Page 171 - Ephesians

way. The way, of grace. Let’s pray the Lord of the harvest, that
He’ll send forth laborers into His harvest. Let’s see the grace of
God spread and change the lives of men. If you get people
conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, they aren’t
going to be violating these principles. What is the main instruction
the Lord gives to the Christian slave? In our day, we wouldn’t use
the word slave or slave owner. We would say employer and
employee. What is the chief principle God gives, concerning
human bosses? Note in your Bible these expressions,

6:5, “In the sincerity of your heart as to Christ.” 6:6, “Not by
way of eye service, as men pleasers, but as slaves of
Christ.”, “Doing the will of God from the heart.” 6:7, “As to
the Lord, not to men.” 6:8, “He’ll receive back from the
Lord.”

Let me state it in these words. The employee, the slave, is to do
everything as unto the Lord. I remember how I used to
misunderstand this. Right after I first trusted the Lord Jesus as
my Savior, I had an oppressive boss. He mocked me as a
Christian. Boy, he gave me a hard time. He would deliberately
overload me with work, in order to see if I would sin. He
continually hoped that I would get angry, swear, or lose my
temper. On one occasion, he succeeded. I actually punched him
in the jaw because of what he did. In those early days, I didn’t
know much about the Lord, and I don’t know much more now. I
didn’t know what to do. I needed the job and couldn’t quit. I
remember studying the sister passage to this very scripture,
Colossians 3:23 says,

“Whatever you do, do your work heartily as to the Lord rather
than men.”

Here’s the error I fell into. I thought God was saying, “Play a little
game of pretend”. Just make believe you are working for Jesus,
instead of that good for nothing, inconsiderate, rotten, boss. He
didn’t say to pretend you are working for Jesus. That’s what I did,
and it worked as long as my self-control held up. I had sort of a