Good morning. Thank you. What a nice tribute. I am honored and I do love Pastor Micah. Don’t you love Pastor Micah? All of our pastors, not just Pastor Micah, but all of them. Yes, you can applaud. It’s ok. And I hope he makes it safely. We should pray for them while he’s away.
So good morning. It is true. I have had the privilege to teach our kids for, he said a few years ago. It’s been a little more than a few. About twelve or thirteen. But it has been my greatest joy and honor to teach our children. So if you have at this moment a child that’s anywhere from probably about six to twenty-six, I have had the chance and privilege and honor to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to them, and it is a great privilege to be able to do that.
So open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 6. We’re looking at verses 5 through 9 this morning. And I’ll meet you there in a second. It is, as Pastor Micah said, the last of our Divine Design series. And you may remember April 16th Pastor Micah said, “Open your Bibles to Ephesians 5:31 to see God’s divine design for marriage. We then moved to see the divine design for husbands and for wives and children and parents.
And this morning we’ll close with God’s divine design for the workplace. I have been blessed by this series. I trust you have as well. And if anyone has needed what we are about to look at this morning, it is me. So I have been taught by the Scriptures as much or maybe more than you might be this morning.
So before we get to our text I’ve got to rewind for a second because we’re looking at some verses that are going to be counter cultural. It will strike you as “how is this possible?” kind of a text. And if you are not in Christ this morning, I pray that as you are on your journey here that you will consider trusting in Jesus Christ. Because it’s the only way that we’re going to be able to understand as Paul would have us understand it, as Christ would have us understand it if the Spirit has opened our eyes.
And so the first three chapters of Ephesians 1 through 3 we get a glimpse into heaven. It’s the lifting of the lid if you will of heaven and the miracle of the gospel in our salvation. You could consider these first three chapters the foundational layer of who we are in Christ. And if you find yourself in Christ this morning, it’s because God has called you out of sin and darkness and caused you to repent and believe and receive the free gift of eternal life.
And if you’ve done that, Ephesians 1 through 3 says this about you. You are now a saint. You’re blessed. You’re appreciated. You’re reconciled. You’re heard. You’re gifted. You’re forgiven. You’re fathered. You’re new. You’re rewarded. And as we sang, you are victorious in Christ. In other words, you have been given a new identity. You have a new way of thinking. And by the power of the Spirit, your mind has been changed. You now have the mind of Christ. You see the world as God sees it. You no longer see the world as the culture sees it. And if you’ve ever wanted to be an alien, welcome. You are now an alien. You are not of this world.
Chapter 4 Paul pivots. We go from salvation to sanctification. And he does it with the word “therefore.” You remember that. In Ephesians 4 he says, “Therefore.” And what he is saying is now that you have this new perspective, you have this new mind about who you belong to, go live your life in a worthy way. And he spends all of chapters 4 through 6, as you remember, showing us how to do that. It’s very practical. It’s very applicational.
So chapters 1 through 3 Paul is building us up. He’s encouraging us. He’s saying this is who you are in Christ. In 4 through 6 he’s saying now turn in to the world, and in particular turn in to your marriages, turn in to your parenting. And turn in to this morning your workplace. And you walk in a manner worthy of your Savior. And if I could say it plainly in one sentence it would be this. Now that you’re a Christian, act like it.
So how do you do that? The text answered that for us in chapter 5 verse 1. Be imitators of God. verse 2, walk in love. Verse 8, walk in light. Verse 9, walk in goodness, righteousness and truth. And the power sources in verse 18 where he says, “Don’t get drunk with wine, but instead be being filled with the Holy Spirit,” so that, verse 21, “we can submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” And that’s the ethic. That’s the principle of this entire divine series. If you tie a bow around it, the letters on that bow would say, “Mutual submission.” all this works if you submit to the Spirit and you submit to one another.
So I belabor this a bit because we need to understand that the gospel changes everything. It changes the way you think. It changes the way we operate in the world. It changes the way that you love your wife, that you love and parent your children, the way that you show up to work every week. And to the degree at which you understand what Jesus has done for you and for me will determine in direct proportion your ability to now live in an upside down world where you’re called to imitate your Savior.
The way in which God calls me to be married and parent and show up at work each week is countercultural. You’ll see that in a second. And the only way it makes sense is the Spirit of God has come to live in your life. Your mind has been changed.
