonna realize, oh, You're a Christian, aren't you? Oh Now that takes a whole different way in which they're gonna look at your work. Now, actually, you are being seen as the example of what a Christian does in their job. In fact, that's exactly what the Bible tells us to be aware of. Listen to 1 Timothy chapter 6. He says:
Let all who are under a yoke as bond servants regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled.
Here is the command. Here's the reason is that the name of God might not be looked down on. How are people going to judge Jesus based on your work? Will you give Jesus a good reputation or a bad one? Again, Titus, same thing:
Bond servants are to be submissive to their own masters and everything. They are to be well pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, stealing, but showing all good faith so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior.
How you work will either adorn the gospel of Jesus with praise or with shame. With honor the name of Jesus as we work. I remember once when I was in university I found a summer job and I had applied to a bunch of different places, sent out a bunch of different resumes. I eventually got an interview at a place I was cleaning portable toilets, not the greatest job, all right. It was a rough job and as you might expect, the people I'm working with are pretty rough. I found out later that when I handed in my resume, I had put under some sort of volunteering section. I had put some sort of church ministry. I can't remember what it was, maybe youth something. And so what happened was, is that before I was even hired, before I'd even done the interview, everyone in that little company knew I was a Christian, and they had a big conversation about whether or not they wanted to hire a Christian in their company, OK? I'm sure that's maybe not allowed to be done. I'm not arguing for any of that, OK.
But the reason I got that job, the reason I even got the interview was because one of the guys, I'm just gonna call him Dave. Dave was not a Christian. But he heard that they were talking about this and he said, oh, no, you actually, you should definitely hire that guy. He says, from my experience, Christians are hardworking, honest and respectful. So you should absolutely hire that guy. Now I have no idea who Dave worked with. I've never known, but some unknown Christian had set a precedent, a reputation for the name of Jesus that was so good that he was willing to stick his neck out in a room full of people that didn't want to hire a Christian because he said, actually I've seen what they look like and that is a good thing. I've no idea who this unknown Christian was. I would love to thank them. Because they honored the name of Jesus in how they worked.
Hear me, that's our goal. That when people hear that you are a Christian, when they see how you work, you so honor and represent the name of Jesus well, that people say, I want more of that. Hear me, that's our call. Let us glorify God as we work. God actually cares about how you work. You are to reflect his character and honor the name of Jesus.
But here Paul has actually one more reason why you should. It's often not what we think about. Look at verse 8. He says knowing that whatever good anyone does this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bond servant or is free right here's the promise for everyone, right? Employee, employer doesn't matter. Why should you work hard at your job honoring God because you are working for the rewards.
And I know you read that and you think, wait, that doesn't sound right, right? You're working for rewards. I mean, does God have some sort of point system that he's tallying up that we have to sort of earn enough points in order to get rewarded by God? I mean, I thought the whole point of the gospel is that we get what we don't deserve. It's grace, right? So why is he talking about rewards all of a sudden? Now hear me, it's the same Paul who wrote the rest of this book. He hasn't suddenly changed his mind halfway through.
Look back verse or in chapter two. Ephesians chapter 2. Paul is describing who we were before we come to Jesus. He says, we are under God's wrath. We've sinned, we've strayed, we've not done what's right. That's the bad news. The good news is:
That even when we were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up with Him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.
We are saved by grace. We are saved because Jesus did something that we could not do, that he has given us a gift we have not earned. We have sinned, we have fallen short of what God calls us to do. We have not represented him well all of the time. No, in fact, we've fallen very far short. And yet what Jesus did is he went to the cross and he paid that punishment in our place. He redeemed us out of slavery. He paid that debt that we owed. Jesus has paid that in our place. It is an act of grace that whoever believes in him would be forgiven of our sins. That is the good news. That is the good news that is open for everyone here today. That we are saved not because of what we do, but because of what Jesus has done for us.
But here's the thing. The Bible also promises us rewards. The Bible also calls us to actually consider these things. Paul writes in First Corinthians, for those who are building in the church, he says:
If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.
In fact, the Bible gives us a lot of places where it talks about rewards for those who do good. So how do you put those two things together? How is it that we're saved by grace and yet called to seek after these rewards? My answer is it's because we have thought so little of God's grace and far too highly of our own abilities. How is it that any of us would want to honor God? Grace. How is it that anyone has had the ability to do that? Well, it was God's grace that he gave to us. How is it that any of us have been able to have the skills, abilities, or even opportunities to honor and glorify God? That is all of grace. We have thought far too little about how much God has poured out on our lives again and again, and we have thought far too highly of about what we are able to accomplish. Even our very best of deeds are still not sufficient for God's glory, and yet God is gracious to us and still rewards us for our obedience. It's not that we're earning our way to God, hardly it is that we are diving further into the grace that God has supplied for us.
But here's my question then, why are we talking about this? Why does he bring this up randomly in the middle of this conversation? He's been talking about work and what you're supposed to do at your job. Why does he bring this in? I think here's our answer. See if you actually do, if you actually say I'm gonna commit myself to work every day, every hour for the glory of God, for so that my work would be acceptable before him, that it would reflect his character, that it would actually show the reputation of Jesus well, it means a lot of your work will go unnoticed. You're gonna do things because you care about God's glory and your boss will notice. It won't get you a promotion. In fact, sometimes it may even keep you from a promotion. In fact, to work for God means you're going to do all manner of things that will be invisible to everyone and what Paul is promising us is that it is not to God. God notices every single thing and he is not so unjust as to ignore it, but rather to reward every effort by His grace with his grace.
