Pauls Epistle to Colossians (20)

Last Lord's Day we addressed what the Holy Scriptures teach regarding marriage, divorce, and remarriage.

It was really in preparation to address the passage before us which we never addressed.

A clear teaching about these matters of marriage, divorce, and remarriage in the light of God's Word, of course, reveals just how wayward our society is from God's will and ways respecting this institution that He created.

The fact is we have departed from the standards that He has established, standards by which He governs and will judge the world.

And even among ourselves we find that perhaps we have transgressed His laws respecting these matters.

Maybe we hadn't realized it before. It should not cause us to despair, however, or become discouraged.

Rather, just the opposite. As Christians, this knowledge should cause us all the more to be grateful for the mercy and grace of God that He has given us in Christ.

Thank God there is forgiveness of sins and the promise that our latter end will be glorious no matter how ignominious our beginning.

Isn't that right? There is an old Roman poet who once vainly said,

Oh, if I could only open the curtain of my heart that the world may see it. Spurgeon talked about it.

And he said, No, if he really saw his own heart, he'd want to cover it up with more than a curtain. And the longer you're a

Christian, more things become exposed, do they not, to you? And we become more and more aware of our need and blessing that we have in Jesus Christ and Him alone.

So don't be discouraged by these things that we rehearse. Now again, our rehearsal of this institution of marriage was with view to some of the commands that we had before us in our passage,

Colossians 3, 18 and following. Let's read the paragraph again. Wives, submit to your husbands as is fitting in the

Lord. Very politically incorrect in these days, but there it is.

Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the

Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children unless they become discouraged.

Slaves, obey everything those who are your earthly masters. Not by way of eye service as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart fearing the

Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the

Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.

Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a master in heaven.

Practical instruction, both for the family and the workplace. This is instruction to family, even an extended family, a household that commonly existed among the well -to -do in the first century.

This Church of Colossae probably met in one of these large Roman households to which this letter was sent.

Here in the family, the Christian faith is most clearly manifest. As one wrote, it is in the closest and most familiar relationships of daily living that the reality of Christianity will be manifest.

But in addition to the family context, there are instructions for us as Christians in the workplace. Although the masters would have been the head of the household and the slaves would have been regarded as members of the household, for us the application is not only in family but in the workplace.

That would be the principle that carries over. So let's consider these first.

Instruction to Wives. We read in verse 18, Wives, submit to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord. God has not only established the institution of marriage in the family, but God has revealed how those relationships within that institution of marriage are to be regulated.

Paul wrote, Wives, submit to your husbands as fitting in the Lord. There are some parallels with the epistle to the

Ephesians. Those two letters were probably written at the same time, and so there is similarity of language and themes.

We read similarly in Ephesians 5, Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, and also

Christ is head of the church, and he is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.

That won't fly in today's world, will it? But it is the word of God. And this is the way of peace and harmony within a home, a well -functioned family.

Of course, because of sin, the wife does not do this normally or naturally. For if the truth were known in the vast number of instances, the wife desires to be led by her husband, yes, but desires to be led in the way she wants him to lead.

And there is the rub, isn't it? In other words, because of sin, wives will tend to be controlling and manipulative rather than submissive.

And it takes God's grace for a godly wife to live in the manner that the Lord has commanded her in this verse.

We would readily admit it doesn't come naturally. It has to come supernaturally through the grace of God.

Because of sin, submission does not come naturally. It takes God's grace for a

Christian wife to live in this manner consistently. And with some of us husbands, it probably takes more grace than others for our dear wives.

I had a Christian friend years ago who used to tease me whenever I did something that irritated him.

He would say, poor Mary, poor Mary. He's the same one who had been single up until his early 30s.

And I performed his wedding for him. And it was some months afterwards he said, I used to think I was a pretty good

Christian until I got married. Because he was put under the same roof and he couldn't run like he used to run from conflict he had to deal with it.

And he just realized what kind of Christian he was when he was thrust into that situation.

