Working to Please Christ and Not People

Kevitt worked like a Christian to please Christ and not people…and that’s what God especially wants us to consider in our passage this morning. Please turn in your bibles to Ephesians 6:5–9. That’s on page ________. We are continuing our annual theme of Building On Our Heritage as we work our way through the book of Ephesians.

As you are turning there I want to give some helpful background, as in the section of Ephesians relates to various relationships in the household. Husbands, wives, parents, and children, and specifically it address slaves and masters.

• - Slavery was a fabric of the sociopolitical world at the time of the Bible. One of the most common employment relationship in the Roman Empire was that of a slave/bondservant who worked for his master.

• o Those in slavery included as many as one-third of the population in the large cities such as Rome, Ephesus, Antioch, and Corinth.^[1]

• o Slaves served in a variety of occupations such as cleaners, personal attendants, cooks, house managers, fieldworkers, janitors, deliverers, ship builders, gardeners, gladiators, maintenance of land and properties, workers in industries like mining or farming, pavers, tutors, craftsman and also in a variety of civic realms and functions. So many received training in specialized skills.

• o The pervasiveness of slavery is assumed throughout the NT with many examples and stories involving slaves. For example, slaves are common figures in the Gospel parables (Mark 12:1-12; Matthew 21:33-44; Luke 20:9-18; Mark 13:33-37; Matt 13:24-30; 18:23-35; Matthew 22:1-14; Luke 14:15-24; Matthew 24:45-51; Luke 12:42-48; Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 19:12-27; Luke 12:35-38; 15:11-32; 16:1-8; 17:7-10).

• o In the Roman Empire you could become a slave from various sources, including war captives, debtors, criminals, and children born to slave parents. Many domestic slaves therefore could reasonably expect to be emancipated in their lifetime to purchase their freedom.

• o There are believing slaves and slaveowners in the church (cf. Philemon, 1 Tim 6:1–2).

• § 1 Cor 7; Eph 6; and Col 3

• But this would not have been the kidnapping and trafficking of human beings against their will. The New Testament suggests kidnapping and trafficking human beings against their will is sinful (1 Tim 1:10; Rev 18:11–13).

1 Cor 7:21 – “Were you called while a slave? Do not worry about it; but if you are able also to become free, rather do that.”

• - Paul urges the Christian Philemon to take Onesimus who was a slave back saying…

Philemon 15-16 – “For perhaps he was for this reason separated from you for a while, that you would have him back forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother”

• - So, for us living today, we may struggle to see these passages as relevant, but the principles do apply even though we have vastly different authority relationships in our work today, the principles can apply to our work ethic because they address motivations and purposes in our work ethic.

[READ Ephesians 6:5–9]

4 aspects of a Christian work ethic that pleases God.

I. Obey with an attitude of reverence as to Christ (v. 5)

Who we work for, impacts how we work.

Our Awe for that person, will influence our attitude as we work for them.

For example, I remember giving a presentation for all the employees of our family business about the new aircraft programs of our customers, and we showed an advertising video from one of the customers where Jackie Chan purchased his airplane. He is on the inside of the plane and is commenting about how great the interior of the plane is. Then he starts interacting with the products that our family business produces.

Immediately, one of the assemblers in the company said… “No way! Jackie Chan is using our lights and air valves…I hope I didn’t mess it up, because that would be scary if Jackie Chan came for me…”

Now of course he was making a joke, but he had a sense of awe and reverence for Jackie Chan, and it shaped his attitude that he wanted to make sure he did quality work knowing it was serving Jackie Chan.

God wants us to consider how we are obeying and working…Are we doing it…

v. 5 – “with fear and trembling”

The manner that I obey with fear and trembling in this verse is not because of the of fear and trembling of earthly leaders or masters and the dread that they can bring to my life…

God is not saying obey with an attitude knowing you are in presence of a boss who can make your life miserable if you don’t…or because I am afraid he is going to yell at me or he is going to fire me…

This is a with fear and trembling not because of your relationship to the earthly authority but because of your relationship to the Lord

“as to Christ.”

Our “Attitude of due reverence and awe in the presence of God.” – Peter T’Obrien.

Paul says something similar in Col 3 saying we obey not fearing men but…

Col 3:22 – “fearing the Lord.”

We need to change the audience we are working for…the audience of the Lord. His opinion matters the most and we are working in his presence…before the audience of the one and only Creator God.

Similarly, Paul urges the Philippian believers that even though he is not present…they have obeyed all the more in his absence…its because they are working with fear and trembling before the presence of the Lord. Their work is not ultimately based on the fact of whether Paul is present to oversee and manage them.

Phil 2:12 – So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling…

Gospel Related to Work:

Notice the good news about Jesus is not that we work with fear and trembling before Jesus Christ in order to be saved and be counted right in God’s eyes.

It’s not by the good works things we have done

Our good works don’t make us right with God

Jesus saved us.

It’s because of the mercy of the Righteous One.

Jesus who declares us righteous by faith,

based on the perfect and sinless life of Christ, his death in our place on the cross, and resurrection from the dead for our salvation so we can be declared righteous by him.

