Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord, you’ll receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. Colossians 3:23–24
What a great couple of verses that totally transform our perspective on our lives and specifically, so let’s think about work, different ones of us doing different things today when it comes to work, when it comes to our vocation, when it comes to students and school, and we’re working today, or if you’re listening to this and you’re about to go to sleep, you’re going to work tomorrow. So we work in all kinds of different ways. And Colossians 3:23–24 says, whatever you do, whatever kind of work you are doing, work heartily, with all your heart and all the different ways that plays out in scripture, with Christ-like character, with honesty, with diligence, with integrity, with humility. So work heartily as for the Lord and not for men.
Colossians 3:23–24 Provides a Timely Reminder
And then you get to the very end of Colossians 3:23–24, it says, you are serving the Lord, Christ. What a reminder to all of us that ultimately, in the work we are doing, we are serving Jesus. We are working for the Lord, not for men.
So, I don’t know who your boss is, your employer or who you’re accountable to in your work, and yes, it’s good to have human authority over us and for that authority to be good, but ultimately, our authority is not any man or woman. Our authority is the Lord. We’re working for the Lord. So don’t just think about your employer or boss or the group to which you’re accountable. Look above them, it’s Jesus, who you are working for. You are serving the Lord, Christ. This changes your perspective as you go to school today at, as a student to realize you’re working, not just for this teacher, you’re working for Jesus. As you’re doing math, as you’re doing history, you’re learning and you’re studying for Jesus. He is who you’re working for.
Colossians 3:23–24 Leads Us to Pray in Humility
You go to your job and you’re doing this or that, you are ultimately serving the Lord, Christ. This is what you’re doing in whatever work you do. And verse 24 says, “From the Lord, you will receive the inheritance as your reward.” So ultimately, we’re not working for a degree or a grade or a paycheck. We’re working for an inheritance from Jesus himself. Oh, this infuses so much meaning and such a different perspective into our everyday work and whatever that looks like.
So God, we pray that today in all the different things that each of us will do, we pray that you would help us, whatever we’re doing, to work heartily, to work in ways that honor you as the one we are serving. Lord, help us to work hard and smart and wisely, with integrity and with humility, with Christ-like character in everything we do today.
God to help us to love you with our mind, our heart, our soul, our strength with everything we are, whether it’s in studying at school, whether it is doing this or that job, whether it’s in caring for children, whatever it might be, in our home, in a workplace, in a school, God, help us to work heartily, to keep our eyes fixed on you, Jesus, as the one we are working to please and honor and glorify. And God, we pray that you would help us to work in such a way that we would, by your grace in us, receive your inheritance for us as our reward.
We Want to Honor and Please God
Lord, more than we want a good grade or a certain degree, more than we want a paycheck or the approval of an employer or success in this or that area of business, more than we want any of those things, we want to honor and please you. So help us to work heartily in whatever we do. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