We could look down through biblical history and see how wives had troubled their own households by taking matters into their own hands.

As they resisted or rebelled against their husbands rather than submitting to them. And of course Proverbs has some of those choice verses.

Proverbs 19 .13 reads, the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping. It's irritating.

Proverbs 27 .15, a continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike.

Solomon had 700 wives. He probably knew something about what he was writing, don't you think? And then 300 concubines on top of that.

Proverbs 14 .1 describes what happens when a wife takes matters into her own hands. Every wise woman builds her house, but the foolish one plucks it down with her hands.

That's when she starts to be in controlling. She starts manipulating. These are forces that we all deal with.

Husbands have their issues, wives have their issues. And so what scriptural principles should a wife know and follow to help her obey the

Lord in this matter? First, certainly, wives are to be humble, to humble themselves before the

Lord and purpose by God's grace to do the will of God in submitting to her husband's leadership. This is a command.

You can't get around it. You can't explain it away. It's there. And there's wisdom in it.

There's purpose in it. She is to obey him, seeking to do his will.

Paul wrote, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.

That is about as far -reaching as you could get, isn't it? Can we pick and choose what we obey of the

Lord? No. And that is the pattern for wives. Again, take note of the scripture saying everything.

Of course, this does not mean that she is to sin if her husband would have her do so. We are to obey

God rather than man. And Colossians 3 .18 reads,

Why submit yourselves unto your own husbands as is fit in the Lord. And there are some things the husband expects the wife to submit to that are not fit in the

Lord. And she shouldn't go there. But aside from what is sinful, she is to obey her husband in all areas.

To fail in this is to rebel against God and may even result in the word of God being blasphemed.

We read in Titus 2 .5, A wife is to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, and here's the purpose clause, so that the word of God be not blasphemed.

In other words, our witness, our testimony will be damaged. The wife's testimony of Christ will be damaged in the manner that they fail to submit to the leadership of their husbands.

Secondly, not only is a wife to be humble before the Lord regarding this matter, but a wife is to recognize and respect her husband's position as the head of the marriage and family.

And I underscore position. I should have underscored it. Ephesians 5 .23

records, The husband is the head of the wife, and he is the

Savior of the body. And it is important that a wife distinguish between the position of her husband and, say, him as a person, as her husband.

It's the position that the wife is to have regard for, and for her husband because he's in that position that God has ordained.

And so she's to obey her husband, not because he's necessarily a great guy and ought to be obeyed because of that, but because God has placed him in that position, and God has dictated in his word how she is to obey him.

And so this is irrespective of whether he rises to the level of what a husband should be.

It's very easy for a wife to disregard her husband. Well, you don't know my husband. If you did, you wouldn't expect me or say that I should obey him.

Now we're talking about the position, not the person. Respect the position, not the person, necessarily.

He has that position irrespective of whether he's a Christian or not, by the way. Husbands are the head of their wives.

This is not in the church. Marriage is a creation ordinance, isn't it?

God caused marriage between Adam and Eve. All people need to be married, Christians and non -Christians.

This is God's institution. This is the way he established it. But if a wife is to live in this manner, she has to recognize and respect her husband's position because he's going to do things that will denigrate him in your mind.

We have to overlook a lot, don't we, when we're in a marital relationship, some more than others.

But thirdly, a wife must certainly believe that God is sovereign and that he controls the decisions and directs the steps of her husband.

And so in reality, she knows that he's not in control. God is in control. And although my husband rules,

God overrules. And so she doesn't need to fear. She knows that God will overrule even the poor decisions of her husband.

And thereby the Lord will lead her by means of directing her husband. And so she must have confidence in God, who's guiding her in his providence.

If she in faith believes this biblical truth, then she can be content in the Lord regardless of what her husband does.

She knows that even on those occasions when her husband makes foolish and selfish decisions, and we're known for that, that may adversely affect the life of the family, she's assured that through it all

God will accomplish his purposes for his glory and ultimately for her good.