C.S. Lewis helps us see it this way. I love this quote. He says this: “I believe in Christianity as I believe in the rising of the sun, not simply because I can see it, but by it I can see everything else.”
The gospel changes our view. It changes our view of marriage, what it means to be a wife, a child, an employer or an employee. In our text this morning we start in verse 5. He’s dealing with the impact of the Christian faith in the workplace. So let me pray for us before we dive in. Let’s pray together.
Lord Jesus, yours is the victory. Praise God for that. Open our eyes, Lord, this morning to the truth of Your Word. Open our hearts to believe that Your way is the best way. We need Your help this morning now as we look unto Your holy, inspired and authoritative Word. Lord, meet us now we pray. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Ok, get your eyes on a copy of God’s Word. Let’s start in verse 5. I will read this to you. Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.
Verse 9. Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him. (Ephesians 6:5-9)
So a couple of words in there. We’re going to look at those in a second. But before we do, I want to give you a couple comments on work. Let’s just go there first. Some commentary and then we’ll dig into the text.
So I’ve got to know who I’m speaking with this morning. So if you don’t mind, raise your hand if you right now, as you sit here, you love your job. You could not imagine working anywhere else. This is the best thing that could have happened to me. I love my job.
Oh. All right. Did you guys look around? There’s not a lot of hands in the air. Ok, what’s coming next? I wonder.
Ok, if I could pick another job…I won’t say hate. We won’t do that in church. You hate your job. That wouldn’t be good. If you could work somewhere else (that’s a kind way to say it) would you? Show me your hand. If you could go somewhere else and work. Oh, they’re afraid. You’re either not hand raisers or you are afraid that this text is going to lay you out. It did me too. It did me too. There are people in here who have counseled me and coached me through the last couple of years and they would tell you, “Boy, Mark, you struggled here a little bit.”
Ok. a couple of things. Doctor Amber Selking, she wrote a recent book all about championship mindsets. And so I follow her a little bit on Linkedin. A ton of great content that she has. I’d recommend that you follow her if you don’t. But she uses a phrase that I love, and it relates to work. And it says this: “Work or business can be a force for good in the world.” It can. It’s a means to hearts. It is a force for good in the world.
But we need work. That seems obvious. We need to work hard regardless of the job that you have. If you’re a stay at home mom and some of those I know are the hardest workers I’ve ever met. So whether you’re a stay at home mom or you work in a factory, a field or a pharmacy, it doesn’t matter. You need to work, and you need to work hard. Work is good.
And in a fallen world, we need something to occupy our time, something noble. And the fact that God tells us to work is what gives our work dignity, regardless of how much money it pays you. Every marketplace endeavor is a sacred one. Work is not cursed, nor is it a result of the fall. In Genesis 1 we see God working. Genesis 2:15 we see Adam is to work and keep the garden. If I could say it simply it would be this: the marketplace is a mission field. Yoru marketplace is your mission field.
So here we go, the big idea. If you leave this place and there’s only one thing you remember, it’s this. Your workplace is sacred, and Jesus is your boss. Your workplace is sacred and Jesus is your boss. You make a statement about the gospel by what you do and how you behave in the workplace.
Let’s look at our text. Ok. Right away we are met with this word bondservant. Your version may say something different than mine. Do you guys have a footnote? If you’re looking in the ESV, do you have a footnote? That just means a little number next to that word bondservant. Do you guys have that? Do you see that in your Bible? If you do, what that’s telling you is go down maybe half the page or to the margin or go all the way down to the bottom of the page. And what does it say that that word really means? What is it? Slaves.
The word is slaves. The Greek word of that noun bondservant is doulos, which the correct interpretation for that word is slave. Now what we need to know is this letter, these words, were written to slaves and to masters who were most likely sitting side-by-side each other in the assembly or the church or the gathering similar to what we are doing today. They were sitting side-by-side as these words are being read, and as we started off the book, they’re saved. These words are written to saved slaves and saved masters.
What we have to do is resist the temptation to interpret this word from a Civil War nineteenth century westernized context, which all of us would agree is abhorrent and a tragedy at every level, an absolute human tragedy. We would not debate that.
But our role as a faithful interpreter of God’s Word is we’ve got to go back to the first century and we have to ask the question of the text that says, Paul, what did you mean by this? What was the context in which you were writing this? Why’d you write that word? Why that word and not any other word?
