Serve with good will, as to the Lord and not to men,with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men,With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men:with good will doing service, as unto the Lord, and not unto men:
4 sermons cite this verse
… You did the online certification. You wanted to keep honing your craft to the best of your ability to do it as unto the Lord and not unto men. And as you did, people around you noticed how well you do what you do. And when you take your craft and care and consistency and character and you bundle all these together, what happens is you are building a platform from which you can then influence the people around you for the gospel. I had a friend for a couple of years was driving a NASCAR race car on Sundays. And we would text back and forth and encourage each other back and forth. And I always say to him on race day, hey, go out there and preach with the pedal today. Because I preach back here with the table. I said, but you preach with the pedal. You get to that spot before that other guy gets to that spot and bless him later, but you get in that spot and you win because it's a race. …
Now this is a very practical, very direct portion of Scripture that gives God's divine design for our employment relationships, our work relationships. And just because you need to understand the context and the setting here, you have to understand that in the ancient times, most people who work were attached to a family. It was an agrarian culture. They had land, they farmed that land, or they raised animals on the land, or they had craftsmen's skills, and it still was basically around the home where they plied their trade and earned their living. And so if they needed help, they would then have relationships, contracts with people who would come and work for them. And that's the setting that you have here. And the reason I want you to understand that is because you're not talking about people who go off to a factory in this setting. You're talking about people who are virtually living with the people who are their employers and their bosses and their leaders, and the people are also living with those who are their slaves. …
The expression, "they shall walk up and down," also implies variety of service. They shall not only walk up, they shall also walk down. There are some departments of Christian service that we like and others that we do not like. Many would far rather glorify God by preaching to hundreds or thousands from the pulpit than by lying alone in the chamber of affliction. Some like to serve God in what they regard as a respectable sort of way, but they do not care to work for Christ in the back slums, the cellars, or the attics! But true Christians will be just as willing to go down as to go up! We must be ready to go anywhere and to do anything for Christ! It is just as great an honor to be employed in Christ's kitchen as to serve Him in His Temple! If He allows us to wash His feet even with our tears, let us count that as high a privilege as to anoint His head with oil! Happy is that servant who shall be permitted to kiss his Master's feet, but equally happy should he be who is bid to unloose the latchet of His shoes. It should be a matter of no consequence to us whether we go up or down as long as we are doing our Lord's will! But do not forget to notice that all is to be done in God's name—"they shall walk up and down in His name." It is Jehovah who is speaking here and it is in His name, under His authority, at His command, and to His praise and Glory that all our service is to be rendered! It is all to be done as unto the Lord, and not unto men. I rejoice that so many whom I am now addressing are occupied in various forms of Christian activity—and I hope that each one of us who loves the Lord will continue thus to walk up and down in His name until He calls us to serve Him in the upper sanctuary! …
And hence we draw an important lesson for ourselves, which, however obvious, is continually forgotten by us in the actual business of life; viz. to do our duty without aiming at the world's praise. Mankind knows nothing of St. Simon's and St. Jude's deeds and sufferings, though these were great; yet there is One who "knows their works, and labour, and patience, . . . and how they bore . . . and for His Name's sake laboured, and fainted not." Their deeds are blotted out from history, but not from the Lamb's book of life; for "blessed are they who die in Him, . . . that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them." On this great practical rule, viz. to do what we do heartily, as unto the Lord, and not unto men, I shall now make some remarks; and in doing so, I shall be pointing out a mode in which we may follow these blessed Saints, whose lives at first sight seem to have left no pattern behind them for our imitation. …