FRONTLINE SUNDAY 3 WHATEVER WE DO
COLOSSIANS 3:15–24
‘Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord.’
Paul’s letter to the Colossians describes the kind of community God was calling them to be. But he makes clear that this was not inward-focused. Their daily lives were to be marked by love, kindness, and compassion in their places of work or activity, and in their relationships. The social conditions assumed in the passage aren’t the same social conditions that most of us face today. However, the principles that flow from it are as applicable now as much as then. Commitment to Jesus as Lord is to be worked out in daily life, in relationship with others, and bound up in our service of Jesus himself.
Key verse/s – Whatever you do… v17&23
It may be significant that this clause ‘whatever you do’ is repeated in Colossians 3. It comes the first time in 3:17 where the context seems to be that the ‘whatever…’ will be in a worship context – verse 15 refers to the body of Christ, verse 16 refers to the word of Christ and the songs that are sung together. But Paul repeats the idea in 3:23 where the context is the everyday working context that the household slaves found themselves in. ‘Whatever you do…’ whether it is in our gathered worship or in our scattered everyday lives, it all matters. Whatever we do…
Paul knew that whatever early Christians were doing in worship, in work, indeed, in all of life, could be significant to God. What made the difference was doing all these things as working for the Lord. Today’s situations may be different, but that commitment to Jesus as Lord remains the same.
Most of the people hearing the letter being read out would have been slaves, the household servants. In many ways, they kept the economy of the Roman empire going. But they had very little control over their lives. It would have been tempting for them to think that their daily tasks were insignificant. Paul’s encouragement to them offered a new way of seeing that these daily tasks mattered. Some Christians still feel that their tasks may be important, but that ultimately, they don’t really matter to God. They live with the sense of a Sacred/Secular Divide. This verse destroys that dichotomy. Paul will have none of that.
Christians often talk about working for God, going on a missions trip for God, doing the ministry for God.
It’s good to talk that way. It’s biblical. v23 is clear ‘Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,
So we should do things for God. But what does that mean?
Surely it doesn’t mean to Meet God’s Needs!
Sometimes when we talk about doing something for someone, we mean that we are going to meet their needs. If I’m going to do someone’s grading it is because that person needs their garden doing! So if we talked about doing something for the poor, we mean we are going to meet the needs of the poor.
But is that what we mean when we talk about doing things for God? When the Bible calls us to do things for God, is it calling us to meet God’s needs? That’s impossible, because God has no needs.
Acts 17:24–25 “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”
God has no needs. He is completely self-sufficient in the joyful fellowship of the Trinity. He is always full and overflowing with grace — giving, giving, and giving some more. Which means that doing something for God cannot mean doing something to meet God’s needs.
Then What Does It Mean?
There’s a crucial clue in Colossians 3:23–24. Start with verse 23: ‘Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,
There it is — we are called to work with all our heart for the Lord. So, if that doesn’t mean we should work with all our heart to meet God’s needs, what does it mean? The answer is in the next verse.
‘since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.’
To do something for the Lord means we do it knowing something — that from the Lord we will receive the reward of the inheritance. So doing something for the Lord does not mean doing something to meet the Lord’s needs.
It means doing something to receive the Lord’s reward.
And the reward the Lord gives is the inheritance, the all-satisfying joy of knowing him forever. So, to work with all our heart for the Lord means to work with all our heart for the reward of joy in the Lord.
It’s like my old rugby coach, when he was making us do drills, when we thought we were going to throw up, when we thought we couldn’t give any more he’d be yelling, “You’re doing this for the win!” “You’re doing this for the win!” What he meant was, do this for the reward of winning.
Try This
When we see what doing something for the Lord means — not doing something to meet his needs, but doing something to receive his reward — it changes everything. It motivates our obedience — because we see that doing something for the Lord means pursuing more joy in him. It humbles our hearts — because we see that obedience is not about us giving God something he needs, but about God giving us something we need — more joy in him. And it purifies our motives — because it takes our focus off impressing others with our obedience, and puts it on seeking joy in God through our obedience.
Think of what God has called you to do — like lead a small group, wash the dishes, share the gospel, or make a sales call. You know you should do these things for the Lord. But too often we are not clear about what that means, and so it becomes just a cliché.