And then the question you might ask yourself, which I did reading this, was, Why didn’t Paul take the opportunity here to condemn slavery? That’s a fair question. Because he could have. This is the perfect moment to do it. We’ll see, hopefully here in a few minutes, if we can get an answer to that question.
But let me give you some context too. So let’s go back to the first century and even beyond that into the Old Testament and let me see if I can help give us some context on this word slave or slavery. Here’s what you need to know first. The Bible never ever condones slavery. You need to know that. Rather, in the Old Testament slavery was regulated and very much a part of everyday life. You couldn’t kidnap someone or man-steal is the Bible term. You couldn’t man-steal or buy or sell humans. We know that today as human trafficking. That was outlawed in the Old Testament. You could not do that. Many were slaves by their own will, voluntarily, because they were housed and fed and cared for. It was regulated so well.
You couldn’t strike a slave, harm an eye, chip a tooth. And if you did, the slave could go free. A family could redeem a slave. If a family had enough money to buy back their freedom, they were able to bring them back home. Abuse to a slave as it’s regulated in the Old Testament could cost you your life. Much different than our westernized, Civil War era type of slavery.
Now you fast forward to Paul’s context. Now we’re in the Greco-Roman world in the first century. And slavery like many institutions to include marriage and to include being a parent, has been paganized and abused by the Romans. Now slaves have no rights legally and were treated as commodities. This is not slavery of the Old Testament. As a matter of fact, 35% of the Roman population were slaves. More slaves than free men, as some data has suggestd, were living in Rome.
Why? Why were there so many slaves? Well one, if you were a prisoner of war, you were brought back to the city and you were put into service as a slave. And number two, the Romans hated to work. They felt like work was beneath them. So slavery was such a part of everyday life. It ran the economy. And without it, the economy would not function.
So Paul pens these words to Christians and slaves and Christian masters as to how they’ll treat one another. And from it we’re going to draw parallels for our time this morning to the modern workplace of employee and employer. So you’ll hear that interchanged. You may hear bondservants in place of employee. You may hear slave for employee. You may hear master or employer. So those are the parallels that we’re going to make, and I think it fits for this morning.
So here we go. Four characteristics of Christians in the workplace. Four characteristics. So here’s the first one. A characteristic of a Christian in the workplace is that they have the right action. Look at verse 5. We’re not going to go far. Chapter 6 verse 5. “Slaves, obey your earthly masters.”
So the word there is obedience. So the right action, the second word of our text, is to obey. And a few verses earlier that looked familiar to those in Ephesus because you saw, Ephesians 6:1, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord.” So they’re familiar with this. They’ve seen this before. And obedience is the hallmark of the Christian faith. Wouldn’t you agree? Obedience is the hallmark of the Christian faith.
In John 14, Jesus says, “If you love me, you will do,” what? “You will obey my commandments.” So if you’ve ever asked yourself a question that I’ve asked myself many times, “How do I know? How do I know that I’m a Christian? How do I know that? Was it the prayer I prayed? How do I know?”
Well, there are a lot of things we could say there, but primarily it would be, “Do you obey Christ?” Do you obey Christ? We have a definition that we use around here too to obedience. Micah said this a couple weeks ago. And it’s this. Do what you’re told to do when you’re told to do it. Do you know the rest? Very good. With the right heart attitude. That’s right.
Notice that the action of obedience precedes the feelings. It comes before. We don’t wait until the heart attitude is right before we obey. Does that make sense? We act and then the feelings follow.
Maybe you’ve heard this before. An employee or maybe one of your kids that said, “I’ll obey when I feel like it. I’ll listen when I feel like it. I’ll do what you ask me to do when I feel like it.” The action comes first. When it comes to God’s Word, we act first and we trust the feelings will follow.
So in this case employees need to obey their employer in the same way they would obey Christ. And this word for obedience Paul is using can be translated to listening or hearing. So you may have said to your kids before, “Are you listening to me?” So you’re giving them some instruction. You might say, “Are you listening?” We ask that expectantly. Like you’d better do what I’m telling you to do. Are you listening?
