THE CHRISTIAN WORKER

“Servants, be obedient to them that are yourmasters according to the flesh,
with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;
Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ,
doing the will of God from the heart; With good will doing service, as to theLord, and not to men:
Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive ofthe Lord,
whether he be bond or free” (Ephesians 6:5–8).

Many of us will spend a large proportion of our time each day and week at ourwork places. It is not surprising therefore that the Scripture gives us manynumerous clear instructions on how we are to conduct ourselves and whatattitude we are to adopt at the work place. The above paragraph, by the ApostlePaul, is particularly relevant in this regard.

Paul was no doubt addressing slaves rather than the modern employees, since theword translated “servant” is the Greek doulos, which usually refersto a slave or bondman. However, in those days a large proportion of thepopulation were slaves, and slavery then would be almost equivalent toemployment in our current context. For this reason, Paul’s instructions tomasters are directly applicable to employers and his instructions to slaves aredirectly applicable to employees.

In this article, we want to study particularly, the attitude that Christianemployees,—which most of us are,—ought to adopt in the work place. For thepurpose of simplicity and immediate application let me recommend four imperativesfrom the text.

Be Obedient

Firstly, it is important that an employee be obedient towards his employer orthe superiors appointed by his employer over him. The Apostle Paul says:“Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh”(Eph 6:5a). For slaves, obedience is imperative. Slaves are to obey theirmasters whether they like it or not. Paul adds in Colossians 3:22, that theyare to “obey in all things.” Employees ought similarly to obey their employers,not just on account of the analogy between the slave-master andemployee-employer relationship, but also on account of the fact that theScripture does enjoin us to be subject to any authority appointed over us byGod (Rom 13:1). Of course, as a general principle, our obedience to man, mustonly be to the extent that we would not be disobeying God (cf. Acts 4:19;5:29). In other words, any instruction that might cause us to violate ourconscience and convictions, which are bounded to the Word of God, must bedisobeyed.

A secretary must not obey her manager’s instruction to tell anyone who callsthat he is out meeting clients, when he is in fact in his room practising golf.She must remember that she has a master,—the Lord Jesus Christ,—who is muchhigher than her boss, who would certainly not want her to tell a lie. AChristian quality control engineer in an aircraft repair workshop or a medicalequipment factory should not obey his supervisor’s instructions not to be sothorough with his inspection so that there be no costly bottlenecks. He mustremember that by his negligence, he could become guilty of breaking the SixthCommandment.

Apart from this exception, the Christian employee must obey his superiors. Heought to obey regardless of whether he thinks his superior is beingunreasonable. The Apostle Peter puts it this way: “Servants, be subject to yourmasters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to thefroward” (1 Pet 2:18). And naturally, we should obey not grudgingly, butwholeheartedly. We must obey as unto the Lord, as Paul puts it: “And whatsoeverye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men” (Col 3:23).

What about instructions that are not against God’s Laws, but are economicallyunsound, or unproductive or embarrassing to the employee? In such cases, Iwould recommend that you should discuss the instructions with your superiors.Christian employees should not take it upon their hands to disobey anythingexcept that which involves ethical compromises.

Be Respectful

Secondly, and going hand-in-hand with obedience is that the Christian employeemust be respectful. Paul suggests this by qualifying his command to be obedientwith the adverbial phrase, “with fear and trembling” (Eph 6:5b).

Now, this instruction is of course not to be taken literally, as if we shouldbe terrified and tremble at the sight of our employers or superiors. Some newemployees, who are of a timid sort, might literally do so. But this is not whatPaul means. Rather, Paul is using a hyperbolic expression, by which heintimates that slaves or employees are often forgetful about their subordinateposition, and so have little or no respect for their superiors. He calls us,therefore, to obey not just as a matter of duty and routine, but rather to holdour superiors in high esteem and to obey with respect from the heart.

Experience shows us that it may sometimes be difficult to be respectful to oursuperiors. For example, it may be difficult to be respectful when we perceivethat our superiors are in fact less knowledgeable or perhaps less academicallyqualified than us. It may also be difficult to be respectful to someone who isunreasonable or unfair in his dealings with us.

However, we must remember that in so far as it is God who sets them in theposition of authority, that our being respectful to them is a duty towards God,which is not to be negated by circumstances and personal feelings. But thetemptation to be disrespectful may often be very great. May I suggest,therefore, that those of us who are inclined to be tempted in this regard,learn to cultivate respect for our superiors not only by focussing on theirprovidential appointment, but also by looking to their age and experience. Theyoungest of Job’s friends, Elihu, sets us a good example as far as the outwardpractice of respect goes, for he refrained speaking out of respect for hisolder friends, saying: “I am young, and ye are very old; wherefore I wasafraid, and durst not shew you mine opinion. I said, Days should speak, andmultitude of years should teach wisdom” (Job 32:6–7).

We must remember, moreover, that respecting our superiors at work, mean alsothat we must refrain from complaining about him behind his back. Anydifficulties which you have against your superiors, should be dealt with, asfar as possible, through personal consultation.

Once again, the temptation to resist complaining about our superiors may bedifficult. In the office, a demanding boss often become the “common enemy” ofthe staff, and boss-bashing becomes an activity which binds colleaguestogether. Anyone who refuses to join in these destructive conversations or,worst, attempts to defend the boss, may be regarded as currying favour andostracised by the rest of the staff. It is thus tempting to join in. Moreover,you may also be tempted to speak up if you perceive that you have alsoexperience similar injustice from the boss. Beloved, do no succumb. Rather,“Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know howye ought to answer every man” (Col4:6); and rather be persecuted for Christ’s and righteousness’ sake if needsbe. “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall sufferpersecution” (2 Tim 3:12), but “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, andpersecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for[Christ’s] sake” (Mt 5:11).

