A report released by UNICEF entitled The State of the World’s Children says millions of children every year end up disappearing. Many, it says, end up forced into work domestic labour. "A vast but unknown number of children are exploited as domestic servants in private homes." The births of many of the world’s children up to 50 million are never registered, the UN notes. As a result, many end up either forgotten or invisible.
In Canada and around the world, much discussion and focus goes to workers rights. Extreme abuses of workers have lead to the development of the Labour union movement. Unfortunately this has led to a widespread idea in culture to the extreme where No one any longer speaks of sacrifice or privilege—only rights.
If people do not receive what they think personal freedom should give them, they express their grievances in the form of walkouts, strikes, boycotts, and political rebellions. Such protesters are usually motivated by the belief that everyone is equal in every way and entitled to exactly the same things as everyone else.
In the workplace, employees voice their grievances over a lack of “rights” through work slowdowns, “sick-outs,” protests, or all-out strikes that prevent management from conducting business. Management sometimes responds with lockouts or even termination of the striking employees. Job actions on occasion do result in salary increases and improved benefits for employees, or perhaps a compromise agreement that benefits both sides in the long run.
However, the focus on “rights” in the workplace, whatever the results, is incongruous with the Christian life. Believers are to be concerned instead with obedience and submission to God’s will. When they obey and submit to their superiors, as He commands, they prove that their real hope is in the world to come.
The apostle Paul more specifically articulated the divine principle of granting respect and not seeking retaliation:
Romans 12:17-19 [17]Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. [18]If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. [19]Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." (ESV)
cf. Luke 6:32–35; 1 Cor. 7:20–21, 24).
Neither Peter, Paul, nor any of the New Testament writers ever advocated that subordinates should rise up against their superiors.
How do you stand in your opinion on workers rights? Are you an unqualified union supporter in demanding the rights of workers at all cost?
Do you see as separation between your job and your faith? Do you feel that you have no choice in going along with your union on everything because you are a member of the union?
In 1 Pt 2:18-20, Peter moves from politics to work and commands believers who are servants or slaves to submit to their masters. In broader terms, that means Christian employees are to respect and obey their employers. The apostle issued his command as both 1) a mandate and 2) a motive for submission.
1) THE MANDATE FOR SUBMISSION 1 PETER 2:18
1 Peter 2:18 [18]Servants (Slaves) , be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. (ESV)
The workforce in the Roman world consisted of slaves, and the way they were treated was wide-ranging. Some masters loved their slaves as trusted members of the household and treated them like family.
Arthur A. Rupprecht presents a lucid description of the life and status of a slave in the Roman Empire:
The living conditions of many slaves were better than those of free men who often slept in the streets of the city or lived in very cheap rooms. There is considerable evidence to suggest that the slave lived within the confines of their master’s house (was well dressed and cared for). (Kistemaker, Simon J. Baker New Testament Commentary: 2004. p. 104)
But many Masters did not treat their slaves well, because there were scant protections—and virtually no rights—for slaves, who were considered property rather than persons.
Quote: For instance, the influential Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote, “A slave is a living tool, and a tool is an inanimate slave” (Ethics, 1161b).
Writing about agriculture, the Roman nobleman Varro asserted that the only thing distinguishing a slave from a beast or a cart was that the slave could talk.
Slaves owned little or nothing and had no legal recourse to which they could appeal when mistreated.
-Somewhere from one-third to half of the population of the Roman Empire were slaves (Radmacher, Earl D. ; Allen, Ronald Barclay ; House, H. Wayne: Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary. Nashville : T. Nelson Publishers, 1999, S. 1 Pe 2:18)
-It has been estimated that there were over 60 000 000 slaves in the Roman Empire: employed in every occupation from Doctors, teachers to manual workers. They were often paid for their services and could eventually buy their freedom. (Bentley, Michael: Living for Christ: Evangelical Press. 1990. P.92)
-This is why they are translated as “Servants”.
It is safe to say that as the gospel spread throughout the Greco-Roman world most of the converts were slaves. They made up a large part of the Gentile church and their place in society raised some important issues.
-First, believing slaves often assumed that since they had become free in Christ (Rom. 6:17–18; 7:6; 1 Cor. 7:22; 12:13; Gal. 3:28; Eph. 6:8; Col. 3:11, 24) they also had a right to freedom from their masters.
1 Corinthians 12:12-13 [12]For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. [13]For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and all were made to drink of one Spirit. (ESV)
Galatians 3:28 [28]There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (ESV)
-In terms of our standing in Jesus Christ there are no higher or lower degrees. Yet, we still retain human distinctions of ethnicity, sex, occupation etc.
