5 Bondservants,[a] obey your earthly masters[b] with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man,
Ephesians 6:5-9, ESV
You may not relate to being a bondservant (praise the Lord) but you are not ill-experienced with having an authority. Maybe it’s a boss, or possibly a parent or teacher. In any case, we know what it’s like to be instructed to do a task commanded to us by someone else.
Paul goes beyond simple, physical obedience, which is his first command here and says to obey with a sincere heart as you would Christ. Well, that’s another level of obedience.
Obedience not just when the boss is looking but a heart of obedience.
Obedience not simply to improve your standing with the boss, but a heart of obedience.
But how is it possible to change the heart when obedience can be a difficult enough on it’s own? Especially when the job is undesirable or when there is tension between you and the boss?
We have to grasp the truth that we are bondservants to CHRIST before we are to any man! We have to understand that we work for the LORD before we work for any man!
We easily get distracted believing that the task at hand is our job, but oh no, our actual job is to have a heart of obedience. Physical obedience isn’t good enough anymore. God’s standard of obedience is a sincere heart!