Servants Who Suffer

2007. And as I look at it today,
there’s probably so much there, I won’t even complete it in 2007. It is a great passage. And essentially
what you have here is in theology, they call them a
chiasm. It’s a thought here that is it’s a crossover thought.
He calls us to suffer as servants because of the suffering servant.
That Christ was, beyond all others, the servant of mankind. And Christ
suffered beyond all others. And therefore, He calls us to
a life of suffering. I’ve given you the context. The
context is that command given in verse 13. that we submit ourselves. And it’s in the context of Peter’s
desire that these believers have a practical witness in the world.
It is a continuing discussion, if you will, that carries throughout
Peter’s epistle of Christians in the world. Remember, he started
in the very opening verses, urging them as aliens and strangers. to conduct themselves in a godly
manner in this fallen world. Let’s consider Peter’s exhortation
to servants, to those who serve. Now, I will tell you, this is
not the language that we typically use. We don’t typically call
ourselves servants. And if our boss calls us a servant,
those are practically fighting words in this society. If they
call us a slave, even worse. Given our own country’s history
in that regard, the terminology here is difficult for us to grasp.
So let me just strip away all of what he says or the terminology
that he uses. And essentially what he’s calling
out to is the workforce of the society. It is the workforce. of the society. Let all of those
who are workers, let all of those who get something done. The word is servants, and I’m
going to take you to four different passages that all deal with this
same theme. But only Peter uses this particular
word servants. It literally means a house servant. It doesn’t mean that they weren’t
slaves. They were the closest to the
family. May I just say that there were
very few families, and Scripture presents it as such, there were
very few families who had any kind of independent business. Almost everybody was a servant
to somebody in some capacity. Any member of the household here
would include not only the wife, but the children as being those
who are workers in the home. But here it’s restricted to the
slaves. Those were on the payroll. It
denotes them here, not specifically as slaves, but belonging to the
family, which elevated the worker, the Christian worker in the home.
It elevated them to family status. In Paul’s passage, however, they
are called slaves. And that language has been throughout
the history of the church so shocking that people have distanced
themselves from those passages that teach about the Christian
in the workplace. And that ought not be. In a very
real way, we are slaves, we have to work, we must work and we
do so for pay. But slaves, In first century
Christianity included doctors, teachers, musicians, actors,
secretaries, stewards. It included free men and women. Whatever capacity you were functioning
in, typically you were some kind of slave or servant. And you
still are today, whether you like the language or not. Right? I told you that this is one of
the themes that is carried so strongly through the New Testament
that I want to take you to four additional passages just to listen
to how the Apostle Paul treats this same exact subject. In order
to do that, I want to want to take you back first to Ephesians,
and there will course through Ephesians and Colossians and
First Timothy and Titus, Ephesians chapter six, if you would. And what we’ll do, we’ll read
through these initially, and then I may pick up a few details
here and there as we go, just by way of underscoring what Peter
is saying here. Ephesians chapter six. where Paul is in the midst of,
after those first three opening chapters of heavy doctrine and
those final three chapters of practical application, Paul is
dealing with relationships, children and parents, husbands and wives. And then he turns to slaves,
the workforce. Slaves, be obedient. A different word than what we’ve
got in our passage that Peter wrote, but a similar one nonetheless. Peter said, be subject, he says,
be obedient to those who are your masters, according to the
flesh with fear and trembling in the sincerity of your heart
as to Christ, not by way of eye service as men pleasers, but
as slaves of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. With
good will render services to the Lord and not to men, knowing
that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive
back from the Lord, whether slave or free. Now, I told you many
people and perhaps you’re tempted that because of the language,
when it calls them a slave, you’re tempted to say this has nothing
to do with me. I am not a slave. I’m certainly
not the slave of my employer. So be it. What you end up doing
is cutting out the heart of what Scripture has to say to employees,
to workers. I told you weeks ago that I kept
in my locker a list of verses. This is one of those verses.
And every day I would pick out one and before I even clocked
in, I would read it. And all day long, I would try
and think on that verse. And it was uncanny how many times
I would come up against some challenge based on what I had
read. You know, as I meditated upon
this verse, I can remember teaching this passage, preaching through
it in our first church. And about six weeks
after I preached this, we had resigned our position and moved
to Colorado. Six weeks after that I had resigned
that position, I found myself living this passage. And it is
difficult. It’s one thing to preach it.