If a wife doesn't have that confidence in a sovereign God who's overseeing her life in providence, she's going to have a real problem with this.

And then fourthly, a wife must learn to appeal to her husband when she disagrees with his decision. When we speak of a wife submitting to her husband, we're not suggesting silence on her part when she perceives things are not going as she thinks they should.

She has a responsibility to make known her opinion, but to do so in a godly, humble, and biblical manner.

And so what then is it for a wife to appeal to her husband? Well, it occurs when a wife politely and in a spirit of meekness attempts to lay out her case to her husband that she perceives to be the will of God.

Not just what I want to do, but why this is the right course that we should take.

So she expresses to him in meekness and with respect toward him her assessment and her advice. But she conveys to her husband that she will abide by his decision, again, if it's not sin to do so.

Ultimately, right or wrong, it is his judgment call. God has made him responsible for his wife and children.

And when we violate these principles, problems result. Well, there's also instruction to husbands, of course.

Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. And so husbands are to humble themselves and pursue, by God's grace, to do the will of God.

And so this involves first, a husband denies himself of his own pleasures as the priority of his life, and he assumes his responsibility to lovingly lead his wife.

Husbands, love your wives. We've asserted in the past many times, you know, our understanding of Christian authority is never a right to be served by others, but always a responsibility to serve others with the ability and authority that God entrusts to you.

And a husband has a responsibility to serve his wife. He's not to set himself up in the home, hey,

I'm the husband here, I'm the father, and you are to serve me, do my bidding because of who I am.

No, he has the authority to appeal, to reason, maybe assert strongly, this is what we're going to do.

But it's all with design of true love and service to his wife and children. And a wife needs to understand that.

It's no wonder that wives resist. I'm not justifying them in doing so, but it's no wonder that they do when they sense a husband has no real concern for them or their family.

And then secondly, a husband is to be patient with his wife to the point of patiently enduring her insensitivity or resistance to him.

You know, a man can face the world and fight the world and fight the army, but his wife can cause him to be discouraged in a moment with a word.

He's vulnerable that way. The Lord Jesus provides an example for husbands.

Husbands are to love their wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Christ is patient with his church.

Husbands are to be patient with their wives. The husband must not use coercion or force to impose his will.

He is to lead her, not drive her. He is to be loving and patient toward his wife even when she resists or refuses to yield to him.

Again, love your wives and don't be bitter against them, because they're not always going to be willing to follow you.

And that's very discouraging when that happens to a husband. But fourth, a husband is to listen to his wife's counsel, for she's designed by God to be his helpmeet.

But again, ultimately, the responsibility rests upon him. God has ordained that the husband determines the direction of his family, and there are times when he should listen to the advice of his wife.

And there are sometimes when it's wrong to listen to the advice of his wife. And you have illustrations of both of that in scripture.

Pilate should have listened to his wife. Adam should not have listened to his wife.

They're different occasions. Now again, one can look down through biblical history and see how husbands have failed their wives.

I commented yesterday in the wedding ceremony, you're really hard -pressed to find an illustration of a good marriage in the

Bible. Think of one, find one. I'm sure there are some, but I can't think of one offhand.

Abraham, he was a godly man, a good man, and yet he certainly was selfish.

He put his wife in a terrible, difficult situation. He and Sarah traveled to an area where he was afraid that the people in the land would take his wife, because even though she was quite a bit older, she was nevertheless a beautiful woman.

And so he tells Sarah, say you're my sister, not my wife. Put her in a terrible, vulnerable position where she could be taken advantage of.

But again, Sarah was a godly woman and a humble woman. She didn't react and rebel against Abraham.

She did what she was told. She was a godly woman who trusted the Lord to protect her and preserve her.

And we read that that's exactly what God did, didn't he? He caused that king,

Abimelech, to have a dream that night, don't you touch that woman, she's another man's wife. God was protecting

Sarah. But she had submitted to her husband. And then you have the same scenario played out with Isaac, the son.

