Ephesians 6:5 Bondservants, 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 bondservants 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 anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is 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 that there is no partiality with him.
All our work is really done unto the Lord, not unto man. “Grace makes us the servants of God while still we are the servants of men: it enables us to do the business of heaven while we are attending to the business of earth: it sanctifies the common duties of life by showing us how to perform them in the light of heaven.” (Spurgeon)
I have to say my father did a great job of raising us. He taught us to work. I am not quite sure how he did this because at the time we certainly were not saying thanks dad for making us do what seems meaningless. At ten years old he stopped our ten cents per week allowance and said you are old enough to work for your own money. This meant a 7 day per week morning paper route, mowing lawns in the summer, raking lawns in the fall, and shoveling snow in the winter. I certainly did not think all of this was fun when friends of mine were out doing kid stuff. But over my life, I have seen both those who love to work and those who do not. It is good to have a mind that enjoys work. There is no task too big, no work too hard, no weather too bad. It allows us to face work with desire rather than dread. But still, there is something missing. Work as if onto the Lord. We have all had jobs that seemed to suck the life out of us – why is that? The task, the supervisor, our attitude can all rob us of the joy we can find in work. Yet Paul says even if you are a slave you should work as if it is onto the Lord and in this, you will have the right attitude, inner peace, and a reward. With the right attitude/reason all work can be rejoiced in.