It’s another thing quite to live it. The one thing that struck
me in this passage so profoundly is verse 7 there. With good will,
render service. You know, whatever happened in
our society, the customer service, remember, was a big thing in
the 80s. It’s a big thing. And if there’s anybody in the
workforce that ought to be good at caring for the customer, shouldn’t
it be the Christian? When he says with goodwill, with
a magnanimous heart, look to just help somebody, whatever
line of work you’re in, whatever it is you do, you’re there to
help people. with goodwill, render service
as to the Lord and not to men. You’re not working for him. Ultimately,
you’re working for the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn, if you would, to the parallel
passage in Colossians chapter three. You begin to get these duplicate
passages, you see just how prevalent not only the problem was of people
thinking that now because they were free in Christ, that they
were free from any earthly master. And the repetition in the Scriptures
underscores not only God’s desire for us in the workplace, but
it underscores the problem that was so rampant in that day. Colossians 3, verse 22, In all things, obey those who
are your masters on earth. And right at the outside, I would
underscore, he is not saying that if your master tells you
to sin, you sin. If he tells you to cheat, you
don’t cheat. You obey them in those things that are lawful,
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. We’ll come back to that section
in a moment. Verse 23, whatever you do. I
mean, doesn’t that sew up our various means of employment? Whether you’re a doctor or whether
you pick up the garbage or whatever it is you do, that’s exactly
what he says. Whatever you do, do your work
heartily as for the Lord rather than for men. An echo of Paul’s
thought to the Ephesians. 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. God takes this work business
very seriously. This is the means of us testifying
to a watching world. They don’t care necessarily about
our theology and what we have to say. How do we work? 1 Timothy 6. 1 Timothy 6. Paul wrote to his
beloved son in the faith, Timothy, and he gave him instructions
in the ministry. And one of the key instructions
was how his people were going to live in the workplace. First Timothy chapter six, verse
one, let all that pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it? Let all
who are under the yoke as slaves regard their own masters as worthy
of all honor. We’ll come back to that thought
in a moment so that the name of our God and our doctrine may
not be spoken against. Isn’t that exactly what Peter’s
mind is? Peter is saying we must maintain
a testimony in this dark land. We must keep up a good witness. Paul says it differently, but
it’s the same exact exhortation so that the name of God in our
doctrine may not be spoken against. Let those who have believers
as their masters not be disrespectful to them because they are brethren,
but let them serve them all the more because those who partake
of the benefit are believers and beloved.” He says, you know
what? You commune with that man. He takes the same communion. He receives the same grace and
mercy that you do. He is a partaker of the grace
of God. Serve him. Work for him. Finally, Titus 2. Titus 2, that great section where
Paul turns his attention to this young pastor and says, look,
look out among your congregation. And there are things that the
older men are supposed to be, and the older women, and the
younger women, and the younger men, and in case I missed anybody,
slaves. Look at v. 9 of chapter 2. urge
bond slaves to be subject to their own masters in everything. And again, he’s not urging them
towards sin, but any lawful command. He is urging them to be subject,
to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all
good faith. Why? That they may adorn the
doctrine of God our Savior in every respect so that we can
dress it up We want the gospel of Christ to look good and to
be appealing to people. We can’t make it better than
it is, but we can sure taint it, right? By our poor witness. Those are the passages at hand. Those are the main ones. There
are some others that allude to some of these things. But for
our purposes, that suffices. That this is a thought that is
replete throughout the New Testament. that Peter, again, isn’t saying
anything new here. He calls us, if you would turn
back to 1 Peter now, he calls us to be submissive. And Peter
knew that there would be essentially three main dangers for the Christian
servant. If the master was a Christian,
he might think that now because all people are created equal
and we’re all sinners and we’re all saved by grace and everybody’s
equal in the church, that there are equal in all things. And
so he gets to work and now he doesn’t take orders from his
boss anymore. Peter knew that was a possibility.
Or perhaps he might become a rebel. against the injustice of his
slave-like condition, and he might set his heart completely
on some kind of self-guided emancipation where he freed himself from all
of these bondages. And there was a third possibility,
that if the master was a harsh man, new doctrines, things that were
new to him, justice and mercy might make the slave even more
incited to resist the master. And that was the danger that
Peter feared the worst. And he mentions and reminds the
slaves here by way of correcting them that innocent suffering
is the lot that we are called to as Christians. That’s part
of what we get for following Christ. We are to be submissive. Ephesians
6, be obedient. Titus 2, be subject. Colossians
3, obey. But the interesting one of that
whole collection of verses is 1 Timothy 6, regard as worthy
of all honor. That’s what it means to submit.
