It is an amazing thing how hard and quickly a child can clean their room if they really put their mind to it. Tell a child to go and clean their room and most children will slowly shuffle away, rather glumly accepting their chore, but tell that same child that if they go and clean their room, when they are all done, that they will go out to get some ice cream, all of a sudden that sluggishly moving body will be put into high gear. What normally would have taken hours to clean will have, miraculously, been done in a fraction of that time.
You could say that they cleaned their room in a “hearty” manner, which is exactly what I wanted to talk about in a passage of scripture found in Colossians 3.
Colossians 3:22-24 “Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God:
And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;
Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.”
If something is done heartily, or in a hearty manner, it means that it is done energetically, actively, it eagerly. A few similar words are zealous, ardent, or vigorous. There are many people who are very self conscious about physical fitness and go to the gym to work out regularly, and I can guarantee that if they are really that serious about it that they are not there to do a single push-up, and then leave. They will be very zealous and active.
We too, need to be very zealous and active in the things that we do in the name of Christ.
Many times the word “zealot” is thought of in a negative way, but really the word zealot means to be filled with zeal, or to be enthusiastic.
The disciples of Jesus were very zealous about their faith, weren’t they? They were constantly out preaching the gospel of Christ to others, even when some people around them didn’t want to hear it. Peter had been cast into prison for preaching Christ, but when he got out, what did he do? He went right back at it again. Jesus had commanded Peter to preach, so no matter who told him not to, Peter was going to continue on preaching.
Whatever we do for others, do it as though Jesus Himself had asked you to do it. If somebody asked you for a glass of water, how quickly would you have done it if Jesus had asked you? It is the natural, carnal man that thinks about themself and what they can get for themself, but the Holy Spirit in a person will think about and put others first. “If I asked someone for help, how would I want them to treat me?”
1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
What are some things that you do for others that you could do more heartily? Good works are something that we need to be filled with, but make sure that when you do them you do it heartily, as to the Lord.
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 