Please turn to the NT book of Philemon, just before Hebrews.
-Unrest among slaves was widespread at this time, and undoubtedly some Christian slaves believed that, having been “bought” by Christ, they had been set free from their earthly masters. Later on, there were actually Christian groups which encouraged slaves to run away from their masters on these very grounds (Elwell, Walter A.: Evangelical Commentary on the Bible . electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Baker Book House, 1996, c1989, S. 1 Pe 2:18).
-If the slaves were to rebel against their masters then a bloodbath could follow. This is exactly what happened when all the slaves rose up against their masters at the time of Spartacus.
Look how Paul saw himself:
Philemon 1 Paul, a prisoner (slave/servant) for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon (Slave owner) our beloved fellow worker
There now is no room for favouritism in the Kingdom or bondage of others:
[5]because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, [6]and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.
The change from Slave to self to Slave to Christ:
10]I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. [11](Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.)
-There is a play on words: Oneimus’s name means “useful” or “beneficial”
[15]For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, [16]no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother--especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. [17]So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me.
-We are to regard with solidarity our brothers and sisters in bondage.
[18]If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. [19]I, Paul, write this with my own hand:
I will repay it--to say nothing of your owing me even your own self. [20]Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ. (ESV)
-If we even in our pre-Christian state, rob our employer, we are responsible to pay back. Although there are civil bankruptcy laws, as Christians we have a debt to repay.
Under apostolic teaching, the early Christians developed strong and correct convictions on the slavery issues. They did not seek to incite a slave rebellion, but focused on making sure Christian slaves’ attitudes were right. Paul’s letter to Philemon is inspired testimony to the divine will for a slave, who was a brother in Christ, to fulfill his duty to his master.
There are indeed directives for status of Slavery:
1 Corinthians 7:20-24 [20]Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. [21]Were you a slave when called?
Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.) [22]For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a slave of Christ. [23]You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. [24]So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God. (ESV)
In 1 Peter 2:18
Servants (oiketai) is from the root meaning “house,” and thus is the basic term for household servants (cf. Acts 10:7). Most of those servants served in a home or under an estate owner with duties from being farmers who plowed the owner’s field to doctors who cared for his family’s medical needs.
Peter’s basic command to them is be subject/submissive (hupotassomenoi, a present passive participle with the sense of a present imperative, meaning “to line up under”). Slaves were to be continually subject/submissive to their masters, the despotai (from which the English word despots derives), who had absolute ownership of and complete control over them (cf. 1 Tim. 6:1–2; Titus 2:9).
The submission of servants was to be rendered with all respect, that is, without bitterness or negativity, but with an attitude of gracious honor. That was a way to show respect to God Himself
God designed the servant-master relationship to ensure safety, care, support, productivity, and the conduct of human enterprise. The earth yields its produce and material wealth to support and enrich mankind through the providence of work relations. This is an institution of God from the Fall onward (Gen. 3:17–19). God has designed a complex of abilities and opportunities, relations and experiences, to allow humans to draw the rich resources out of this planet.
Such a God-fearing attitude is to extend beyond the good and gentle masters even to those who are unjust/unreasonable.
Good (agathois) means “one who is upright, beneficial, and satisfactory for another’s need.”
Gentle (epieikesin) refers to “one who is considerate, reasonable, and fair.”
Therefore good and gentle describes a magnanimous, kind, and gracious person, the kind of master to whom it is easy to submit.
Please turn to Eph. 6
The kind of Boss/master to whom it is not easy to submit Peter called unjust/unreasonable (skoliois), a term that literally means “curved” or “crooked,” and metaphorically means “perverse” or “dishonest.” (The word is transliterated in medical terminology to describe a twisted condition of the spinal column [scoliosis].)
The directive here is also to those in authority with a warning.
In his letter to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul further stated God’s will on this issue:
Ephesians 6:5-9 [5]Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, [6]not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, [7]rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, [8]knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free. [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. (ESV)
Quote: Someone said about unjust bosses:
“I don’t know what makes the boss tick, but I sure know what makes him explode.” – (Orben’s Current Comedy )
Throughout history, bosses have not always got the message, like the boss who introduced a New Sick Leave Policy
Illustration: New Sick Leave Policy
1. SICKNESS: No excuse. We will no longer accept your doctor’s statement as proof, as we believe that if you are able to go to the doctor, you are able to come to work.
2. LEAVE OF ABSENCE (for an operation): We are no longer allowing this practice. We wish to discourage any thought that you may have about needing an operation.
