The Redeemed Household Pt.5

Well, this morning we begin to
wrap up our study of the redeemed household, as we’ve titled it. This has been our focus, our
study for the past month, and so you know the well-worn pathway
by now, Colossians chapter 3, if you would please begin turning
there, and you might even find a bulletin or something to talk
in Ephesians chapter 6. We’ll pick up just one verse
this morning from there. Our study of the redeemed household
is, as you know, a part of the greater section of the book of
Colossians, a section that began all the way back in chapter 3
verse 1, where Paul begins applying the doctrine that he teaches
in the first two chapters to a wide variety of aspects of
our life. And he wants to talk about our
spiritual mindset. He talks about our battle against
sin. He talks about our appetite for
truth, for Christ’s likeness. And there are many other areas
where God’s grace might reach. And we observed that nowhere
was God’s grace more needful than in the Christian household. As Paul has taken up to address
each individual member by targeting appropriate messages for each. Wives, husbands, children, fathers,
even household slaves have been addressed. Husbands, pardon me, wives as we saw, were
urged to be subject to their own husbands. Husbands, in turn,
were admonished to love their God-given wives. Children were
called to a strict obedience to their parents. That would
make God happy. Fathers, parents were told not
to be overbearing so as to exasperate their children. And even slaves
were addressed. Just like the children of the
second pairing, they were commanded to genuinely obey their earthly
masters. And so it’s no surprise that
as Paul addresses both the subordinate and the superior members of each
of those pairings, that he should turn now finally to address masters. This will conclude his discourse
on the Christian household. There’s an interesting feature
that we subtly may have picked up, but we should call our attention
to it this morning. We should note something very
special. We might think, I told you there’s
three pairings of two, and we might think of these as a total
of six different individuals that are addressed in this section.
Wives, husbands, children, fathers, slaves, and masters. But actually
there are only four, because one of these individuals holds
Three different roles. Three different roles in the
household are held by the husband, who is also the father, who is
also the master. And so it’s conceivable, I’ll
tell you, that a woman, if she were single, perhaps widowed,
and very wealthy, may possibly have had servants, household
servants, over whom she would rule. But that scenario would
have been extremely rare in that culture. And in all likelihood,
the husband, father, and master are all one and the same person.
And in each of these pairings, the individual is placed in a
superior position. So the husband, father, and master
has a tremendous responsibility. As he has three roles in the
household, he has three admonitions to honor. Well, let’s hear what
Paul has to say to these earthly masters. Masters, as he says,
who are according to the flesh, as Paul calls them in Ephesians
6, 5, not eternal superiors, but those who are placed in such
a position temporarily in this life. Pardon me. Colossians, I think I just scurried
about half a dozen people for a glass of water. If you would, let’s pick up in
verse 22. We’ll take a running start. We’ll hear what Paul said
to the slaves, but let’s also pick up ultimately what he says
to the masters. Verse 22. Slaves, in all things,
obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service
as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart,
fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do your work
heartily as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from
the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It
is the Lord Christ whom you serve. For he who does wrong will receive
the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without
partiality. Masters, grant to your slaves
justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a master in
heaven.” And so, as is our habit, let’s
immediately go, if we could, to Ephesians 6. I just want to
pick up one verse there this morning. It’s the echo of chapter
4, verse 1, which we just read. Ephesians chapter six, and if
you would look at verse nine, we’ve seen again and again in
this section, there are statements that are exactly the same in
both places, both in Colossians and in Ephesians, but there are
also some very unique additions, and we want to observe both as
I’ll be picking some of those up this morning. Ephesians chapter
six, verse nine, one verse, and masters do the same things to
them and give up threatening, knowing that both their master
and yours is in heaven. And there is no partiality with
him. And so back now, please, if you
would, to Colossians chapter four. Now, as exciting as it
is that we’ve come into chapter four, finally, at long last,
the milestone comes with a bit of a misgiving. The misgiving
comes from the division that exists here that places this
address to masters in a completely different chapter than the other
five members of the household. I’ve probably said this before,
but I’m old and forgetful, and so you have to bear with me.
