Colossians 1-4 (NIV) – Commentary by Suzy Oakley

I sure wish I’d been staying awake all these Sundays since John Mark started preaching on Colossians. This post could have written itself! (Just kidding, JM. On the Sundays I haven’t been sick, out of town or helping teach Sunday school, I’ve been there, busily taking notes, as usual.)

Some of the themes from Colossians that John Mark has talked about are:

• Looking for security (“How can I be confident that I and my family are OK?”).
• Trying to measure up to God’s standards on our own (“If I can just get good, I can get God”).
• Compartmentalizing our lives to the extent that Jesus is just one wedge of the pie, rather than the sweet goodness at the center (“How central is Jesus to my life?”).
• And as we approach Christmas: the gift of service and how the idea of submission ties into that.

Last week John Mark briefly touched on the two verses I want to focus on, but he didn’t go into detail. This means he didn’t steal my thunder and I won’t look like a copycat!

Colossians 3:23-34 (NAS) says:

“Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men. … It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.”

These are key memory verses in a financial ministry I began volunteering for several years ago. In the small-group Bible study, one of the topics was on work and how we respond to our employers.

I am as guilty as the next person of complaining about my job. In fact, I complain about most of the things in my life – even the really good things! I “work” to overcome that tendency, but it’s not dead yet. Not even close.

But teaching the financial Bible study several times drummed a few things into my head, and one of them is that God – not us – controls our hiring, firing, promotions, raises and general decisions about our work lives. That’s not to say we don’t play a role. We have to work diligently, fairly, honestly and within the parameters of our job descriptions. But if I work hard, doing everything in my power in a way that honors God in my work, and I assume my good behavior and stunning brilliance will get me a raise or a promotion – well, that’s actually up to God. My “job” is to do my job and leave the results to the One who created work for our benefit.

Which begs the question: Did God create work to punish us? According to Genesis 2:15, NLT (and verses 16-17 to put it into context), God gave us work before sin entered the world:

“The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the Lord God warned him, ‘You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden – except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.’ ”

It wasn’t until the Fall that God made work difficult:

“And to the man he said, ‘Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made’ ” (Genesis 3:17-19, NLT).

God gave us work as an opportunity to bless others, including providing for our families and those who are unable to work. Most of us work, and I feel sorry for those who are capable but do not work. They are missing out on life lessons and opportunities. As Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12 (ESV), “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.”

Our attitude toward our work makes or breaks the outcome. Will it be a lifelong, bone-crunching, soul-wearying burden, in which we count the days until retirement, or will it be an opportunity to bless others (including our employers) and bring glory to God?

I used to be the assistant editor of a magazine called The Life@Work Journal (“Blending Biblical Wisdom and Business Excellence”), founded on the premise that work is a gift and a blessing and that we are to integrate our relationship with Christ into our work. In fact, two of the company’s three founders wrote numerous books based on that premise. One of the books, The Fourth Foundation: Exploring the New World of Work by Steve Graves and Tom Addington, challenges readers against compartmentalizing our work just as we tend to compartmentalize Jesus. Work is another opportunity to be Jesus to the world.

And “work” encompasses everyone from the stay-at-home mom to the owner of a home-based business to the CEO of a multimillion-dollar corporation. It is all part of serving the Lord by serving others.

It’s easier to think of serving others at Christmastime, but this is an idea for the ages. Jesus came to serve us 365 days a year, and He is our example. And as John Mark preached on Nov. 27, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, “self-service” brings isolation, bitterness, anger and frustration, but others-focused service brings peace, joy and thankfulness in our relationships. That’s not a curse; it’s a bonus better than a pay raise, and it includes our work lives.

Let us daily serve our employers and our co-workers heartily, “as unto the Lord.”