One of my favorite cartoons in the Sunday paper is Dilbert. It’s a spoof on the contemporary office scene, created by Scott Adams. Some time ago, he wrote a book, called The Dilbert Principle, which contains “Dilbert’s Laws of Work”: Don't be irreplaceable. If you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted. When you don't know what to do, walk fast and look worried. Everything can be filed under “miscellaneous.” If you are good, you will be assigned all the work. If you are really good, you will get out of it. If it wasn't for the last moment, nothing would get done. Keep your boss's boss off your boss's back. Eat one live toad the first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day. (Leadership, Vol. 17, no. 4; www.PreachingToday.com)
It seems to me there has to be a better way to winning at work than Dilbert’s Laws of Work. And sure enough, there is! It is God’s Laws of Work, found in the Bible.
So if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to the book of Colossians towards the end of your New Testaments, Colossians 3, Colossians 3, where we find God’s Laws for winning at work.
Colossians 3:22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. (NIV)
Now, when you and I see the word, “slave,” we usually think about the raced-based oppression of African slaves during the 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries in our own country. But that was not the case at all in Bible days. Murray Harris, in his book Slave of Christ, describes what slavery was like in the 1st century Greco-Roman world.
Number one, he says, in that time slaves were not distinguishable from anyone else by race, speech, or clothing. They looked and lived like everyone else and were never segregated off from the rest of society in any way.
Number two, slaves were more educated than their owners in many cases and many times held high managerial positions. (cf. Joseph managing Potiphar’s household)
Number three, from a financial standpoint, slaves made the same wages as free laborers and therefore were not themselves usually poor. In fact, they often accrued enough personal capital to buy themselves out. &
Number four, very few persons were slaves for life in the first century. Most expected to be set free after about ten years or by their late thirties at the latest. (Murray Harris, Slave of Christ, IVP, 2001; www.PreachingToday.com)
So you see, slaves in Bible days were a lot like the common laborer today. And what God says to them can apply to any of us, employee or employer alike, who work for a living. So what does God say to us workers? It’s very simple.
OBEY YOUR EARTHLY BOSS.
Listen to what he or she tells you to do and do it. Pay attention to the direction he or she gives you and follow it as best as you can. By the way, this works with school-teachers as well. Just do what they say even when they’re not looking.
Kevin Miller from Wheaton, Illinois, talks about a friend of his named Joe who does a lot of business traveling as an executive. One day when Joe was on a flight, he commented to himself, “I cannot believe this flight crew. They are the most attentive, responsive flight crew that I've ever seen.” So, toward the end of the flight, he stopped one of the flight crew members and said, “Excuse me, I don't mean to bother you, but I fly a lot, and I have never seen a flight crew this. You are the most engaged, enthusiastic, service-oriented flight crew that I've ever seen.”
The female flight attendant got a little smile on her face as she bent down and whispered to my friend Joe, “Thank you, sir, but for that you can thank the woman seated back there in 12B.” She paused, nodded her head slightly towards seat 12B, and continued: “You see, sir, the woman in seat 12B is the head supervisor for all of the flight attendants for our airlines. And she's on our flight!” (Kevin Miller, Wheaton, Illinois; www.PreachingToday.com)
It’s amazing how well people work when the boss is around, but God wants us to do our work well even when the boss is not around. God wants us to Do our work with an internal motivation out of respect for Him.
Verse 22 says, “Obey your earthly masters... not only when their eye is on you… but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.” Literally, with singleness of heart, fearing the Lord.
Warren Wiersbe says, “The heart of every problem is the problem of the heart,” and that includes our problems at work. The single motivation of our heart, as believers in Christ, should be to honor Christ. So if we want to win at work, then we must get our hearts right with God, seeking to glorify Him in everything we do, not just earn a paycheck.
Verse 17 starts this whole section, and it says, “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”
Everything we do, including our work, reflects on Christ’s name. I.e., it adds to or it takes away from His reputation. So when we do a good job as Christians, people say, “There must be something to this thing called following Christ; I’ll have to check it out.” But when we do a poor job as Christians, people say, “Well, if that’s what being a Christian is all about, then I don’t want anything to do with it.”
