The story is told of Charles Spurgeon visiting a family. There was in that household a domestic servant – paid salary – who had recently been converted. As a faithful pastor, Spurgeon began to enquire as to the girl’s spiritual state. What reason did she have to be confident that she had not only professed a nominal faith in Jesus, but she was truly now born again? “Well,” the reply is said to have come, “now I clean under the rugs.”
Christian life is for the whole of life!
Perhaps few principles are less frequently articulated, and more in need of being communicated, than that Christ is all in all, and that the freeing rule of Jesus applies equally to the world of work. Consider: most people in most churches spend most of their time not in a worship service. Consider: how much of what we teach during a worship service actually applies to a) cleaning floors; b) making multi-million dollar deals; c) raising children; d) trying to cope with an annoying boss; or e) figuring out how to fire graciously an underperforming, lazy, or immoral employee?
I suspect the answer is “precious little.”
But this is not just a matter of appropriate proportionality when it comes to the teaching that we give and receive in the context of the church, and how much of that applies to the “real world” (whatever that is). This is – even MORE importantly – about the great debate going on under the surface of our society today about the relationship between the “haves” and the “have-nots,” or what has been called the 99% and the 1%. What place in this world is there for profit? Or, to put it another way, if there were no profit, how could there be provision?
Answer: Colossians 3:22-4.1, which we will be studying on Sunday!
In the context of Colossians, Paul is applying the truth of Jesus’ freeing rule (“Christ is all in all!”) to every area of life, including the area of slaves and masters. In Christ there is no slave nor free; we are all one in him. This principle undermines the institution of slavery in church history (William Wilberforce!) and redefines the power relationships at work so that every single one of us – boss, and wage slave – are working for Jesus as our Master.
That’s truly radical, it changes everything. Come and find out why the Occupy movement is half-right, and why it is half-wrong (at least).
Sunday morning, College Church – where the gospel is proclaimed, lived and practiced Sunday and from Monday all the way to the next Sunday.





Chuck King
Dawn Clark
Garrett Nates
Jeff Brewer
Jon Nielson
Josh Moody