761 Serving Christian Bosses - 1 Timothy 6:2

Have you ever asked God to give you ideas for how you might serve your boss? 

Hey, it's Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One Podcast. 

Today, I want to talk about 1 Timothy 6:2. "Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful on the ground that they are brothers; rather they must serve all the better since those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved." That's 1 Timothy 6:2 from the English Standard Version. 

A couple of years ago, episode 252. I actually talked about 1 Timothy 6:1. These two verses are addressed to "all who are under a yolk as bond servants," it says in the English Standard Version. In other words, these are what was called slaves in that day, but many of them were just indentured servants. They were working out debt. It was much like the employees that we have today. And so in verse two, he's actually charging these bondservants who have Christians who are their masters, and he's encouraging these people not to be disrespectful on the ground that their master is a brother. "Rather, we must serve all the better since those who benefit by our good service are believers and beloved." 

The challenge here is for marketplace Christians to serve their bosses. We serve our boss, even if they're non-believers, and we talked about that in episode 252. But today we're talking about serving believers.

The reason why this topic is relevant to me is because we're talking about, serving others in the Marketplace Mission Trip. Our challenge, our fourth daily activity is to serve other people. That's our job as Christians is to serve others. That's what ministry means.

And so we serve others so that Jesus might become visible. One of those people that you serve is your boss, And if that person's not a believer, then we want to treat them as worthy of all honor, as it says in verse one. But in verse two, it says, even if they're believers, don't treat them with disrespect, but serve them all the better.

Let's be a blessing to the people that we interact with today. Let's look for ways to serve the people around us. Today, on serve others day in the Marketplace Mission Trip, ask God, to give you an idea for how you can serve your boss, how you can serve your supervisor. Or if you're an entrepreneur, or if you're self-employed, how can you serve your customers? How can you serve the people that you report to and the people that you do work for? 

That's our job as believers is to serve others. When we start praying for them, which we did back on Monday, and we start appreciating them. Then God shows us ways to serve other people. And today what we want to do is remember that we want to show respect to the Christians that we interact with. We don't want to treat them disrespectfully, but we want to serve them all the better since they benefit by our good service and they're believers in Jesus Christ. 

Today, as a marketplace, Christian, I want to challenge us to be servants in the workplace. It's how we show the Spirit that Jesus gave us. It's how we demonstrate to the world that we're different. It's not about what we say nearly as much as it is about what we do. And we can always find ways to serve other people. 

So today ask God and then do whatever he tells you. Do what you can to be a servant to the people that you interact with daily. 

Thank you for being a marketplace minister. Thank you for making a difference in the lives of the people that you interact with every day. Your service to Jesus and your service to them can matter for eternity.

What we do can matter forever. And that's why it's important, how we live as Christians. And if you want to be part of a community of people who are trying to do this on a daily basis, check out our online community at https://community.followerofone.org. I'm grateful that you listen to the podcast and that you look for ways to integrate your faith into your life every day.

Thanks very much.