Tell me: What does the way you do your work day in and day out say about the Jesus you claim to follow?
Justin Martyr, a 2nd Century Christian apologist, once made an interesting observation about Jesus' work. In his day, over a hundred years after Jesus walked on this earth, he saw farmers still using plows made by Jesus. Theologian Os Guinness writes: “How intriguing to think of Jesus' plow rather than his Cross – to wonder what it was that made his plows and yokes last and stand out.” (Mark Earley, “The God of Wooden Plows,” Breakpoint Commentary, 4-7-04; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s the Jesus we serve, my friends. He did HIS work with excellence. How do we do OUR work?
As American Christians, we tend to elevate our work for the Lord above our regular work. But ALL of our work, on Sunday as well as Monday, is work for the Lord and His glory.
Reggie McNeal, a church consultant specializing in leadership development, talks about sitting on a bench on a beach boardwalk late one afternoon, resting after an hour long walk. He had passed a woman in a green uniform pushing a broom several times. She came toward his bench doing her meticulous sweeping of the sidewalk. Suddenly she stopped, wiped her forehead, and rested on her broom. Reggie called out to her: “You do a great job.”
“Thank you,” she replied. Then she added something that explained why the sidewalk behind her was spotless. “I just believe people want to walk on a clean sidewalk.”
Reggie says, “I was humbled to be in the presence of a worker who viewed her task with such significance. Whatever the park service was paying her, there's no way they could have demanded the excellence she brought to her work. That kind of motivation comes from within.” (Reggie McNeal, The Present Future, Jossey-Bass, 2003, p.98; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s how God wants us to do our work – with a singleness of heart, i.e. with a motivation that comes from within to glorify our Lord Jesus Christ in everything we do.
But somebody says, “That’s all well and good for those who have decent jobs and good bosses. But my job is terrible. My boss is unreasonable, and I can’t stand working for Him. How am I supposed to find the internal motivation to do a good job for somebody I can’t respect, or for customers who don’t respect me?” Well, the Bible is very clear here. Obey your earthly boss, but…
WORK FOR YOUR HEAVENLY BOSS.
Listen to your earthly master, yes, but labor for the Lord. Do your job primarily for God, not for your boss, not for your customers, and not for anybody else. Do your work for God, because He will pay you well, and working for God has benefits that are literally “out of this world!”
Colossians 3:23-24 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (NIV)
It is the Lord Christ you are serving even in your day-to-day work!
Colossians 3:25 Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism. (NIV)
Even when your earthly boss is unfair, God is fair and He has no favorites. So do your work for Him even if you can’t do it for your boss.
Many years ago, a Chicago bank was looking to hire a young man working for a Boston Investment House, so they asked the investment house for a letter of recommendation. Well, the Boston firm could not say enough about the young man. “His father,” they wrote, “was a Cabot; his mother was a Lowell. Further back was a happy blend of Saltonstalls, Peabodys, and others of Boston's finest families.” They recommended him without hesitation.
Even so, the Chicago bank back sent a note rejecting the recommendation and asking for more information. It read: “We are not contemplating using the young man for breeding purposes. Just for work.” (Kathleen Peterson, Chicago, Illinois, Leadership, Vol. 5, no.1; www.PreachingToday.com)
Often, advancement in our work depends not on WHAT you know, but on WHO you know. It depends not on the quality of the job you are doing, but on your connections. Well, that is not the case with God. There is no favoritism with God. He is no respecter of persons, so count on him to treat you fairly and well even if your boss doesn’t.
You see, that’s what gives us the motivation to do even a crummy job well. It is the LORD CHRIST you are serving in that work, and He is worthy of our best efforts, even if your boss isn’t.
In his book Leading Across Culture, James E. Plueddemann reflects on an experience he had during his high school days that taught him the value of doing a job well. At that time, he worked at a Christian camp under the direction of an outstanding leader named Hiram “Hi” Johnson.
One day, they worked until dark trying to finish a staff house before the camp season started. Plueddemann writes, “My shirt was soaked with sweat, and my hands blistered from shoveling sand around the foundation. I was beginning to feel sorry for myself when Hi Johnson strode around the corner of the building. He watched what we were doing for a while and then quietly reminded us that the staff, who were moving into this house, would be a big help to the camp.”
