Witnessing God Effectively at Work (II)

Dear Bethelites,

Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again; Not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men (Titus 2:9-11).

II. Please them well in all things

And to please them well in all things – In the New Testament, the word please them well is almost always used as being acceptable and pleasing to God (cf. Romans 12:1). Even in our workplaces, we work hard to please our employers because it pleases our Master who is in heaven.

In your company, it is not wrong to work hard and attain a certain level of excellence for the sake of your promotion, increasing your income, securing your job and to please your boss. Though these are legitimate motives but they should never be a Christian’s highest objectives. Above all these things, there should be this sincere desire to be pleasing and acceptable to our Lord. What kind of work would you do if the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who evaluate your work?

Pastors, preachers and other Christian workers are not exempted from this principle, though they are responsible to submit to the board of elders but nonetheless God is still the ultimate overseer. One pastor was asked, “To whom do you prepare your sermons?” And he wisely replied, “For God, because whatever service I render, whatever duty I have to the board of elders and whatever obligation I have to the church, would be very minimal in terms of measuring it against the responsibility I have to the Almighty God.”

There are some Christians who believe that if their employers are Christians, they would have less obligation to respect and please them because Galatians 3:28 says for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. While others feel that their Christian employers are obligated to give them special treatments since they are all fellow Christians. Both these kinds of thinking are carnal and unscriptural. Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort (1 Timothy 6:1,2).

If we are respectful and obedient to unbelieving employers, how much more should we be to our employers who are brothers in Christ? An employer is an employer, no matter who he is and he deserves the best effort in whatever work one does for him. When a believer sits beside his boss in a worship service, he does so as a completely equal brother in Christ, but on the job, he must submit to the authority of his boss, and that will show his submissiveness to the higher authority of God’s Word.

III. You must not be rebellious

Not answering again means not to speak against, you are not to argue, rebel or oppose any requirements, but rather you are to be compliant. This is a common problem with many employees because if they do not like what they are told to do, they would not perform the duties or they would do so half-heartedly and when the whole system fails, they would argue that it should not be done in the first place.

The Christian in the workplace is to be known as a person who respects authority, and he has no business to rebel, question or undermine the authority. When the authority speaks, he does it and the only exception is when he has been told to something that goes against the Scriptures. For example some employers may require their employees to entertain clients in ungodly places and also to solicit immoral activities for them. Obviously the employee should not do it because it is contrary to the Word of God.

We live in this modern day of self-centeredness and being argumentative is almost a way of life for most people, including Christians. The prohibition here does not refer to standing up for our convictions and what we believe is God-honouring, but rather it refers to standing up merely for our own self-interests and preferences. Workers can speak, if there is a proper forum for discussion, to share your ideas, opinions and wisdom. But when the management makes a final decision and a resolution has been given, no matter how disappointing and unfair it may appear to be, we are to comply with complete commitment.

IV. You must not steal

Not purloining – The basic meaning of purloining is to separate, embezzle or steal. In ancient times, just like the businesses today, all the work and minute details were handled by the servants. Some dishonest servants would turn into skilled thieves who are able to manoeuvre every angle they knew so well, to scam, cheat and steal, and that is where we get the old expression “he knew the tricks of the trade.” The sin purloining can go all the way from petty thief like taking stationaries and supplies from the office back to your home for personal use without permission, or making forbidden unauthorized calls on the office phone, to terrible crimes like submitting inflated expense reports, stealing and misappropriation of money.

When Christians do such things, their actions not only are unethical and can damage their employer financially but are also unscriptural and can tarnish the Lord’s name and their Christian testimony. You can appear to zealous sharing about Jesus all the time, singing hymns, praying and reading the Bible during your break time, but if someone finds out that you have been taking money out of the till, doing your private correspondence at the expense of the company or fooling with the numbers in the account books, it does not matter what you say about God, the unbelievers would conclude that your God is not a God who transforms sinners into saints because He certainly did not transform you. What a shame that will be!

V. You must be faithful

But showing all fidelity – The word fidelity can mean faithfulness or loyalty, and it can refer to trustworthiness and reliability. In this context, it is the quality of being totally dependable, even when one is not being watched by the master or employer. Today, this word loyalty is very much forgotten because everybody practically lived for himself but there was a time when people were loyal to the company, they were faithful to marriage partners and to their friends. Sadly fidelity is a forgotten virtue. The word showing means to give ample evidence, providing sufficient evidence that you can be trusted to be faithful. The Christian employee ought to be someone who can be depended upon.

The reason why the Christian employee ought to be obedient, well-pleasing, not rebellious, do not steal and be faithful is that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things (v.10). The word adorn (kosmeo) is from where we get the word cosmetics. Cosmetics are designed to make one beautiful. A Christian at the workplace is someone whose life makes the Gospel glimmers. We cannot change doctrine nor can we temper with absolute truth but we can make truth shine by the quality of our lives.

Have you been a good testimony in your workplace? One of the best forms of evangelism is the Christian witnessing effectively at work. The workplace is his or her mission field. It is the place where the unbelievers have the opportunity to observe the believers engaging in day-to-day situations and activities. The unbelieving colleagues will scrutinize whether the Christian is patient or impatient, honest or dishonest, kind or uncaring, pure or vulgar in his manner of life. They will witness how well the believer lives up to the Christian faith and the principles of the Bible. Inviting unsaved colleagues to the church is certainly vital in evangelism but it will be useless and even counterproductive if one’s attitude, reliability and honest at the workplace is questionable.

With love in Christ, Pastor Paul Cheng