Whistle While You Work

Read Ephesians 6:1-24

“Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord,
not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone
for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.”
(Ephesians 6:7-8)

Thoughts… What is your attitude toward work? What does your attitude tell your co-workers, your supervisor, or if you are a boss, your employees about you? Do you go about your job as if Jesus were your boss or your customer?

If who we are as God’s chosen people is to show up in our work—and it should—then there are some important qualities that ought to characterize how we go about our jobs. Paul speaks to 4 of these qualities.

The very first thing that must characterize you is that you’ve got to consistently demonstrate right actions in your work. Verse 5 says, “Slaves, obey your earthly masters…

Some people have assumed the Bible is implicitly affirming slavery here. Not true! The Bible speaks in Exodus 21:16 against the kidnapping of anyone for the purpose of making them a slave. The Euro-American slave trade, which is such a moral blight on our national fabric, clearly violated Scripture.

Now the Bible doesn’t explicitly condemn slavery—or any other social malady—because it speaks primarily to the reformation of the heart. The Bible isn’t a book about the reformation of social institutions. But you get a heart reformed and you’ll see a society reformed. Most of the great reforms, including the abolition of slavery, began with spiritual awakening in the hearts of individual men and women.

The operative word here in this verse is obey. Grammatically, it’s in the present tense, indicating uninterrupted action. What’s the point? Obedience isn’t only to occur when the desire is there or when an employer is fair, generous and reasonable. Believers are to obey their earthly masters in everything and at all times, except when they’re told to do something that would violate God’s higher law.

When Paul wrote these words, one-third of the Roman Empire was enslaved. It was a social and economic way of life. There were doctors, lawyers, teachers and musicians who were slaves. But most were menial laborers who were nothing more than human tools. They had no standing or rights.

As the Gospel reached many of these slaves, they began to question if they needed to be subject to a cruel, unfair earthly master now that they had been freed by Christ and were submitted to God.

Paul’s answer was that through the message of grace being lived out through these slaves, the pure love of God would begin to transform Roman society…and it ultimately did. Authentic Christianity killed slavery with love, respect, honor and dignity. In the upside-down logic of God’s kingdom, obedience always rules the day!

So whether the boss is kind or cruel, believer or pagan, we are to be obedient because it’s God’s will. When you submit to your boss’ authority, it’s a literal and powerful witness of your submission to a higher authority and it releases God’s power to work on your behalf.

Second, you’ve got to go beyond right actions and display a right attitude in your work. Verse 5 continues by challenging us to do our work, “…with respect and fear, and sincerity of heart…”

It’s one thing to grit our teeth and obey. God wants it to come from the heart. The idea of fear is not of cowering fright and intimidation, but the honor for the position, if not the person you work for.

The attitude of sincerity refers to genuineness and thoroughness. Attitude shows up in reverence, authenticity and diligence.

Third, you are work with the right motives. The last part of verse 5 says, “Just as you would obey Christ.” Verses 7-8 go on to say, “Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.”

What should motivate your work? In truth, you are serving the Lord. You don’t work for Schwab or Chevron or McDonalds…you work for Jesus.

Nadia Boulanger, a pianist and teacher told the story of an old woman who cleaned her floors. The lady, Madame Duval, was 80 years old. One day she heard a knock at her door and it was Duval: “Mademoiselle, I know you don’t like to be disturbed, but the floor, come and see it; it shines!

Boulanger wrote, “In my mind, [the great violinist, Igor] Stravinsky and Madame Duval will appear before the Lord for the same reason. Each had done what he does with all his consciousness. When I said this to Stravinsky, who knew Madame Duval, he said, ‘How you flatter me, for when I do something, I have something to gain. But she, she has only the work to be well done.’”

What motivates you? Pay? Recognition? Or love, gratitude and obedience to Christ?

Fourth, you are to display right character in your work. Verse 6 tells us, “Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.”

Someone has said character is who you are in the dark. Integrity is who you are when no one’s looking.

Howard A. Stein wrote in Reader’s Digest of a retired friend who became interested in the construction of an addition to a shopping mall. Everyday he’d watch its progress, and he was especially impressed by the conscientious operator of a large machine.

One day the man had a chance to tell this equipment operator how much he’d enjoyed watching his scrupulous work. The operator was astonished: “You’re mean to tell me you’re not the supervisor?”

Character! Who are you when no one’s watching?

If you’ve ever gone through a tollbooth, you know that your relationship to the person in the booth isn’t the most intimate you’ll ever have. It’s a non-encounter: You hand over some money; you might get change; you drive off. You can go through every one of the booths on the Bay Bridge a thousand times, and never have an exchange worth remembering with anybody.

Dr. Charles Garfield wrote about an encounter that was memorable:

Late one morning, headed for lunch in San Francisco, I drove toward one of the booths, and I heard loud music. It sounded like a party, or a Michael Jackson concert. I looked around. No other cars had their windows open… I looked at the tollbooth. Inside it, the man was dancing. “What are you doing?” I asked.

“I’m having a party,” he said.

“What about the rest of these people?” I looked over at other booths; nothing moving there.

“They’re not invited.”

I had a dozen other questions for him, but somebody in a big hurry to get somewhere started punching his horn behind me and I drove off. But I made a note to myself: Find this guy again. There’s something in his eye that says there’s magic in his tollbooth.

Months later I did find him again, still with the loud music, still having a party. Again I asked, “What are you doing?”

He said, “I remember you from the last time. I’m still dancing. I’m having the same party.”

I said, “Look. What about the rest of the people…”

He said. “Stop. What do those look like to you?” He pointed down the row of tollbooths.

“They look like … tollbooths.”

“Nooooo imagination!”

I said, “Okay, I give up. What do they look like to you?”

He said, “Vertical coffins.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I can prove it. At 8:30 every morning, live people get in. Then they die for eight hours. At 4:30, like Lazarus from the dead, they remerge and go home. For eight hours, brain is on hold, dead on the job. Going through the motions.”

I was amazed. This guy had developed a philosophy… about his job. I couldn’t help asking the next question: “Why is it different for you? You’re having a good time.”

He looked at me. “I knew you were going to ask that. I’m going to be a dancer someday.” He pointed to the administration building. “My bosses are in there, and they’re paying for my training.”

Sixteen people dead on the job, and the 17th, in precisely the same situation, figures out a way to live. That man was having a party where you and I wouldn’t last 3 days.

He and I did have lunch later, and he said, “I don’t understand why anybody would think my job is boring. I have a corner office, glass on all sides. I can see the Golden Gate, San Francisco, the Berkeley hills; half the Western world vacations here … and I just stroll in every day and practice dancing.”

Where you work, you’re either dead on the job or your dancing for Jesus. What is it for you?

Prayer… Lord, I pray that the people I work with will clearly see you in the way that I work today…and for the rest of my life.

One More Thing… “There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in—that we do it to God, to Christ, and that’s why we try to do it as beautifully as possible.” —Mother Teresa