Colossians 3:22-23

“You slaves must always obey your earthly masters, not only trying to please them when they are watching you but all the time; obey them willingly because of your love for the Lord and because you want to please Him. Work hard and cheerfully at all you do, just as though you were working for the Lord and not merely for your masters” (Liv)

I suppose many in America have been watching the news reports about a certain actress who has been sentenced to jail for her failure to obey previous court judgements. What’s stood out to me is her protests that she is doing what she was supposed to do. Obviously the judge disagreed. But it made me think of many of my students who will do what they think is the minimum required and then protest when they find that the minimum (what they thought was the minimum) was simply not enough.

We have created a society where we think that doing the minimum is enough, in fact, more than enough. Rather than strive to do our best, we seem to want to reserve our resources for other endeavors and, instead, are only willing to give the minimum to others. This certainly isn’t the will of the Lord for the Lord wants us to give our best—even more than our best—to others as if we were giving to Him. Paul admonishes us to “obey [our masters] willingly because of our love for the Lord and because we want to please Him” (v. 22). The fact is, even though very few exist as true slaves these days, we are partial slaves. When we are at work or at school, we are not our own; we are, in a sense, slaves to those who rule over us, our masters whether those masters are our bosses or our teachers.

What Paul says is interesting in its completeness. He says: “You must always obey your earthly masters.” The sense isn’t that we are to do those things that are illegal (if they are asked of us), but rather, as the verse concludes, that we are to obey them even when they aren’t looking. So, even when our bosses don’t expect our best, we are still suppose to give it. We are to “work hard and cheerfully at all we do.”

The NKJV has an interesting translation: “obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart.” Not with eyeservice. In other words, not just for what others might see (and then commend us to), but as unto the One Who sees all we do. We are to work hard, to do our best, because ultimately we serve God.

The Lord Jesus always asks us to go the extra mile:

“If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away” (Matthew 5:40-42 NKJV)

The hardest workers, the most cheerful, the most committed . . . that should describe each of us all the time. We serve the King of Kings! There isn’t a better boss than He!

© 2010 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.