Working for the Lord
Sacred everyday work
Paul transforms the meaning of ordinary work with a single reorientation: whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men. He was writing originally to slaves doing menial labor, and he tells them their work — however lowly, however unappreciated by human masters — can be done for the Lord himself, and so becomes sacred. The audience changes everything.
This dissolves the false divide between sacred and secular work. We tend to imagine that only explicitly religious activity counts as serving God, while our daily jobs are merely secular necessities. Paul knows no such division. The most ordinary labor — done heartily, as unto the Lord — becomes an act of worship and service to God. Your work, whatever it is, can be offered to an audience of One.
And Paul adds a dignifying motive: you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you serve the Lord Christ. Even work that goes unnoticed and unrewarded by people is seen and rewarded by God. This is enormously freeing for the bulk of our lives, most of which is spent not in prayer or worship services but in ordinary work. That work need not be a spiritual wasteland; done for the Lord, it becomes a place of worship and formation. Whatever your daily work, will you do it heartily, as for the Lord himself?
“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men.”
— Paul, to the Colossians — Colossians 3:23 (WEB)
Do your ordinary work heartily as for the Lord, to an audience of One — dissolving the divide between sacred and secular, and making daily labor itself worship.
“Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord, Christ.”
Somewhere we drew a line through our days, marking the religious hours as God's and quietly conceding the rest to mere necessity — and most of life fell on the wrong side of it. The interior work is to erase that line at its root by changing whom the labor is for: not the boss, not the wage, not the watching room, but the Lord himself, until the most ordinary task is lifted into worship before him alone.
This week, reorient your daily work: do it heartily as for the Lord rather than for human approval, consciously offering your ordinary labor to an audience of One, especially the unnoticed and unrewarded parts.
The world insists that only the visible and the rewarded matter, so the unseen hours of ordinary labor come to feel like time that does not count for God. But work done heartily for the Lord is seen and rewarded by him precisely where no human notices — and the whole of life, not just its religious edges, is reclaimed the moment the audience changes.
We tend to divide life into the sacred and the secular — religious activity that serves God, and ordinary work that is merely a secular necessity. Paul dissolves the divide with one reorientation: whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men. The most ordinary labor, done for the Lord rather than for human approval, becomes an act of worship. The audience changes everything.
This is enormously freeing, because most of our waking hours are spent not in prayer or worship but in ordinary work. If that work is merely secular, the bulk of life is a spiritual wasteland. But Paul says it can all be offered to an audience of One — and even the labor no human notices or rewards is seen and rewarded by God. Your daily work, whatever it is, need not be a gap between the spiritual parts of life; done heartily as unto the Lord, it becomes a place of worship and formation in itself.
- Do I divide my life into sacred activity and secular work?
- Is most of my life a spiritual wasteland, or worship offered to God?
- Could I do my ordinary work heartily, as for the Lord himself?
Lord, I divide life into the sacred and the secular, leaving most of my hours a spiritual wasteland. Teach me to work heartily for you, to an audience of One. Let my ordinary labor become worship, seen and rewarded by you, even when no one else notices. Amen.