Only by faith in Christ we can enjoy working out our salvation…in all kinds of work because we are ultimately serving the Lord whom we love and adore.

We labor and obey because we revere Christ and his reputation…

His reputation even motivates us to have hope when we sin, fail, and we displease the Lord in our work. As the Psalmist says…

Psalm 130:4 – But there is forgiveness with You,
That You may be feared.

For some you may be overworking…you are not working with fear and trembling before Christ, and you have let the fear of men like your boss/employer take precedent over the Lord.

Or it could be the fear of fellow coworkers… “I can’t let them down…I don’t want them to think I don’t care…I don’t want to be viewed as less of a hard worker…” But you may be neglecting the good works that the Lord has for you to serve your spouse, children, and the Church.

So, the question…whose audience matters most to me? Whose opinion do I obey and revere the most? I obey with an attitude of reverence as to Christ and I…

II. Don’t perform just to please people when they are looking (v. 6a)

v. 6a – “not by way of eyeservice, as man-pleasers.”

Paul makes the same point to the Church in Colossae…

Don’t serve and work to attract the attention of people.

• First, people don’t see everything…you will be discouraged and disappointed if attracting people’s attention is your motivation.

• Consider the employee who is working hard to please their boss…then a manager or executive takes notice of another chooses to promote that other person.

• You might be tempted to despair…what’s the point…no one appreciates me and notices all the work I do…

• Our family went to a Dairy Queen, and on this particular day there was only one employee working the counter…He was doing it all…working hard…efficiently throwing the fries…setting the timers…while the burgers are cooking…he is just churning out blizzards, while he was calling on the phone asking where his co-workers were at…then the phone is ringing for someone wanting to order a birthday cake…I have no doubt the person in the drive-through line was probably a little disappointed that he had to wait longer than he wanted…But they didn’t see everything that we were watching as this man is just directing a culinary orchestra. If that man was working based pleasing only the people in the drive through…and he just packed up and went home because some people were not pleased…lots more people would have been impacted…we were sure thankful that he continued to work even though it was a hard-day and some people didn’t see that and appreciate that…

• It’s easy for our enjoyment and value that we place on our work to be tied to people and what they think and how they appreciate it…that was especially a temptation in my life when our children were born. To place value on the work that people could recognize, see, and often give feedback and appreciate, whereas my young children did not immediately satisfy this motivation and desire…I had to remind myself that these works done by faith with my children is a good and pleasing work.

• Martin Luther said…
  “What then does Christian faith say to this? It opens its eyes, looks upon all these insignificant, distasteful, and despised duties in the Spirit, and is aware that they are all adorned with divine approval as with the costliest gold and jewels. It says, “0 God, because I am certain that thou hast created me as a man and hast from my body begotten this child, I also know for a certainty that it meets with thy perfect pleasure. I confess to thee that I am not worthy to rock the little babe or wash its diapers. or to be entrusted with the care of the child and its mother. How is it that I, without any merit, have come to this distinction of being certain that I am serving thy creature and thy most precious will? 0 how gladly will I do so, though the duties should be even more insignificant and despised. Neither frost nor heat, neither drudgery nor labour, will distress or dissuade me, for I am certain that it is thus pleasing in thy sight.”….“Now you tell me, when a father goes ahead and washes diapers or performs some other mean task for his child, and someone ridicules him as an effeminate fool, though that father is acting in the spirit just described and in Christian faith…God, with all his angels and creatures, is smiling, not because that father is washing diapers, but because he is doing so in Christian faith.” Martin Luther, “The Estate of Marriage,” 1522 (Translated by Walther I. Brandt).

• You will not be as motivated and focused in your work and quality of your work when…you start comparing yourself and their performance…

• And be discouraged and lose heart because it just doesn’t seem right or fair or equal in your mind.

Jesus gives a better way to enjoy our work…you are serving him and he never misses a thing and he always judges righteously.

• So, do you find yourself working harder and more focused only when your boss walks into the room?

• Do you take the initiative to seek to serve well primarily because there is some kind of accountability or reporting that you must do because of the people around you who will measure your performance?

• Are you tempted that your sense of identity and worth in each day is connected to whether or not people recognize your success and productivity?

Paul makes a similar point to the church in Colossae that our work is not just external service to please people…

Col 3:22– “Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men”

For the Christian who is working by faith…there is an internal and attitude motivation to want to work for the Lord…A good/productive day is not tied to whether people appreciate and acknowledge you and your work.

Furthermore…

III. Do God’s will wholeheartedly as slaves of Christ (v. 5, 6b)

Verse 5 and 6 again focus on how we are to do our work…God cares about the inward purpose and motivation behind the things we do…

Christians are slaves of Christ…we were redeemed and purchased slavery to sin to be slaves of righteousness in Christ…

v. 5 – “in the sincerity of your heart”

That word sincerity has the sense that our work is carried out with integrity and singleness of purpose or motivation.

