Colossians 3:22-25 Servants, do what you're told by your earthly masters. And don't just do the minimum that will get you by. Do your best. Work from the heart for your real Master, for God, confident that you'll get paid in full when you come into your inheritance. Keep in mind always that the ultimate Master you're serving is Christ. The sullen servant who does shoddy work will be held responsible. Being Christian doesn't cover up bad work.

Last week we looked at how God is our ultimate boss in all we do. By working from the heart for God, our performance at work will reflect Who it is we are working for and Who it is we believe and live for.

This week we're looking at the sullen servant who does shoddy work, and how being a Christian doesn't cover up, or excuse bad work. As my mother always said, “A job worth doing is worth doing well.” It doesn't matter if we're being paid for the work, volunteering, or just lending a hand to someone in need. In all we do, we should do our best. Our actions say so much more, than our words, about our walk with God. We can talk up a storm about God and His love, but if we keep leaving things half way done, or the quality of our work is poor, it says so much more about what kind of relationship we really have with God.

Professing to be a Christian never hides the flaws in poor workmanship. I never saw people use their religion to gloss over shoddy work or downright dishonesty until I moved to a town that was started and largely populated by one particular denomination. I suspect this town isn't the only place with this problem. Any town with a large population of any particular religion is going to have this problem. It's easy to become secure in a religion when it's the majority. Because the security is place in being the majority instead of on God, we start to become dependent on ourselves. Dependence on ourselves puts the focus on ourselves, which then opens the door for selfishness, followed by greed. Greed causes people to do the least amount of work possible while still expecting the most amount of payment possible. That's when you get people who use name of their church when trying to build a business. They might talk about their church, toss out a few important names in the church in their conversation, and maybe even quote some Bible verses, but when it comes to the kind of work they produce, it become painfully obvious that their talk was just empty talk.

It doesn't matter what people we know or what position we hold in our churches. None of that makes us important or good workers. Just going to Church doesn't make us important or a better person IF YOU DON'T KNOW JESUS. We were all created by the same Creator. He loves us all equally. The Bible says we are all sinners. Every single one of us is a sinner. None of us are getting to Heaven by doing good, or having an important position in Church. The only way any of us are getting to Heaven is because Jesus came down here and died on a cross. It is because of Jesus' hard work, not anything we do, that we are saved.

When a person realizes how they are saved, when they realize where they would end up if Jesus hadn't died for them, it is then that they want Him in their lives. A person, who knows Jesus, will humbly serve those around them. They will do their best job because their love for Jesus can't stay hidden inside them. It bubbles out in all they do. They happily give their best, not expecting large rewards in return. They don't need recognition or large rewards. They know their Heavenly Father loves them and made it possible for them to one day see Him face to face. There is no better reward, no better gift, than the gift of salvation, the gift of being able to look into our Saviour's eyes and see His love for us.

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