But chapter and verse divisions are not inspired. They were added
in time, almost as a selling feature to Bible publishers. They’re not part of the original
text of God’s Word, Old or New Testament. The first person that
inserted the numbered verses was a man named Stephanus. Not the same one that we just
welcomed as a member. Stephanus did this in 1546. And as much as we love this helpful
feature, sometimes these divisions are very awkward, misplaced.
One particular scholar quipped of Stephanus’s clumsy effort
that he marked the verse divisions while journeying on a horseback,
and that some of the awkward divisions arose from the jogging
of the horse that bumped his pen in the wrong places. All that to say, chapter four,
verse one, really belongs with the discussion that began back
in verse 22 and should be continued immediately after verse 25. So Paul is dealing with this
third pairing, slaves and masters. And here, with the sixth and
final role that he addresses in the redeemed household, as
you may recall, we pointed this out at the very beginning of
our discussion. The word for master here can
be a little unsettling to our Western mind. It’s the Greek
word kurios. That’s the word that is used
hundreds of times from the Gospels forward into the epistles to
refer to our Savior as Lord. It’s a divine title. Lord, if you will, with a capital
L. But the word is also used in
a very general sense to speak of a person in a position of
authority as master or lord, lord indeed with a lowercase
l. And as we concluded that it is
not out of question to equate slaves with the modern day employee,
it’s not unreasonable to draw and apply the principles that
Paul gives here to earthly bosses, to think of the word master in
more modern times as, say, supervisor or boss or superior. Now, for
those of you in a supervisory position in your workplace, due
to the ugly history of slavery in this country, it would be
inadvisable for you to go in on Monday morning and begin to
adopt this title, Master. But we can, even as we carefully
back away from that particular title, we can observe some timeless
principles for those in a supervisory role. I would suggest that in
our parallel here in Colossians and in our parallel passage,
there are a total of three characteristics of a godly supervisor. That’s
what Paul is setting forth, and so that’s where we want to begin
this morning. Back in chapter 4, verse 1, the
redeemed household’s characteristics now of a godly superior. And
the first thing that Paul tells us is that a godly superior’s
conduct will be marked by blessing. It’ll be marked by blessing.
Look again at verse one, just we’ll pick up the first phrase.
Masters grant to your slaves justice and fairness. The first mark of a godly superior
is that they will be characterized by blessing their subordinates. Whether they’re considered as
employees or slaves, godly masters will be distinguished by positively
blessing, giving good gifts to those who are their subordinates. Here in Colossians, Paul urges
these earthly masters to grant justice and fairness. To begin with, the word grant
is important. Generally, the word means to
furnish or to provide or to offer something to someone or to supply
someone or something. The word is variously translated
in the New Testament, according to the respective context in
which the word is used, to bring, to furnish, to show, to give
rise to, The suggestion of its use here in Colossians 4.1 is
that this is a bestowal on the part of the master, a rendering,
a giving back of something to someone that is not deserved. It’s not earned. He doesn’t owe
it to him in that sense. This is a grace gift. In a sense,
it’s a gift. It’s an offering on the part
of the master towards his slave. But as Paul is commanding this
of earthly masters, it’s not optional. And in the form of
the verb here is important as well. It’s in what we call the
middle voice. It indicates something that the
individual does himself. We might even think of it in
this sense, as far as it’s up to you as a master. In this case,
this act of granting is the master’s part of the equation. He’s called
upon to grant these things to his slaves. It’s not optional. The slave has his or her role. The granting is the master’s
part. Paul tells the Christian supervisor
or boss to do their part. They too have a task to fulfill
in the cultivation of a proper Christian household. As differently
as Paul says this, the Ephesians passage, the meaning is nearly
the same. Would you just flip over to Ephesians
6? I just want to pick up that one
line again. In Ephesians 6, 9, Paul says
there, masters do the same things to them. And we have to really ponder and
think about what he refers to here. What are these same things
to which Paul points? Well, just as the slave has been
called to a kind and respectful attitude and behavior toward
his master, so also the earthly master is to treat his slave
in kind. The slave is called to be conscientious,
so also is the master. A servant should be diligent,
so also should the supervisor. An employee is called to work
with integrity, not to please men, so also the superior. If the worker is reminded that
ultimately he stands under the authority of Christ, his Savior,
so does the owner of the factory. The slave is supposed to take
a genuine interest in his master’s affairs, and so the master ought
to care for the matters pertaining to the slave. And if both servant
and superior are believers, how much more they have in common?
