WHATEVER YOU DO

Photo By: ndboy (Creative Commons)

Colossians 3:23-24

^“23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, ²⁴ since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving (NIV).”

How many times have you read that verse and applied it to your J-O-B?

1? 10? 50? 100?

If you’re like me, you’ve probably done it more times than you care to remember. And the truth is, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that application.

We need to work our J-O-Bs as though we’re working for God because the fact of the matter is, we are. Everything we do is for his glory and His honor – rather it should be for those reasons. The better we do our jobs, the harder we work the more we can point to God when someone asks us “why”.

Why do you work so hard? Why do you pick up trash? Why do you get here on time every day and often leave late?

Because it honors God – is one thing you can say.

Unfortunately, there is an area of our lives that often goes unaffected by these scriptures- our work for God’s church.

Now, I am only speaking in general terms as it pertains to the building that we all mistakenly refer to as “the church” but that is one of the places where I don’t think we fully apply Colossians 3:23-24.

If you are not a “paid” staff member – and I have zero issues with paid staff members – how much time to you honestly put into your particular area of ministry?

Do you teach a Sunday school class? How much time do you spend preparing to teach? Do you lead worship? How much time do you spend practicing with your voice or instrument? Rock babies, teach children, serve food, direct traffic, greet people in the morning – where ever you serve can you honestly say you work “as to the Lord”?

Let me help you with the honesty portion of today’s program – I do not, not always. I certainly don’t every week. How sad it that? How can I NOT do my best – when serving the needs of the body or worse – those that are potentially a part of the body? What do they see? What do they think?

Ouch!

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God (NIV).”

“WHATEVER YOU DO” – that covers a boatload of ground does it not?

Here’s what I am taking away from my little revelation – feel free to take the same thing – of course if you get something else out of this I would REALLY appreciate a comment or two – if I am not working toward making myself better at what it is I do – be it my J-O-B, my writing or the responsibilities I have at the building where I go to worship – then I am failing God and I think maybe even lying to him a little, at the very least, lying to myself.

Now I don’t want to hurt your feeling but so are you.

It could be a matter of reading your lesson before Sunday morning. Maybe stay up an extra hour one night and work on some scales. Maybe read a book about your profession or your passion – especially if you’re trying to make a run at turning that into some kind of ministry that allows you to make a living glorifying God.

In both places the words that Paul used are translated the same way – he gave you no wiggle room, no place to go, no escape route and no “Get Out of Doing Your Work” free card – WHATEVER YOU DO.

WHATEVER YOU DO

So, be honest, do you have some work to do this week? I KNOW I do. Let’s talk about it.