Dr. Bradford Reaves
Crossway Christian Fellowship
Hagerstown, MD
www.mycrossway.org
Watch this message at: https://mycrossway.churchcenter.com/episodes/144495
5 Bondservants, 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 bondservants 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 bondservant or is 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. (Ephesians 6:5–9)
We are continuing through to the end of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Here we find another exhortation in Paul’s principles of living. I want you to notice a couple of key principles found in these exhortations. First, notice that all of these are pieces of evidence of the new life that is given to the Spirit-filled believer. Second, notice that all of these exhortations are more about relationships and less about what you are supposed to do and not do.
Paul tells the church that they, being given new life and filled with the Spirit of God no longer are to live in the same way as the gentiles (Ephesians 4:17), but rather the Christian is to imitate God and Christ’s love for us (Ephesians 5:2) by submitting to each other in humility (Ephesians 5:21). This is a contrast to the attitude of the world, which demands to be heard, protests and marches through the streets for their rights or their desire to be right.
This attitude of mutual submission and humility should be most evident in the home where husbands, wives, and children follow a godly creative order. Wives are to submit to their husbands (Ephesians 5:22), husbands are to love their wife the same way Christ loves the church (Ephesians 5:25), children are to be obedient to their parents (Ephesians 6:1), and parents are to not lord over their children in a way that provokes them to anger, but rather model for them godly living and righteousness (Ephesians 6:4)
Now we come to the relationship between the servant and the master; the employee and employer. (Ephesians 6:5, 9). All of these are foundational relationships for a society to properly function. At the foundation of all good relationships, be it between believers, husbands and wives, parents and children, employers and employees is the mutual submission in reverence to Christ our Lord. This is the case with today’s Scripture in the realm of work.
The main point I want you to understand (and this is key as we move into understanding Spiritual Warfare next week) is that your relationship with Jesus is the primary, governing relationship in your life. There is no such thing as a secular part of your life. Everything in your life is subject to the lordship of Christ.
It is often difficult for us to understand these kinds of passages in the Bible about the slave and master relationship. Our western worldview presents a highly negative understanding of slavery, and rightly so. Usually, we view slavery as the brutal oppression of the slaves of the south where black men and women were forcibly taken from their homes and countries to work against their will under horrific conditions and treated in ways no person should ever be treated. This perspective of slavery and reading passages as we see here in Ephesians 6, has brought erroneous interpretations that the Bible condones slavery. Let’s take a look.
First, we understand that God created every person, male and female, uniquely from all other creations, in His image (Genesis 1:27). The Bible does not directly identify slavery as a sin, it does present slavery as a degraded condition where a person is living below the abundance of life God designed for them. In that, the Bible gives instructions on how slaves should be treated.
During the Old Testament, slavery was a way of life and a means to help someone climb out of poverty or momentous debt. Slavery was a means for a person to avoid living in destitute impoverishment. In fact, many slaves adored their masters and the families of their masters. Having a slave was not a moral evil, it was a wonderful way of caring for a worker as an employee of a family, enjoying all the benefits, food, and fellowship of living with that family.
There is no portrayal of slavery in the Old Testament as evil as you and I would understand it today. Slavery was never a degradation of a certain race or the oppression of a culture. People were not enslaved because of their nationality or the color of their skin. In Bible times, slavery was based more on economics; it was a matter of social status. It was providing for a person in a manner of overarching care for their every need in return for service. And like anything, there were abuses and so the Bible prescribes strict instructions on how these people were to be treated (Deuteronomy 15:12-15; Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 4:41).
Many in the Old Testament were loving and faithful toward their masters. In Israel, a slave could freely devote his entire life to his master by going to the doorpost and having his ear pierced against the doorpost with an awl as a sign of his lifelong devotion to his master (Exodus 21:6). And every 50 years, in the Year of Jubilee, all slaves were to be set free (Leviticus 25:10, 39; Numbers 36:4). This is not to sanitize slavery as something good or evil, but to bring context.
In New Testament times and in the Roman World, slavery was still a beneficial institution, however, more abuses and brutalities had emerged. It is estimated that there were 60,000,000 slaves in the Roman Empire, and as many as one-third of the population of the city of Rome were considered slaves when the Apostle Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesians. Sadly, the perception of slaves being property, instead of people was more common. But sometimes doctors, lawyers, and politicians were slaves.
Over the last few centuries, slavery has taken a dark and evil turn as people were enslaved for their skin color. In the United States, many black people were considered slaves because of their nationality; many slave owners truly believed black people to be inferior human beings. The evils associated with modern slavery are unconscionable and condemned in the Bible as a way no person should ever be treated. Both the Old and New Testaments condemn the practice of “man-stealing,” which is what happened in Africa in the 16th to 19th centuries. Africans were rounded up by slave-hunters, who sold them to slave traders, who brought them to the New World to work on plantations and farms. This practice is abhorrent to God. In fact, the penalty for such a crime in the Mosaic Law was death: “Anyone who kidnaps another and either sells him or still has him when he is caught must be put to death” (Exodus 21:16). Similarly, in the New Testament, slave-traders are listed among those who are “ungodly and sinful” and are in the same category as those who kill their fathers or mothers, murderers, adulterers and perverts, and liars and perjurers (1 Timothy 1:8-10).
