As to Christ

Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ; - Ephesians 6v5


I have had some interesting jobs through the years. I have been a bin man (garbage man). I have set up mobile homes. I have crawled through muck and mire and worked in attics where the temperature approached 50C to install duct work. I have cleaned toilets. None of these jobs are what we might consider glamour jobs. Does God care about our attitude on jobs like that?

In Ephesians 6 God deals with slaves and their masters. Even though I have never been a slave, these passages still apply. When an employer pays for a day’s work that day is his. He has bought it and paid for it. We have laws to protect worker’s rights, but outside that my employer in a sense owns me for that day’s work. What does God say about how I am to respond? “Be obedient with fear and trembling, with sincerity of heart as to Christ.”

What was that at the very end? “As to Christ?” When I work I am to submit to my employer as I would submit to Christ. That means that whether I am working in an office worker, a bus driver, a school teacher, a mechanic, a high executive in a company, or a toilet cleaner I have a responsibility to obey my employer in the same way that I would obey Christ.

As Christian workers head off to work today we need to remember who our real boss is. Yes, we have an earthly employer, and he is the one we are to submit to. Yet, as we submit to our boss, we are really obeying our Saviour. Obey our bosses with a good attitude, as we would obey Christ.

How about it? Can we go out today and “clean a toilet for Jesus?”