Develop God's Heart For OthersSample

Respecting Your Boss 

In Titus 2:9-10, Paul writes a very interesting and important command, 

Exhort bondservants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. 

In our society, it is important to understand that this passage is giving us instructions as employers and employees. And simply stated, as an employee, you are to be obedient to your boss. 

One of the ways you do that is by not answering back. It might be hard at times to hold your tongue, but you must. It’s not okay when you get to the water cooler to talk to the other employees like, “This idiot that we work for doesn’t have a clue what’s going on here.” I think that comes under the category of answering back.  

And pilfering means stealing items of small value. I remember this guy I knew in Oregon who did not like the place he worked. In fact, he had a government job, and he would come home quite often with something he had stolen from his office. 

Nearly every day he would rip off some small office supply like a stapler, or pens, or a hole punch. While they were always things of small value, he would just keep stealing things.  

The Bible says don’t do that. And you shouldn’t steal time from your employer either by making personal phone calls during office hours. Your employer is not paying you to take care of your business at the office. That is stealing.  

I believe that, as Christians, we ought to be the best employees in the world. We should work so hard and bring such a good attitude into the workplace that we set the example to everyone with whom we work.