Give it All

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

GIVE IT ALL

Eph 6:5-9

5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.

9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

NIV

Surely we cannot judge the men or cultures of the past by the standards or laws we live by today. The idea of slaves and masters may still occur in some small parts of the world today, but we never hear about it. Our society fought a great civil war over slavery and it was abolished. England too had to deal with the abolitionists who finally won and put an end to slavery there. So how do we apply this passage to our lives as we are neither a slave nor master? However, we are either an employee or employer, unless we are self-employed. If we are self-employed, how then does any of this apply? First, we could see this as being simply employed in some profession, craft, or trade. We all do something to earn our living, again, at least the majority of us. Perhaps, it would be better to say that according to scripture we all are supposed to earn our own living. This is not to diminish those who are actually unable due to some legitimate reason. The idea is we are working for our keep, and many work for someone, thus are employees. Then we can apply this to the way in which we apply our skills, whatever they are. We work as though we are working for the Lord. We do not just do so when the boss is looking, but when he or she is not. It matters not if our diligence at our craft is noticed, the point is we do the best we can do all the time, every time because that is what a believer does. We could also apply this to ministry, but then our ministry may well be our calling, and that may well be our profession, craft or trade. Not all of us are called to be in a paid ministerial position, but we are called to be ministers for the Lord. So as we work we do so as though we are ministering for the Lord. If we are in the position of management, then we manage in that same way, as though we are ministering for the Lord. It really comes down to how we treat one another as people. How do we behave as an employee or employer to the other? When we consider, do it wholeheartedly, it is with our all, no slacking, no half-hearted attempt at our task, no doing just enough to get by, or thinking that just because others get away with something, it is alright for us to as well. No, we are to give it our all, just as Jesus gave his all for us. We are not to hold anything back, but do all we can, all the time, give it all at whatever we do.