Their hope in Christ, their dependence upon God’s grace, their need
of fellowship. And so Paul says here in Ephesians
6, 9, do the same things. Back, if you would, to Colossians
4, 1. So what Paul is saying in these
two different places, even though stated very differently, he’s
basically saying the same thing. Render back to these servants
as they have rendered to you. We know these earthly masters
are to give or to render to these servants and employees, but what
are they to give? Paul says here in Colossians
4.1, grant to your slaves justice and fairness. Justice and fairness. That’s what masters are supposed
to provide. Justice is a familiar word to
readers of the New Testament. It just refers to that which
is correct or right, righteous. In the Roman Empire, even a slave
had rights. So at minimum, Paul is telling
earthly masters that they are to treat their servants justly,
not breaking the law in their treatment. But Paul probably
means something even more broad here. Do the right thing by these
servants of yours. Do what is right, even if it
costs you. Do what is right, even if no
one else is looking. Do what is right, regardless
of what other earthly masters are doing. In other words, conduct
yourselves as a superior with the utmost integrity. In God’s
eyes, it would have been no less sinful for a master to mistreat
his slaves than it would for a slave to defraud his master. But even justice would not have
been enough. It would not have been enough
for Paul to just say, masters, treat your slaves with justice. Think of a worker who takes up
to labor hard and under difficult conditions. The heat of the day,
dusty, dirty, hard, difficult work. And perhaps in the course
of his working, one of his very necessary tools breaks. or perhaps one of his very helpful
coworkers goes down with injury. And yet, this faithful servant
labors on without any lapse in productivity. Now for the worker
that was injured, it would be just to pay him a day’s wages. It’s the right thing to do. But what about the fellow worker
that picked up the slack and got the job done? This is where
justice leaves off and fairness takes over. A servant should
be paid his just wage, but it’s only fair that he should be paid
even more for this strenuous effort. And so it seems very
clear to Paul that justice by itself is not enough. There are
situations where justice would become injustice if there were
not additional elements of fairness. So Paul adds fairness to justice. Now, if justice is relatively
easy for us to understand, the second word, fairness, presents
a bit of a challenge. The Greek word is isotase. Even
in the hearing of this word, you may be figuring out its meaning.