He is to be regarded as worthy of listening to. We are not to
wag our heads. We’re not to roll our eyes. We’re
not to huff and puff. We’re not to think that he is
on a par with a village idiot. Notice he doesn’t say here that
they are inherently worthy of all honor. He knows that there are evil
men He knows that there are vile, ungodly men, but they are men
that in God’s providence we have come under and that we are to
regard them or consider them or reckon them as being worthy
of honor. We are to speak to them respectfully.
We are to treat them honorably. We are to obey their lawful commands. One pastor said it this way.
This regard refers to an estimate based on objective criteria,
not internal feelings. Believers are to have respect
and a correct assessment of the authority of their employers,
regardless of how they feel about them. That means, you know what? There
are going to be employers that you don’t like. There are going
to be bosses that you just can’t stand. You’re to treat them,
you’re to regard them as worthy of all honor. This subjection that comes as
a result of that implies not only obedience, but loyalty.
Servants are not only to submit, but they’re to be faithful to
and they are to advance the interests of their masters. They are to
take the profitability of the company as being their calling. It is to be important to them. This injunction doesn’t forbid
employees from using lawful means to secure their rights or to
argue their case or to advance their interest. It doesn’t mean
you can’t go have a closed door meeting with your boss and to
tell him that you believe that he’s being unreasonable. It doesn’t
mean that unions, people have used these passages for years
to fight for and against unions. I don’t think it has anything
to say about it. But here the exhortation is to patience under
wrongdoing. That’s essentially the key. Patience
under wrongdoing, enduring that undeserved punishment. And I would say that if you were
to roll all these passages in together, this is first and foremost,
the main characteristic of a godly employee. that he is subject,
that he is submissive, that he is obedient to his masters. Everything else flows from this
character quality, that we are pleasing, that we are agreeable,
that we are honest. All of those things flow out
of this one quality. We get some help here from Paul’s
similar exhortations. What is this submission to look
like? In your mind’s eye, just remember
back to Ephesians six slaves be obedient to your masters who
are according to the flesh with fear and trembling. That is almost
always associated with God, and now I need to treat my boss with
fear and trembling. I need to reverence him. You
don’t know my boss. I don’t need to. Because this
says that we are to be obedient to our earthly masters with fear
and trembling in the sincerity of our heart as to Christ. Christ is in view. Not by way of eye services, men
pleasers, but as slaves of Christ doing the will of God from the
heart. Isn’t that an adequate picture of what you see in your
workplace when everybody sees the boss coming? All of a sudden,
everybody’s busy, right? Eye-pleasers. Not you. It can’t
be said of us. Titus 2, he gives us more detail. Urge bond slaves to be subject
to their own masters and everything. To be well-pleasing. Is it wrong
to try to be pleasing to the boss? Not at all. Is it wrong? To try to earn his
favor by working hard? Not at all. And yet you have
this culture that repudiates that and scorns that behavior
as being some person who’s trying to play up to the boss in some
evil fashion. We are to be well pleasing. We
are not to be, says Paul to Titus, argumentative. Uh oh. It doesn’t mean that we can’t
go have a discussion with our boss, as I said, but the great
majority of people in the workplace, they want to argue and contend
with every little order that is given, don’t they? They want
to bicker and fight and moan and complain about every little
thing. Word means answering again, talking
back. contradicting, challenging. And
it’s more than just these little pert little answers that you
give your boss, because the word includes all kinds of opposition,
whether it’s by word or action. And a lot of times what you get
is like the proverb or the parable that Christ told about people
that say that they’ll go do it and then they in their heart
of hearts, they have no intention. following the boss’s orders,
or they do it in such a way so half-heartedly that in the final
analysis, it wasn’t done at all. Their desire is to thwart the
master’s plans, his wishes, his orders, they respond crossly
and stubbornly, disputing, they are contentious, second guessing
of their bosses, grumbling. You know, whatever happened to,
yes, sir. Whatever happened to that? I mean, try that the next
time that your boss issues a difficult command. But boss, it’s 420,
you know? Yes, sir. It doesn’t say that there aren’t
going to be legitimate disagreements. The final thing that Paul adds
to Titus in characterizing this kind of submission, he says,
not pilfering. Uh oh. It is that form of theft
which retains for itself part of something which has been entrusted
to one’s care. You know, people kind of look
at it tongue in cheek when you start talking about all the office
supplies and paperclips and this and this and that. But the Christian
ought to be the most trustworthy one in the whole office, right?
