Service and Joie de Vivre

Just the other morning I was reading Colossians and came across this phrase:

"Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically, as something done for the Lord and not for men, …" (Col 3:23, HCSB).

'Enthusiastically'. Really?! Don't get me wrong, I think it's a pretty cool vision for life in the world--that picture of being truly engaged, present, delighted in what you're doing, rather than detached and disinterested. But is that what the verse is really saying?

(Note: how to apply this verse, given that Paul's instructing slaves here, is a whole other discussion. I'll assume for now that it has broad application to most of us in most areas of life. Ok?).

For comparison, the NIV translates it as follows:

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart…"

I totally get that "with all your heart" is pretty similar to "enthusiastically", but the latter seems to carry more a sense of zest; the former more a sense of sincerity, commitment (though both are present in each).

Here's what I did:

• Step 1: Look at the footnote. The footnote tells me it's literally, "do it from the soul". I decided to dig around a little more.
• Step 2: Look at the context. We could say heaps here, but the surrounding verses hint at things like integrity, propriety, service, living life confident that you enjoy God's favour in the gospel. Also, in the previous verse slaves are instructed to work "with sincere heart", which sounds like a kinda parallel: no hidden agendas, 'what you see is what you get', my Biblical Greek dictionary says. Transparency.
• Step 3: Look at the words. The word for 'soul' is pretty broad, but here it probably refers to a centre of human emotions/feelings--which would kinda fit with either "enthusiastically" or "with all your heart"… but perhaps tips me toward the former.
• Step 4: Look at how the same words are used by the same author elsewhere. Ephesians 6:6 is a really close parallel. Same topics, similar instruction--and both sincerity (v5) and a positive attitude (v7) are on view.

Conclusion: both translations are certainly defensible, and I'm probably splitting hairs anyway. But I'm tipped toward the HCSB:

"Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically, as something done for the Lord and not for men, …"