Thursday, September 6, 2018

The Standard We Should Have

"And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men,
knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ."
Colossians 3:23-24 (NKJV)

What kind of attitude should we have with the work that we do?  Is there one attitude that is right for one kind of job but not for another, or is there a certain attitude we should have for every job?  Is there a level of work that is acceptable sometimes and not at others, or should our level of effort be consistent no matter what job we are doing?  The answer, which most people would agree is correct, is that our attitude and our effort should be the same with everything that we do, because we should have a standard that does not change from task to task.

In the Bible we can see the standard that God has.  When the temple was built, when God gave the details about the clothing that the priests would wear, and when instructions for the different sacrifices were given these things needed to be done in a certain way.  God gave a standard of excellence in everything He instructed people to do and this should be our standard as well.  No matter who may or may not be paying attention to what we are doing, we need to realize that even if no one is watching us or approving of what we do on earth we have a Master in Heaven who is paying attention.

As Christians, no matter what we do or who we work for, we should do it as to the Lord because He is the One that we are really serving.  Our natural work on the earth should show a pattern of excellence because of Who we serve and represent.  We can always ask ourselves the question, if this was some work I was doing directly for Jesus how would I do it?  That is the standard we should have all of the time for everything that we do.  No matter who our earthly leader or boss is, no matter what standard they might require, we serve someone even greater and our standard should reflect that.

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