We should never be accused of those kinds of things. Those
things should not stick to us. And that’s essentially the thought
in mind here is that just by virtue of working there, you
have the privilege of all this stuff glomming onto you as if
it’s part of your pay. Not at all. Servants, be submissive
to your masters. That’s tough language, isn’t
it? Here again, help is gained by
looking at Paul, considering Paul’s parallel exhortations
in Ephesians and Colossians. Ephesians calls them the masters
according to the flesh. They’re not your forever masters.
They have a limited sphere of authority. Ultimately, God is
your master. They’re not the masters of our
destinies or the masters of our souls. Colossians says that they
are our masters on earth. They’re not our ultimate masters.
They’re just our earthly masters, not our eternal. There’s an additional thought
that comes from that. It’s not a class system that
Peter is or Paul is advancing here, where all masters are of
one class and all servants are of another, because you have
some that are masters in one sense and their servants in another,
just like in our day. It’s not the class system that
Peter is advancing here. A servant is not subservient
to all earthly masters. But as Paul echoes Peter, your
masters, your particular master, or as Paul and Titus both or
Paul says in First Timothy and Titus, your own masters, that’s
your boss. They’re not advancing some class
system. And as I’ve already said, They’re
not advancing that we just blindly take whatever command that they
give us, whether it’s against the law or against company rules
or whatever it is. There are times when we’re called
to stand up and even if necessary, take consequences for standing
against wrongdoing. My boss told me is no excuse
for breaking the law. Right. The bottom line here was that
the Christian slave servant was not to think that because of
his exalted heavenly calling, he was released from the duties
of his earthly calling. That his profession as a Christian
should lead him, as one said, to still higher fidelity to his
earthly masters. So that his master, even though
unbelieving, would be compelled by his cheerful and faithful
service to acknowledge the excellency of his religion instead of blaspheming
the Christian’s God and his gospel. That’s the point. Work in such
a way that you bring honor to Christ. That’s the bottom line. That’s I didn’t even tell you
that’s the mandate of our submission. Secondly, the manner of our submission. Servants be submissive to your
masters, verse 18, with all respect. Not only to those who are good
and gentle, but also to those who are reasonable, as I’ve already
pointed out, that word respect here is a familiar one to us.
It is the word for fear. And it is used of our overarching
attitude towards God. It is fear, respect of Him. It is reverence of God. It is
what causes us to live the life that we live. And here he says,
maybe it’s a typo. No, he says we are to render
to them all respect. All reverence, all fear, without
that bitter and negative, acrimonious attitude that so often is found
in the workplace, but with an attitude of gracious honor. Thank you, boss, for my job. Thank you for what you do. Paul likewise mentions that respect. Ephesians 6 again. Slaves, be
obedient to your masters according to that flesh with fear and trembling. Remember I told you we’d come
back? So often a phrase that is used of God and how we respond
to God now used of our earthly masters and bosses. Yes. And
I’ll tell you why he says it, because ultimately behind that
earthly master is a heavenly one. Colossians. 322, slaves and all things obey
those who are your masters on earth, not with external service
as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of the heart,
fearing the Lord. Ultimately, the way that you
think of God is going to be reflected in how you treat your earthly
supervisors. I mean, it’s kind of a that’s
a revolutionary concept, isn’t it? If we all went out tomorrow
and began living this way, How do we know what masters, what
employees, what fellow co-workers might be led to Christ and to
the gospel just by our work ethic? We are to show respect for our
earthly masters by our words. We’re to speak to them honorably. We’re to do so by our deeds,
by our attitudes. You know, anybody can go do the
job, right? But it’s to do so with a joyful
heart, with a glad, thankful heart, with a heart that seeks
to honor that man or that woman by our deeds, in our respect
for the position or their title of their goods and their property.
How many times have we seen people in our workplaces abusing the
property of the business simply because it doesn’t belong to
them? of the company name. I can remember when I first went
in California, in God’s providence, through a variety of circumstances,
I was led to start a little pool business, right? And for the
first time I realized, you know what? Here I am nearing 30 and
I have been for the last 15 years of employment, a snot-nosed brat. Because I didn’t care where the
business came from. I just came in usually, showed up for work
most of the time, did my job some of the time. I didn’t care
whether the business survived, because if it went down, I’d
go down the street and get another job. And now all of a sudden
I had this business that was mine and everything landed on
my desk. The buck stopped with me for
the first time. And for the first time, I realized
what this passage was talking about with regards to earthly
employees. That’s the kind of care that
we’re supposed to have. It’s as if it is our very own. You get people that get a glimpse
of this when they begin talking about whatever sphere of operation
they’re in, no matter how big the business is, it’s their business. It’s their business. We do so
by the use of our time in our punctuality, our productiveness,
by our dress, by our diligence, by our honesty. And you say,
OK, but how far do you take this? You don’t know my boss. I don’t
take it any further than Peter does. He says not only to those
who are good and gentle and that good refers to intrinsic goodness,
I don’t doubt that this has reference to a Christian boss. One who’s
upright, he’s beneficially satisfactory. It doesn’t mean that he’s got
to be a Christian in order to be all that. But it certainly
points to a good, good man. A good person, one who’s gentle,
mild, yielding, indulgent, doesn’t jump down your throat at the
slightest mistake. This is what we used to call
in the work world, cool bosses, right? They were cool. Bosses like that are easy to
take advantage of. And Paul, in his exhortation
in 1 Timothy 6, says not to do that. Don’t do that. If you’ve
got a Christian for a boss, if you’ve got a good man for a boss,
don’t abuse it. Work all the harder for him. To do that, not only for those
who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.
