The Employee Handbook written by God

In our last post we saw that our ability to work and our jobs are part of God’s blessing for our lives and not part of the curse. We also saw that God wants us to work and working is part of His plan to develop our character. He is central in each promotion and raise that we receive. So understanding that God cares very much about our jobs, brings us to the question of what does His Word say about how He expects us to act on our job?

The starting point is that we simply need to work hard. Colossians 3:23 tells us that we should work hard because we are working to please God and not to please our boss. No matter what type of job we have or field that we work in, the Bible is clear. We need to work with a passion to do our absolute best. Understanding that we work to please God and not a boss is key to understanding God’s requirement for workers. Would the Lord be pleased with our efforts today?

Another chapter in God’s Employee handbook instructs us to be content with our job. This might be a foreign concept since a recent Career Vision survey indicated that less than ½ of Americans are happy with their jobs. Being content with the job that God has given us is one of the main tenants of God’s economy and completely opposite of what we hear in man’s economy. Here is a report from the Bureau of Labor statistics that says that the average Baby Boomer will hold 11 jobs between the ages of 18 and 44. That doesn’t sound like too much job contentment.

King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 5:18-19 “Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor…” If you are not satisfied with your job, first ask yourself why. Are you working for the money, or to please God? Are you viewing your job as a gift from God, or a daily drudgery? Pray and ask God to either change your heart or lead you to a job in which you can be content.

Another chapter in God’s Employee Handbook has to do with our responsibility as an employee to obey our employer. Although Ephesians 6:5-9 and 1 Peter 2:18 is written to slaves, the application to employees is valid and the truths of the passage are that we must sincerely obey our employers. 1 Peter 2:18 is clear that this responsibility includes both the good and bad bosses. This is a tough dose of medicine in a society focused on “Employee Rights”.

Remember that working in a secular job may be one of the greatest opportunities we have to share our faith. God’s standards are very high, and this includes our responsibilities as employees and workers. By obeying God’s standards our work will become different than those around us. This may be the open door to share our faith.

Many times we have been duped into believing that work is a totally secular activity and we view it as drudgery. This attitude leads to being disgruntled with our jobs and even resentful of others success. This attitude destroys one of our greatest areas of outreach and witness and opportunities to shine as a light in a very dark world.