Ephesians: Spirit Filled Workplace

Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters 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 the Lord, and not to men: Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.

This whole passage that we have been discussing over the past several weeks all comes down to relationship.

v21 Our relationship with each other is to be different

v22-35 our relationship with our spouse should be different

6:1-4 our relationship with our children should be different

and now here in vs. 5-9 we see our relationship with our employer or employee should be different then that of the world.

Why should all these relationships be different?

Because being born again, a child of God not a child of the devil, We have a relationship with Christ.

Our relationships will never be right if our relationship with Christ is not right.

I want to start by making three statements

Your Relationship with Christ should make Him your Primary Force in Life

Christ should be what causes you to do what you do!

Just in these 5 verses, Paul drives home through repetition how our actions are because of Christ!

Note:

(6:5), “as unto Christ”; (6:6), “as servants of Christ,” “doing the will of God from the heart”; (6:7), “as to the Lord”; (6:8), “receive from the Lord”; (6:9), “your Master also is in heaven….”

You can’t miss it: as a believer, your relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord is the primary, governing fact of life.

Paul is expounding here on what he said (5:21), that we are to submit to one another “in the fear of Christ.”

Nothing that we do should be done apart from that consideration.

Every believer should live every day with the focus,

“I fear Christ. I am no longer my own.

I belong to Christ as my Lord.

I must do His will. I must live to please Him.

Someday I will stand before Him to receive the reward for my faithful obedience.”

Christ must be at the center of all that we think and do.

2. Your Relationship with Christ Should make Heaven your Primary Focus in Life

We all know the old hymn “This world is not my home, I’m just a passin’ through; my treasures are laid up, somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckoned me from heaven’s open door, and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”

I wonder how many of us today could sing that song truthfully?

Paul repeats a phrase twice (6:8, 9) that reveals something that he had taught these believers:

“knowing that….”

The slave asks, “Why should I toil day after day in a difficult job that has no financial rewards for me?”

Paul says Eph.6:8

Ephesians 6:8 KJV 1900

Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.

The master asks, “Why should I treat my slaves decently and not threaten these no good, lazy bums when they don’t work hard?” Paul answers Eph.6:9

Ephesians 6:9 KJV 1900

And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.

Both verses point to eternity.

Because of their relationship with Christ, both slave and master should have their focus on laying up rewards in heaven, not on rewards in this life.

Do you have a boring job? Maybe it’s even oppressive. Do you look on each day with dread, thinking, “What a hassle” as you grind through work? Paul says, “Get the eternal perspective! Put your focus on heaven. Even if your earthly boss doesn’t reward you, your heavenly Master will.” This doesn’t mean that you should not look for a better job or try to better your circumstances. But it does mean that your relationship with Christ should put your focus primarily on heaven, not on this earth.

So we have two foundational principles for approaching the third principle that deals specifically with work.

First, your relationship with Christ should make him your primary force in life.

Second, because of that, your focus should primarily be on heaven, not on this world.

And third, to really drive our text home this morning...

3. Your Relationship with Christ Should make Honoring God your Primary Function in Life

Christianity is not confined to Sunday; it is something that manifests itself in the whole of life, we are to be Christians in and out of the Church.

Honoring God should not just be reserved for Sunday’s or just for the Pastor.

Honoring God is what all of us that are born again should wake everyday and make our primary function.

our primary responsibility.

When we go to work, we may not be able to witness to people verbally, but we can with our actions.

As born again believers, we should be the best employee at our workplace.

[You say, but preacher you dont know my boss. they make it so hard to work. They yell and give me all the cruddy jobs.

He never gives me time off and they just make it a hostile i=enviroment to work in.]

I know it can be tuff but could you imagine being a slave in the time that Paul was writing this epistle?

John MacArthur writes this about the ancient institution of slavery.

“In both Greek and Roman cultures, most slaves had no legal rights and were treated as commercial commodities. Roman citizens came to look on work as beneath their dignity, and the entire empire gradually came to function largely by slave power. Slaves were bought, sold, traded, used, and discarded as heartlessly as if they were animals or tools.

One Roman writer divided agricultural instruments into three classes—the articulate, who were slaves; the inarticulate, which were animals; and the mute, which were tools and vehicles. A slave’s only distinction above animals or tools was that he could speak!

Thank God that slavery today is not viewed in this light.

With over half of the population of the roman empire at the time being a slave, it is highly likly that the Early Church had many in it as well.

Paul is wanting his readers to understand that being a born again believer means you are not to act like the world.