He followed his father's example and acted the same way toward his wife, Rebecca. Don't say you're my wife, unless the men of the place should kill me for Rebecca, because she was fair to look upon.

But again, God spared Rebecca through her difficult experience, just as he had spared Sarah before her.

Thankfully, God is sovereign in these matters. Well, after instruction to wives and husbands, we have instruction to children.

Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. And so children are to be obedient to their parents.

This is the will of God. God has appointed parents as the protectors and instructors of their children.

Of course we all have stories where parents failed miserably in this. You've got stories,

I'm sure, many of you. But it's the parent's responsibility to be faithful to their children in instruction, chastening, and training.

It's the responsibility of children to obey their parents. And of course, this reflects the fifth commandment, doesn't it?

Honor your father and mother, so that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God has given you.

And so a child honors his parent by obeying his parent. A child who disobeys his parent dishonors not only his parent, but dishonors

God, for God has appointed that parent as a guardian, a protector, a provider.

God has placed that parent, mother and father, in that position of responsibility. And so the son or daughter that ignores or resists the guidance of the parent incurs the displeasure of God, forfeiture of His blessing upon his or her life.

I can't quote the proverb, but doesn't it say that a son or daughter that despises his parent, he'll be basically slain in the field and the eagle shall pluck his eyes out.

I mean, it's a horrific account of a person encountering violence and death and shame and death as well.

That's how the Bible presented a rebellious son or daughter, failing to recognize and follow the authority, submit to the authority of the parent.

Interestingly, we have fourthly another word to fathers. Before moving on to relationships outside the immediate family, another word is given to fathers, verse 21.

Fathers do not provoke your children unless they become discouraged. Fathers have a great role within the family.

Of course in our society that's completely broken down, isn't it? All across. Sadly, particularly in black families across America where the father is absent.

I forget the percentages, but it was terrible. You know, you read, I've read accounts of the black communities back in the early part of the 20th century, and some of them in those communities were the most healthy people around.

They had the best health care because they provided for themselves within their communities. Solid families.

You ever watch that old movie back in the 30s, Cabin in the Sky? One of my favorite movies from Hollywood, and it depicts the kind of Christian family and neighborhood there was.

It's a wonderful movie. That's all been lost. Through drugs and sin, the illegitimate childbirth and whatnot, the family has been destroyed.

A government has come along and promised to be a surrogate father, and government can never be that, and it's a sad thing.

I used to work in the projects, federal projects in downtown Dallas when I was in my youth, and it was some really rough areas, blocks and blocks of federal buildings, and where families lived, and they were both

Hispanic and there were African American communities, and I was amazed to find, particularly in the

African American communities, the ones that were really holding everything together. It was some mother who had seven or eight kids who basically held the community together.

I remember it was about 1975. We were having a big promotion.

We obtained 5 ,000 free tickets to Six Flags over Texas, and I was securing kids.

I went into the federal projects to enlist kids to come with us, and we brought them to Six Flags, brought them in big amphitheater, preached the gospel to them, and I talked to this one

African American lady within the federal project, told her what I was doing, and on the opening day of the

Dallas football Cowboys, I think in the fall of 1975, she got us 19

Dallas City transit buses to come into the federal projects, fill them up, and take them to Six Flags over Texas.

I mean, she had clout, and I met a number of these ladies, but the fathers were absent.

It was a sad thing, and you could see how the families were ravaged by it. Fathers.

F .F. Bruce quoted another regarding these matters. For the children, this is an abusive father, an irresponsible father.

For the children, his only precept is obey your parents. Let parents see to it that they deserve obedience.

More than this, that they make obedience easy. Some parents make obedience hard.

The law which for the Christian is summed up in the word love is formulated, and thou shalt not, for the law is disobedient, and thou shalt not, said

Sinai, have their counterpart in the don'ts of the nursery. Grace teaches us to keep his commandments.

Law warns us not to break them, and it's on this latter principle that children are generally trained.

