“Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God.” Colossians 3:22.

The task given to us in the second half of this verse is to be obedient to these men, the master/employer.

“…not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God.” Colossians 3:22b.

Eyeservice means, “Only under the master’s eye”, that is to say, while he is watching you. It would follow then, that when he is not watching, the employee might slack off.

The eyeservice as a man-pleaser has the intent of currying favor with the employer; ingratiating themselves with their employer/master.

The Christian is told to obey their employer, not to ingratiate themselves to them, “…but in sincerity of heart, fearing God.”

Now that is a tuffy is it not? Think of that, in sincerity straight from the heart. But this sincerity comes from our reverent trust of God our Father.

This is why I think it is so tough, if you hate your job, or intensely dislike your employer, how on earth can you muster up any sincerity?

Your answer is in the following verses, but in short it is because you should consider yourself as working for God Himself.

Another aspect of this has some merit; what if your dislike for the job is because it is boring repetition. One person had a boring repetitious job that made them physically ill (dizzy spells).

A friend who has a degree in chemistry could only find a job in his field wearing elbow length gloves which protected him while he mucked around in raw sewage. The up side to that was that he was, in time promoted into other areas that he enjoys working.

I think the moral in both of these cases is that God wants an attitude of real acceptance of His will on the Christian’s part, which brings us back to, “…in sincerity of heart, fearing God.”

If you do not like your job, by all means pray, perhaps He will change your circumstances, or perhaps He will give you the patience to do it, or perhaps He will give you another job.

Whatever you do, do not just quit your job to hunt for another without a great deal of prayer and study of Scripture.

Because if you leave before God wants you to you might find yourself unemployed for some time, or you may find yourself in the same sort of miserable job even though you are doing something completely different.

If your job is in your opinion, immoral, such as bartending or the like, God will make an out for you. I do not particularly consider bartending immoral, but it does put the Christian in a place where they have to work with customers who can be quite ungodly.

You cannot easily share Christ with them, and you cannot be around them without having some of that stuff wear off on to you.

J. Vernon McGee once had a woman who had accepted Jesus as her Savior through his preaching and she came to him with a dilemma; she came up to him and asked, “I own a liquor store, what should I do, shall I pour all the liquor down the drain?”

His reply was for her not to do that but rather to sell the store whenever she could.

To some it may seem that she had the right idea, get rid of that demon liquor; but folks will just get it from some other place, and she would have suffered loss for nothing.

If you are a bartender or liquor store owner or in some such field, change over if you can, but do not throw yourself to the wolves by just quitting.

I know many of you will have difficulty finding another job in this market and your bills are overwhelming you, forcing you stay where you are; trust in the Lord and pray to Him for guidance. He will make a way for you to escape.

If you are doing something illegal, you need to quit.

“…Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” John 8:34-36.

There is one form of slavery that Christians must never sell themselves into if at all possible.

“The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.” Proverbs 22:7.

Credit cards, payday loans, and personal loans should be avoided at all costs. They only cause grief, and more poverty due to usurious interest rates, atrocious late fees and penalties taken to the limit of the law. Most Americans are burdened by ponderous debt, for many things that are long gone.

Another way to avoid debt, never co-sign for a loan, never. If the borrower defaults for some reason, you will be responsible for paying back the loan.

“He who is surety [guaranty, a co-signer] for a stranger will suffer for it, but one who hates being surety is secure.” Proverbs 11:15.

“A man devoid of understanding shakes hands in a pledge [becomes a guaranty], and becomes surety for his friend.” Proverbs 17:18.

“Do not be one of those who shakes hands in a pledge, one of those who is surety [a co-signer] for debts; if you have nothing with which to pay, why should he [the lender] take away your bed from under you?” Proverbs 22:26.

Please consider these proverbs carefully; they will save you a great deal of grief.

“And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ.” Colossians 3:23-24.

To do something heartily as to Christ is much simpler when seen in this manner, especially when we consider all that He has done for us to begin with.

Our delight in working for Him will grow even more if we count the many blessings that we have already received from the Lord and continue with a thankful heart.

We know of a certainty that our reward will be right when it is received from a righteous and fair God. The Christian is already receiving blessings now and can look forward to greater ones in heaven.