You are to live and work differently because you are not doing it for the same reason as the world.

We have a relationship with Christ and that relationship should effect the way we live and work.

NOw I know that We do not have slaves in our culture. Thankfully, that institution has been outlawed in our nation.

The closest we can come to the master-slave relationship is the relationship between employers and their employees.

The principles Paul gave to masters and slaves years ago still apply to us today.

So Paul is going to lay out for us here in verses 5-9 how a spirit filled saint should function in the workplace as an employee and an employer so the workplace can become Spirit Filled

(Our Relationship with Christ Should make Honoring God Our Primary Function in Life)

As an Employee We Obey those over us

Because....

1. We Know Who it is We Serve

(Fear and trembling)

At first glance this seems we are to fear our employers, but that is not what Paul is telling us.

This is the same wording used in verse 21 and 33. Paul adds the word trembling. This means awe.

We should not have to stand in fear and trembling before anyone but God.

The demand in Ephesians 6:5 is absolute yieldedness to Christ.

The Christian employee must be afraid—not afraid of his superiors in the marketplace, but afraid of disobeying his Lord.

As Christians, we may not like how our employer treats us, we may not like what our employer says, but that does not give us the right to act disrespectful to them.

Disrespecting them does nothing but tarnish the name of Christ. Especially if they know what you believe and they should.

Christ was never disrespectful towards the Romans, matter of fact He said, give unto Ceseasrs what is Cesears and God what is God’s.

I know He was speaking about money, but He was also saying obey the laws that have been put in place.

Now if those laws, or employer rules would cause you to go against God, thats when you must go with God.

But disrespectful attitudes towards those that have been placed over us in the workplace, does nothing to promote the name of Christ.

2. We Know How We Are to Serve

We are to serve with Dedication

(singleness of heart, as unto Christ)

The key to this singleness of heart is its focus upon Christ — “as unto Christ,” says Paul.

remember it is this focus on Christ which dominates all the advice to slaves/employees.

Verse 6 says we are to be “but as servants of Christ.”

Verse 7 similarly says, “service as to the Lord, and not to men.”

And in verse 8 we read, “ whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord”

When we serve Christ with singleness of heart, all those we work for will benefit because serving Christ wholeheartedly causes us to serve others in the same manner.

Knowing That we are serving Christ as we serve those over us is to be the transforming realization and motivation behind our work.

This is the great need of Christian workers everywhere!

WE are to serve with dedication

We are to serve with Diligence

(Not with eyeservice,as menpleasers; but as servants of Christ)

We are not to do our best only when we are being watched, only when we are looking for human approval, or only when the boss is around.

We should disprove that old English proverb: “When the cat’s away, the mice will play.”

The slave was not to do his best only because he was afraid of being whipped, and we should not do good work only because we are afraid of being demoted or fired.

The Christian employee is to be diligent.

He is not to call in sick when he is healthy.

He is not to waste his boss’s time in idle conversation or conduct personal business when he should be working.

He is not to drag his feet, pad his break times, arrive late, leave early, or demand that two people do a job he could do alone.

Those are the world’s ways, not the Christian’s.

Our work ethic should be as if we are working in the very presence of God.

In all reality, we are. The Psalmist says, if I make my bed in hell thou art with me.

3. We Know Why We Serve

We are on a Higher Plane (vs.6b-7)

When we Christians serve our human masters, we are to remember that when we do, we are serving the One who loved us enough to die for us and who gave us an example of service.

Mark 10:45 KJV 1900

For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

The word minister, means to serve.

That kind of service took Jesus all the way to Calvary.

If you take nothing else away from the message this morning, remember this:

The Lord is always present.

We serve Him, not men.

All service is on a higher plane for believers.

We are in God’s will when we do “secular” work, just as much as when we do “sacred” work.

The Holy Spirit in Ephesians 6:6–7 abolishes the distinction between those of us in secular employment and those of us in full time Christian service.

All of us are in the ministry.

We should be like Joseph. He served Potipher and Pharho with singleness of heart and he did his job even when they werent looking.

Why did he do this because he was not serving for His own gain, He was serving becasue he knew it was the will of God for him to be where he was.

Even with all the mistreatment he still served them the way he should because He knew he was serving God.

All of us are in fulltime service—

the plumber as much as the preacher, the economist as much as the evangelist, the policeman as much as the pastor, and the miner as much as the missionary.

We serve on a higher plane. Our work ethic does not come from a union or coworkers, our work ethic comes from above.

