Feeding the Sheep - Living the New Life 15

Instructions for Christian Households

"Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people."
-Apostle Paul, 1st century
Colossians 3:23

[This is the 30th message of this series]

This lesson is intended for mature believers (or adulting believers). For a more orderly study, please go through all the previous messages first, if you haven't yet.

New Nature

This is the 15th and last part of this spin-off series, within a series (on Colossians Chapter 3).

Newbies

As we mentioned in the previous lessons, at the time of this writing all the believers were newbie believers, none of them born into the faith or grew up as Christians. They were the first ones in their family and in their community to follow Christ.

And so Paul was teaching them how to act like one.

Work Relations

We also mentioned that verses 22 and 23 were connected but we separated them because we want to address the mention of slaves separately.

We know not that many people find their dream jobs, some cannot even find a job and for most, the jobs they have are jist a means to make a living, or to have a roof over their heads and food on the table.

And we also know how earthly bosses can be a pain. It is not our job to fix them. What we should be concerned about is how we are willing to let the Lord fix us.

Hierarchy

Everyone has a boss above them, if they don't or act as such, then that is a problem in itself and a recipe for disaster. Because people can easily be entangled (blinded) with their own greatness and superiority over others and their authority and power over those below them in rank.

And we know how every boss can be a real piece of work (difficult, overbearing, unpleasant, unkind, uncaring, slave driver), you know what we mean).

When our boss is such, which is not unconnon, remember their issue is not with us, theirs is between them and the Lord, who is above them, and the One who placed them in their position.

Our duty is to be obedient to those who have authority over us, and to God. If our bosses aren't doing their job, then let them and God take care of that.

What the Lord expects of us, as a believer is to work diligently as if we are working for the Lord (which we are as He is over everyone), and not merely working for people -- people who will always be imperfect and can be as difficult as us, especially back when we weren't yet saved by grace and not living the new life in Christ.

[If our boss is a new believer, then we are to learn how to act as one at the same time]

Christ like

Now having been called by God to live a new life, we are called to be Christ like, be like Christ. God wants order, unity and harmony. And He wants for us to win our bosses over into the faith, not by words but by our behavior towards them and others. We do not repay evil with evil, but with good.

And that good has already been deposited in our heart and our spirit when we first started to put our faith in Christ.

We are able to love others, especially the unlovable because God loved us first, at our worst. And the same love is the love we will use to love others.