That root word, iso, has the basic meaning of same. In geometry,
we have the isosceles triangle. Remember from eighth grade geometry? Now you’re awake. Two sides of
the triangle have the same angles, the same length. We also have isotopes. We have
isometrics. And so you understand the basic
meaning of the root word. It’s a relatively rare word. It’s rarely used anyway, at least
in the New Testament. It’s only used three times. It’s
used twice in 2 Corinthians 8, both times translated there as
equality. That’s not a bad translation
there in 2 Corinthians 8, but translating it as such here would
create a real problem. Some commentators argue that
both the slave and the master are Christians, and so they’re
all in a level playing field, and we have to just forget about
slavery automatically, and that’s not what Paul does. Since they’re equal spiritually,
some say that they should be treated as equals. And it would
go something like this. The master would call up and
say, hey, if it’s not inconvenient for you today, would you mind
coming in to work? I have a lot of work to do if
you’re not doing anything else. That’s silly. Masters are to treat slaves like
themselves, equal to their position. That’s essentially one idea. And that effectively does away
with the practice of slavery altogether. But the idea that
both slave and master are saved here is an unnecessary assumption. We don’t know that. Paul clearly
uses terms here that indicate that the system of slavery had
not been abolished and he is not pressing for it to be abolished
yet. And therefore, a slave would
not, could not be considered an equal with his or her earthly
master any more than a child would be considered as an equal
with his or her parents. Paul seems to be setting forth
principles to be followed regardless of spiritual standing. There’s
another possible solution to this dilemma. Another way to
look at this word would be to take this equality to mean that
the master is to treat all slaves the same. This is a point that Paul would
hardly have to verbalize. He wants them to treat all slaves
kindly and well, but it doesn’t even seem to fit the overall
context. And so there’s a third option,
and this is the one that I think is the best. There’s some flexibility
with regard to the translation of this word. And so I would
suggest to you equity would seem to be a far better translation
here. What Paul commands seems to be
much simpler and much more in line with treating servants right. By the second word, he insists
that masters treat their servants decently as well, fairly. So even justice alone, as we
said a moment ago, would not have been enough. Think of that
worker, again, who takes up to labor hard in the dusty, dirty
countryside. It would only be fair. It would
only be equitable, not only to render him what was justly his
due, but to render as well what is fair and decent. There’s a
second thing to observe, second characteristic of a godly superior. Not only is a godly superior’s
conduct marked by blessing, it’s marked by withholding. Bear with
me. I haven’t done a lot of this,
but I want to go to Ephesians 6, 9. to recognize this point,
Ephesians chapter six, verse nine. Hopefully you have a marker
there. Paul says it this way there,
and masters do the same things to them and give up threatening. In addition to the blessings
of justice and fairness that earthly bosses are to grant to
their servants, Paul tells these masters that there is something
that they should not do. Something that they should withhold.
And for this second point, we draw from Paul’s words to the
Ephesians. And Paul says there, give up
threatening. This word is only used three
times in the New Testament. The first is Acts 429. It’s used there to refer to the
severe words, words of warning to Peter and John who were preaching
the gospel and the Jewish leaders wanted them to stop and they
threatened them. Paul certainly knew this word
because the only other time that this word is used was to describe
him. Acts 9.1, you know it well. Before
his conversion, he was known as Saul, and it says that now
Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples
of the Lord. I love the translation here,
breathing threats. And yet, as I looked at it, it
almost isn’t strong enough. The two Greek words there could
well be translated, blowing in threatening. The word picture
there strikes me of the proverbial fire-breathing dragon, right? Just going about everywhere he
went, spewing these harsh and vindictive, scary warnings. This
is what Saul, prior to his conversion to Christ, was doing. going about
through the countryside, fomenting all these dreadful threats and
warnings. It’s not as if Saul of Tarsus
needed to make these threats, remember? He had already been
a party to the public execution of Stephen. He was well-known,
he was notorious. His reputation, as we say, preceded
him. Acts 8.3, Saul began ravaging
the church, entering house to house, dragging off men and women. He would put them in prison.
Everyone knew it. He had the permission of Jewish
authorities to go about prosecuting the so-called crime of Christianity. This man was notorious. He didn’t
need to verbalize any threats, which exposes these threats for
what they were. They were excessive declarations
that were meant to instill fear. It’s that harsh, verbal intimidation
designed to strike fear into the heart of the hearer. That’s
what a threat is. And it orients from a heart of
contempt for such servants. And it issues forth in bad tempers
and severity towards them. And it’s easy. It’s an easy pit
for a master to fall into in his quest to maximize the efforts
of his servants. Just make a threat. Yell and
scream. Raise your voice. Tell them that
if they don’t step up production, you’re going to take action.
