God proved His love on the Cross. When Christ hung, and bled, and died, it was God saying to the world, ‘I love you.' ~ Billy Graham ~
Respect for instruction is what the rest of the chapter is teaching.
Colossians 3:22 (KJV) Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God: Don’t get upset at the word “Servants” pride may jump up within us and say “I’m not anybody's servant. The truth be known we are! Webster says this about the word SERVANT “A person, male or female, that attends another for the purpose of performing menial offices for him,who is employed by another” Well I guess we can all fit into this meaning. If you are employed there is someone over you, your boss, supervisor someone telling you we have to get this done today. Like it or not you do it. We are told what type of attitude we should have. Attitude is everything, our attitude mirrors out toward others that work with us and look up to us. Colossians 3:23 (KJV) And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;
“And whatsoever ye do” doesn’t matter what we are doing or who we are doing it for “do it heartily” With zeal; actively; vigorously. Eagerly; freely; largely; not for your boss nor your company but “as to the Lord” that type of attitude will change our perspective. If our supervisor were to say “we need to get this project done in the next 8 days and if we do there will be a nice bonus added to your check.” Wow, now we work harder to get it done, weekends, all the sudden didn’t matter, getting it done is what mattered. Well that's good but it’s doing it for men and that’s fine but it’s when we aren’t doing it for men that matters.
Colossians 3:24 (KJV) Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. Our attitude should be with zeal and eagerly that what we should be working toward. Yes it’s great to please men but our goal should be that we are doing things in a manner that will be pleasing unto the Lord. Why? Because verse 25 closes with these words “there is no respect of persons.” The place you work for may have a nice meal after the project thanking everyone for their hard work. Most of the time the one thanking everyone will say something like this “I want to thank everyone for their hard work, for their sacrifice and long hours which without we could have never accomplished this project. Then that group of hard working employees may hear the speaker say “and I want to give a special thanks to Joe Miller for keeping this project on track for without his input we might have never completed it.” Now this is the time it will show who you were really doing it for. How that part of the speech affects you will determine who. If we are not careful we will let the respect of a special person affect our attitude. What’s the correct answer and how should you or I respond to that? Who we were doing it for in the first place. If we were doing it for men, respect toward another will affect our attitude; you might say something like this “Joe Miller is a nice guy but without us Joe i nothing.” On the other hand if you are doing it for the Lord your attitude shouldn’t change, bonus, dinner, and speech won’t matter. Why? Because God ”is no respect of persons.” Including Joe!