Colossians 3 - Serve Christ

Let's finish this one up.

Colossians 3:23-25 - ^"23Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, ²⁴since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. ²⁵Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism."

^"23Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men," - Just as verse 17 is the key verse in this chapter of Colossians, verse 23 is a pivotal joint to every Christian's walk with Jesus. We are commanded to work, and work hard - in WHATEVER we do. Not some things, and not most things, but ANYTHING we do.

And, we're supposed to do it as if we're doing it for God, not for men. That means, when you go to your job today and your boss or your co-workers verbally abuse you and dump loads of work on your desk, you need to work at it with all your heart as if you were working for God, not for men. Verse 24 shows us why:

^"24since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." - Our reward is not honor from men. We're not out to get shiny trophies and medals. We're out to win the prize. Eternal life in Christ Jesus. When you inherit something, you have it passed on to you. God passes on eternal life in heaven through Jesus' blood to you. You serve Christ - not men. Consider your work an act of worship to God.

^"25Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism." - Two key things here: Wrongdoing is repaid by God, not by us. Vengeance is for God to take and God alone. Not us. Even though we feel like we should get revenge for the wrong done to us, our Heavenly Father has already seen the wrongdoing and will repay it.

The second key to this is that God doesn't show favoritism. That means you and I are equal in his sight, BUT, so is Adolf Hitler. So is Charles Manson. So is Arnold Schwarzenegger. You have to know that God doesn't excuse the sin in their lives or ours, but Jesus died because God loved EVERYONE. If God showed favoritism, perhaps Jesus would not have gone to the cross and God would have just rescued a handful of people across time.

God doesn't pick favorites and you and I are loved equally by God. Praise Him for that!

Next week: Philippians 3