Well, the form of the verb here in the present sense, it’s interesting,
essentially give up. Give up threatening. And that
tells us that this practice was active. Masters were actively
doing this, even Christian masters. It was a regular feature of the
master-slave relationship, a regular feature of the boss and the employee. The fear of punishment was the
great motivator that was used to increase productivity. Masters
and slaves both knew the verbal and the nonverbal means of bullying. A lazy servant might not budge
at all until pressure was applied. And sadly, a godless supervisor
may not possess the means of motivating workers without such
harsh intimidation. Unfortunately, Paul is speaking
to Christian masters. And so we could justifiably take
this as stop. Stop doing this. Stop threatening
these people. Who are your servants? This doesn’t mean that if you’re
an earthly boss that it’s wholly out of place to communicate consequences
for improper behavior. That’s just and right and appropriate.
What Paul is referring to here is that imbalanced approach that
employs only these frightening verbal harassments in order to
bring about results. There’s so many better ways to
motivate employees, like instruction, teaching them how. I remember
as a baseball coach hearing a coach go off on his players. And I remember
his assistant coach asked him, have you taught them that yet? Instruction goes a long way with
our employees, doesn’t it? And not only that, but encouragement. When you see them doing something
right, do we even acknowledge it? Or example, providing them
a pattern to follow, or coaching, or words of appreciation. Thank
you for your hard work today. Even if you have to come back
in and tweak their efforts. In other words, positive as opposed
to negative. A godly, that is a Christian
superior, should not be characterized by this harsh, threatening, foreboding,
harsh, ugly demeanor. Stop this, Paul says. Find a
better way to motivate your subordinates. Something other than these negative
threats all the time. There’s a third mark of godly
behavior by which a Christian supervisor should be known. For
this, we’ll go back to chapter 4, verse 1 of Colossians. A godly
superior’s conduct will be marked by blessing, it’ll be marked
by withholding, and it’ll be marked by remembering. Would you look at the passage
once again? Masters, grant to your slaves justice and fairness,
knowing that you too have a master in heaven. The third mark or characteristic
of a Christian master is that of remembering. Paul says knowing. Knowing that
you too have a master in heaven, the Christian boss ought well
to keep this in mind. He ought to remember that he
too has a master, a Lord. not only who serves as a model
for appropriate leadership, but whom also every earthly slave
and master will give an account. Think of it. First and foremost,
Jesus Christ has modeled in the most virtuous way what it means,
what it looks like to be a righteous master or Lord. Our Savior is
compassionate and instructive. He’s fully aware of our ignorance
and our waywardness, eager to impart principles and encouragement. Jesus is gentle and kind, watching
over his children as a loving shepherd. Christ is merciful
and forgiving, bearing long with our shortcomings and restoring
us to himself by grace. Should he expect any less of
earthly masters who serve at his pleasure? Related to that, what great motivation
is provided to such earthly bosses to avoid harsh and unkind treatment
of those who are in our service. Not only is Jesus a perfect model
of lordship and one that earthly masters must seek to emulate,
he is also our just judge. Paul doesn’t come right out and
say it here in Colossians. He only calls masters to remember
that they too have a master in heaven. But in the parallel in
Ephesians 6, the last line of that section repeats a line from
Colossians 3.15. You may have heard it. There
is no partiality with him. Colossians, Paul spoke those
words to slaves. There’s no partiality with God. But here in Colossians, he clearly
says the same thing to masters. There is no partiality with God. This is an amazing word. Prosopollensa. Prosopollensa. You need me to
spell that for you? Literally, it means to receive
the face. It is to favor one person over
another just because who they are, what we see. James 2.1 translates
it as personal favoritism. It is the unjust reception of
persons, the respective persons. And it’s always used in a bad
sense in the New Testament. The point is God doesn’t operate
this way. Your title doesn’t matter to
him. Your family tree doesn’t make any difference. Your standing
in the community doesn’t matter to God. Your relative importance
here on earth, irrelevant. God will evaluate everyone with
