In Moments Like These: Christians at Work

Many of us spend more of our daily lives working than any other single activity. This gives us a great opportunity to show Christ in our lives to our coworkers, our supervisors, and others with whom we interact in the workplace.  The Bible gives clear guidance to both employers and employees about how they should act in the workplace.
 
Employers
 
Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard in Matthew 20:1-16 addresses employers.  He told of an employer who went out at five different hours of the day and hired servants to work his vineyard. The employer determined what he would pay each for the work they agreed to do.  At the end of the day, he paid each employee the same amount, even though they did not work the same number of hours.  Understandably from a capitalist perspective, those who worked longer were upset that the others, who worked less, received the same wages.  The employer reminded them, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong.  Did you not agree with me for a denarius?  Take what is yours and go your way.  I wish to give to this last man the same as to you.  Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?  Or is your eye evil because I am good?” (verses 13-15) 

While employers have the right to use their own things as they desire, they have no right to exploit and abuse their employees.  The Bible speaks to both concerns.  Malachi 3:5 states, “And I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, against adulterers, against perjurers, against those who exploit wage earner and widows and orphans, and against those who turn away an alien—because they do not fear Me.”
 
James 5:1-6 also deals with employers.  James is particularly concerned with employers who are wealthy and still cheat and abuse their employees to gain even more wealth. Verse 4 is God’s indictment of employers, “Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabbath.”
 
God stands opposed to employers who exploit their employees to line their own pockets.  Christians who employ others ought to set the example as servants of God under His employ while they are in authority over their employees.  Employees have the right to expect “a day’s pay for a day’s work”.  Greedy employers do not please God. Employers who allow Christian principles to guide them in their roles of authority will be the kinds of employers under whom people will desire to be employed.  This Sunday morning, we’ll continue this discussion with Biblical guidance on what God wants in faithful employers.
 

 
Employees
 
The first thing Christian employees need to know is that their actions are not to be determined by the actions of their employer.  Just because one has a bad employer does not mean that that one is free to abuse and mistreat the employer. 
 
Peter wrote about this principle in I Peter 2:18, when he wrote, “Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh.” While an employee has the right to leave the employment of an abusive employer, he does not have the right to continue to work for him and abuse him in the process. There are many employees who cheat their employers by stealing money directly or indirectly through sloppy work or laziness and then claim the right to do it because the employer is not good.  Not even servants were allowed to return harshness to a harsh master.  How much less should an employee be allowed to do so for an employer who does not own him?
 
Those of us who have worked in public settings have likely worked with employees just like those described above. The Bible is clear regarding traits Christian employees should avoid. The first (and one that likely receives the most attention in the Bible) is laziness.  The book of Proverbs mentions laziness five times.  The most famous of these passages is 6:6-10.  This text challenges those who are lazy to consider the ant and how diligently she works.  The ant is compared to the lazy person about whom it is said in verses 10-11, “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep—so shall your poverty come on you like a prowler and your need like an armed man.” Laziness is so dangerous because it destroys productivity and leads eventually to poverty.  No employer wants an employee who leads the company to poverty.
 
Proverbs 10:5 depicts a son who is a lazy worker for his father.  “…He who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame.”  Proverbs 19:15 says that “Laziness casts one into a deep sleep and an idle person will suffer hunger.”  Proverbs 24:30-34 is a well-known text about the field of the man who is lazy.  “I went by the field of the lazy man, and by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding; and there it was, all overgrown with thorns.  Its surface was covered with nettles; its stone wall was broken down.  When I saw it, I considered it well; I looked on it and received instruction.  A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest; so shall your poverty come like a prowler, and your need like an armed man.”  And, Ecclesiastes 10:18 warns, “Because of laziness the building decays and through idleness of hands the house leaks.”  Laziness and idleness are twin problems in the work world.  As Christian employees, we must avoid laziness. This Sunday morning, we’ll continue this discussion with Biblical guidance on what God wants in faithful employees.
 
Matthew 5:16 tells us that Christians are to be the light of the world. If we follow that command, the workplace should be illuminated by Christians on the job and should be a better place because of the Christians who work there and the Christian principles that guide their lives. We sometimes sing the song “The World’s Bible.’ The second verse of that song is as follows:
We are the only Bible The careless world will read;
We are the sinner’s Gospel, We are the scoffer’s creed;
We are the Lord’s last message, Given in deed and word;
What if the type is crooked? What if the print is blurred? 
 
If we, as Christian employers and employees, do not apply Christian principles of work and living in our jobs, then we “blur the print” of the Bible with our work lives. Showing others Christ through our work lives is the job of every Christian employee and employer.

(Adapted from the tract by Mike Johnson entitled “The Bible Addresses Life:  Employers and Employees”)