What Employees and Employers Owe One Another
Ephesians 6:5-9
http://gbcgracenotes.podbean.com/2013/10/30/what-employees-and-employers-owe-one-another/
Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free [Eph. 6:5-8].
Servants (lit., slaves) are to be obedient to masters according to the flesh, meaning the masters down here on earth. Servants are not to serve with eyeservice -- with one eye on the clock or working only when the boss is looking. They are not to serve as "men-pleasers." In other words, they are not to butter up the boss. Service is to be done as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the soul.
There is a responsibility put upon a believer who is a laborer and also a responsibility put upon one who is an employer. This is the employer-employee relationship. In Paul's day it was an even sharper division than it is now -- it was really master and slave. Remember that this entire section began in chapter 5, verse 21, which says, "Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God." That sounds all right for Sunday, for the church service, but what about Monday morning when we go to work?
Perhaps 6 million people living in the Roman Empire were slaves. Christianity never attacked the evil of slavery. Rather it reached down to the slave in his degradation and lifted him up, assuring him of his liberty in Christ. The very nature of the gospel condemned slavery. It eventually broke the shackles of slavery from the bodies of men and cut the fetters from their minds and souls. Multitudes of slaves came to Christ, as we learn in Romans 16 -- many of those named there were slaves or members of the Praetorian guard.
In the United States of America the South had to lose the Civil War. They had to lose because slavery was wrong. That doesn't mean that the North was right in the method used, but it does mean that the principle of slavery was wrong. A good question to ponder: Which side would you honestly have been on if you lived then?
"Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters." Notice the Word of God says to "be obedient." This reveals that Christianity did not recommend revolution against the evil practice of slavery. It preached a gospel which was more revolutionary than revolution has ever been. Revolution has always had bad side effects, leaving bitterness and hatred which has lasted through the centuries. The gospel of Christ will break down the middle wall of partition -- which in our day is prejudice and discrimination of one race against another -- and will replace it with real brotherly love.
If the Word of God were preached as it was in the early days of the United States, and if those who profess to be Christian were obedient and loyal to those to whom they owe obedience and loyalty, it would change the entire complexion of American life today.
J. Vernon McGee: "A man is not a Christian just because he has made a profession of Christianity and calls himself a child of God on Sunday. Whether or not he is a genuine Christian is revealed by fruit, such as his loyalty to his employer, to his family, to his home, to his church, etc. When a professing Christian is disloyal in these areas of his life, the chances are he will also be disloyal to Christ. He certainly has no effective witness for Christ."
"Servants, be obedient to...your masters according to the flesh" makes it clear that slavery applied only to the bodies of men and not to their souls. This obedience was to be with "fear and trembling." This does not mean abject and base cringing before a master, but it does mean treating him with respect and dignity.
"In singleness of your heart" means there should not be any two-facedness. There should not be the kissing of the ring of the employer when he is around and then stabbing him in the back when he is away.
The servant's obedience is to be done "as unto Christ." This shows that the slave has been lifted from the base position of degradation where he sullenly worked as little as possible and only when his master was watching. Now he is the slave of Christ, and Christ has made him free. He is to look above the earthly master in his attempt to please his Master in heaven. An earthly master could control only the bodies of the slaves. The slaves of Christ have yielded their souls to Him, even their total personalities. Remember that Paul called himself the bondslave of Jesus Christ.
"With good will doing service" means that their attitudes should reflect their Christian service. When a child of God -- whether a slave or a master, employer or employee -- gets to the place where the motive of his life is to please Christ, then the hardships of work life are more easily passed over.
What can break a man's shackles? Only the power of the gospel of Christ. He will make you free. "If the Son therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (John 8:36). It is Christ who offers freedom. Think of the millions today who are trapped by porn, crime, drugs, and alcohol. There is slavery on every side of us.
