A Christian and His Workplace

INTRODUCTION

Do you see yourself as a good employee? Do the people around you see you as a Christian? Are you contributing physically and spiritually where you are working? How to get the most out of your work as a Christian?

ILLUSTRATION

It was in 1994 when I got my first job as a toolmaker in a factory in Bangalore. Our shift hour was 9 am to 5 pm. The factory bus would pick up and drop off employees from all across Bangalore. We would arrive on time for work and the first thing we do is to punch our cards before 9:10 am. However, when I reach the workstation I hardly find anyone working. The employees were busy talking to one another. By 10 am slowly they would come to their seats, clean the table and take their tools out to work.

Soon there is a tea break and breakfast at 10:30. People come back around 11 am and again break for lunch at 12:30 pm. After lunch, the employees come back by 1:30-2 pm. Guess what 3:30 pm is tea again. After tea, nobody would work until 5 pm. I was suffocated at this workplace, me being the junior most was given the maximum work. The sad part is that a popular evangelist was working with me who followed the same pattern. 

1 Peter 2:11-12

¹¹Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. ¹²Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

1 Peter 2:18-21

¹⁸Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. ¹⁹For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. ²⁰But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. ²¹To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

According to a Gallop poll released on September 17, 2017; 85% of people worldwide admit to hating their jobs.

CNN Money published an article on January 6, 2018. It states that 69% of those aged between 31 to 40, buy lottery tickets. Why do you think people buy lottery tickets? One of the reasons is that they can stop working. Then people plan for early retirement because they hate working and want to live life as they choose.

Do you think that an ideal world is going to be a world without work? What do you think of heaven? Many think heaven is going to be an everlasting single worship service, some sitting on white clouds and playing harp. We were made for work. When God created man, God gave man work to do. The man had to take care of the garden. He was a gardener. He had to work with his hands, pluck the fruits and flowers, prune the garden and so on. When man sinned and went out of the garden, he became a farmer. He had to plant now, take out thorns and thistles, and farm and harvest his food. So God gave man work. Coming to the 21^st century, all of us have work to do. Work is of God and we have to work with all of our heart.

Two Extreme Attitudes of Work

1. Idolatry of Work

The idolatry of work is to be a workaholic. To make your work the biggest thing in your life, to look for every promotion. It is an obsession to grow as much as you can. Such people don’t look forward to retirement. Indeed, many of such people retire and die quite quickly. They have lived for their work. It has become their idol, without work they are purposeless. That is an extreme attitude to work.

2. Immorality Of Work

By this I mean, do as little work as you can for as much money as you can. That is the cry of employee rights and trade unions. A person who does very little work but looks forward to the paycheck. This is called skiving meaning avoid work, pretend to be work. This means to appear to be working when you are not. It is a highly skilled activity.

I have noticed one thing there is more sickness on Mondays and Fridays than on any other day of the week. This means a longer weekend. People spend their leisure time, and weekends in a way that they are less fit for work on a Monday.

So there is an idolatry of work and then there is immorality of work, most people are somewhere in between the two.

I had been working in a full-time job for 16 years before I came to full-time ministerial work. I have started my work as a bottom-level employee and by God’s grace have grown to positions. And I know the difficulties, challenges, and stress of work and yet a Christian can make a huge difference in the workplace.

How to Get The Most Out Of My Workplace

1. Work Is My Mission Field

Friends, do not separate your work and church ministry. Not one person in this place has a secular job. All you have is a mission field. You have a spiritual calling and your calling is to reach the people where God has placed you and you never do anything to blot our Christian testimony. Your workplace is as important as a church sending a cross-cultural worker in some other part of the world.

1 Peter 2:11-12

¹¹Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. ¹²Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

Peter is writing to Jewish believers who are persecuted and scattered around Rome. Romans had their workforce as slaves. They were persecuting the believer slaves, accusing them of doing wrong and discrediting the name of God. Listen, 1 Peter chapters 1-5 have holiness as one of the binding themes. Satan is trying to discredit the church, and destroy its believer’s integrity.  And the way they do that is by finding Christians whose lives are not consistent with the Word of God. In Chapter 2 Peter writes about the concept of holiness at the workplace to win the world.

The only way we can silence the critics, the only way we can stand against the enemy is by the power of a holy life. Work is my mission field and I cannot be an effective witness if I do not exercise holiness in my workplace.

1 Peter 1:14-15

¹⁴As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. ¹⁵But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; ¹⁶for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

1 Peter 2:15

For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.

Friends and workplace holiness are important. Do your friends see you as a holy person at your workplace? Are you like others cracking ungodly jokes and having a godless lifestyle?

1 Peter 2:11

Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. I need to behave like a temporary resident. Peter is saying we are aliens in the world, we’re strangers, and we live on a spiritual level. On one side of the balance, Peter calls us strangers and abstains from sin, but on the other side, he says that even though we are born again and are strangers lead excellent, exemplary lives at our workplace.

Study says that a person spends 50% of his/her lifetime at work. We spend 60% of our daily awake time at work. You have a wonderful opportunity to witness your work. You are on the frontline of the Kingdom of God. And You are the only person who can present Christ in the place where you work. Your pulpit is your workplace.

