This evening, a brief thought from this morning’s sermon.
Most employees would never think of stealing even two pence from their employer. Why do they not even hesitate to steal two (or twenty) minutes that they should be working, by taking a longer than permitted break, or surfing the ‘Net, or whatever? Why do even Christians do this?
It is a failure of integrity driven by an “eyeservice” / “menpleasing” mindset. If my supervisor isn’t looking, I can get away with it….
Ephesians 6:5-6
5 Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;
6 Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;
Mind Renewers 
Great point! As business owners, my husband and I are thankful for our wonderful employees, but this is something that seems unavoidable. It is totally accepted and people aren’t convicted in any way by this type of theft.
Hi, Leslie. So you are one of those wealthy business owners, eh? 🙂
It’s just one of those cases where we don’t examine all we do in the light of Scripture, and as a result drift into habits that don’t please the Lord. It’s also another one of the ways we can help each other to be alert to practices that really have no place in the life of a Christian. Even better, it can alert us to heart issues — in this case, that we’ve actually had a “menpleasing” attitude rather than a Lord-pleasing one.
Well, I guess it depends on your definition of “wealthy” but we are business owners 🙂 I think this issue is just one of many that we have become hardened to as Christians. My husband and I talk about just how far away we Christians probably are from God’s standards of purity in this culture.
Hi, Leslie, sorry for not responding sooner, work has been busy. 🙂 Yes, you are right about how far we are from God’s standards, but thus it has always been. Thankfully, He is very gracious.