The Spirit-filled Employee

“Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ; not by way of eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.  With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free.” (Ephesus 6:5-8).

            What must we do when our employer mistreats us and unfair to us?  What if s/he is crooked and wrongfully accuses us?  Should we defend ourselves? Should we move the job?      

            This Wednesday, during the Wednesday night prayer meeting, I preached the message based on Ecclesiastes 10:1-4 (Title: Let us not demonstrate ourselves that we are a fool).  One of the instructions King Solomon gave to us was that we must not fight against (resist) the ruler (v.4).  Rather, we must not abandon our position.  And I applied this instruction to our job in which we must not abandon our position event though our employer is angry at us and unfairly mistreats us.  The reason is so that we may not commit great sin(s) against the Lord.  Two days later (Friday), one of the sisters in Christ emailed me about her deep struggle in her job.  She was accused by her co-worker and customers wrongfully.  And they don’t want to hear her side and let her explain.  More she works hard; it seems to here that she is being attacked more.  What a frustration!  Who wants to work more in that kind of environment in which your co-worker(s) wrongfully accuse you?  After I received her email, that Friday night I decided to meditate on Ephesus 6:5-8 because I believe that the Bible tells us what to do in those kinds of circumstances.  What does the Bible says?

            The Bible says that we, the employee, must do the will of God from the heart (v.6).  In other words, we “as slaves of Christ” must know what God’s will is and do His will from our heart.  But the problem is we don’t know what God’s will is.  That’s why we pray to God for Him to teach us what His will is.  But the problem is instead of praying like Jesus “Yet not as I will, but as your will” (Mt.26:39), we pray for our will to be done no matter what.  You see, we are not praying right.  As we pray, we must let our will go and ask God for His will to be done.  But we refuse to give up our will even when we are praying to God.  As a result, there are more frustrations and struggles.  And we tend to commit greater sins against God and thus we give occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme (2 Sam.12:14).  Then, how should we pray?  I think we should pray humility and willingness to be obedient to whatever God tells us to do.  And God is telling us today through Ephesus 6:5-8 that we must be obedient to our employers (v.5, Col.3:22).  Then you may ask, ‘How about if my employer is really mean and bad?’  The Bible says in 1 Peter 2:18 that we must submit ourselves to our employers (“masters”) with all respect, “not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.”  Here, the word “harsh” means “crooked”, “rebellious”, “unjust”(Rev. Yune Sun Park).  This means that even if our employers are crooked, rebellious and unjust and thus we are mistreated by him or her, we must be obedient to him or her.  Why?  Why do we must be obedient even to our unjust and crooked employers?  The reason is because if we suffer for doing good ad we endure it, this is commendable before God (1 Pet.2:20).  Another reason is because we are called to suffer for doing good.  Look at what Apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 2:21 – “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps).  We must follow in Jesus’ steps.  We are called to suffer for Christ.  Are we being faithful to our calling in our work place?  Or are we keep on seeking for comfort in this world? 

God’s will for us, the employee, is to be obedient to our employers.  Now the question is “How?”.  How should we be obedient to our employers?  First, we must obey our employers with respect and fear (v.5).   But one of our justifications in disobeying our employers is that “I CANNOT respect my employer.”  But I don’t think the Lord wants us to just be obedient to our employers who are respectable.  I think the Lord wants us to be obedient even to those employers whom we cannot respect at all.  In order to do that, we must have reverence for the Lord (Col.3:22).  The reason is that we cannot respect and fear our employers without having reverence for the Lord.  Second, we must obey our employers with sincerity of heart (or with singleness of heart) (v.5, Col.3:22).  Here, what does sincere heart mean?  It means honest heart or simple heart.  If we don’t have honest heart, we will obey our employers only with eye-service (v.6).  Also, we will become “men-pleasers” (v.6) instead of “God-pleasers”.  That’s why Apostle Paul says we must obey our masters “not by way of eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart” (v.6).  This is also what he says in 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.”  In other words, we must not go through the visible movements of work without any personal commitment to it in order only to attract our employer’s attention.  That’s why Paul says that we must obey our employers “as to the Lord” (v.7, see v.5, Col.3:23).  This is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7:22-23: “For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord’s freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ’s slave.  You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.”  You see, in order for us to obey our employers as to the Lord, we must not become slaves of men.  Why?  It is because we are “slaves of Christ” (v.6).  Third, we must serve our employers wholeheartedly as if we are serving the Lord (v.7).  We must work.  We must do good (v.8, Col.3:23).  How can we do that?  We can do that by “knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free” (v.8).  The Lord will reward us.  And the reward is “an inheritance” (Col.3:24).  We will receive the inheritance from the Lord not as slaves but as God’s children. 

We, as the employee, received the instruction from the Lord concerning the things that we must do to our employers.  We must do the will of God from the heart.  And the will of God is for us to be obedient to our employers, even though our employers are harsh.  And in order to fulfill God’s will for us in our job, we must be filled with the Holy Spirit (Eph.5:18).  And when we are filled with the Spirit, we can obey our employers with respect and fear.  We can obey them with sincerity of heart.  And when are filled with the Holy Spirit, we can serve our employers wholeheartedly as if we are serving the Lord.  May God receive glory from us in our job!

With desire of becoming the Spirit-filled servant of the Lord,

James Kim