Work heartily as unto the Lord and do not worry if you are making some greedy person rich or not, they have their reward in full on earth, and if they die in their sins, their riches will remain here, and they will go into permanent poverty in hell.

“Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.” Psalm 37:1.

“Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; do not fret – it only causes harm. For evildoers shall be cut off; but those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.” Psalm 37:7-9.

“But he who does wrong will be repaid for the wrong which he has done, and there is no partiality.” Colossians 3:25.

It cannot be emphasized enough how true this verse is.

Just because you see bad men prospering, rich men getting richer, murderers getting off on a technicality, politicians being reelected after completely ignoring their oath of office, and absolutely derelict in their duties, or others who cheat and lie all their lives does not mean that God does nothing.

You know nothing of the things that happen in their lives, or in their minds, or what they face in their afterlife.

“Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the wicked; for there will be no prospect for the evil man; the lamp of the wicked will be put out.” Proverbs 24:19-20.

“Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction. Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors.” Psalm 73:18-19.

“For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He ponders all his paths. His own iniquities entrap the wicked man, and he is caught in the cords of his sin. He shall die for lack of instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.” Proverbs 5:21-23.

“For My [God’s] eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes.” Jeremiah 16:17.

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” Jeremiah 17:9-10.

“You are great in counsel and mighty in work, for your eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings.” Jeremiah 32:19.

“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” Galatians 6:7.

If you still have difficulty with this, examine your own life and see if there is anything that you have done wrong that has come back upon you, sometimes worse.

If it is true of yourself, it will be true of everyone else; try reading the biographies of some ruthless men and see if they did not have things come back on themselves.

Al Capone died of syphilis, and as one person put it of all the young women he ruined with prostitution and the like, he was finally ruined by a woman.

You can see these things in the oddest places, for instance if you have ever read the Dear Abby columns that used to be in the newspapers years ago you may have read about a young woman who wrote in about a problem of her own.

Her husband was a traveling salesman and one day he called her and said that business would keep him from coming home as soon as he had thought. She said that she understood and hung up.

That night she and her whole family were watching a hockey game on television and soon enough a fight broke out on the ice; the camera panned around onto the fight, and right there in the first row behind it was her husband with his arm around a strange woman.

Tragic as it is, remember this, “God is not mocked” sinners say that God does not exist or is too busy to watch them, but every sin has a consequence period.

“Masters, give your servants what is just and fair, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.” Colossians 4:1.

Here is the balance that has always existed but most Christians have not seen. God wants wives to be in subjection to their husbands but husbands are required to be in subjection to Christ as well as to their masters/employers and the master/employers are required to be in subjection to God who judges all with impartiality.

At the same time God watches over every man, woman, slave, and master and gives them the recompense according to their ways and according to the fruit (results) of the things they do.

If husbands rebel against their boss/master and are not in subjection to them, doing things in their own way, will they be rewarded according to the fruit of their doings? If they complain about their boss and undermine him to everyone, will the employee be rewarded according to his ways?

Are they then angry because their wife is not in subjection to them?

If a wife stubbornly refuses to be in subjection to her husband, is she surprised when her children are not in subjection to her?

When owner/masters refuse to pay their employees a proper wage, when they cheat them out of overtime pay through some loophole, when they neglect working conditions to save money for their own profit, when they increase employee workloads or take advantage of them in some underhanded manner, can they expect their business to be blessed?

“Yet He is not partial to princes, nor does He regard the rich more than the poor; for they are all the work of His hands. In a moment they die, in the middle of the night; the people are shaken and pass away; the mighty are taken away without a hand. For His eyes are on the ways of man, and He sees all his steps. There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. For He [God omniscient] need not further consider a man, that he should go before God in judgment. He breaks in pieces mighty men without inquiry, and sets others in their place. Therefore He knows their works; He overthrows them in the night, and they are crushed. He strikes them as wicked men in the open sight of others, because they turned back from Him, and would not consider any of His ways, so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to Him; for He hears the cry of the afflicted.” Job 34:19-28.

Colossians 3:22b-4:1 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 3-19-14, updated on 6-3-20.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.