The Value Of Work

As a side note, that doesn’t just relate to those of you who earn a paycheck. We are talking about anybody who does any sort of work with their hands. It could be stay-at-home moms. It could be stay-at-home dads. It could be people that are involved in civic organizations, volunteer organizations. It could be a coach. It could be anybody who is working with kids. They have the ability to take that environment and to transform it by the power of the cross. When we do perform our work with excellence, with integrity, and with honesty, our work does become a form of worship. In fact, one of my favorite passages is Romans 12:1 because I really think it addresses this. Paul is writing and says “Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship.” That is what it is. He is saying take your whole life, your body and everything, and when you give it up to the Lord that is your ongoing spiritual act of worship. In other words, worship is not just confined to what you do on Sunday morning. It is what you do all the other hours of the week when you are out there in the workplace and homes and that sort of thing.

Now you say Chuck that is nice stuff, but it is a little bit too way up there for me. I need something practical. I need something more down to earth. I am going to work tomorrow and you haven’t been in my environment, and it’s not pretty. I’ll leave you with a few thoughts. First of all, if you are in a situation where you have a boss, whether you like him or not, you are there so you need to obey him or her. You do because it is a command. In other words you have a good attitude because you have to realize that the only reason he or she has authority is because God has placed that person in authority and has given that person a domain to look over. Your job is to go in there and be a good employee and do what the boss says and not only when the boss is looking at you but when the boss is not looking at you. If you are working at McDonald’s or whatever, don’t just clean up when the boss is coming around the corner. Clean up all the time because that becomes your spiritual act of worship. If you are a boss, make sure you are treating employees with respect. In fact, if we had time, we would go on and see in the Colossians passage that he speaks to the masters. He says you need to be nice to your people too. You do it out of reverence for God. It also pertains to how you contribute to the work environment. Work environments can be very negative. Unfortunately, Christians sometimes contribute to the negativity of the work environment. How? When you get engaged in office politics or gossip or back stabbing or whatever it is, you are contributing to that negative environment. You have to stop that and say I am not going to do that. I am different. Why? Because you have a different boss. Not because you are worried about getting written up by the earthly boss but because you have a higher boss that you are going to be reporting to. You have to make sure that you are creating a positive atmosphere and that you are responding correctly in obedience to your earthly boss.