The Distinction Of Christian Work Ethics Series

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).