Your work behavior matters to God

When I got fired from my job, it wasn’t because I threw the cat. That was part of it, but the cat bit me first, and it bounced off the wall and landed on its feet unharmed. No, I got the pink slip because I was not a good employee. At the age of 16, I figured I knew better than most people what was good for me, and that included my boss, the vet. I worked hard when it pleased me, and goofed off the rest of the time. It also didn’t help matters that I had been chosen by my youth group at church to deliver the sermon for “youth Sunday.” I made sure my boss knew that and impressed upon him my sincerity in the faith and my diligence in studying the Bible. The problem was, he saw a hole in my life big enough to herd a family of St. Bernards through, the gap between my profession of submission to God and my commitment to honoring my employer.
The Bible says you are to “Count your own (employer) worthy of all honor.” How do you do that?
With obedience. This has to do with work ethic. You honor your employer by carrying out his wishes, starting with showing up on time and promptly getting to the work you are hired to do. The sign in the store window read, “No Help Wanted.” As two men passed by, one said to the other, “You should apply — you’d be great.” One employer told the story of having a bad taste in his mouth for Christian workers because they tended to “stand around and talk about God during work hours.” The deal was sealed when he saw one of his Christian workers go into the bathroom and not come out for 20 minutes. When he finally emerged, the boss heard him whisper to another Christian worker, “I just had a wonderful time. I read three chapters of the Gospel of John.”
With sincerity of heart. This has to do with our attitude. Even if you work hard and do what you are supposed to do, you can do it with an attitude. Some display an attitude that says, “I will do whatever you ask me to do, but don’t expect me to like it. Don’t expect me to be pleasant. As long as I am doing my job, that’s all you need and that’s all you’re going to get.” OK, Miss Sunshine or Mr. Happy, but that’s not what the Bible teaches. There are also those who work hard, but they are constant complainers. They can find nothing but problems with the way they are compensated, with the way everybody else does his job, and with the way management runs the company.
Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers. This has to do with honesty. Are we working hard when the employer is watching us, when his eye is on us, and doing anything but work when the employer is out of the room? Character is who you are in the dark, someone has suggested. When no one is watching, do you work hard? Keep this in mind; there is never a time at work or anywhere else when no One is watching. Also, to the degree that we serve our employer faithfully, we will be recompensed by the Lord himself. See Ephesians 6:5-9.
Dr. Robertson, you probably will never see this column, but I want to thank you for teaching me a lesson I could not learn any other way. And, I am sorry about the cat.