Or if we’re being given instruction and someone is looking for some cues, some body language from us that we’re understanding what it is that they’re asking of us, we might say, “We’re hearing you. I got it. I’m picking it up. I got it.” And you’re not hearing them in a sense that you hear their voice. You’re hearing them in that what you are telling me to do will influence how I think and how I act. It’s a continuous uninterrupted submission. And in this case, it’s uninterrupted submission to our employer, with the only exception being any command obviously that clearly violates Scripture. We don’t obey. In that case we obey God.
One pastor tells a story, being asked at a graduating class, how to be successful in life. And so they said, “Hey, you know we’ve got a graduating class coming up in seminary and we’d like for you to give a speech.”
And he said, “Sure, what’s the speech on?”
They said, “How to be successful in life.”
And he said, “Ok, well I don’t want to disappoint you but I’m not going to give you your speech beducase the answer is five words. Do what you are told. It’s that simple.”
And he goes on to tell them it really is that simple. Just think of the ease. Maybe the wrong word. But just think of the ease in life if you’d just do what you’re told. I say that to my kids all the time. If you’d just do what you’re told, gosh, life would be great. Just simply do what you’re told.
And we see a picture in Exodus 21. If you go back and look at that, you will see that there is a slave/master relationship in Exodus 21. And it’s giving us instruction on how to regulate that relationship. And the master took such good care of that slave, the slave was so quick to obey his master, that what we find is that the slave had an opportunity to say, “ I don’t want to be released at the seventh year. I want to be under your care for life.”
And if that was the case, the slave would go get a piece of wood or perhaps they would go stand, put their ear up to a door, a wooden door, and they would drive a nail through the lobe of their ear, piercing the ear if you will. And what it symbolized was I’m yours for life. It symbolized my ear is attuned to your voice. I hear what you tell me to do, and I do it. It’s a perfect picture. The caveat again is anything that is contrary to Scripture we would obey God before man.
Here’s the practical application. Work hard. Your boss expects you to work hard and obey those who are over you in the same way that you obey Christ. These are not two separate commands to obey my boss and to obey Christ. It is one command that combines together that says this: you obey your boss as if he was Christ. You see that in verse 22 of chapter 5.
Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. We submit to our boss as if it were Christ. That’s countercultural. So we have the right action. The characteristic of a Christian in the workplace has the right action. Next, they have the right attitude. Let’s read verse 5. The rest of verse 5 anyway.
“Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling with a sincere heart as you would Christ.” So we see a few words in there that are familiar to us. We see the word fear or the phrase fear and trembling. That shows up in your Bible quite a bit. But fear and trembling, the word for fear there is translated to the word respect. And we see respect. The word trembling is actually the proper word for fear. But we see respect, fear and sincerity.
So let’s start with the word respect first. All right. So the word respect or the word fear for “fear and trembling”. The word fear is not a frightening or a threatening type of fear. So Matthew 10:28 says this: Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.
The master/employer that we see is earthly. We don’t fear him. So when the text tells us that we are to obey with a sincere heart as you would Christ, with fear and trembling, it doesn’t mean that we are to fear our boss. It doesn’t mean that we have that kind of fear toward our boss. We fear the one who can kill the soul, and that’s the only person we ever fear. And of course that’s God.
In verse 5, it’s translated, the word that is translated to respect or reverence. You see it in Ephesians 5:21 also, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Ephesians 5:33 similarly. Let each one of you love his wife as himself and let his wife see that she respects her husband. It’s a call to deliberately live to respect our employer rather than despise our employer.
And you may say, “But you don’t know my employer! You would despise my employer if you knew my employer. They aren’t worthy of my respect.” And you might have said this before (I have), “Respect is earned, not given.” Have you heard that before? Maybe you’ve said that before. I have said that before. And it sounds right. It actually sounds like yeah, that’s how it should go.
Unfortunately when we’re met with God’s Word, it isn’t right. And the only thing the text would say to us when we say, “No, no, no. Respect is earned. You don’t know my employer.” The text is saying, “You’re right. I don’t know your employer. But I do know the Savior.”
We don’t show respect based on their character. We respect based on our commitment to Christ.
I remember a time when a man was walking into the grocery store. And he was out in front of a lady who was behind him. And on his way, he kind of hurried a little bit to the door. He grabs the door, he opens up the door for the woman. And as she’s about to walk through, something very unexpected happens. The woman turns to him with vehemence in her face and she says, “I don’t need no man.” If I could do the head shake I would, but I can’t do that very well. If somebody can do that, you could do that. So imagine my head like bobbing and my shoulders bouncing. That’s how this went. “I don’t need no man holding no door open for me. Don’t ever insult me like that again.”
