A Godly Attitude

Living the life of a servant is a very important lifestyle, and Paul's words to the believers in the church of Colossae give us some good attitude adjustments that are not worldly-centered but spiritually-centered in every way. Here are the verses. Colossians 3: ²² Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord. ²³ Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. ²⁴ Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ. ²⁵ But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done. For God has no favorites.

By the way, we are all God's favorites, evidenced by Jesus dying for every individual, because we are all sinners as individuals. We could look at things like "Jesus dies for the world" and lose the way Jesus works individually in every sinner. When we come to Jesus, it is not a "group activity" but a very personal, just for you, type of individual work in the heart of you or me, the individual. Thus, the "personal relationship" we have as born-again believers. When you are born again, you have a personal relationship with God, and He becomes Abba Father to you, which is another way of showing an intimate relationship as though God were your daddy. Who's your daddy? Well, that would be the God who made the universe and the one who saves us from the penalty of sin, and frees us from the power of sin. In talking about favorites, Paul was showing that the person doing wrong does so as an individual that God is working on personally. You mess up, you are held personally to that mess up, and you cannot blame it on a group or someone else. You are the one held responsible because of this personal relationship. The good news is the blood of Jesus activates God's grace, and His forgiveness covers you and makes you right with God, as though you had never sinned. That is called justification.

In this personal relationship, when Paul talks about a servant living a certain way, He is showing you that you are to have the same attitude of Jesus in living your life, and the life of a servant has a certain attitude that is different than those who don't have Jesus. In serving, sincerity of heart is a must, and that attitude will also at times win others to Jesus. Those you work for specifically, which is the reason for the attitude. God's love must be seen in all we do, and when serving others, sometimes at our place of work, it is most evident. Do your work with great joy, and God will use you to lead others to Him because of your loving attitude toward your job. Attitude is everything, and Jesus' attitude is the standard.

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David Warren