We believe that as long as you are employed here, you will need all of whatever you have and should not consider having anything removed. We hired you as you are and to have anything removed would certainly make you less than we bargained for.
3. DEATH (other than your own): This is no excuse. There is nothing you can do for them, and we are sure that someone else in a lesser position can attend to the arrangements. However, if the funeral can be held in late afternoon, we will be glad to let you off one hour early, provided your share of work is ahead enough to keep the job going in your absence.
4. DEATH (your own): This will be accepted as an excuse, but we would like a two-week notice, as we feel it is your duty to teach someone else your job.
(Galaxie Software: 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press, 2002; 2002)
In the workplace, employees are to submit to employers as if they were serving Christ Himself. Such submissiveness precludes all rebellions, protests, mutinies, strikes, or workplace disobedience of every kind, even if the employer is unreasonable.
We have seen 1) THE MANDATE FOR SUBMISSION 1 PETER 2:18 AND NOW:
2) THE MOTIVE FOR SUBMISSION
1 Peter 2:19-21 [19]For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. [20]
For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. [21]For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. (ESV)
The factor of overarching significance for those in the workforce is that they maintain their testimony before the watching world of sinners (cf. Matt. 5:15–16; Mark 4:21; Phil. 2:14–16), and in the workplace that occurs when believers labour with an awareness of God’s glory. Such awareness is the motivation not only for godly behaviour and submission on the job, but also for trusting in God’s sovereignty in every situation.
Quote: Theologian A. W. Pink wrote,
As [one] sees the apparent defeat of the right, and the triumphing of might and the wrong … it seems as though Satan were getting the better of the conflict. But as one looks above, instead of around, there is plainly visible to the eye of faith a Throne.… This then is our confidence —God is on the Throne. (The Sovereignty of God, rev. ed. [Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1961], 149–50; emphases in the original)
The motivation for believers’ submission in the workplace resides in the short phrase, for this is a gracious thing/finds favor, literally, “this is a grace.” God is pleased when believers do their work in a humble and submissive way for their superiors (cf. 1 Sam. 15:22; Pss. 26:3; 36:10; James 1:25).
-This describes the usefulness: Contrary to his name, Onesimus as a non-Christian did not live up to the usefulness that his name stood for.
-Too often we fail to live us to the work ethic that we are called to as Christians.
Hard work used to distinguish Christians from non-Christians
-Remember the Puritan Work Ethic
Illustration: The Puritans
In keeping with their belief that every area of life should be molded by Christian principles, the Puritans saw all honorable work as a means of glorifying God. All of life was God’s, and there was no distinction between secular and sacred work. God calls each person to a particular vocation or occupation, and the Christian should act as a careful steward of the talents and gifts God has given him. Working in one’s calling or vocation was a means of serving God and men. Idleness was considered a great sin; diligence in one’s calling was a virtue.
(http://chi.gospelcom.net/GLIMPSEF/Glimpses/glmps021.shtml)
-Working in a non-Christian workplace is a great opportunity for excellent work and evangelism that would accord such.
-Those who work for parachurch or church ministry, primarily serve the saints so that Christians can then be equipped for ministry in the world.
Ephesians 4:11-13 [11]And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, [12]to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, [13]until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, (ESV)
It is especially favorable to God when mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly /for the sake of conscience toward God a person [believer] bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. Whether it was a slave in Peter’s day patiently enduring brutal treatment, or whether it is a modern-day employee not retaliating against an unkind and unjust supervisor, God is pleased. This is what James referred to as a “consider it all joy” experience by which believers are perfected (James 1:2–4). The greater blessing is actually for the one who suffers.
Mindful of God/Conscience toward God refers to the aforementioned general awareness of His presence, which again is believers’ main motivation for submission in the workplace. The word rendered endures/bears up under means “to persevere,” and the term sorrows implies pain, either physical or mental. The Lord wants believers, when suffering unjustly in the workplace, not to falter in their witness but humbly and patiently to accept unjust treatment, knowing that God has sovereign control of every circumstance (Pss. 33:11; 103:19; Prov. 16:1, 9; 19:21; Isa. 14:27; 46:9–10; Acts 17:28; Rom. 8:28–30; cf. 1:6–7; 2 Cor. 4:17–18) and promises to bless.
Undoubtedly many recipients of this epistle endured painful and unjust beatings as slaves. Their masters might have deprived them of food, forced them to work unreasonably long hours, or punished them unfairly in a variety of ways.
Unlike modern-day employees in Western industrialized countries, those slaves had no one to turn to for redress of grievances—no union representatives, no government boards or ombudsmen to settle disputes, and no way to file civil lawsuits.
