Thursday, January 12, 2023
HIM – NOT THEM
Eph 6:5-8
5 Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the
flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;
6 Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;
7 With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men:
8 Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he
receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. KJV
As a retired pastor, I often struggle
with my level of Christian service. Fifty plus years of being on-call 24/7, 365
conditions one to continue that to the grave. Yes, retirement can present some interesting
challenges. One of them is pleasing God and/or pleasing men.
Verse 6 of our Scripture today is very
interesting in the original Greek. The word eyeservice is from ophthalmodouleia, meaning “service that needs watching.” Menpleasers, as a single word, is
from anthropareskos, meaning “man-courting; fawning.” A great example of this is the work
and worship habits of the Pharisees.
John 12:42-43
42 Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but
because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out
of the synagogue: 43 For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of
God.
Make no mistake, the pressure was great
and the consequences serious and severe. Grace was not offered, and so the poor
Pharisee often defended a position he did not truly hold. Honesty was precious
in those days – and in these.
The problem, for me at least, is setting
boundaries. It is hard to say, “this I will do because it is unto the Lord” or “this
I need not do for the Lord does not require it.”
Lord, show me my work and let me do it heartily.
AMEN
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