Colossians 3:23 Meaning: Work As for the Lord
There's a good chance you've seen Colossians 3:23 on a mug, a desk plaque, or a graduation card, cut loose from everything around it. Read it there, in the actual letter, and the picture changes. Paul is writing to people with no control over their working lives at all, and he still finds something in their day worth calling holy. Sit with the whole paragraph before you decide what the verse is asking of you. Photo by John-Mark Smith on Pexels Quick answer Colossians 3:23 tells believers to do their work wholeheartedly because it is ultimately offered to Christ, not merely to an employer or supervisor. Paul wrote this to first-century slaves with no legal standing and no say in their labour, which means the verse was never about ambition or career success. It is about where your motivation and your sense of worth come from when the human side of the arrangement gives you little reason to care. The reward Paul points to (verse 24) is not a promotion, it is inheritance in Chris...