The call to serve God in all we do
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In Col. 3:23 we read "Whatever you do, work at it with all heart, as working for the Lord, not for men." I was visiting a Christian leadership group a while back and during a time of discussion one of the group members said this: If you are not serving the Lord full time, who are your serving part-time?"
Just as Christians need to ask, "How can I glorify God in and through my work?" they also need to ask, "What does it mean to serve God in my work?" This is difficult for some of us.
Yes, when teaching Sunday school I am serving God, but what about when I am giving a sales presentation? Is that serving God? Yes it is, or at least it can be!
Another word for service is the word ministry. There is in fact a Greek word used in the New Testament which can be translated as either service or ministry ('leitourgeo'). In our evangelical churches, we tend to misuse the word ministry – ministry is what the minister does!
But if we look at Eph. 4:11,12 we see that it is the people of God who do "ministry." The pastor/teacher is preparing the people of God so they can go out and do ministry!
Therefore, as you leave church on a Sunday, you leave to enter into works of ministry and service. For Christians who work, their workplaces are crucial contexts for ministry. A Christian is called to serve God in and through their work. In other words, they are called to be ministers at work!
In the Bible, the concept of service is closely related to the concept of worship. Rom.12:1 talks about presenting our bodies as living sacrifices because this is your reasonable service (AV) or this is your spiritual act of worship (NIV).
If we are to serve God in and through our work, this really means worshiping God in and through our work! How many of us have ever thought of work as worship? Most of us think of worship in terms of what takes place at church.
But this is only a very small part of worship. Worship has to do with the whole of our lives—with our working lives, too.
Written by Mark McConnell, Christians at Work. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Content distributed byWorkLife.org.
 | WorkLife Success applies biblical principles to help churches minister to their congregations in the area of work. Additionally, we help businesses increase productivity by addressing their employees' emotional and spiritual anxiety surrounding the most stressful day of the week — Monday. The end goal is to produce workers that experience the amazing joy and purpose that God intended through work. Learn More » |
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