So some will ask, why doesn’t the Bible condemn slavery? The answer is, that the purpose of the Bible is to point the way to salvation, not to reform society. Therefore, the Bible often approaches issues from the inside out - from the heart of man and this is the basis of Paul’s writing. The gospel emerged in a world where slavery was the norm. In reality, Paul's ministry and Christianity put the death nail to Roman slavery while at the same time being careful not to confuse the Gospel and the spiritual order of the church with a social system. The focus was on man’s relationship with God and each other and that changed the entire world.
?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. (Galatians 3:28)
no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother (Philemon 16)
With that, let us recognize that Paul’s teaching to slaves and masters was revolutionary and countercultural. Let us also recognize that many of us are also enslaved through our debt and the necessity and dependence for us to work under the authority of a person or corporation for our wellbeing. That is similar to the context of Paul’s writing about slaves and their masters. It is reasonable hermeneutics to insert employee and employer where Paul wrote bondservant and master in our text.
Bondservants [or employees], obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, (Ephesians 6:5)
Here we have a pattern for all employees. Paul tells us that the work we do as employees is to be considered the same in our hearts and minds as if we are working for the Lord himself. Be obedient to the people that are appointed over you because your work ethic and the job you do is a witness to that person. Now you may ask, what if my boss is an unreasonable tyrant, am I off the hook? Look at 1 Peter:
?Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. (1 Peter 2:18)
Be subject to your boss, no matter what kind of employer you work for - it is your witness. Our testimony for Christ is seen in our obedient faithfulness in our daily work. If you are lazy or unfaithful or dishonest in your work, the Bible says that you bring reproach in the name of Christ. If you are faithful, honest, hard-working, and obedient you are bringing glory to the name of Christ. I guarantee you they know you are a Christian and they are watching you. Your job is your ministry; you cannot separate from the secular. When you begin to use your job as your ministry and put God first in your job, He will bless you. You are in your position because God put you there. The reason He put you where you are is that you have the opportunity to reach people that those of us in “full-time ministry” could never witness for Christ.
?Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, 10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. (Titus 2:9–10)
Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)
In other words, there is nothing in your life that is secular. Everything you do, whether you are answering the phone, writing reports, building houses, flying planes, cutting grass, teaching in school, managing a restaurant - whether you are a doctor, a lawyer, or a waiter - your work is a sacred act of worship to your Lord Jesus Christ. If this was Paul’s instructions to slaves, how much more should we as free men and women guard our testimony?
Then Paul adds, Ephesians 6:6 “6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,” In other words, do just do it when you think you’re being watched, or just when you are trying to impress your boss, but at all times and in all places. Ephesians 6:7 “7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man,” Every single piece of work you do of every hour of every day must be good enough to bring to the Lord and say, “This is my offering to you Lord.” Why? Look at Ephesians 6:8 “8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.” Because God will not allow our hard work to go without reward. When we are born again, our lives are changed and we work harder and are less wasteful, and therefore we are blessed and become more prosperous physically and spiritually.
Now look at Paul's instructions to the Masters or Employers:
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 6:9)
Did you hear that? In the same way that the slave is to serve the master as if he is rendering that work to the Lord Jesus Christ, so are the masters to regard their slaves as the Lord, our master, does to us. How you conduct your business, how you treat your customers, and how you treat your employees is all vital witness of Christ and the Gospel. Christian employers are to conduct their business in the same way as if Christ were running your business.
Christians are to exemplify the best leadership traits to the rest of the world. The greatest masters are not those who hold people to the fire, but those who lead with confidence, humility, and a servant’s heart. Being a leader is not about being in charge, but caring for and loving the people that are in your charge. Paul tells them to stop threatening their employees. If you have to threaten or demean or constantly correct people to get results, you are not leading them you are driving them. The Bible calls for believers to lead with a towel around their waist and serve. A Spirit-fill employer is gentle, encouraging, and full of grace to those around them.
What Paul communicates (and this is important as we move to the Armor of God next week) is that all earthly distinctions are leveled in the presence of our Lord. What is most important to him here is how we treat each other. As an employee, we are to perform our best for those we serve at all times. As an employer, we are to seek the welfare of those God has put under our charge. This was exemplified on the Cross of Calvary.
Without the intervention of Christ in our lives we are slaves to the flesh and sin. In some way or another, we are indebted to sin in our lives that we can never repay. We are spiritually bankrupt and we will serve the unrighteousness in our lives. There are millions today who are trapped by pornography, anger, hate, addiction, wealth, immorality, fear, and alcoholism - we become slaves to those sins and it encroaches on every side of us.
It is only through the power of Christ that you are made free. He promises to redeem you from the slavery of sin, and in turn, we become the servants of the Most-high God. The slaves of Christ have yielded their souls to him. Paul refers to himself as a bondservant of Christ (Romans 1:1).
?So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:36 ESV)
Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.
Believers are not supposed to live as slaves to man, but we are to live as slaves to God. He wants to set you free. (1 Peter 2:16)
Will you come to him today?