Wow. And with a calm voice and a smooth delivery, and a very quick wit by the way, the man says, “Maam, I don’t hold the door open for you because you’re a woman. I held the door open for you because I’m a gentleman.” The look on her face; you can only imagine. What a sight. But that’s countercultural. And I get it. It’s not easy. We act this way, we show respect, because of Christ’s grace in our own life.
I don’t hold that door open because of you. I do it because of my connection to my Savior. Whether you’re worthy of it or not.
The next word you see there is trembling. Le’ts go after that one. It’s a word translated, that truly is translated into fear. But again, not fear of man, fear of God.
Proverbs 9 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So there is a sense, or seems to be, an appropriate fear that we need to have as a Christian. But we don’t fear or tremble at our employer. We fear only the Lord.
Colossians 3:22-24, here’s what Paul has to say. He’s repeating himself again. Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. there it is. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for man, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
That’s Paul’s secret. The respect we show to our employer is granted to them because of our love for our Savior. We see in the text the word sincerity. With a sincere heart. That’s a good word. Sincere heart. And that word, you could say, it really interprets that you really mean it. I really mean it. This is real. This isn’t fake. I’m not a phony. I really believe this. It’s not hypocritical. It’s not superficial. It’s genuine submission to your employer.
It also carries the idea that we can speak plainly with frankness, not being afraid to speak the truth in hard places. Sometimes we come to a text like this and we think we have to check our words at the door. To be a sincere Christian, that must mean I have to be low and that means I have to keep my voice quiet. I must not be able to say anything, right? Can I call out things I shouldn’t call out? Something I see at work that I know needs to be discussed? Am I able to discuss that with a sincere heart?
Of course. And you’re trusted to do it because people know that you have a life of respect, that you honor your employee. And that when you do speak, what needs to be spoken about with a sincere heart, it generates trust. Because they know you have no ulterior motive. You have no other agenda but to serve Christ and want the good for others. And when we go to work we do our work well that we are assigned to do.
And here’s what is difficult. We’ve got to do it without complaining, murmuring, bragging, criticizing the assignment or the work of others or in any way being a disruptor. That’s so difficult. What makes it even more difficult is if you have a colleague at work that is like minded and maybe you’re even both Christians, and you call out some things that you see at work. And then they become the one you vent to. Just be careful that that doesn’t turn into complaining and murmuring and criticizing.
It’s far easier to be critical. It’s far easier to criticize. It takes this kind of heart and perspective to get above the line and not be critical. If you have a good attitude at work and do good work, you make the gospel attractive.
The opposite is true. If you claim to be a Christian but deliver poor quality work or maybe you even deliver excellent work but in the process there is grumbling and complaining, you make the gospel look bad as if it isn’t transformative in your life, as if it hasn’t done anything to you.
1 Corinthians 10:31. This is just kind of a blanket statement about when we show up, no matter what we do, we show up to do it to the glory of God. Whatever you do, whatever job you have, we show up and we do it for the glory of God.
We’re characterized by the right action, the right attitude, now to the right motive. Let’s read verses 5-8. The right motive.
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord.
So we see there are some good motives. There are some right motives. But we also see right away some bad motives. Now here may be a motive as to why you go to work, a few motives, why you go to work every day. I’ve to pay the bills. I’ve got to pay the mortgage, the rent, buy food, send my kids to college. Those are all right motives. But what the text is challenging us with is it may not be the best motive. It may not be the best one. We’ll see that here in a second.
But there are certainly some wrong motivations, and we see those right away. And that is are you a people pleaser? Are you a people pleaser or are you a God pleaser? Do you work to please God? The assumption that the text makes is that you don’t. The assumption is that you will be tempted to work for a lesser motive, to do your work for the wrong reasons and under the eye of people. We may be fooling our bosses but we certainly cannot fool our Lord. And we may deliver haphazard effort, good results, little effort, but God is not fooled and God is not blind. He sees what the boss doesn’t see.
Or you might be the people pleasing type that works long, exhausting hours just to be seen by your boss and peers so that you can be recognized or get the next promotion. Is it a bad thing to get promoted? Of course not. Of course not. But what is your motivation? Is the heart motivation to know that the work is done as a means of worship to our Lord? That’s what the text is calling of us.