So try this: see what happens in your heart when you prayerfully and meaningfully say,
- I’m going to lead my small group for the reward of joy in the Lord.
- I’m going to wash the dishes for the reward of joy in the Lord.
- I’m going to share the gospel for the reward of joy in the Lord.
- I’m going to make this sales call for the reward of joy in the Lord.
It changes everything.
last week I referred to Brother Lawrence without really explaining
Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection was born Nicolas Herman in France in 1611. When he was a young man he was seriously wounded during his military service, and during his period of convalescence, after begging God for his life, he pledged himself to religious service. God obviously made good on the deal, and Herman recovered and went on to fulfil his side of the bargain, initially trying to live as a religious hermit, and then in 1640, at the age of 26 he entered the Order of the Discalced Carmelites (barefoot). For his religious name he took the name Lawrence. For 15 years he worked as a cook in the monastry kitchen. In later life due to severe sciatic gout, he was unable to stand for the many hours required to cook. He spent the remainder of his years as a sandal maker for the barefoot Carmelites!!!! Until his death at the age of 77.
In spite of his cloistered life, the disciplines of the monastic life did not appeal to him for two broad reasons. First, he found himself unable to connect with God through the disciplines of meditation, contemplation, silence and written prayer. He found them overly complicated and requiring too great a level of theological sophistication. Second, he believed that connectedness to God ought to be accessible to even the most ordinary person. If this connection was only possible for monks then he didn’t see it as a very useful system at all. As a result, he set about developing a series of exercises, easily learned by anyone and practicable in any circumstances. In effect he was inviting anyone, of any background, to experience the presence of God in daily living.
Lawrence’s practice of the presence of God involved five simple skills simple to explain, though not necessarily easy to master.
[I only talked about number 3 in the message but here are all 5]
1 Seek God’s Presence: Guard your heart with extreme care to retain purity.
Lawrence understood that it is impossible to seek God’s presence whilst also seeking after sinful human desires. He had a very robust, refreshing understanding of human sin. He knew that it’s impossible for us not to sin, that sin will always be a reality in the human experience, but that in order to experience the presence of God, we must regularly confess our sin and recognise that God’s presence is achievable in spite of it.
I consider myself as the most miserable of all human beings, covered with sores, foul, and guilty of all sorts of crimes committed against my King; moved by sincere remorse I confess all my sins to him. I ask him pardon and abandon myself into his hands so he can do with me as he pleases. Far from chastening me, this King, full of goodness and mercy, lovingly embraces me, seats me at his table, waits on me himself, gives me the keys to his treasures, and treats me in all things as his favourite; he converses with me and takes delight in me in countless ways, without ever speaking of forgiveness or taking away my previous faults. Although I beg him to fashion me according to his heart, I see myself still weaker and miserable, yet ever more caressed by God. This is what I see from time to time while in his holy presence.
Here we find a perfect balance between a heightened awareness of his human inadequacy and an equally sharp awareness of God’s tender and unearned grace. In order to practice the presence of God, exiles need to be ruthlessly honest about their sinfulness, keep short lists of unconfessed sin, develop accountability relationships with more godly and experienced mentors, and seek to abide in God’s unfathomable grace.
2 See God’s Presence: Keep the Soul’s Gaze Fixed on God by Faith
Brother Lawrence developed the phrase “keep the soul’s gaze fixed on God” to describe the practice of seeing God in every aspect of life. By this he meant that we are to cultivate a capacity to see God’s presence shining through even the most most mundane or profane activity, whether it be making sandals or cooking (Lawrence’s two main activities) or any other ordinary task This sacralizing of the everyday allows the exile to see that God doesn’t live in church buildings or cathedrals, but that God’s presence can be seen in art, beauty, work, food, grief, pain, and joy. BY fixing the soul’s gaze on God by faith, we are freed to see God in distinctly nonreligious categories and to help not-yet-Christians to connect to a God who can be encountered even if they’ve never been to church
3 Live God’s Presence: Do all for the Love of God
Doing all for the love of God includes all things, both the so-called sacred and the secular. Nothing is to be excluded. According to Brother Lawrence, the practice of Christian spirituality does not demand isolation or retreat. He believed that all of our everyday activities hold the potential to become what he called “little acts of communion with God”. It is an all-encompassing, expansive vision of the world. Lawrence saw every single activity as a chance to glorify God. In fact, in his understanding, God’s presence charges all our activities with glory – so much so that our sanctification isn’t based on the actual activities that we perform, but rather on our preparedness to do them for God rather than for ourselves.