Get the word here. The Greek word here is skoleos.
You heard it right. It’s the word where we get scoliosis
from. Crooked. It literally means curved or
crooked and metaphorically here, it means perverse, dishonest. These are unreasonable men, unfair,
surly, averse. Now you say, now you’re talking
about my boss. These masters were exacting and
strict and rigid and harsh, even cruel. And Peter says even to
them. Yep. even to them.” Masters most often in this society
were not Christian people. Very few Christians in the early
church were considered to be masters of large domains. And that’s why Peter’s focus
here is just on servants. Servants were often even persecuted
by their unbelieving masters all the more. And Peter’s desire
is to teach them submission regardless of the master’s character. Don’t
let that be an influencing factor in whether you submit or not.
There’s a third point I want to consider in closing, not only
the mandate of our submission and the manner of our submission,
but the motive of our submission in verse 19. For this, this submission even to an ungodly
character, this finds favor if for the sake of conscience toward
God, a man bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. For
what credit is there if when you sin and are harshly treated,
you endure it with patience? In that scenario, you’re only
getting what you deserve. If you broke the company policy,
you should pay. But if when you do what is right
and suffer for it, you patiently endure it, this finds favor with
God. Peter says it is a grace. It’s a favor. It is that word that is so often
used of some of the most beautiful things in Christendom. It is
spoken of as a gracious act. And the governing idea behind
it is that divine generosity, right? It is used of favor or
goodwill in the eyes of men or God. It’s the favor in the special
sense of a protection of God. It is the grace of God that covers
you. It is used of divine gifts. They
are the Keres gifts. It is the word of divine grace,
the gospel. It is the outpouring of divine
love. And in what sense can my work
ethic produce favor? He tells us at the very end,
the very end of verse 20, this finds favor with God. This is
grace. This is this is a grace to God. This is a favor with God. This
is pleasing and pleasant to God himself. There are going to be times,
people, where we do right and nobody
notices. There’s going to be times where
we do wrong and the boss is there standing over us, noticing us
and punishing us. Those things we can live with. So often what we have the difficulty
living with is doing right day after day, day after day over
the long haul. and getting only bumps and bruises
for it, being harshly treated, constantly misjudged. Both of these individuals in
this passage endure. One suffers the consequences
of his own sin. The other one suffers unjustly,
reaping the peaceful fruit of righteousness. And that’s what
Peter calls us to. All suffering. All undeserved
suffering when endured patiently shows the submission of the mind
and will to God. And that’s what we’re called
to. That’s what we’re called to in our work world. A.W. Tozer clarified a common
misconception. A lot of times people think of
the ministry as this standing up here Maybe visiting somebody
in the hospital, baptizing someone, counseling someone. But I’ll
tell you, your ministry is the workplace. And I would say that
that is a greater sphere of influence for ministry of the gospel than
anywhere, isn’t it? Tozer corrected our thinking
when he said the layman, quote unquote, need never think of
his humbler task as being inferior to that of his minister. Let
every man abide in the calling wherein he is called and his
work will be as sacred as the work of the ministry. Wow. It
is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or
secular. It is why he does it. The motive
is everything. Let a man sanctify the Lord God
in his heart and he can thereafter do no common act. All he does
is good and acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” Let’s
examine our hearts. Lord God, we know that because
we have a sinful tendency, because our world mitigates against the
pure biblical teachings that we’ve heard. Lord, we know that
we haven’t worked. We haven’t carried and conducted
ourselves in the workplace perfectly. Lord, that’s why these passages
are here for us, to correct us and guide us, to train us in
righteousness. Lord, examine our hearts, correct
our behavior, for Your glory and for the sake of those who
watch us. Be glorified, we pray. It’s in
Jesus’ name, Amen.