1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”
In my case, the first question I would be asked is ‘what do you do?’ and once I explained that I worked with a church that pretty much ended the conversation; people were hard toward the church and that meant relationships if they started, did so with a bit of suspicion of my motive or that I was a nutter. The problem for many workplace Christians in a post-Christian society is that their faith would not even hit the radar screen for their colleagues. Their colleagues would see them acting as anyone else with little of the salt & light to indicate that something was different about them; mainly that they were a Christ follower and this made a difference. If they did act in godly ways, the culture is so far removed and/or people are so ‘good’ themselves, there is little to stand out other than they are a nice person. I think the key for me now as I enter the workplace is that my work wins the respect of outsiders. Through honesty, through loving words, doing things in a different (godly) way, people would perhaps see that the motive or driving force behind me is not my own ways, but God ways. The ways of someone who follows the risen Lord.
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