TUESDAY 5th
Colossians 3:12-17
NIV (v17) – ‘And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.’
ESV (v17) – ‘And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.’
When we read this verse there are two contexts in which I see it being applicable, the first is to do with the spiritual and our Christian service, the second is with the outworking of our lives in general, the secular.
First to do with the spiritual and our Christian service. We are what we are, or we have become what we are, all by the grace of God, he has called us, he has saved us. And in doing this he has called us to do that which is his plan for our lives as we are reminded in Ephesians 2:10 ‘we are his workmanship in Christ Jesus’. There is spiritual work for us all to do. And we should do it or fulfil it in the name of the Lord Jesus, this means it should all be done to and for his glory. Although we may not immediately see it, it is saying that Jesus should be the centre of everything and the reason for all that we do. So for example, for me as a pastor, whatever I do in that role should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus (that also infers according to his will) with a heart of thankfulness, that way all the glory and the honour goes to him. I should not be doing anything to get any glory for myself, if that were the case I would be doing (whether in word of in deed) for the sake of building up my own ego. This to me speaks of another word, which needs to be resurrected in the arena of so much of what is called the modern Church, and it is the word humility – sadly we see a culture of celebrity status being brought into the Church which is taking the glory away from the Lord Jesus Christ, a look at me rather than look to Jesus. And should someone in this position fall and it has happened very recently it causes so much fall out as those who have focused on the celebrity leader have suddenly lost the object of their attention, when all the time it should have been the Lord Jesus Christ.
Secondly, it is an applicable text to the outworking of our lives in general, everything in our lives should be done for his glory, including the secular and maybe we have never thought of it like this before. When I worked in the motor trade, I always sought to do my best for two reasons, the one was because I was employed by someone and therefore had a responsibility to serve them well, the other was I always sought to do my best because I knew that even in the workplace as a believer I was a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore it was important to represent him well, the same should be said in our marriages, in our families, in our friendships and relationships, we should seek for them to all be in accordance to that which will bring glory to God, so that in whatever we do, or whatever we say we do it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, as his representatives in a fallen world, bringing glory to him. It means that when others might be taking short cuts, we don’t, when others might be fiddling, we don’t, (unless it’s a violin) when others might be fudging the truth, we don’t, we seek to be a people of integrity, bringing honour to him who has called us and saved us, serving him well in word and in deed both in the spiritual and in the secular.