Don't be naughty is the nursery version of it. William Carey, the father of modern missions, a great

Baptist missionary, wrote to his son, remember a gentleman is the next best character to a

Christian, and the Christian includes a gentleman, and if a little of the effort used to teach the children not to be naughty were devoted to training them to be gentlemen and ladies, parents would come nearer to fulfilling the apostolic precept.

And that's right. And yet there are some fathers that can be very rigid.

That's the kind of home I grew up in, and my dad was a good man in many respects, but he was also an alcoholic, and so there was inconsistency, and there was violence.

Never knew what was going to happen, what was going to come down. Again, Paul wrote, fathers do not provoke your children unless they become discouraged.

Sons and daughters will have difficulty in life, those children who become discouraged due to their father's failures.

They will struggle not only while under the authority of their fathers, but they'll continue to struggle under authority throughout their life.

If they do not respond to the authority of the father, they will not respond well to authority in the workplace later in life, or in their own future marriage.

A family is a training ground for building relationships and how to function in relationships.

To grow or become discouraged is to lose motivation for doing rightly and living rightly in order to please God. Fathers can cause discouragement.

What kinds of failure by the father can result in a discouraged child? We can perhaps list some things.

I ground these out in no time. I'm sure the list could be expanded. A father may discourage his child through uncontrolled outbursts of anger.

A father may discourage his child if the child witnesses glaring failures or inconsistencies in his father's behavior or character.

A father may discourage his child through his failure to honor his wife as the child's mother. A father may discourage his child by failing to make clear what pleases him.

A father may discourage his child through a failure to discipline properly. He may be too controlling in his discipline.

He may be too slow or lax in his discipline. Or he may be too inconsistent in his discipline.

One time you can get away with it, another time you don't. Leaving the child unclear as to when or how he will be disciplined and when he will escape discipline causes discouragement.

Now we have instruction to slaves. Colossians 3 .22 -25. Again, we are making the application of this to the workplace even though this would have been within the extended household.

Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service as people -pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the

Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the

Lord you will receive the inheritance of your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.

Again, before these verses, Paul addressed the Christian's responsibility within the family. Here he gives instruction for the

Christian in the workplace, we could say. There are varying estimates as to the number of slaves in the

Roman Empire. It is thought in the city of Rome, I have read, some suggest one -third up to one -half of the population of the city of Rome were slaves.

I mentioned last week that the institution of slavery in the Roman Empire should not be equated with the institution of slavery that characterized

Western civilization for a handful of centuries. This is somewhat true, because there were other matters, financial matters.

You didn't declare bankruptcy in Rome, you ended up getting yourself sold into slavery until you paid your debt.

Our Lord Jesus reflected that in some of his stories, didn't he, parables. But there were many slaves that were forced into slavery because they had been conquered in their lands by Rome, and then they were brought back as slaves.

In fact, there is one thought that really Rome began to disintegrate because the families became so dependent on the slaves, and the mothers of the

Roman families basically became party -goers and neglected the family, turned it over to slaves to manage, and so you had a complete breakdown of the nuclear family within Rome.

Some attribute the decay of Rome to the breakdown of the mothers within the family.

I don't know if that is true or not, but we recognize

Christianity is applicable and practical in every kind of social and political environment, and so although this is not endorsing slavery, it is giving instruction to Christians who find themselves in that situation.

Paul makes it clear that every person who labors, however, even the slave who labors, is actually serving the

Lord in what he does. Slaves obeying everything, those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service.

You don't just work when you are being watched as people -pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the

Lord. You work just as hard when the boss isn't there, not looking upon you as when he is, because that is not your motivation.

This is the key to living righteously in peace as a Christian in a fallen world. It is a key principle. Whatever work we may do, we are to regard ourselves as serving the

Lord in that work. This is Christian work, whatever it is, as long as it is not sinful, but it is legal.

The Christian in the workplace is such an important aspect of life, I thought that we should address this a little bit.

A Christian theology of work and how we should regard it. I went back in my sermon notes and I saw that I did address this, but it was back in 2005.