Be Wholehearted

The third attitude that we must adopt concerning our work and superiors at workis that of Christian sincerity. Christian sincerity has to dowith being honest and true or wholehearted towards another person or task forthe sake of Christ. Paul puts it as being “in singleness of your heart, as untoChrist; Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ,doing the will of God from the heart” (Eph 6:5c–6). Elsewhere, he says: “Andwhatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men” (Col 3:23).This verse ought to be memorised by every Christian employee. But each of thephrases that Paul uses in Ephesians 6 is graphically instructive and we would dowell to study them.

He tells us first, that we must have “singleness of… heart.” That is, we mustnot be double hearted: such as having an ulterior design in our beinghardworking. Some employees may work only for the sake of promotion andincrement, but the Christian must work with desire to do well out of not only asense of duty, but a desire to bear a good testimony.

He is to do so, secondly, “as unto Christ.” This is emphasised repeatedly inthe phrases “doing the will of God” and “as to the Lord, and not to men” (Eph6:7). That is, he must serve as if he is serving Christ who appointed hissuperiors to the position of authority by His providence. Moreover, Christiansare willing bond-slaves of Christ who ought to do all things for the glory of God(1 Cor 10:31). This thought ought to motivate every Christian to be the bestemployee: willing, uncomplaining, and putting his best effort according to hisability (cf. Eccl 9:10).

Thirdly, the Christian worker must serve “not with eyeservice.” In other words,he should not put on a show. Such may be the case if we do our work with asmile outwardly, but in the back of our mind, we are cursing and complaining.Eyeservice moreover extends to the result of our work. A janitor who succumbsto eyeservice will probably not sweep under the cupboards, and may in fact,conveniently sweep the dust in the room under the cupboard. Similarly asoftware programmer guilty of eyeservice may write codes that run without bugs,but are impossible to maintain because they are neither structured nor properlydocumented.

Fourthly, we must not be “menpleasers.” We should rather be God pleasers (cf.Gal 1:10). A menpleaser may, for example, make every attempt to be at workslightly earlier than his boss and leave slightly later, so that he appears tobe very hard-working. Similarly, a menpleaser may work very hard when the bossis in town, but take very long tea-breaks and lunch-breaks when the boss is outof town.

As Christians, we must not do anything merely to please men who cannot see ourhearts. We must please Christ who knows our every thought. A roofer in theStates once told me that it is an unspoken rule among roofers that they do notdo a perfect job when they fit the roof or repair a leak. The reason is that ifthey do so, roofers will soon be out of jobs. I would submit to you that theChristian roofer ought to serve Christ, and therefore must not intentionally doa poor job, whatever the reasoning may be.

Be Loyal

Finally, the Christian employee must also be loyal to his employer and thecompany he works in. Paul suggests this attitude when he says: “With goodwilldoing service, as to the Lord, and not to men” (Eph 6:7, emphasismine).

A Christian worker must not be only concerned with his own welfare andbenefits, and so serve with a selfish motive. He must serve to please God. Butat the same time, it would be hypocritical if he serves without being concernedfor his superiors, his employers and the company he is working in. Having agood will and therefore loyalty towards our employers is a virtue thatChristian workers should cultivate.

The implications of having good will toward our employers are multifold.

In the first place, it means that we should only think of changing jobs if wehave very valid reasons such as if the job is affecting our Christian walk orour family life.

In the second place, it means that we should be thinking of how best tocontribute to the well-being and profitability of the company. Consider theyoung man who recently brought much business to a printing firm on the verge ofclosure by setting up an email order system. A Christian ought to be encouragedto so something like that instead of bailing out when the company is not doingtoo well.

Thirdly, it means not divulging,—unintentionally or covertly,—the secrets ofthe company which may give the competitors an edge over her. For this cause, itis often inappropriate for a Christian employee to switch loyalty to the chiefcompetitor of his present company. When a man does so, he would be regarded bythe world as a traitor. The Christian man must live with a conscience void ofoffence before God and man (Acts 24:16), and he ought to be blameless and havea good report of them which are outside the church too (cf. 1 Tim 3:7).

Fourthly, it means not stealing time from the employer. Christian workers oftenunwittingly steal time from their employers, not only by late-coming andleaving work earlier, but by using working hours to talk about non-work relatedissues. One may argue, for example, that it is alright to preach the Gospel toour colleagues during office hours since all things belong unto Christ. But wemust remember that unless we are employed on flexible work hours schemes inwhich we can make up for lost time later, or on a results, rather than timescheme, that we would be in fact stealing time and breaking the EighthCommandment. Christians must learn to make use of lunch times, and after officehours to witness rather than during office hours.

Conclusion

Christian workers ought to be most highly sought after by employers because ofa work ethics that is unparalleled by the world. The obedient Christian servesnot for selfish reasons, but for the sake of glory of God (1 Cor 10:31). TheChristian, who chooses to please God, will automatically become a testimony tothe world for the difference will be obvious. May the Lord grant us that wewill be witnesses for Christ not only by our words but also by our workattitudes as we stand out as Christian workers.

—JJ Lim