Genesis 18:16

The men rose up from there, and looked toward Sodom. Abraham went with them to see them on their way.

By this time, we know that Abraham had become a very wealthy man. He had many servants under his command and could probably have anyone do anything for him. Notice, however, that in this case Abraham quickly goes out to meet these guests, does everything to accommodate them and then goes with them to where they were going. What we are seeing here is Abraham acting like a servant. Abraham knew and loved the One he served and did everything he could to serve Him. Abraham knew that serving these men was serving God.

Most of us are not rich like Abraham, but most of us don’t think of ourselves as slaves. In reality, there isn’t a great deal of difference between a slave and an hourly worker that lives day-to-day on a paycheck. Servants get their room and board and sometimes extra pay if they do whatever their master asks. That’s pretty similar to those of us who get a paycheck. One of the big differences is that we have the right to leave and go to a different master, but there isn’t that much difference, in many cases.

God wants us to honor our authorities and be good servants. This is what the Bible says about it:

Ephesians 6:5-8 :

Servants, be obedient to those who according to the flesh are your masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as to Christ; not in the way of service only when eyes are on you, as men pleasers; but as servants 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 thing each one does, he will receive the same again from the Lord, whether he is bound or free.

So, just as Abraham was serving God by serving these visitors, we should be serving our earthly bosses as if we were serving Christ. We should not just do the bare minimum in our work but should do the very best we can. I want to make sure and be clear that this doesn’t mean that we should do things that are wrong. We are supposed to work hard for our bosses just like we would for God, and that provides a limit to what we can do also. If our bosses ask us to do something against God, we must remember that we are doing what we are doing for God and would never do anything against Him including doing what a boss says. When a boss, even a bad one, asks us to do something that is good, we should obey and do it as if it were God asking us to do it. We shouldn’t let a bad boss stop the work we do for God. God will reward us even if the boss doesn’t.

One other very important thing to remember is that some of us have the opportunity to start our own businesses and be our own bosses much like Abraham was. The Bible also says that if you are someone’s servant but can be free, you should get free. Being free from service to men for a paycheck doesn’t mean that we are free from our service to our Master Jesus Christ, however. He wants us to serve each other in love anyway, but as a free man, you can choose to serve as a gift and that is a very good thing. Even free men are God’s servants just like Abraham shows us and should work very hard to please Him.