We should be slaves to Christ and to no one or nothing else. Saul of Tarsus was a slave to an ideology. He was a Pharisee. When he came to Christ, he was made free. However, immediately he yielded to a new Master and said, "...Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?..." (Acts 9:6). He had become a bondslave to Jesus Christ.
The Lord has lifted the employee to a high position; He has dignified labor. It doesn't make any difference whether a man is working at a bench or digging a ditch or working in an office or mining down in the bowels of the earth or farming the land on the top of the earth. If he is a child of God, he can say, "I serve the Lord Christ."
William Carey was a shoemaker who answered the call to go off as a foreign missionary. Someone asked him, "What is your business?" meaning to humiliate him, because he was a shoemaker and not an ordained minister. Carey answered, "My business is serving the Lord, and I make shoes to pay expenses." He was a servant of Christ. Oh, that men were that kind of worker today -- it would change the whole labor scene.
And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him [Eph. 6:9].
Something is also said to the masters. If you are an employer, before Christ you are just another man. God is no respecter of persons. What He has said to labor also applies to you. You come under the same category since you also have a Master, and your Master is Christ. Masters are not to take advantage of their position as master. They are not to abuse their power. They are not to threaten. In the presence of Christ, the master and the servant stand on the same footing.
We find a very practical demonstration of this in the Epistle to Philemon. Philemon was a master who had a slave named Onesimus. Onesimus ran away from his master, and according to the law of that day, his master could have put him to death. However, after Onesimus trusted Christ, Paul sent him back to his master with the letter to Philemon. This is what Paul wrote: "For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him for ever; not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord?" (Philem. 1:15-16). When both capital and labor are believers, they are brothers.
"It is not that in America Christianity has been tried and found wanting. The problem is it never has been tried." That is still the problem today -- we have kept it behind stained glass windows. If Christianity cannot move out of the sanctuary and get down into the secular, there is something radically wrong. It will work if it is tried.
The Christian faith does not bring about harmony by erasing social or cultural distinctions. Servants are still servants when they trust Christ, and masters are still masters. Rather, the Christian faith brings harmony by working in the heart. Christ gives us a new motivation, not a new organization.
What are the responsibilities of a Christian master (or employer) to his workers?
He must seek their welfare.
"Do the same things unto them." If the employer expects the workers to do their best for him, he must do his best for them.
One of the greatest examples of this in the Bible is Boaz in the Book of Ruth. He greeted his workers with, "The Lord be with you!" And they replied, "The Lord bless thee!" (Ruth 2:4) Boaz was sensitive to the needs of his workers and generous to the stranger, Ruth. His relationship with his workers was one of mutual respect and a desire to glorify the Lord. It is unfortunate when an employee says, "My boss is supposed to be a Christian, but you'd never know it!"
He must not threaten.
Roman masters had the power and lawful authority to kill a slave who was rebellious, though few of them did so. Slaves cost too much money to destroy them. Paul suggested that the Christian master has a better way to encourage obedience and service than threats of punishment. The negative power of fear could result in the worker doing less instead of more, and this kind of motivation could not be continued over a long period of time. Let a man share the results of his labor and he will work better and harder.
He must be submitted to the Lord.
"Your master also is in heaven" (Eph. 6:9). This is practicing the lordship of Christ. The wife submits to her own husband "as unto the Lord" (Eph. 5:22), and the husband loves the wife "as Christ also loved the church" (Eph. 5:25). Children obey their parents "in the Lord" (Eph. 6:1), and parents raise their children "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4). Servants are obedient "as unto Christ" (Eph. 6:5), and masters treat their servants as their "Master in heaven" would have them do. Each person, in submission to the Lord, has no problems submitting to those over him.
Jesus said the way to be a ruler is first to be a servant (Matt. 25:21). The person who is not under authority has no right to exercise authority. This explains why many of the great men of the Bible were first servants before God made them rulers: Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, and Nehemiah are just a few examples. Even after a man becomes a leader, he must still lead by serving.
"And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant" (Matt. 20:27).