Possessed thus entirely with the greatness and the majesty of this infinite Being, I went straightway to the place that duty had marked out for me- the kitchen….I flip my little omelet in the frying pan for the love of God, and when it’s done, if I have nothing to do, I prostrate myself on the floor and adore my God who gave me the grace to do it, after which I get up happier than a king. When I can do nothing else, it is enough for me to pick up a straw from the ground for the love of God.
We must never tire of doing little things for the love of God, who considers not the magnitude of the work, but the love.
To the untrained eye, the difference is unobservable; a casual observer could hardly tell the difference between a Christian and Non-Christian doing the same things. But internally, the difference is significant.
4 Speak in the Presence of God: Offer Short Prayers to God
Lawrence’s genius was his ability to set religious practices free from the realm of the “professional Christian”. One didn’t need to be a monk or a hermit to commune with God. Nor did one need to memorise lengthy prayers and petitions. Lawrence insisted that any believer can practice the presence of God by offering regular short prayers of the simplest nature. He offered the following short phrases as examples:
To those who set out upon this practice let me suggest a few words, such as “My God, I am wholly Yours,” “O God of love, I love You with all my heart,” “Lord, make my heart even as Your own”, or other such words as love prompts at the moment….Before beginning any task I would say to God, with childlike trust: “My God, since you are with me, and since I must apply myself to these duties by order, I beg you to give me the grace to remain with you and keep you company. Even better, my Lord, work with me, accept my efforts and take possession of all my affections….” Moreover, as I worked, I would continue to hold familiar conversation, offering to Him my little acts of service, and entreating the unfailing assistance of His grace.
After completing his tasks, Lawrence gave thanks for all the good that was accomplished.
5 Treasure God’s Presence: Value the Presence of God more than Anything
Jesus says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt 6:21). When we value the presence of God more than anything, we will set our minds and our hearts on pursuing this one thing above all else. But, Lawrence is quick to explain, we should not do this for our own pleasure or benefit alone. His primary motivation for pursuing God is that this is what God wants more than anything else.
There is no way of life in the world more agreeable or delightful than continual conversation with God; only those who practice and experience it can understand this. I do not suggest, however, that you do it for this reason. We must not seek consolations from this exercise, but must do it from a motive of love, and because God wants it.
But these practices that, as we noted earlier, can be invisible to the casual observer because they are inner disciplines, exercised by our imaginations and our hearts. I want to add to some other, outwardly expressed disciplines to ensure that we practice the presence of Christ in plain sight of not-yet-Christians. Demonstrating the presence of Christ will involve the following:
‘Practicing the Presence of Christ’ – Brother Lawrence
Seek God’s Presence:
Guard your heart with extreme care to retain purity.
See God’s Presence:
Keep the Soul’s Gaze Fixed on God by Faith
Live God’s Presence:
Do all for the Love of God
Speak in the Presence of God:
Offer Short Prayers to God
Treasure God’s Presence:
Value the Presence of God more than Anything
Do it ALL in the name of Jesus
When we do something in the name of Jesus, we are acting as Jesus’ representative. We are his ambassadors. So, I can parent my children or be a friend in his name. I can price a job or run a business meeting in his name. I can plumb a sink in Jesus’ name, coach a team in Jesus’ name, bathe this patient in Jesus’ name. We are each called to be Christ’s ambassadors, to represent him in what we do and say. What does it mean to do our daily tasks in Jesus’ name?
Do it with ALL your heart
How do you help people who are looked down on, who are thought to be insignificant? Paul subverts the slave-owner relationship by helping slaves see that they are actually working for the Lord, not just their owners. As they work with ALL their hearts – it is part of their worship, they are serving the Lord.
What sort of actions and words will make this true in our lives, in the life of our neighbourhood, our workplace, our school or our club?
Connecting with the congregation
Think again of what you do – object, or what you’ve written
Offer what you do to God