And remember in this context, Paul is talking to slaves, people who are not just employed but who are owned. And even though they are slaves of earthly masters, they are also a slave to Christ. We too are a slave to Christ, and our ultimate allegiance then is to our employer or our manager. It’s not to them but it’s to Christ. He is our best motivation. Our true and right motivation is to please Christ.
And look at the text. When you see repetitive language or phrases or words, that’s the cue that that’s the point. Ok? And we see that. Look at verse 5. Just as you would Christ. Verse 6, you are a slave to Christ. Verse 7, as to the Lord. verse 8, you’ll receive back from the Lord. So he’s saying the same thing with a lot of different words. It’s as if Paul is saying your master isn’t who you think it is. Don’t you see? Your master isn’t who you think it is.
He’s calling us to exchange the master. He’s calling us to get our eyes up. Your earthly master is not the master. Trade in that earthly master for a heavenly one, because your boss is Jesus Christ. There’s beauty and freedom in Jesus as the true and pure motivation, and here is why. The slave no longer has to feel underneath the earthly master. They no longer have to feel less than that earthly master. They’re no longer driven by what they think. They now have the chance to get above.
And your boss’ opinion, by the way, what can they really do? What can they really do? Your heavenly master can do far worse and far better. We fix our eyes on the master in heaven, verse 8, who pays back the good anyone does. So difficult people, difficult circumstances, get your eyes up. Because if Christ isn’t pleased, it doesn’t matter who is. And if He is pleased, it doesn’t matter who isn’t.
We see another motivation. The good of others. You see that phrase there? The goodwill service. That just simply means that you’re showing up to work every day for the good of those you work with. And here’s what’s difficult. This is otherworldly. This is countercultural. It’s difficult.
But are you willing to show up with the type of goodwill service that could potentially get that unjust, unruly, unreasonable boss of yours promoted. And you know you did all the work and you know that behind the scenes they’re gossiping about you, because they’re intimidated by you. They’re intimidated by your character. They’re intimidated maybe by other colleagues or employees saying, “Man, we really like this lady. She’s an awesome worker.” And then your boss gets elevated.
Man, that’s tough. But that’s what the text requires. Are you willing to show up and provide that goodwill service out of the goodness of the overflow of your heart, you have a mind not for your needs (this is very Philippians 2) but for the needs of others. Not easy.
So we’re characterized by the right action, the right attitude, the right motive. And now finally, the right perspective. So employers or managers or leaders, this one is for you. We’re characterized by the right perspective. Verse 9 says this. Masters, do the same to them. And stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven and that there is no partiality with him. You can imagine the scene. Again, slave and master side by side. They’re both converted. They’re both saved. They’re sitting right next to each other, shoulder to shoulder in church. The slave gets four verses. The master only gets one, so it seems.
I imagine the master hearing the exhortation to the slave is saying a little something like yeah, right on. Yep. you need to act that way, that way, that way. Totally agree. And they’re just going on with this slave, act that way. Slave, act that way. And that’s true. You and I both work in companies with managers and leaders who think that the problem with the company or the culture is you, not them. That’s hard. But it’s true.
And then he’s met with these words in verse 9. Masters, do the same. Do the same. That would’ve been an utter shock to this master. It would have been an utter shock to have slaves who are required to operate and act this way, in such a countercultural way, and someone turn to the master and say, “Now do the same.” Because now he’s being asked by our Lord to think like a slave. He’s being asked to level himself on the same playing field as a slave. That would’ve been shocking to hear.
He has to serve and submit to the slave in how he cares for him. Employers, managers, do you pay a fair wage? Are you able to turn the tables and look at yourself and say, “How am I serving for and caring for my employees?” Do you pay a fair wage? Do you provide good working conditions, a safe environment? Are you done expecting more productivity for less pay?
Do you, employer or business owner, bring out the best in your people? Do you see them made in the image and likeness of God or just a means to an end that is just so easily replaced? And man, that is such a thing in so many companies. How easily we forgot what the product really is. It’s not the widget. It’s the human heart. Your product, business owner, manager, leader, employer, your product are the people.
And when you care well for people in such a godly way, guess what happens? You make a killer product. That widget is amazing. Because your primary care and your primary focus is the human heart. That is how we act as Christian employers, Christian leaders.