They just had to endure whatever painful and difficult circumstances their masters imposed on them—and they did so, much to the glory and honor of God (cf. Matt. 5:10; 2 Thess. 1:4–5; James 5:11), which evidenced their heavenly perspective.
Peter pressed his argument with a negative rhetorical question, followed by a positive statement. To his question:
1 Pt 2:20 [20]For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten/ harshly treated for it, you endure?/ you endure it with patience?
The implied answer is that “There is no credit.” Believers who sin deserve chastening (cf. Ps. 66:18; Jer. 5:25; Dan. 9:8; Heb. 12:5–11), they should know better.
Please turn to Mt. 5
-Do not think you are being persecuted if you try to “witness” to someone on company time and receive a reprimand. You were hired to work. The quality of your work should stand out.
-The time for discussions are at break or lunch, where you can avail yourself to discuss the things of faith and how they impact your life.
Continuing in 1 Pt 2:20b
Peter offered the positive assertion, But if when you do good/ what is right and suffer for it you (patiently)endure, this is a gracious thing/ this finds favor in the sight of God.
Matthew 5:10-16 [10]"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
[11]"Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
[12]Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
[13]"You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. [14]"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. [15]Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. [16]In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (ESV)
H. A. Ironside recounted his experience with work:
Illustration: Do All in the Name of the Lord Jesus
“Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col. 3:17).
When I was a boy, I felt it was both a duty and a privilege to help my widowed mother make ends meet by finding employment in vacation time, on Saturdays and other times when I did not have to be in school. For quite a while I worked for a Scottish shoemaker, or “cobbler,” as he preferred to be called, an Orkney man, named Dan Mackay. He was a forthright Christian and his little shop was a real testimony for Christ in the neighborhood. The walls were literally covered with Bible texts and pictures, generally taken from old-fashioned Scripture Sheet Almanacs, so that look where one would, he found the Word of God staring him in the face. There were John 3:16 and John 5:24, Romans 10:9, and many more.
On the little counter in front of the bench on which the owner of the shop sat, was a Bible, generally open, and a pile of gospel tracts. No package went out of that shop without a printed message wrapped inside. And whenever opportunity offered, the customers were spoken to kindly and tactfully about the importance of being born again and the blessedness of knowing that the soul is saved through faith in Christ. Many came back to ask for more literature or to inquire more particularly as to how they might find peace with God, with the blessed results that men and women were saved, frequently right in the shoeshop.
It was my chief responsibility to pound leather for shoe soles. A piece of cowhide would be cut to suite, then soaked in water. I had a flat piece of iron over my knees and, with a flat-headed hammer, I pounded these soles until they were hard and dry. It seemed an endless operation to me, and I wearied of it many times.
What made my task worse was the fact that, a block away, there was another shop that I passed going and coming to or from my home, and in it sat a jolly, godless cobbler who gathered the boys of the neighborhood about him and regaled them with lewd tales that made him dreaded by respectable parents as a menace to the community. Yet, somehow, he seemed to thrive and that perhaps to a greater extent than my employer, Mackay. As I looked in his window, I often noticed that he never pounded the soles at all, but took them from the water, nailed them on, damp as they were, and with the water splashing from them as he drove each nail in.
One day I ventured inside, something I had been warned never to do. Timidly, I said, “I notice you put the soles on while still wet. Are they just as good as if they were pounded?” He gave me a wicked leer as he answered, “They come back all the quicker this way, my boy!”
“Feeling I had learned something, I related the instance to my boss and suggested that I was perhaps wasting time in drying out the leather so carefully. Mr. Mackay stopped his work and opened his Bible to the passage that reads, “Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of god.” (1 Cor. 10:31)
“Harry,” he said, “I do not cobble shoes just for the four bits and six bits (50c or 75c) that I get from my customers. I am doing this for the glory of God. I expect to see every shoe I have ever repaired in a big pile at the judgment seat of Christ, and I do not want the Lord to say to me in that day, ‘Dan, this was a poor job. You did not do your best here.’ I want Him to be able to say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’”
Then he went on to explain that just as some men are called to preach, so he was called to fix shoes, and that only as he did this well would his testimony count for God. It was a lesson I have never been able to forget. Often when I have been tempted to carelessness, and to slipshod effort, I have thought of dear, devoted Dan Mackay, and it has stirred me up to seek to do all as for Him who died to redeem me.
Illustrations of Bible Truth by H. A. Ironside, Moody Press, 1945, pp. 37-39
