Work is never neutral. Work is always forming us. It shapes our habits, our loves, and our character. It shapes the kind of people we become. In my last blog, we explored this formative process. In this second installment, we’ll see that the Apostle Paul understood the formative power of work as it directly relates to employees and employers. We see this when he addresses workers in his Epistle to the Colossians 3:22-4:1. Here Paul does not treat work as a minor part of life. Rather, he calls believers to approach their work with a Christ-centered vision.
First, let’s take a step back. The central call of the book of Colossians is for believers to reconfigure their lives as those who are “in Christ.” We Christians have died with Christ (Col. 2:20), we have been raised with Christ (Col. 3:1), and therefore everything we do must be shaped by our union with Jesus Christ. Paul makes this clear in Colossians 3:17. “Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.” To act in the name of Jesus is to act as those who are closely connected with Jesus.
“Our workplaces are among the most formative environments in our lives. The question is not whether work is shaping us. The question is how it is shaping us.”
In Colossians 3:18-4:1 Paul brings this vision of a life lived in union with Jesus into the most formative institution of his time, the household. In the ancient world, the household was not only a family unit. It was also the center of learning and work. What we now separate into home, school, and workplace existed together in one structure. Addressing the workplace function of the household, Paul writes:
Bondservants, 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. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven. (Colossians 3:22-4:1)
Here Paul addresses the relationship between bondservants and masters. And he does so to offer guidance on how their shared work life should be shaped by their union with Christ.
To appreciate what Paul says, we need to understand the bondservant/master relationship in the ancient world. Unlike race-based American slavery, this system was not racial, was often temporary, and could include skilled roles. This is not to say it was never abusive in its own way. It is simply to point out that what Paul is addressing is akin to an employee/employer relationship.
Now Paul is addressing this relationship precisely because it has power to shape people. That is his concern. In this regard, note Paul’s vision: The work is to form both parties into people who display their fundamental union with Christ. Employees are called to practice displaying Christ by working with sincerity and integrity. They are to reframe their work as those who serve the Lord. In turn, employers are called to practice displaying Christ by acting with justice and fairness. They are to reframe their work also as those who are also servants—servants accountable to the God they serve by giving oversight.
For us in Los Angeles today, this vision still matters. Our workplaces are among the most formative environments in our lives. The question is not whether work is shaping us. The question is how it is shaping us.
At the Center for Faith and Work Los Angeles, we believe that work rooted in Christ becomes a place of spiritual transformation. As we learn to work in the name of Jesus, our work takes on deeper meaning. We are not only contributing to the world around us. We are being reshaped within. And it is in that process that we begin to see what it means to reframe vocation and reshape culture.
In our next installment in this series, we will look at Paul’s claim in Colossians that work shapes our fundamental ways of viewing the world.