Then Hi Johnson said something that Plueddemann says he will never forget: “Your shoveling will, in the long run, be used of the Lord to bring a lot of campers to Jesus.” Plueddemann says, “We started shoveling with a renewed sense of purpose. Now we were not just a bunch of dirty, sweaty high school kids tired of shoveling mud. We were instruments of God Almighty to bring people to himself. What a lesson in leadership!” Pluddemann comments. “Our view of the task shifted from shoveling sand to building the kingdom.” James E. Plueddemann, Leading Across Culture, InterVarsity Press, 2009, p. 33; www.PreachingToday.com)
Do you want a renewed sense of purpose in YOUR work? Then shift your view of your work. You are not just shoveling sand; you are building the Kingdom of God by the way you represent Christ in your work, no matter what it is.
If you want to win at work, obey your earthly boss with an internal motivation that comes only when you work for your heavenly boss. And if you are a boss with people working for you, then make sure you…
TREAT YOUR EMPLOYEES FAIRLY.
Give them what is rightfully theirs. Make sure their experience at work is just and equitable. Create the kind of atmosphere on the job where all your employees feel that they have been treated with equal fairness.
Colossians 4:1 Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven. (NIV)
In other words, treat your employees as you want your Boss in haven to treat you.
Jack and Pete Herschend were only in their twenties when in 1960 they sat down on a log bench behind a church in Branson, Missouri. They had what Pete called “a board meeting,” just the two brothers, and decided that they would be accountable to Christ in their new business just getting started.
“We were baby Christians,” Pete said, “but we decided we needed to look our Lord in the eye in terms of our business and do our best.” That's where they coined the phrase, “Making decisions with Christ in the room.”
That was the beginning of a world-class entertainment enterprise, now operating in three states, with more than 5,000 employees. The flagship property is Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri, a theme park which attracts more than 2 million visitors a year. Their other theme parks include Dollywood in Tennessee and Stone Mountain in Georgia, with over 8 million annual visitors total in all three attractions.
Even though the financial success of their theme parks turns heads in the business community, the Herschend’s will tell you that their greatest blessing is not the money, but news of people’s lives being changed. This often happens after a Young Christians Weekend. On one occasion, Pete said, “A youth leader called to report, ‘I had five kids who accepted the Lord on the way home.’” Then he added, “When you think about the opportunity – 900 kids made a commitment to Christ during the weekend – that's awesome. That's what Silver Dollar City was built for.” (Lucas S. Roebuck, “Coaster Thrills and Mountain Skills,” Christian Reader, Jul/Aug 2001, pp. 50-51; www.PreacingToday.com)
Now, I tell you this story not to promise financial success if you let Jesus run your business. That’s not the point, because our true reward is not “on earth where moth and rust destroy” (Matthew 6:19). It’s “in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:20). No, it’s not about making money.
I tell you this story, because Jack and Pete’s attitude in running their business reflects the kind of attitude God wants every Christian businessman to have, successful or not. They decided from the very beginning to make all their business decisions as if Christ was in the room. Now, Jack will be the first to tell you that they haven’t always made the right decisions, but their intent was to make decisions that Christ himself would make if He was right there with them in the boardroom. They knew who their real Boss was, and they attempted to run their business and treat their employees accordingly.
Like I said, I cannot promise you financial success if you do this, but I can promise that your work will have a whole lot more meaning, and you will create an atmosphere where employees can thrive.
Do you want to win at work? Then obey your earthly boss, but work for your heavenly Boss. Put Christ at the center of your work, then you will find purpose and peace at the center of your life.
Gordon Dahl put it well when he said, “Most middle-class Americans tend to worship their work, to work at their play, and to play at their worship. As a result, their meanings and values are distorted. Their relationships disintegrate faster than they can keep them in repair, and their life-styles resemble a cast of characters in search of a plot.”
My dear friends, as we leave this place, let’s make sure our worship of Christ continues even in our places of work. Don’t worship your work. Instead, worship Christ in your work, and so find purpose in life and peace in your relationships.
