Doing service, as to the Lord

“With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men.” (Ephesians 6:7)

Paul’s instructions to slaves (Eph. 6:5-8) are freighted with meaning for all who profess to be servants of Jesus Christ.

They show, first of all, that any honorable work, no matter how menial it is, can be done to the glory of God. The slaves to whom Paul wrote may have mopped floors, cooked meals, washed dishes, tended animals or cultivated crops. Yet the Apostle said that these chores could be done “as unto Christ” (v. 5); that in performing them, the slaves were “the bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God” (v. 6); that they were “doing service, as to the Lord” (v. 7); and that they would be rewarded by the Lord for “doing a good job” (v. 8).

It is easy in our thinking to make a dichotomy between the secular and the sacred. We think of our week-day work as being secular whereas our preaching, witnessing and Bible teaching are sacred. But this passage teaches that for the Christian there need be no such distinction. Realizing this, the wife of a well-known preacher put a motto over her kitchen sink, “Divine services conducted here three times daily.”

There is another choice lesson here, namely, that no matter how low a person may be on the social ladder, he is not shut out from the choicest blessings and rewards of Christianity. He may never exchange his work clothes for a business suit, but if his work is of such good quality as to bring glory to Christ, he will receive a full reward. “Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free” (v. 8).

W.D.