Doing Your Job For The Lord

Doing Your Job for the Lord

Ephesians 6:5-9

Rev. Brian Bill

May 18-19, 2024

Howard Hendricks, a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, did a lot of flying for speaking engagements, was asked by American Airlines to write critiques about his flight experiences. He wrote about one trip where the flight attendant did a terrific job. The flight had been delayed, there was lots of turbulence, several babies cried the entire time, and a very drunk and obnoxious man was loud and demanding. The attendant just kept smiling and treated everyone politely.

After the plane landed, he stopped to tell her he was going to write some good things about her. She replied, “Well, Dr. Hendricks, I don’t work for American Airlines.” Noticing his puzzled look, she continued, “I’m a Christian and I work for Jesus Christ.”

Here’s our main idea today: See your work as a way to worship and witness for the Lord. Let’s jump right into our text from Ephesians 6:5-9. As we read it, I want us to pay close attention to how each verse challenges us to do our jobs for Jesus Christ.

Recognizing we have many retired people here who might be tempted to disengage from the message, you could apply this passage this way: See your time as a way to worship and witness for the Lord. This also applies to students: See your studying as a way to worship and witness for the Lord.

5 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, 8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. 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 that there is no partiality with him.

Before unpacking this passage, it’s important to understand that slavery was an accepted institution in the Roman world, where up to one-half of the population were slaves. Some have criticized Paul for not condemning slavery directly, but he did address both slaves and masters and showed them how their faith in Christ should radically change how they relate to one another. Here and in other places in the Bible, he addresses them as equal before Christ and valued members of the body of Christ. As people came to understand the Bible’s teaching on the dignity of life and the personhood of every image bearer, the gospel message ultimately led to the cessation of slavery.

I appreciate one pastor’s insight: “Though Scripture doesn’t focus on reforming ungodly systems like slavery, it does focus on reforming the root of these systems – the human heart.”

The website Got Questions puts it like this: “Biblical teaching is an inherent contradiction to racism and oppression, and like a solvent eating away at a material, the Bible progressively weakened those sins’ acceptance in society…biblical ideals led to the abolition of practices that every other culture in history had embraced, such as slavery.”

While slavery in the Roman Empire was different from what went on in our country, slavery in America was a deplorable disgrace. It was horrific, cruel, and dehumanizing. Reprehensibly, some Christians used Scripture to justify slavery, and the church did not always stand up or speak out. At the same time, it was Christians who led the charge to overthrow slavery as verses like Galatians 3:28 took hold in their hearts: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Slavery is sinful in all its forms, including the modern-day slavery of human trafficking. Racism is wrong and antisemitism is sinful, including the taking of American and Israeli hostages by Hamas. It’s important to stand for Israel and against the terrorist group Hamas, while also praying for innocent Palestinians. The gospel is the only answer, to the Jew first and also the Greek.

Because there were so many slaves in the Roman Empire, there were lots of slaves and masters in the new churches. While Paul challenged bondservants and masters to see their roles as a way to worship God, we can apply this passage to employees and employers in the workplace today.

A recent Gallup study called “The State of the Global Workplace,” found workers are experiencing staggering rates of dissatisfaction and disengagement. Sixty percent of people reported being emotionally detached at work and 19% said they are miserable. Only 33% reported feeling engaged. In the U.S. specifically, 50% of workers reported feeling stressed at their jobs on a daily basis, 41% are worried, and 18% are angry.