(upbeat music) - Well, a lot of listeners to this podcast listen on their drive to work in the morning, so it seems especially relevant for us to talk about work. We don't wanna waste our jobs, none of us do. We spend so much time at work and it's a place to pursue excellence, but why?

Why should we pursue excellence at work when we often don't see any eternal value in our weekly duties and our routines? It's a question today from a listener named Dylan. Hello, Pastor John. In Colossians 3, 22 to 24, Paul exhorts his readers to work heartily as for the Lord and not for men.

Does this mean that any work not done in excellence is sinful? And how do we apply God's view of work to cleaning our house, writing a paper for school, or working a nine to five job? I've been feeling guilty about the way I handle these things for months now, and I'm not sure if I'm just being lazy, self-righteous, or am I disobeying the Lord?

- Well, the first thing with regard to his guilt or feeling guilty is that the Bible handles guilt in two ways, and both are very important, not just one. One is the blood of Jesus that covers all our sin, including how we do our work, and none of us does our work as well as we could.

We're always falling short of the ideal. One is the blood of Jesus that cancels our guilt, and the other is to resolve to walk and work faithfully before the Lord in the freedom of that forgiveness. If we try to use the blood of Jesus as a free pass to walk in sin, our conscience will rise up and protest.

Thank God. And if we try to walk in faithfulness and obedience without relying on the blood of Jesus for forgiveness and enablement, we will either fail in despair or we will look like we succeed and become proud. It's the two together, the blood of Jesus and the resolve of walking and working faithfully, obediently, that's the key to the peaceful life of being forgiven before God and being vigilant over our hearts and minds as we go about our daily tasks.

So what is God's will for how we should do our ordinary work, and then in particular, what is as for the Lord, working as for the Lord mean in Colossians 3.23? Let's get the bigger picture first. In the Bible, God makes total, absolute claim on our lives, all of our lives, including all of our work of whatever kind.

Everything in our lives is to be done before the face of God in reliance upon God's grace, according to God's guidance, for God's glory. Listen to these amazing passages. This is Colossians 3.17, "Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus." Isn't that amazing?

Every word, every deed in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Or 1 Corinthians 10.31, "Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." Or Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, all your ways, acknowledge him and he'll make your paths straight." Or Proverbs 6.3, "Commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established." Or one of my favorites from Romans 14, just 'cause it's so amazingly sweeping in calling us to live Godward lives.

"The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God. While the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. For no one lives to himself and no one dies to himself.

For if we live, we live to the Lord. If we die, we die to the Lord. So whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end, Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord, both of the living and the dead." Amazing, I love it.

Oh, how I wanna live to the Lord, before the Lord, always with reference to the Lord. All those texts have one basic message. We belong to God, we're not our own. Everything we do from morning till night is to be done in a Godward, Godward way, before his face in reliance on his grace, guided by his will, aiming to make him look magnificent and glorious as our all satisfying treasure.

That's what work is for. That's what all of life is for. And I don't know whether Dylan knows my book, "Don't Waste Your Life," but there's a chapter called, from eight to five or something like that, and tries to grapple with how do you go about doing your daily work so as not to waste what it's for.

Now, just a few words about Colossians 3. Here's the text that Dylan is exercised about. It's got the phrase in it, "Work as for the Lord and not for men." It goes like this, "Bond servants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service as men pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord, whatever you do, work heartily," here it is, "as for the Lord, as for the Lord." So work as for the Lord and not for men, "knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward, you are serving the Lord Christ." So work as for the Lord, and Paul modifies this command in five ways so we can know, there's not much doubt here how Paul thinks about this.

There are five modifiers to what he means by, as for the Lord. Number one, not to be done with eye service as men pleasers. That is, you're not just angling to impress others when you do your work. God, not others, is the one you have in view. You're working in a Godward way first, not a manward way.

Number two, the opposite of eye service is sincerity, he says. In other words, you really mean the good that your work is aiming to do. The work is not to impress others. The work is what it is. It's for the good of others. Number three, fearing the Lord. In other words, fearing displeasing the Lord, having a reverential desire to please the Lord in the way you do your work.

Number four, working heartily, literally from the soul. That is, not half-heartedly, but putting your whole self into it. And number five, expecting a great reward from the Lord, even if man gives you nothing for it. That doesn't matter in the end. What matters in the end is you're gonna get totally overabundance, poured down, pressed together, overflowing in your lap, reward from the Lord.

Now, all five of those guidelines for how we do our work for the Lord are given to us not because the Lord needs our work. He doesn't, Acts 17, 25. God is not served by human hands as though he needed anything. God doesn't need our work. That's not the point.

Paul gave us these instructions because this will bring the greatest joy to us when we work this way, and will show that God is our greatest treasure. Amen, yeah, what a great perspective to have on all of our daily labor, bringing eternal reality to bear on our daily lives and what we most treasure.

Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening and making the podcast part of your week. Three times a week we publish, and you can subscribe to our audio feeds and search our past episodes in our archive. Even reach us by email with a question of your own, even questions related to work and vocation and all the time that we spend at our jobs.

You can do all that through our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn. Well, at DG, we often talk about God having two wills, two wills, a will of decree and a will of desire, which leads to the theological question, does God ever decree something that he does not desire? Wouldn't that cause in him a divided mind?

Now, this is a fairly technical question, and we'll give more background to make more sense of it. If this is brand new to you, we'll explain it more, I promise. But that's next time on Monday when we return. I'm your host, Tony Reinhke. Have a great weekend, and we'll see you on Monday.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music)