Serve As Unto the Lord

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.  Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.  Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.  And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that He who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with Him. - Ephesians 6:5-9

The term "slave" is such a terrible term in today's world.  Yet Paul calls himself a "slave [bondservant] to Jesus Christ" in Philippians.  Being a slave to anyone or anything other than Jesus is a terrible thing, yet we all are even if we don't admit to it.  However, in these verses the term is used and since we are not very familiar with the concept in our society in its real form except through history books, praise be to God, our best ability to relate to it is to relate this to our work.  That is, the work we choose to do in what we are able to do and that we hopefully enjoy doing.  All of which is very unrelated to a "slave".

Even so, in our "work" we are to serve with pure hearts doing our very best for the betterment of the place where we work.  We do not do this for the people there but for the God the lives within us.  By serving Him with our best work we serve others.  This concept is so hard to teach except by example.  For some people I just feel cause to wonder if they are even able to grasp it.  Yesterday I had a conversation on this very topic discussing how hard it is to find people who will willingly work hard from their own desires to do so.  Yet, I find myself lacking in this area at times.  I have worked very hard for many years and there are times when I feel it is someone else's turn.  But as I look at these verses I do not see an exception clause for previous services rendered. 

We do not "work as unto the Lord" for extra rewards for ourselves from our extra work but because we know that the Lord will reward each person for how they have worked diligently as unto Him.  Too often, we are willing to do that extra bit of service but only if we are getting compensated for it.  This is a worldly view and too often it carries into all of our relationships.  We forget the abounding grace and mercy we have received and put ourselves in a position of only showing grace and mercy to the other person IF we are going to get something.  And if we don't then we are mad about it.  We did that extra thing and they didn't notice or they don't care so we're never doing that again.  ...  Really?  Did you just do that Mr/Mrs Baby Christian?  ...  "Work as unto the Lord" KNOWING He "will reward each one".  I imagine that His reward is substantially more suited for you and beyond your expectations than anything any person could provide.

And once we've been a worker for many years we find that we are then the masters, or managers, bosses, supervisors, etc.  The word here is that as such we are to treat those we are in charge of "the same way."  That is, reward each one for the good that they do, and work for them as if you were serving the Lord.  The Scripture goes further with masters as it specifically instructs to not threaten them.  Do not rule with an iron fist looking to crush whomever you can.  Do not create circumstances where the workers feel as though they might lose their job at any instance.  This is a commonplace threat method in today's world.  Look at the workers as your greatest resource and do your best to make them the most productive people they can become and in so doing you are serving them, but really you are serving the Lord.