So numbers of you weren't here then, and the ones that were had probably forgotten it anyway. And so I thought we would just rehearse some of these important principles about the spiritual matter of labor and work.

Psalm 128, Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways. When you eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy and it shall be well with you.

And then he describes the blessing on the family. Your wife is going to be fruitful vine, while you are going to be sitting around your table with your children.

There will be like olive plants growing up around you. This man will be blessed of the Lord, who fears the

Lord. And so we see here in Psalm 128, the blessing of God on the laborer, who supports himself and his family through his work, through his labor.

Psalm 128 is one of the fifteen psalms that are called Songs of Ascent. Jewish believers journeying to Jerusalem to worship

God sung these songs as they ascended the mountains traveling to Jerusalem. This psalm celebrates the goodness of God toward his people who order their life according to his ways, who seek to obey his law.

And the one who does so is a happy person. He is happy, he is blessed, and his marriage is solid, his children are happy.

He is joyous toward his God, recognizing that God will continue to bless his life throughout his many days on earth.

Take note of the realm of God's blessing in the head of the list, in the areas of God's blessing, when you eat the labor of your hands.

You should be happy and it should be well with you. For the man who fears the Lord and walks in his ways will be happy and successful in his work.

Notice the emphasis on manual labor, if you labor with your hands, and the Bible talks about that, doesn't it, as a thing of blessing.

There is an emphasis, perhaps in our pre -modern society, when the Bible is written, of the value of hard work.

Hard labor is viewed as healthy, normal, and wholesome. There is a sense of well -being and satisfaction when it is accomplished, especially when it is hard.

I have told you in the past the story of my friend who is with the Lord now, Carl Scott. He grew up in the Depression as a young man.

Hardest work for the least amount of money I ever heard of in my life. He had a pitchfork in the field with others, throwing sugar beets over the high side of the truck.

He would shovel, he said, 30 tons a day. He got paid 10 cents a ton.

He said, if you slowed down, put your pitchfork down, there were a dozen men on the side of the road who took your place.

He was a laborer. He was a hard working man.

Not real educated, but he came to Christ when he was in his hard working, you can imagine, a rough guy.

Converted solidly, though, in his 60s. I remember he told me he took his change out of his pocket every day, put it in his jar, and at the end of every year he would take it all out, usually $200 or $300, and he would give it to a missionary.

But there is satisfaction and there is fulfillment in hard work. My grandfather was a driller for Standard Oil of California for 36 years.

He worked 12 hours on and 12 hours off for years. He would get 24 hours off every three months when they would shift from day to night.

And he was a happy man. And my grandmother, I remember her saying, she would sit there in this hot little

Sears house, they bought it out of a Sears catalog, in the southern Mojave Desert of California.

She said their refrigeration was a burlap box, the box that they made with shells, with burlap, and a water tray to drain water through the burlap.

She said if you can keep your butter from melting, you had a good system. And she said we didn't know anything but to be happy.

Hard work, 36 years, and he retired. The day after he retired, he was in his shed out back where his workshop was, and his boss came by.

Oley, I don't see any Standard Oil tools, he said, because there aren't any here. And the next day he brought a truckload of them here.

This is about 36 years worth. And so he had a well -equipped tool shed, some tools which

I have in my home today. Hard work. I think probably the greatest legacy my dad left us kids was hard work.

Hard work. Hard work. My aunt and uncles used to accuse my dad of child labor violations, because I never remember a day

I didn't work. I mean, when I was 4 years old, I was dusting cans in the grocery store, or putting cans out of a box onto a shelf, two cents a case.

And I don't ever remember a time when I didn't work. And that's the same with my family, my brothers and sister as well.

It's a good legacy. Many of us, of course, are not involved principally in the area of manual labor.

Our work involves employment of skill or knowledge whereby commerce is transacted and services rendered. We depend on our wit rather than our strength, perhaps, for work.

But that's good, that's okay. But how do we view work as Christians? I've known some

Christians over the years who've hated their work. Actually, there's very few people that really enjoy their work.