Jesus says this in Matthew 6, he says:
When you give to the needy, don't let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your giving may be in secret and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Jesus says there is a reward for those who follow after God. It's not the fame, it's not the applause, it's not the view, it's not the likes. We are seeking to honor God and he does not miss anything. This is a promise that all of your effort for the glory of God shall be seen. Actually Paul puts this forward as a reward to motivate us to follow after God more and more. Seek his fame, seek his renown, seek his reward. Our work matters to God. Martin Luther, he put it this way. He said:
Your work is a very sacred matter. God delights in it and through it he wants to bestow his blessings on you. The praise of work should be inscribed on all tools on the forehead and faces that sweat from toiling.
Now your work matters to God. He notices every effort that you put in, every time that you make a decision because you want to honor God with what you are doing. God Himself has noticed that. As an employee, seek to honor God in how you follow the leadership of those over you. Show his character, work for his glory and seek his rewards. How you work reflects God.
The same is true of employees, the same is true of employers, right? We are called to lead like Jesus. Paul, once again, he shifts now to the other side of this pairing. It's not simply that God cares how employees should work, but rather he cares about how employers as well, how they use the authority God has given them. Look back, verse 9. Masters, do the same to them and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven and there is no partiality with him.
I do love that in this context, in the context of the Roman world where masters were seen as the ones in charge, the ones you should address, Paul spends most of his time talking to the servants, and one line talking to the masters in which mostly he says, do what they do and don't threaten them. More of it is just a warning, a rebuke of the masters than any new thing that he has to add. Right? Employers, if you're a boss, you have people working under you, you are called to work hard for the glory of God. Reflect God in how you do your job. That doesn't change. In fact, God shows no partiality, no favoritism. He's not looking and saying, well, if you're the boss, all right, now I care about you more than I care about your employees under you. That's not how God works. No God is seeing everyone equal before him.
Paul warns them not to threaten those under them, and certainly lest we miss it, that rules out actually doing the violence, right? He doesn't say don't threaten, just do it. No, don't threaten at all. Don't even threaten. In fact, even in the Old Testament, this was the case. Leviticus speaking to Master says:
You shall not rule over him, that is your servant, ruthlessly, but you shall fear God.
In fact, it's the exact same thing that Paul is saying here. He says, you don't have the right to simply do whatever you want. You need to recognize God stands over you, right? If you are the boss, you don't get to do whatever you want. In fact, God is watching very carefully how you use your position to honor him. Colossians puts it this way:
Masters, treat your bond servants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a master in heaven.
If you're the one in charge. It means you are actually called to seek what is just and what is fair for those who are working for you. So is that what you're doing? Are you fair to your employees? Are you making sure that you are paying them on time, that you're paying them what you had agreed to pay them and not cutting a few corners, not adding on a couple extra fees? Are you treating your employees well? Treating them as human beings actually looking out for their needs, are you setting them up well so that they can succeed in what you've asked them to do? Are you paying attention to what's going on? Or do you think that your position is simply one that you get to tell other people what to do? Hear me, it's far more responsibility to take on and far more will you show what God's leadership is like.
Once again, people are going to look at you, especially if you are the boss, if you have people working under you and they find out that you are a Christian, how much more will they look to how you act to show them something of Jesus? Works so well that they can see the example of Jesus. In fact, Jesus calls us to a model to follow. When he's talking to his disciples, this is what he says:
So Jesus called them to him and said, You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. That shall not be so among you. Whoever would be great among you must be your servant. Whoever would be first among you must be slave of all, for even the son of man came not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.
The example of leadership in the Bible is service, right? We saw this when we talked about husbands and wives. Husbands were called to lead and sacrifice for their wives. So if you are the one who has authority in the workplace, you are called to lead in service like Jesus led. Don't come down with anger. Don't be yelling, belittling, threatening your employees. That's not what Jesus has done for you. Rather come ready to serve. Maybe it means you're the one who sweeps up at the end of the day. You're the one who cleans the dishes in the staff kitchen room, or you're the one plunging the toilet at the end of the day. Look, how can you lead in your service? This is what Jesus has done for us. Are we willing to follow the example of Jesus? Are you putting him on display in your work?
All of us are gonna spend thousands of hours at work. This is a huge part of our lives and it is not wasted time. It's not wasted effort to show the world around us what God is like and how he has created us to function. It's not wasted time to reflect his character shown in our workmanship, whatever it might be. We're not seeking to honor ourselves. We're not looking at pleasing people, we're looking at honoring God to making his name seem great and how we work for those who are over us, how we reflect God's leadership in our own life as we lead. Seeking his reward not from a job but from God Himself.
Let's pray together. Oh our heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you so much for Your word that speaks to so many different areas and aspects of our lives, and thank you, Lord, for the example that you set before us, for the example of Jesus who came to serve, who came to lead by his example, his sacrifice for us, that we could actually come before you, that we could be forgiven because of what Jesus has done. Father, thank you for the example of Jesus. Lord, would you empower us by your Holy Spirit that we would show what Jesus is like? Father, I pray that as tomorrow, as we go to work, as we step back into our jobs, would we have eyes that are fixed on honoring you. In the words that we say to our co-workers, to those around us, in how we serve, and how we work, in what we produce, Lord, would all of it reflect your glory? Would it honor you? Father, we long that no part of our life might be wasted or missed, but rather that we could show what you are like every hour of every day. Lord, I pray, go before us. Give us the strength to be able to accomplish all that you have given to us. Thank you, Lord, for the forgiveness of Jesus and the blessing of the Holy Spirit. We ask all these things in your name. Amen.