Our Winsome Witness at Work

Our Winsome Witness at Work
For contextual background, read the previous blogpost: “Does the Bible Endorse Slavery?”
 
1 Peter 2:18–20 (NKJV)
18 Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh.
19 For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully.
20 For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.
 
The best way Christians today can apply 1 Peter 2:18 is in the employee and employer relationship. These verses can be applied to grace and respect in the workplace. There are gentle employers, and there are harsh employers. There are fair employers and unfair employers. God wants employees to honor, respect and work hard for both. The main point is that Christians, no matter where they are, should be known for their submissiveness. God's people are not to be known as a rebellious people who are constantly opposing the structure of authority that exists. 1 Peter 3:1-7 describes submissiveness in the home. 1 Peter 2:13-17 describes submissiveness in society. In this passage, a few principles can be applied to submissiveness in the workplace.
 
The first principle is to respect the position the employer holds at your work. 1 Peter 2:18 says, “Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh.” The word “harsh” is the Greek word “scolios” which means “crooked”. The medical condition “scoliosis” is when there is a bend in the spine. Peter says you may have a boss that is gracious and gentle, but you may have one who is crooked and harsh. Either way, God’s people are to treat their boss with respect because of the position. You say, “Well, I’ll do that for the good ones, but not for the bad ones.”
 
I hope you have had the fortunate experience of working for a kind boss. I remember my first boss as a sixteen-year-old working at a bookstore. She was so kind, and I worked for her for six months before she told us that she was moving to another state. I told her, “You can’t leave,” as I wept because she was such a good manager. I would gladly submit to someone like that. However, what happens when you are working for a person who rubs you the wrong way? Peter says to respect the position of authority.
 
The second principle is to respond with patience. 1 Peter 2:19-20 continues, “19 For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. 20 For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.
 
The New Living Translation of verse 20 reads, “Of course, you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong.” Imagine you've shown up late for work several times in the last month. You've been reprimanded several times because you keep talking back to your employer. However, he knows that you're a Christian. You can’t say, “Well, I’m being persecuted because I got fired from that job.” No, you got fired from that job because you were late every day and because you disrespected him over and over again. You got fired because of laziness and rebelliousness.
 
Our Christian testimony should be exemplified in a strong work ethic. Christians ought to be the ones who show up to work on time and work with excellence. Christians should be known for a respectful and submissive disposition. Our diligence at work ought to make Christ attractive to others. Verse 20 concludes, “But if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently, God is pleased with you” (NLT).
 
When you are suffering wrongfully at work, and you endure it patiently, just remember that God showed patience toward us in drawing us to Christ. Jesus Christ suffered wrongfully on the Cross. Patience is one of the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). Therefore, Christians are empowered to show patient endurance even in challenging work environments.
 
Watchman Nee, a prolific Christian author, described how he went on the mission field as a young man and was serving a woman named Margaret Barber who oversaw the entire work. She placed Nee under the authority of a manager, whom Nee thought was ignorant. Nee was young and gifted, but he was very frustrated working underneath this manager. He felt he was smarter than his boss. The boss would tell him something to do, and instead of doing it, Nee would go to the woman over the entire work to complain. She would respond by telling Nee to do what the manager told him to do, and if he had a problem, to talk with his boss about it. She put him back under the authority of that manager. This occurred multiple times while Nee was serving in this ministry.
 
Margaret Barber later told Nee that she intentionally didn’t put him underneath one of the more skilled managers. She knew he needed to learn how to respect authority. Nee states that the lessons he learned during that time were crucial to his development. God can use both gracious and harsh bosses in our lives to develop us and prepare us for future opportunities and assignments. In whatever work environment we find ourselves, we need to respond with grace to those who are in authority over us.
 
The third principle is to rejoice in God’s pleasure. When you experience something at work that is unjust and unfair, but you respond with patience and endurance, Peter twice states, “This is commendable to God.” You are responding with the same grace that God showed you on the cross.
 
It is important to clarify that God’s Word is not saying that you have to submit to treatment that is illegal or immoral from a boss. Once Peter was told he could not preach in the name of Jesus, and his response was, “I’m going to obey God rather than man.” (see Acts 5:29). Peter is not saying to submit if your employer asks you to lie, steal or do something immoral.
 
Peter is saying that when you patiently endure unfairness as a hard-working Christian, God is pleased with you. Perhaps your employer knows you have all of the experience, education and credentials, but you are blacklisted because you are known to be a Christian. Instead of complaining, you respond with grace and class. God says that is commendable. Imagine God seeing from heaven and saying, “Thank you for doing what you know to be the right thing to do. I commend you.” That response from God should cause His followers to rejoice.
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Peter illustrates this response by using Jesus as our chief Example. In verse 23, Peter says, “[W]ho, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously.”  Jesus submitted Himself to God, committing His mistreatment into the hands of a righteous God. God has saved you from eternal damnation in hell through the blood of Jesus Christ, which means He can justly handle your workplace environment. He knows what you're going through. He sees everything.
 
We must consider how we present ourselves to others. Is it through our words? Primarily, it's through our actions—specifically, how we manage relationships with difficult bosses and interact with our coworkers. Are we constantly gossiping and undermining one another? Are we trying to outdo each other, engaging in the same behaviors as everyone else? Or do we behave differently as people of faith, to the extent that it attracts others to our Christian faith? They might ask, "What makes them different? They don't operate the same way that everyone else does." When we live this way, our words can carry more weight.
 
This is the core of Peter's argument: We can have a winsome witness in our work while God uses a transformed life to transform society.
 
“Lord, thank You my work. I praise You that I have an opportunity to show my Christian witness at work. Please use me today to share Your love and show Your kindness to others. Help me respect those that supervise my work. Help me respond with patience when I feel I have been mistreated. Help me work to please You above all others. In Jesus’ name, amen.”