Charles Spurgeon: Serving the Lord in Your Vocations

“Whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.” — Colossians 3:23-24

“The true way to serve the Lord in the common acts of life is to perform them as unto Himself and this can be done with everything which is lawful to do. God forbid we should maintain, as some do, a broad, unbending distinction between things secular and religious.



This wicked age must, indeed, have its holy places and its holy days. What is this but a confession that most of its buildings are unholy and its days unholy, too? Of Heaven it is written, ‘I saw no temple there,’ and we get nearest to the heavenly state when all superstitious notions about sacred places and sacred substances shall be swept away once and for all! To a man who lives unto God nothing is secular, everything is sacred! He puts on his workday garment and it is a vestment to him. He sits down to his meal and it is a sacrament. He goes forth to his labor and exercises the office of the priesthood. His breath is incense and his life a sacrifice. He sleeps on the bosom of God and lives and moves in the Divine Presence. To draw a hard and fast line and say, ‘This is sacred and this is secular,’ is, to my mind, diametrically opposed to the teaching of Christ and the spirit of the Gospel!

Paul has said, ‘I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself.’ Peter saw a sheet let down from Heaven in which were all manner of beasts and four-footed creatures which he was bid to kill and eat. And when he refused because they were unclean, he was rebuked by a Voice from Heaven, saying, ‘What God has cleansed that call not you common.’ The Lord has cleansed your houses, my Brethren. He has cleansed your bed chambers, your tables, your shops. He has made the bells upon your horses holiness to the Lord. He has made the common pots and pans of your kitchens to be as the bowls before the altar if you know what you are and live according to your high calling.

You housemaids, you cooks, you nurses, you plowmen, you housewives, you traders, you sailors—your labor is holy if you serve the Lord Christ in it—if by living unto Him as you ought to live. The sacred has absorbed the secular! The overarching Temple of the Lord covers all your houses and your fields. My Brothers and Sisters, this ennobles life! The bondsman is henceforth free—he serves not man, but God. The galley slave tugs the oar for Jesus! The menial ministers to the Lord. This cheers the darkest shades, for now we no longer complain of the hardness of our lot, but rejoice in it because we bear all for Jesus—and the burden which we carry is His Cross which He, Himself, places on our shoulders! This ensures us a reward for all we do. . .

Perform your daily work with a heartiness which nothing else could beget in you. Serve the Lord with gladness and do all for love of His name. This I thought most important to bring forward, and though I cannot speak upon it as I would, yet I do earnestly urge all of you to remember that piety shines best around the domestic hearth—and that true religion is always best esteemed by unconverted men when they see it in connection with the common duties of life.”

– Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)
 taken from: All for Jesus, Sermon No. 1205, November 29, 1874.