perfect equity. and he will render to all the
punishment or the reward that is due, so that all, whether
slave or master, will answer ultimately to God himself. Whether
the slave defrauds his master or the superior cheats his subordinate,
both will be judged by the same standard. How clearly ought such
superiors keep this truth ever in mind. that they too have a
master in heaven and one to whom they will give an account. If he treats us in one manner,
should he treat our subordinates differently? The principle that
ultimately lies behind this is no other than the golden rule,
right? As Christ articulated in Matthew 7, 12, treat the people
the same way you want them to treat you. As an earthly master, we expect
diligence, do we not? Integrity, honesty from those
who serve us. And masters are to render back
the same, to treat the servants as we desire to be treated. You
remember the wealthy and powerful centurion described in Matthew chapter
8? He modeled this. He came to Jesus pleading for
Jesus to heal his slave. He would have expected the same
treatment if he were on his deathbed. He knew this principle and he
treated his servant just as he would have wanted his servant
to do for him. At the opposite end of the spectrum,
Matthew 18, we have that slave, who even though he was forgiven
an impossible debt, he turned even on a fellow slave. You see,
he forgot this principle. Treat the other person as you
would like to be treated. So instead of treating his fellow
slaves with the same mercy and compassion that he himself had
only just received, He did the opposite. And though he sought
and received mercy from the king, he was unwilling to extend those
same graces, even to a fellow slave. In my studies this week,
I came across this amazing example from Job. Job chapter 31. I’ll be done by the time you
turn there, so just listen carefully. I’ll give you some verses to
jot down if you wish. What Job is doing in 31 is a
humble assessment before God of who he is, how he’s lived. At the very beginning of it,
he speaks of the covenant that he had made with his eyes. And
he knew the peril that he would put himself in with a misuse
of those eyes. What is the portion from God
or the heritage of the Almighty from on high? Is it not calamity
to the unjust and disaster to those who work iniquity? In other
words, Job says, I don’t want that. In verse five, he talks
about walking, his walk. that he questions himself, have
I walked in falsehood? Have I turned out of the way?
Have I gone off the path of righteousness? In verse nine, he checks his
heart. If my heart has been enticed
by a woman or I’ve lurked in my neighbor’s doorway, do I walk
with integrity even when no one’s looking? He goes on to talk about
the poor and the widow, the orphan. He goes on to talk about his
heart and his affections. Does he long for gold? Is that
where he places his confidence? But I want you to hear verses
13 through 15. Job 31 verses 13 through 15. You see, Job knew this principle. Treat the other person as you
would like to be treated. Verse nine, he says, if my heart,
pardon me, verse 13, if I have despised the claim of my male
or female slaves when they filed a complaint against me, what
then could I do when God arises? And when he calls me to account,
what will I answer him? did did not he who made me in
the womb also make him and the same one fashion us in the womb what advantage the believing master has because
he already knows how marvelously well his heavenly Lord has treated
him. It should be easy for earthly
superiors to emulate Christ in this regard, to show mercy and
justice and equity and kindness. He or she who has Christ as a
model and possesses Christ’s word and his spirit has everything he needs to be
a godly superior. Would you humble yourself in
examination before him? Our merciful King, we thank you
for this rich and helpful section of scripture that talked not
only about husbands and wives in our respective roles, even
children with regard to their parents and parents, their children,
but also slaves and masters. employees, employers, subordinates,
and superiors. Lord, grant us the grace that
we might examine our hearts fully and fairly and accurately. Lord, expose any sin we pray
and bring us to repentance for it. Lord, we pray that you would
correct what needs correcting. Grant us the grace to change.
Father, if there are any here who do not know the Lord Jesus
Christ, Jesus Christ has accomplished everything that we need for salvation
by his death on the cross for our sin. Ours is not to work
and labor for salvation. Ours is to humble ourselves and
receive the forgiveness that Jesus has provided by repentance
from sin and faith in the Savior. Lord, we thank you and we praise
you. We pray all of these things in Jesus’ name.