And that's a sad thing, isn't it? And I've known Christians over the years, they hated their work, they wanted to get into a

Christian business, or a place where Christians worked. And so they despised the place where they worked, because it was difficult, it was hard.

Some view work as only a necessary evil. They see their workplace as a place of drudgery, boredom, perhaps misery.

That's a sad thing, if that's how you view work. Perhaps it's a godless environment.

You share labor, you labor beside those who are strangers to God's word and grace, and their language is coarse and whatnot, there's nothing in common.

I understand that. But don't despise work. Second, others may enjoy their work, but they do not see this as a very large portion of their lives through a

Christian perspective. Paul makes it clear in whatever you're doing, you're serving the

Lord. You know, if you're working, you're doing Christian service.

You're working for the Lord, and you ought to have that kind of attitude. That ought to motivate you, shouldn't it?

And it ought to give you a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment in doing it. Sadly, however, there are others who see work as an end of itself.

They make it an idol. And that's wrong, of course. They live for it.

Most of us will spend the majority of our waking hours as adults doing work. Abraham Kuyper once said, there is not an inch of any sphere of life over which

Jesus Christ does not say, mine. An aspect of life such as one's occupation should be understood and ordered according to the fear of the

Lord. For then, when you eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.

Quoting that Psalm 128. And he's right. Just a couple broad principles, and then we'll close.

First, work in the Garden of Eden before man's fall into sin. God created work before sin, didn't

He? Adam and Eve were created to labor in the Garden, and they were to be blessed in doing so.

And they were to subdue it, subdue the Garden, and rule over it. And so really we have an illustration for us.

This is really what we are to be doing. There is in some ways that we are to be subduing the things that we address in work to the will of God, attempting to bring them into submission to God.

We are to be creative in our work, as Adam and Eve were. We are to be creative in work.

We are to be bringing order out of chaos perhaps in the workplace. These are all goals that we should have.

Do not speak of your work as something to be avoided simply because it's difficult. Work is a calling.

It's a vocation. That's a word that's lost. You know, in Germany, if you mention work as a job, a

German would rebuke you for it. No, no. No, no. Work is not a job. They saw a job as something very menial with no meaning.

It's an occupation. Even vocation, they would carry the idea as something that you are called to.

And as Christians, we need to recognize that even in secular work, God has called you to that.

And that should give you motivation and a sense of purpose and a sense of fulfillment as you are fulfilling your work as unto the

Lord. And the Lord promises that there will be a paid day one day, that he's going to issue payment for the labor that you've rendered unto him, even in your secular work.

What about work after man's fall into sin? Well, there was still work, but now work is more difficult.

By the sweat of your brow, you're going to, you know, bring forth fruit from the ground.

The devil opposes us, the ground's resistance to us. Thankfully, God established a

Sabbath day for rest and respite for the worker. And that Sabbath day principle is found throughout

Scripture. It's not just under the law. The Sabbath was a creation ordinance. God rested on the seventh day, not because he was tired.

God is infinite in power. It took no effort on the part of God to create.

He could have made everything twice as big without any more effort. He rested on the seventh day in order to reflect upon and appreciate what his hands had made.

Behold, everything was good. And we are to rest. Physically, we need recuperation, but also to reflect on what

God has accomplished through us. And so there ought to be enjoyment and appreciation of what we've been able to accomplish.

But that Sabbath principle is important. If it is neglected or violated, you do so to your own detriment because you are not created by God to go seven days a week continuously without physical rest.

The Lord Jesus said that Sabbath was made for man and that he's the Lord of the Sabbath.

And so keep that Sabbath principle in perspective and in place.

You violate it, transgress it to your own detriment and the detriment of those around you.

But again, let's consider the Christian's view of work. It's a work that we serve our

Lord, through which we serve our Lord. And so whatever we do, we are to do all to the glory of God, as Paul had stated in Colossians.

We're going to jump forward now to the last page because I just want to say a word about a Protestant work ethic, which has been lost now to our society, our culture.