And the text assumes that he’s a threatening master. So stop the threats. You have a heavenly master that can do far worse than your threats and far better. Stop showing favoritism. Let your leadership be marked by how well you care for your people. Show the grace and kindness to your employees that Christ has shown you. Give respect to your employees as they give it to you.
Why? Because there is no partiality with Him. We have equality in Christ. There is no rank. There is no org chart. It’s mutual submission out of reverence for Christ.
And many of you, there may be some here who are sitting next to your subordinates. And wouldn’t that be awkward to come to church, hear this message and go back into work tomorrow on a Monday morning and act like this master, in an ungodly way? I would have to think that would be awkward.
So if you come here as an employer or a master or a leader or manager and there are some of your subordinates that are sitting in this room, what a responsibility you have to care for this individual, their families. It is a privilege to lead.
We have different responsibilities and duties and functions in the workplace, and that’s appropriate. But we have equal dignity and worth and value in Christ. Christ is the perfect example of the perfect slave and the perfect master.
Now I asked you; we just have a few minutes here. I asked you a little earlier, “Why didn’t Paul condemn slavery in verse 5?” When he opens up, why didn’t he say, “Slaves, you are now free; masters, release your slaves”? He doesn’t say that.
Here’s a few things I want us to consider. With so many slaves in Rome, with that population, Paul knew that if he took a social cause it would have undermined the very gospel itself. It would have undermined the advancement of the gospel. Because so many slaves lived in Rome. More slaves potentially than free. And the carriers of the gospel were slaves themselves.
Rome had the power to crush anybody that was an insurrectionist or a rioter that wanted to rise up and say, “We have to end slavery.” And if Paul would have endorsed that and if he would have been the champion of that, the gospel could have been thwarted. The movement, the advancement of the gospel, could have been stopped. That’s one thought to think about.
The second, Paul knows the answer to our social, political and economic problems is not found in the insurrection or the riot or the strike or the social cause. Because the answer to slavery is Jesus Christ. The answer to our political and economic woes is Jesus Christ. We go into those arenas as employees and masters, and we speak redemption. We speak about salvation. And perhaps that Paul was more subtle than we might have realized all along. Perhaps he stayed away from condemning slavery exclusively because he knew the power of the gospel relied in the human heart. And worldwide transformation lies in the human heart. It’s not a social cause. It’s not the government. It’s not economics. It’s not political. You change the world by changing the heart.
He knew that slave and master are now in Christ and they’re exercising mutual submission, serving one another as unto Christ. If that was the case, there’s no need for slavery. I don’t need slavery anymore. Master and slave are shoulder to shoulder in Christ. And you look upon that relationship and you say, “What do they have? I thought he was a slave.”
“No, no, no,” the master says. “He’s my brother, my sister.”
There is no need for slavery folks, when Christians come together, mutually submitting together as unto Christ. And by the way, we don’t live in that environment today because of the gospel. Men and women who have gone before us and said, “No, this is God’s way.”
Colossians 3:28: There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Now go into the workplace and proclaim our great Savior. Work hard unto Christ. And when available, use your words to preach redemption and salvation.
We’re going to sing here in a second. Last thing I just want to say. If you are here as a guest and you are not a believer in Jesus Christ, you are under a far greater slavery than any earthly master could ever do, could ever put you under. And there are chains that no earthly master could possibly break. And it’s slavery to your sin. And that is the point of this text that Jesus Christ has come to break those chains and set you free out of your slavery to sin.
And if you would call upon the name of Jesus Christ in repentance and faith, you will be saved. We have pastors that are here. We have elders that are here. We would love to have that conversation with you about taking that next step in your journey with Jesus Christ.
Let’s pray.
Lord, thank You for Your Word. Thank You that the Word does the work. And Lord, I pray right now that we could go into the workplace in ways that honor Christ, that lift up Christ, that bring fame and glory to His name and not ours. Lord, this seems so countercultural and so impossible at times to consider. But by the power of the Spirit Lord, You have equipped us to go into the world, mutually submitting to one another, putting their needs above our own because You did at the cross. You show perfect obedience. You were the perfect slave and the perfect master.
Thank You Lord, for being our example. Help us even tomorrow to change lives. May the office, the workplace, wherever wer’e going, never be the same because of You. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.