IDEA: There is dignity to labor when we understand that our jobs are the will of God for us. TEXT: "Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ; not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free. And you, masters, do the same things to them, giving up threatening, knowing that your own Master also is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him" (Ephesians 6:5-9).

PURPOSE: To help people realize that secular work is as significant to God as religious work.

Have you ever heard of the "bull’s-eye" theory of the will of God? Who would most religious people put in the center?

Basic to that whole concept is that we think of some occupations as being more central to God’s purposes than others.

I. People who have a bull’s-eye theory of the will of God might be upset by what Paul writes to slaves who lived in Ephesus (Ephesians 6:5-9).

Paul tells slaves that they are to do the will of God from the heart. When he talks about doing the will of God from the heart, what is it that he is referring to? Is it their work at the church?

He’s referring to their daily work. Does he imply that they were several points off-center?

II. The idea that only religious workers are in the center of God’s will was a heresy in the early church. It was called Docetism.

The heresy maintained that there was a distinct difference between the body and the spirit. They maintained that Christ was not a real human being who actually suffered and died on a cross, but who only seemed to do so. They could not believe that God would have anything to do with what is human. They denied the incarnation.

In wider terms, that led people to believe that God was concerned about the sacred, but not at all concerned about the secular. It was part of a Gnostic heresy.

III. The Church condemned the heresy.

The early church affirmed the incarnation of Jesus, that He really became a human being.

When you say that Jesus is human, what do you actually mean by that?

In affirming the incarnation of Jesus, they were saying that He is both human and divine.

In the wider realm, they were saying that there is not a difference between the sacred and the secular. There is not one realm in which we are more pleasing to God than in another realm. That is why Paul could say to slaves, "your job is the will of God for you."