Authority: What Is That?

When the Soffit on my home began to wear thin, I know that replacing it exceeded my expertise. So I picked a carpenter to make the repairs.

Once the carpenter was done, I took a very close look at the work and noticed some problems. Sought a second opinion and was told that the contractor was not licensed, nor did he secure a builders permit. Working without official oversight, he had violated many points of the building code This incident reminded me of an important truth (other than asking to see a building permit. We often do less than our best if we don't have authority monitoring our movement.

In Scripture we see the principle explained in two of Jesus' parables (Matt. 24:45-51, 25:14-30). In each case, at least one unsupervised worker failed when the master was gone. However, we see a rather different approach in Proverbs 6. Let's look at the ant, which does good work without any supervision.. The ant does its work without being monitored.

What about you? Do you do good work only when you are watched? Or do you recognize that all your service is for God and so do your best all the time-even when no one in authority is watching? No matter your boss, you are actually working for God.