We are in for a Heavenly Payday v.8

What a prospect! We may never receive recognition, reward, promotion, or praise down here, but we will receive it in Heaven.

The Lord’s payday is not at the end of the week; it is at the end of our lives.

Sometimes God rewards us along the way, but these encouragements are only tokens of what is to come.

Payday is at the judgment seat of Christ. Our efforts will seem worthwhile when we hear the Lord say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21).

At the day of judgement, every man will have a payday.

Some will gain rewards, some will suffer loss and some will gain hell and suffer in the fire of hell for all eternity.

Have you accepted Christs payment for your sin?

Have you believed in your heart that God has raised in from the dead?

Have you confessed Him with your mouth as Lord?

If you haven't, you still have a chance to recieve Him as you Savior and start serving Him.

Dont wait! Be saved today.

Born again believers, there is a heavenly payday awaiting us.

In the millennial kingdom we will rule cities, counties, provinces, countries, and continents.

We are in training for tasks of great honor in eternity as we handle mundane details down here.

Now Paul goes to the master or in our case the employer.

As an Employer you are to Respect those under you

Just as the master (the employer) is rejoicing with satisfaction at the demands God puts on his slaves (his employees), the Holy Spirit turns all this heavy artillery on him.

“You too,” He says. “Do the same things. This is a two-way street. You have obligations and responsibilities too.”

Why?

Because you Serve the Same Master

Dont Abuse your Power

Power is very dangeous thing in the hands of a sinner.

Power has a tendency to erode character.

Lord Acton said it well: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Those in power need to watch themselves and be careful not to abuse their power.

Paul is telling the masters, you have authority over the servants but that is where it stops.

I think Paul said the same thing to husbands and fathers.

We may be the head over the house and we should dicipline our children when needed and we are to raise them in the nurtue and admonition of the Lord but that is where it stops.

Paul tells the master, you have the same Master as the slave and He is the One with ultimate power and authority.

Those that work for us regardless if we hire someone to do a job for us or we own a company, that person deserves respect because very easily the tables could be turned.

Remember what your momma always said, Treat others as you would want to be treated.

Dont Abuse your Position

God is not impressed with a person’s position, but He is keenly interested in what the person does in that position.

There will be abuses of position.

Injustices will be done.

But there is One who is watching.

The Lord has His eye on what is happening, and He has His own way of squaring accounts—sometimes down here, certainly in Heaven.

The day is coming when He will right wrongs and review all lives.

Master or slave, it will make no difference then.

According to Ephesians 6:9, God will have the last word,

In closing I want to draw your attention back to the statements that I made at the beginning,’

Your Relationship with Christ should make Him your Primary Force in Life

Ephesians (Lesson 54: Working for God (Ephesians 6:5–9))

Is it primary for you?

Did your schedule last week reflect that fact?

Did you meet alone with God in His Word to learn more about Him and how He wants you to live?

Did you submit every thought, every decision, every word that you spoke, and every deed to the test, “Does this please my Lord Jesus Christ?”

Did you take your needs to Him in prayer?

You can’t begin to have the right perspective towards your job or your boss or your employees until you first get right with Jesus Christ.

As Paul makes clear, you work primarily for Him. As he puts it in the parallel (Col. 3:24

Colossians 3:24 KJV 1900

Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.

2. Your Relationship with Christ Should make Heaven your Primary Focus in Life

Ephesians (Lesson 54: Working for God (Ephesians 6:5–9))

I wonder how many of you did something this past week because you were consciously motivated by the thought that the Lord would reward you for it in heaven?

If you’re not living to lay up treasures in heaven, your focus is wrong.

In Hebrews 11, the great faith chapter, the emphasis is on the fact that these great men and women of faith died without receiving the promised reward.

They were seeking “a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Heb. 11:16). Moses left the riches and power of Pharaoh’s court and endured ill treatment with the people of God, “for he was looking to the reward” (Heb. 11:26).

3. Your Relationship with Christ Should make Honoring God your Primary Function in Life

Did the way you responded to your employer or employee last week open or close the door for evangelisim?

Did the way you performed your duties, reflect Christ or the world?

Let me say this and I will be done this morning:

the housewife should cook a meal as if Jesus Christ were going to eat it, or to spring-clean the house as if Jesus Christ were to be the honored guest.

The teachers should educate children as if they are teach the Child Jesus, doctors should treat patients and nurses should care for them as if they are mending the wounds of our Crucified Jesus,

shop assistants should serve customers as if the are assisting Christ,

accountants should audit books and secretaries should type letters as if in each case they were serving Jesus Christ.