The Way We Work

    “not with eyeservice as menpleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.”  Ephesians 6:6 (NKJV)

When I was in elementary school, our class recited  what our teacher called gems, one of  which was “Health Is a Blessing.”  It was intended to make us children feel  thankful for our bodies and take good care of them. At a later age, I  grew to know that work is a blessing, providing me with the means for earning a living, but is also a virtue that gives meaning to my life and  helps me survive and flourish.   The book of Ephesians, from which our focus text is taken,  was written by one who knew how to work not only as a dauntless missionary, taking the gospel to the Gentiles,  but also as a hardworking tentmaker.  The apostle Paul valued work.

Our attitude toward work is an indication of our general attitude toward life.  Some people are eager to get out of working, and many long for the day when their comfortable retirement will begin.  But there are those who actually love to work.  Consider the 100-year-old New Jersey lady who earned a lot of praise on social media recently when a television station featured her  unusual achievement. At her age she still works six days  each week, putting in 50 hours at the family’s furniture business  where she has done the bookkeeping during her long worklife. She loves what she does and  shows no sign of quitting. Similarly committed to work is the 101-year-old  Ohio doctor who has made it into the Guiness Book of World Records as the world’s oldest practicing physician.

In our focus text, two words  stand out: eyeservice and menpleasers. They are vivid descriptions of how not to work. “Eyeservice” suggests that an individual  works only when the boss is watching, giving half-hearted effort  to the job, with little or no  interest in the organization’s success. The “menpleasers”  do their job, not from a desire to  make a worthwhile contribution, but merely to please the supervisor.  Menpleasers may  also  want to garner  praise and  perhaps  a promotion. These are not exemplary Christian behaviors, whether one works  in the church  or in the secular world. In the church in particular, it’s easy to fall into the menpleaser trap,  working in order to impress fellow believers with our devotion to the cause of Christ.  We are ethically obligated to do honest work for God or an employer from a true and sincere motive.

In the text,  we are reminded that we are “bondservants of Christ.”  Therefore,  whatever our job may be,  as committed Christians, our real employer is always Jesus Christ.   So our motivation toward work will reflect our attitude toward Him as our Boss.   Whatever we do, whether in the work world or in th church, let us do it “heartily,” that is,  with enthusiasm. When we realize that work, looked at from any angle, is a blessing from God, we will do it from the heart.

Always,

Judith

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“Whatever your hand finds to do,
do it with all your might.”
Ecclesiastes  9:10