Monday, December 12, 2016

Your Employment

Ye serve the Lord Christ.
  Colossians 3:24
 
"To what choice order of officials was this word spoken?
To kings who proudly boast a right divine?
Ah, no! too often do they serve themselves or Satan,
and forget the God whose sufferance permits them to wear their mimic majesty for their little hour.
 
Speaks then the apostle to those so-called "right reverend fathers in God," the bishops, or "the venerable the archdeacons"? No, indeed, Paul knew nothing of these mere inventions of man. Not even to pastors and teachers, or to the wealthy and esteemed among believers, was this word spoken, but to servants, ay, and to slaves.
 
Among the toiling multitudes, the journeymen, the day labourers, the domestic servants, the drudges of the kitchen, the apostle found, as we find still, some of the Lord's chosen, and to them he says, "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."
 
This saying ennobles the weary routine of earthly employments,
and she places a halo around the most humble occupations. To wash feet may be servile, but to wash His feet is royal work. ... The shop, the barn, the scullery, and the smithy become temples when men and women do all to the glory of God! Then "divine service" is not a thing of a few hours and a few places, but all life becomes holiness unto the Lord, and every place and thing, as consecrated as the tabernacle and its golden candlestick."
Charles Spurgeon