No false or ulterior motives. You serve Christ conscientiously. It’s easy for even good purposes/goals to supersede the primary purpose or motivation for our work, and to do all things by faith for the glory of God, whether we eat, drink, or work we are to obey God’s will for his glory.

For example…as a teacher I can let the purpose of student feedback and their perception of learning, impact the purpose of whether I am seeking to please God in my teaching.

To allow the goal of ease or comfort with my co-workers to supersede the goal of pleasing the Lord, when my work may at times involve addressing problems.

v. 6b – “as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart”

Again, verse six reminds us we seek to do God’s will from the heart…

• This is what we desire to do…to work out God’s will in our lives.

As Christians we understand the mystery of the will of God in Ephesians 1:9-10 that through Christ to reconcile all things… “the summing up of all things in Christ.”

So, as we engage in our work we want to view all our work in light of God’s work and will for our salvation…As a new creation in Christ Jesus created do good works in praise of God’s glorious grace.

So, we are to understand what the will of the Lord is…Eph 5:17…and not living foolishly…this includes his revealed will in the Word for how we are to work.

Especially the days when our work is hard…we feel the pains and curse of sin upon our work, where it seems pointless or fruitless…like our Savior who from the heart said…“not my will, but your will be done…” Luke 22:42

“Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.” John 4:34

Remember on those tough days, you are serving a Master who said these words while living in this sin-cursed world…and he went first…and I am not greater than my master and now I get to follow in his steps…doing hard things to please God.

There are many brothers and sisters that we can be praying for and encouraging in our church family who are serving heartily the Lord loved ones who are sick, some on hospice, others dealing with hard effects of cancer.

They are tired…some days are tough…many of things they are doing none of us will see…and in many cases the loved one may not be able to even recognize or communicate the appreciation…but why do they do it…they see themselves as slaves of Christ. It’s what Christ would do. And doing his will is their desire…and they work heartily…from the heart…to love others in their suffering. Like Paul said…

Col 3:23 – “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men.”

Lastly, a Christian work ethic seeks to…

IV. Serve willingly and eagerly as to the Lord (v. 7)

v. 7 – “With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men”

We should zealously desire to render service to God…again there is a sense of eagerness for us to work for the Lord.

Notice throughout these verses the LORD is the audience. Our relationship to the Lord governs our motivations and actions for our work.

The temptation for us in our work is to make people the determining factor for why and how we serve. Human people are not the motivating factor for the Christian work ethic.

• The “lack of qualified people” in the organization you work for should not affect the quality and way you seek to work to do God’s will.

• We cannot blame our lack of eagerness in our work on the character of the people around us…that’s an issue of our relationship with the Lord.

Col 3:24 – “It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.”

What “people” excuses are you using to justify the lack of good will/eagerness you have in the good works you get to do daily for God?

1 Peter 2:18–20 – “Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. For this finds favor…

Also, consider what might it look like for us to serve willingly and eagerly the body of Christ knowing we are serving the Lord?

• Living Nativity

• Trunk or Treat

• Tech Team etc.

What reasons does God give us for this way of working as a Christian?

Knowing the Lord sees and rewards whatever good thing each one does. (v.8)

Work to please the Lord and not people, because the Lord sees everything, the things that no human being could possibly see, understand, and recognize the Lord does. And better than the work promotion, or bonus, or recognition by my employer or fellow coworkers is the receiving back the reward of the inheritance that we are promised from the Lord.

“knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free.”

I remember my grandfather worked 40 years at one company. Pretty rare these days. He experienced I believe it was three buyouts and company changes and management shifts and personnel redistribution and employee redeployment plans…When he retired most the people he had worked the longest time with had left…and if you looked at the recognition or reward given to 40 years of work…for the reward that was given in recognition…he could have probably thought… “that reward does not seem like I received back fairly for whatever good thing I did…” However, he was joyful, cheerful because that was never his motivation for work…it wasn’t about pleasing people and whether others took notice…He looked at is life through the lens of servant of Christ…and regularly considered what Jesus experienced and what he received back from people, and that Jesus was focusing on entrusting his care to God and knew the Lord would vindicate. He knew…

Col 3:24– “knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance”

An inheritance that is unfading and undefiled and kept in heaven for you. For those who oversee or manage others, the gospel of Jesus changes the way we work…

B. Remembering God is everyone’s Master (v. 9)

v. 9 – “And masters, do the same things to them, and give up threatening knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven”

For those in positions of authority, we are to treat those who are under our leadership in view of how our Master Jesus. We are not to threaten to harm someone particularly if certain conditions are not met. So, when someone wrongs us even in our work, makes it more difficult, treats you unjustly. Do not threaten to harm them.

When Jesus suffered he did not threaten…while suffering he did not say he would make them suffer…Vengeance belongs to the Lord, because we work…

C. Understanding God shows no favoritism (v. 9)

v. 9 – “there is no partiality with Him.”

Col 3:25 – “For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.”

Let’s pray.

[1] S.S. Bartchy, “Slavery,” In The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, rev. ed., ed. Geofrrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1988), 881–83.