Title: How to deal with a picky boss
Contents
1 Peter 2:18-25
When they came to worship, there were a lot of injustices for a week, some had been beaten, some came with their faces full, and some people were unbearable because of injustice. It was a worship service with many such saints. So the Apostle Peter advertises that next week, especially, what slaves should do to their masters. Bring lots of friend slaves. I think you said So that day, a lot of slaves came to the worship service and listened to what the Apostle Peter had to say about groundbreaking stories. Slaves! And Peter began to preach. But immediately, ‘You must obey your masters. Not to mention the kind masters, be thoroughly obedient to the picky masters!' The slaves they expected to teach, knowing that they were teaching great secrets, were disappointing and powerless because they told such obvious stories. After listening to everything, something strengthens their spirits, makes a decision, and gives them a new heart.
Today, we will focus mainly on verses 19 and 20. The biblical principle for dealing with difficult masters is revealed. And from verses 21 to 25, we find the example of our Lord who stood before the powerful and difficult Roman Empire by that principle.
First, what to do if you are being harassed by a picky master (2:19)
Let's read verse 19 together. Suffering ambiguously is a case in which the owner is a very strange owner, and this slave has a bad relationship with the owner itself. This is a picky owner, and the word picky is originally 'bent on', so he has a twisted mind and never treats it fairly in any case. What touches us so much about this message is the fact that although none of us are slaves to other people's houses, most of us have masters over us at work or at home, and they are not ordinary people.
By the way, there are usually two alternatives when your personality meets a strange correlation. First, it crashes, but having a conflict with your boss in difficult times like these means that my desk will soon disappear. Hit your superiors in the military, this is death. So most of them take the second alternative, which is just rubbing. Once I've made up my mind to survive in this organization, I've come to the conclusion that I have to behave well in the eyes of my superiors. This is what the world calls sacrificial magic.
The difficult thing about working life is that it is hard and there are many things, but the problem is the strange bosses. Therefore, Korean office workers have no alternative but to drink bibi while working and drink after work. And if you've been drunk for a while, you can release the accumulated stress at karaoke.
But what is the effective response of the saints? If we look carefully at verse 19, we endure the vague bullying of this picky boss and obey, but we endure by thinking of God. Thinking of God means that I am under this boss now, but my real boss is God, not you, this thought moves me. I think of this as ‘spiritual self-esteem’. The way to win under a demanding master is not to work because of that person or because he is afraid of him, no matter how strange his boss is, not because he hates to see him, but in the sight of God, the higher master who has entrusted me with this work. is to work.
This is the mission mind, the third vision of our church's founding. Missionaries who go abroad as missionaries are sent by God and carry their missions there. The visible institution is a missionary organization. This is a sending church. For missionaries, missions agencies are never easy. If the administrative process is not handled well, even if it is a sabbatical year, it is not possible to have a sabbatical year. If you can't see the sending church well, your donation will be cut off. So, you have to have a good relationship with the sending church. However, missionaries do not do missions because of the head of a missionary organization or the chairman of the sending church. He took God as his master and was sent by God and went to do God's work.
Who is the real owner? Who gets a salary and a reward? It is the God who sent him. Those who do not go abroad as missionaries to work, do not just go to earn money without being sent. Our Lord called you out of necessity and sent you to that job. A job is never easy, and it is extremely difficult for my superiors to fit my heart, but they may be picky every day and torment them every hour of the day.
How did our Jesus work with a mission mind on this earth? It comes from verses 21-25. Our Lord is not suited to living in heaven, so coming down to this earth and living for 33 years is really descending into a lower culture. If you go on a short-term mission to Russia or China, it is painful to go down in your own culture, to the extent that the young people in Korea are terrified just to use the conventional toilet.
So, the workplace that our Lord started after being sent by God the Father was very difficult and did not suit him. But the Lord must have been very sad when he was judged before the High Priests, before Herod, before Pilate, before the Roman soldiers, and harassed. Because the Lord had divinity, but He also had 100% humanity, what did He endure when His self-esteem was hurt, he was embarrassed, he was unfair, and he suffered really vaguely as described in verse 19? In the presence of arrogant, arrogant, and rude people, the Lord did not flatter, nor did He throw the cross, I couldn't do it. For what? Thinking of God and working out our salvation! Our Lord did not fight with visible power, but he did not give up anything because of their reckless bullying.
Second, what to do if you are reviled or beaten after working hard (verse 20)
Read verse 20 together. There are times when you are beaten because you are guilty, and there are times when you are beaten because you are not guilty. I worked hard, but there are times when I get a lot of cursing. These slaves swept and worked hard from morning to evening. Others go out to play for two or three hours during lunch time, but I worked hard on the task entrusted to me without flirting. However, there are cases where voices of criticism are heard here and there, and stinging stories such as that that person is lazy or that that person does something else during working hours are stinging. Flattering people are amazingly aware of the time they have and the time they don't always see. Because I study that time! So, I work hard all of a sudden in time for my boss to come. Even though it's a shiny glass window that I wiped, the flattering people pretend to do the final cleaning just in time for the boss to arrive. And then there are times when I sly, as if I was late and hadn't cleaned anything. In that case, most of the times that my boss becomes a picky and unfair boss is due to the evil words of a rival trying to harass me.
It was David who worked hard and did a good job and was most reviled. David is accused by King Saul of being a traitor to the throne of Israel. What he did before Israel was really good. The Philistine general Goliath was a very fearful and terrifying opponent, but the young David threw a slingshot in the name of the Lord to bring victory to Israel. But Saul, who saw David's appearance as a rival, drove David as a treason. Jeremiah is imprisoned in the courtyard of the demonstrators at the command of the king of Israel in return for proclaiming God's word of truth. Our Lord, the blind, the deaf, the paralyzed, the demon-possessed, healed, taught, and cared for him, but lost his life as a Roman traitor, a sinner who blasphemed God, and a sinner who violated the temple and the law.
What are the alternatives when doing fair work and being treated unfairly or doing good and being unfairly treated as an evil person? to endure it. It's not about just being patient. Waiting for God's judgment. Even Joseph and David endured while waiting for God's time. In Joseph's life, he did not cry when he was a slave. I didn't cry when I was in prison. When does Joseph weep? After enduring all hardships and becoming prime minister, I cry a lot while meeting my brothers. God rewarded Joseph for everything in his life. Joseph married and had a first son, who he named Manasseh. It means that God has healed my wounds.
David suffered too many injustices, but when he endured to the end, he allowed Israel's leadership to focus on David so naturally. God does not act like a cowardly friend when we are treated unfairly. You remember them one by one. Verses 19 and 20 also acknowledge that those who endured while thinking of a higher God under a demanding master, that they did good deeds diligently and endured injustice, are both beautiful. In Proverbs chapter 28, we are told never to be envious of those who succeed through flattery and expediency. Why? A person who goes consistently with honesty and integrity is slow, but later is more loved. Leadership is focused on him. For a long time people watch us. Even picky masters actually watch their servants. People around you observe those who endure and see God's reward even after suffering injustice. And what happens after a significant amount of time has passed? It is to be recognized and respected.
I seriously ask you all. No matter how difficult our masters we meet at work, we must not give up thinking that we have a higher master, a master in heaven. Think of that God, the God who sent me here, and believe that it is the most beautiful thing in the sight of God to endure a difficult master by His strength.