But really it's this Protestant work ethic that God has used providentially to bring such abundance, wealth to Western society.

A modern Christian view of work began at the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s. God caused a great return to his word, the

Bible, as a source of truth for the people of God, respecting the nature of God and how

God would have them live in his world. The two great reformers, Martin Luther in Germany and John Calvin in Geneva, Switzerland, both addressed the matter of how people could serve their

God through work. Luther broke with medieval Catholic teachings about work, but it was really

John Calvin who developed a biblical theology of work that has existed in Western society at least down to the last generation or two.

Calvin taught that all men must work, even the rich, because to work was the will of God.

It was the duty of men to serve as God's instruments here on earth, to reshape the world in the fashion of the kingdom of God, to become a part of the continuing process of his creation.

And so men were not to lust after wealth, possessions, or easy living, but rather were to reinvest the profits of their labor into financing further ventures.

Earnings were thus to be reinvested over and over to the end of time. Reinvestment was to be done in the community in which the

Christian lived. By his investment of his capital in his community, he would be used to the

Lord to raise the standard of living of his neighbors. That was his goal, not just to serve himself and his own, but to help the community by the investing of his capital, and he himself would be blessed in doing so.

This was viewed as one way we may love our neighbor as ourselves. He taught the choice of an occupation and pursuing it to achieve the greatest profit possible was considered by Calvinists to be a religious duty.

God encourages the pursuit of unlimited profit. Profit is now seen to be a dirty word.

Profit is not a dirty word if it is done rightly, gained rightly, and recognized and used rightly once acquired.

The idea was a radical departure from the Christian beliefs of the Middle Ages. Calvin considered it appropriate to seek an occupation as earning as possible.

If that meant abandoning the family trade or profession, the change was not only allowed, but it was considered to be one's religious duty.

This view of optimism and pursuit of opportunity undergird much European immigration to the

New World in which they sought to make a better life for themselves, their family, and their posterity.

Calvin considered it appropriate to seek an occupation that would provide the greatest earnings possible if that meant abandoning the family trade.

The Protestant work ethic was the basis on which the great expansion of our economy has brought the greatest blessing to the greatest many people in the

West. But it was all regarded as a stewardship before God, and that is important.

Acquiring wealth was not in order to provide security for oneself. It was not to enable you to buy the latest toys or just feed you and your own.

Rather, it was viewed as a means by which you could serve your community and help others and develop them and grow them.

One is that he was a very good businessman, and he made a point of bringing young men in to San Jose, California.

He brought in Hispanic men—I remember Mel, an African -American young man—and he taught them the business, trained them, and then set them up in their own stores.

He just felt like this was part of doing work, and this is how people used to think.

They would want to train others, mentor others, and bring them up in a trade in order to help them, serve them, advance their families and their communities.

So this Protestant work ethic—we should have an appreciation of work and recognize it is

Christian labor that we perform, and that is to be employed in the service and help of others as God has enabled us.

One last word Paul gives in the first verse of Colossians 4, those few of you that are masters, you need to remember you have a master in heaven, so do not be haughty with regard to the way you treat those under you.

Rather, you are to be their servants as well, even though you have more authority, perhaps more liberty in some matters.

Nevertheless, you need to be just because you are accountable to the Lord also for the privileges and opportunities you have.

And that certainly should be how we view ourselves as Americans, right? Because in the eyes of the world, every one of us are envied for what they think that we have and that they do not.

And so may the Lord help us to be humble, responsible, grateful, and may

He help us to be faithful stewards in these matters. Amen? Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word and for the clear and practical instruction which you give us.

May you help us, Lord, give us grace that we would be obedient even though we can't see necessarily how these things might work out.

We know that your ways are good and that you will accomplish your good purposes in Christ as we obey you in faith.

And so give grace, our Father, to the fathers of families here, the wives of husbands, the children, may your grace be with us.

Forgive us of our sins, our God, and help us to live rightly and do rightly because we desire to be blessed of you in all that we do.