Two things happen when we treat our work as our mission field.

1. People will know Jesus

1 Peter 2:12

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

Because of your Christian testimony, people will be saved and on the day of Judgement, they will glorify God for your witnessing. Your colleagues can glorify God because of you.

Matthew 5:16

Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

2. Silence those who oppose Christ

1 Peter 2:15

For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.

There are a lot of people discrediting the name of Jesus and the testimony of the church. When you consider your workplace as your mission field you silence the critics of Christianity.

To make my work my mission field:

I Need To Have Godly Attitude At My Workplace

What are the attitudes we are to display at work?

1. I submit to my superior, regardless of who the person is.

1 Peter 2:18

Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.

Be submissive to your managers. If you are working for someone, submit to him. And do it with all respect, with all fear and the fear is the fear of God because God ordained this social order. We are to submit to the authorities that are over us in terms of our work.

2. I work for God, regardless of who I report to.

Colossians 3:23

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters…

Martin Luther, “The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays; not because she may sing a Christian hymn as she sweeps but because God loves clean floors. The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes because God is interested in good craftsmanship.”

How do you wake up on a Monday morning? With excitement for work or as a bad thing to do. We should thank God for Monday because that is your mission field.

How is your attitude to work? According to a study published on fortune.com on July 25, 2017; an average employee spends 56 minutes a day on a mobile phone at work and 42 minutes talking to friends, attending to personal work etc. on a day. The average loss of worktime productivity per person is 8 hours a week.

You are always first and foremost an employee of Christ.

Your pay slip may say you work for the school, the government, an IT firm or a factory, but the scripture says you work for God. Every task you complete comes underneath His Lordship. Work as if Christ were your superior with fear and trembling, with sincerity. Why? Bosses can cheat us, mistreat us, and even fire us, but Christ can do far worse and far better. He sees our every move at work. If your boss monitored you all day every day, would you work differently? Your almighty Savior and Judge sits even closer than that.

I know some situations are very tough. I have gone through the same, hold on, you are serving God. And I remember working under a very short-tempered man who was my boss as well as the owner of the company. If he is not pleased with what you do, he will throw things around. I held on. As a pastor, I don’t leave when the going gets tough.

It may be God has put you there intentionally to build your character and endurance, to teach you how to know and feel you are misused and treat people badly. It may be that God put you there to prepare you for a bigger position later. You say they don’t treat you well, you are not paid well. It may be that God is teaching you to not to repeat those things when you get into that position. Work as unto the Lord. If you are not treated well God will take up your cause.

3. My goal is not just my salary, but my treasure in heaven

Colossians 3:23-24

²³Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, ²⁴since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.

What is the purpose of work? We work to earn money.

I work to support my family, make enough money for my home, give to God, and give away some money who are less fortunate than you are. It is right to earn money to keep your family going and you should have enough to give. It is not right for a Christian to be begging. Get a job, earn your money. You have no excuse for not earning money for yourself.

1 Thessalonians 4:11-13

11..make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, 12so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

You have all right to earn and support yourself through the work. However, money is not the only purpose, we also have rewards in heaven when we work diligently.

Do you realize that most of the rewards that you are laying up in heaven happen in your secular job? You work 40-50 hours a day, you come to church 2 hours a week. Your greatest reward is going to be what you did in your job, at work. He is going to reward you for doing your job well.

If God is the big boss, he is the one who ultimately decides what the pay is. If he is the big boss, he is the one who determines what your reward is. Yes, we get our reward in terms of salary and promotions, but the ultimate reward is given by someone else, God.

2 Corinthians 5:10

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

3. Christ Is My Model At Workplace

1 Peter 1:21

To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

The word “steps” is “footprint.’ Christ left a line of footprints, a line of tracks in the dirt for you to walk in, the same way. When He was criticized, He didn’t criticize back. Jesus was slandered and He didn’t slander back. When He suffered He uttered no threats, He just committed Himself to God. Peter says, Christ suffered for you, not only for your redemption but in an exemplary way. Not only did He suffer to redeem, but He suffered to set the model for how you’re to live. Christ is our model.

Now imagine the picture in Peter’s mind. He is living in a Roman world and there is a believer slave who is he might be getting whipped unjustly. He might be getting deprived of his food, working long hours beyond what is reasonable unjustly. But for the sake of his consciousness of God he endures all of those sorrows, God is thankful. Did you get that? When you bear up under the sorrows that come when you suffer unjustly. That pleases God.

Some of you have employment situations that are not fair. Some of you are enduring suffering, harshly treated at the workplace. It pleases God to see us accept the earthly difficulty with complete faith in Him.

1 Peter 2:20-21

20 But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. 21To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

CONCLUSION

If you are not doing well in your job, cheating your time and money, cheating your employer and mistreated people around you ask God to forgive you. It is all a sin against God. Ask God to have you have a servant spirit as an employee and employer. Then the whole attitude in your work or business will change. One person can bring in a change in a workplace.