DO IT HEARTILY
“And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.” Colossians 3:23, 24
The Bible teaches us that God is not only interested in what we do, but also He is interested in how we do it and why we do it. Our motives are extremely important to God.
In our text, He gives us principles that add meaning to our daily activities. The context of this Scripture is dealing with servants obeying their masters. How should a slave relate to his owner? Of course, slavery is no longer a practice in most parts of the world, but these principles can be applied to our lives as well. If a Christian slave is expected to have the right attitude in serving his master or owner, surely we should have the proper outlook in our areas of service, employment, or responsibility.
Notice that it says, “whatsoever ye do, do it heartily.” This has to do with our attitude in our work. It has to do with the way we do our job and how we feel about it. We are not to do it grudgingly or with complaining, but with goodwill. Doing something with the right attitude certainly makes the doing of it more enjoyable. God is interested in the spirit in which we work. If we are employed in some manner, as Christians, our attitude about our work will say something to our employer about our faith. We want to be enthused about our service.
In the Lord’s work, hearty service is required and needed. Jesus contrasted the hireling with the shepherd. The shepherd served with love for the sheep while the hireling served for personal gain and ambition. We can serve heartily because we know that as Christians we are serving the Lord, not just men. It says, “”do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.”” If what we are doing is part of God’s will for us, we can actually see ourselves as His servants. We are serving Him. This again adds great meaning to our involvements. It makes it much easier to work and serve with enthusiasm if we remember who we are serving. We are serving the King of kings. We are working for the greatest Master.
Our text also tells us that, “of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.” Our reward for our labors is not simply temporal. We are not just working for a paycheck or a temporal recognition, but we have an eternal reward to anticipate.