Do you struggle to shine the light of the gospel in your place of work?

This is the first of three articles about how Christians can witness at work drawing from the principles taught in 1 Peter 2:18-25.

Every true Christian wants to witness at work. We want our colleagues to be saved. We even want our nightmare boss to be saved. We want that because we received what we did not deserve: mercy! As hell-bound sinners, on the broad road to destruction, we stood condemned before a Holy God. But that same God, in his mercy, saved us. He saved us from ourselves and from our sins, through Christ’s death on the cross. And if he can save you and me, He can save anyone. Because that’s true, we long for others to hear and believe the gospel, even in our workplace.

But how do you witness at work – even when you face unfavourable conditions? Think of a bus driver—can they start preaching to people as they board? Or the remote worker who has never met half the people he works with in-person? Or the roofer—should he preach to the pigeons? For lots of Christians, they cannot simply preach the gospel during work hours. Once they clock into work, they’re on their employer’s time. And they are accountable to them to use their time well, whatever “well” means to their employer.

So how does gospel witness happen at work? In 1 Peter 2:18-25, Peter gives us some help. In this section of his letter, he’s helping household slaves in the Roman world live out their hope in their witness. In this section, he’s helping them with the topic of submission to their masters. Some of these had “good and gentle” masters; many had “unjust” masters. In Peter’s day, slaves were regarded by law as property, not people. They had no rights. Their masters could abuse, beat, or even kill them without consequence because they were under their total authority. It’s fair to say they had it a lot worse than we do in the modern workplace!

Yet, with all that being true, in 1 Peter 2:18 God gives them instructions for shining the light of the gospel in their situation. And in doing so, we can draw two principles for our own witness at work.

Principle 1: GOD WANTS YOU TO WITNESS AT WORK BY PRACTICING SUBMISSION

Peter writes, “Servants, be subject to your masters…” (v.18)

In the beginning of this section, Peter is calling believers to engage in evangelistic submission. Peter calls you to live such good lives before the Gentiles (unbelievers) that they see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits them to save them (2:11-12). In the workplace this means your behaviour displays the hope you have.

What does evangelistic submission involve? It involves you voluntarily placing yourself under your boss, like a soldier under their sergeant. God is calling you to do this voluntarily. Your boss shouldn’t have to twist your arm to get you to submit. Submission should be your habit. They should see you submitting to them willingly, as your normal behaviour. Even if you have rebellious tendencies, God commands it, and a faithful witness at work demands it.

Principle 2: GOD WANTS YOU TO WITNESS AT WORK BY PRACTISING EXTREME SUBMISSION

God requires not just submission but extreme submission.

Maybe you’re thinking, “Peter, are you kidding me?” You don’t know my boss. My boss is the worst! You can’t honestly expect me to voluntarily submit to them! But Peter goes on to write, “Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.” That covers your boss, does it not?

Masters can be either good and gentle or unjust. You either have a tolerant master who does not insist on every right to the letter of the law, or an unjust master with complete authority—crooked, and set on using the power they have to make your life miserable.

Put yourself in the shoes of someone with a crooked master. Imagine you have worked a long day. The night before, you waited on your master’s dinner party and cleaned up until morning. At the end of the day, your twisted master, fresh from the spa and nursing a hangover, pushes away the chicken dinner you slaved over and snaps, “Make me some soup!” What should you do? According to our text, you must obey. Not half-heartedly, not grudgingly, but willingly. The question isn’t whether you will serve your master. The question is whether you’ll serve him sincerely—or (as Jay Adams once said) with a splash of spit in his soup. Christian, to faithfully witness at work, you are called to pick the first option.

What does Peter mean when he says we engage in extreme submission with all respect or, as some translations say, with all fear? Some argue that he means that we submit with all respect to the person in authority because of their position. As Adams put it, we salute the badge, not the person. But the context of our passage suggests that this respect—or fear—is rightfully understood to be directed to God. In the previous verse (v.17), Peter uses the same word when commanding Christians to “fear God.”

This fear is not motivated by fear of the master’s consequences but by fear of your Father in heaven. It’s a desire to please the Lord, as his slave (v.16)! In Colossians 3:22 Paul expresses the same idea: “Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.”The same teaching shows up elsewhere in the New Testament (Eph. 6:5; Tit. 2:9). Once you get this motivation right, it changes everything.

Objections?

However, maybe you have objections to this. You say, “We are not slaves! We have workers’ rights and can leave our job.” This is true. We aren’t regarded as property by law. We can thank God for that—and should praise him for it. Christians have always been free to use lawful means to address injustice.

However, the principles Peter gives us remain. God is glorified when you practise extreme submission—when you voluntarily place yourself under the authority of your boss, even if they’re twisted. This is how we display hope in our witness at work. We fear God, not man. It is one way we get to shine our hope in Him before others, and that makes it a sacrifice worth making.