Coming off the holidays, many people are struggling to go back to work or once back at work they are struggling with motivation to work. What motivates your performance at work? Is it personal advancement, better pay, opportunity for power and prestige, recognition, the approval of others or to make a difference in our community? On some level all of us are motivated by one or more of these influences. The problem with each of them is that they are all too small. At some point each of these will lead to frustration, conflict, disappointment and even complete despair. For example, I have heard parents and educators motivate students to work hard at school so that they will get better jobs. What should I tell my friend with an MBA who has been unemployed for over thirteen months now?
There is a better motivation, a bigger motivation that should drive our work ethic. In Colossians 3:22-24, the Paul the Apostle says in addressing servants, “obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”
The implications of these verses are huge. First, it helps us understand that our view of God should affect how we work. If we believe that we are ultimately accountable to God, then we will understand that whether our work is seen or unseen or whether it is rewarded or unrewarded by other people, it does not matter, because we have a higher cause and a greater accountability to God himself.
Second, it instructs us in how our view of God should affect our work. Since we are not merely pleasing others or seeking an earthly reward, we ought to be driven to the highest levels of excellence and with the purest of motivations, for we are to “work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.” Do you find it hard to work some days with the people you have to deal with or answer to? Do you find that the politics of the work place, the preferential treatment given to those you believe are undeserving, the abrasive personalities and unappreciative spirit of others simply make it nearly impossible to work at all, let alone to work whole heartedly? It is time to work for a greater cause.
Finally, this passage of Scripture encourages the one who works for the Lord that, as His servant, we will not go unrewarded. In this life, even the best public servants with the greatest good of the community in mind can go completely unnoticed and become incredibly disenchanted and discouraged if they do not serve with a greater view of what they are doing. One who serves God in whatever area of work they are given to do and whole-heartedly serves in a manner pleasing to God is promised a reward. That has always been one of the driving forces behind a “Christian work ethic.” To the Christians in Ephesus Paul wrote, that they were to give “service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord” (Ephesians 6:7-8).
Did you know that God gave the first man, Adam, a work to do before He gave Adam a woman to love? Work has always been intended as a wonderful part of God’s plan. The problem is that we as sinful individuals have made it so much less that what God intended. So what about you? What drives you at work? What gets you up, gets you going and keeps you going, even when you feel unnoticed, unappreciated and unrewarded? Get a bigger view of what God has for you in your work and see how your work can last beyond the vapor of this life.
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