The Redeemed Household – Part 3

Would the Lord’s people please
take their Bibles and turn to Colossians chapter 3. In Colossians
chapter 3, Paul is discussing, as we have seen, Christian living,
a wide variety of topics that he addresses pertaining to that
greater subject. And as he draws near to the end
of this chapter, he turns his attention to the most important
element of society, the family, the Christian household. We’ve
already seen that Paul breaks up his discussion of the Christian
household into a threefold outline. Wives and husbands, children
and fathers, and slaves and masters. He breaks it up into three groups
of two, but he will go on to address each individual member
of that household. He has something to say to each
group. The first century household would
have comprised these six individual groups, not only wives and husbands
and children, but also slaves, of the resident masters. And so Paul has something to
say to slaves as well, as we come this morning to the fifth
group, that of slaves of the household. And it may be surprising,
even alarming to us that Paul would include slaves in his discussion
of the Christian household. But it would not have been so
to the first century reader. In the Roman Empire, it was estimated
that nearly one-third of the population were slaves in some
capacity or another. Slaves, or as they were more
mildly referred to even now as servants, were very much considered
part of the household. It was a very important part
of the household. Not every household could afford
to have such household servants, but it was a common enough role
that Paul felt like he needed to discuss it. Of course, this
stands against the backdrop for us as Americans. It’s a very
ugly part of our American history. But slavery did not originate
in America, nor did its practice in the world end when it ended
here in America. Slavery in various forms seems
to have existed in every age of our world. The systems of
slavery vary widely from nation to nation throughout the history
from cruel and evil to wholesome and mutually beneficial. The
Jewish nation had slaves and a slave system, and if you ever
had to be a slave, the Jewish system was as good as you could
hope to find. It had rules that protected and
benefited the slave and guided the slave system in general.
A slave could be held no more than seven years in the Jewish
system, released at the celebration of the Jubilee. And yet, so mild
was the Jewish system of slavery that many times such servants
remained on even after they were offered release. A person could
come into slavery by a wide variety of means. But mainly, slavery
came from either poverty during peacetime or capture during war. If a person were convicted of
a crime, they might be sentenced to a period of slavery. Poverty
and debt, too, played a part. If a person could not afford
living expenses, many times they would submit themselves willingly
under a slavery contract with a house
owner. Likewise, if someone was found
to owe a great debt that they could not repay, perhaps the
most unfortunate means, however, of becoming a slave was by birth.
If your parents were slaves under a household system and you had
children, they were automatically rendered as slaves independent
of their parents in that situation. A child born to slaves automatically
belonged to the master of the household. And so slaves, unfortunately,
could be owned, sold, purchased, traded according to their skills
and the respective needs of another household. And the question naturally
arises, why does Paul spend more time here writing about slaves
than of any other member of the household? The answer almost
certainly has to do with a man named Onesimus. Onesimus was
a slave whose master lived in Colossae. In addition to the
letter that Paul writes here to Colossae, he also wrote a
letter directly to Philemon, the master who owned and lost
this slave, Onesimus. He also mentions Onesimus in
his letter to Colossae, because he accompanied Tychicus, Paul’s
coworker and bearer of these letters. So he was there as a
companion, but Paul will also go on to say in Philemon, he
was entrusting Onesimus back to him. You see, what had happened
is Onesimus had traveled to Rome
and probably traveled to hide to escape from his master, and
this was a crime in the Roman Empire. And so Onesimus flees
to Rome and is hiding out in Rome when, through some means,
either through believers or even through the Apostle Paul himself,
he came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior. He had,
in essence, committed a crime, and Paul cannot ignore that. The whole situation had to be
handled very delicately. With nearly a third of the population
of Rome serving as slaves, a rebellious uprising was a real threat. Paul
could not ignore Onesimus’ crimes, this escape and hiding away,
and perhaps even theft with it, nor could he blindly support
this slave, since many slaves were sinful and even wicked. Onesimus had indeed defrauded
his master. But in God’s providence, he ended
up running away to Rome right into the hands of God and Paul
and the gospel. He soon found himself saved,
and so Paul writes back to Colossae and to Philemon to commend this
runaway slave back to him. Paul was not looking to initiate
a rebellion, even against so dreadful an institution as slavery. Slavery is not a divinely ordained
institution, but Paul’s mission from God was not to battle against
unjust institutions of the world, but to freely preach the gospel.
He neither condemned nor endorsed the institution of slavery. He
merely acknowledged its existence and continued to preach the gospel.
Paul knew that if the gospel should take root, Christian morals
alone would dismantle the system of slavery, and it very much
did. Within 400 years, the Roman slave
system was largely destroyed. So Paul sees that an address
to the household slaves was vital to the health and growth of the
church. This is not the only place where
Paul speaks of these things. He says essentially the same
thing in Ephesians 6, which we’ll see in a moment. In 1 Timothy
6.1, Paul instructs the slaves of Timothy’s church. by saying,
all who are under the yoke as slaves are to regard their own
masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and our
doctrine will not be spoken against. It was a gospel issue. Likewise,
to Titus, their Shepherding on the island of Crete, Paul tells
Titus, urge bond slaves to be subject to their own masters
in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative. Fostering
righteous behavior, even among believing slaves, was crucial
to the advance of Christianity. A slave converted to Christ must
be encouraged to forsake theft and dishonesty and to become
exemplary in the way of joyful service and integrity in his
labor. That’s what Paul’s about. Peter,
likewise, urged these same exact things of the slaves to whom
he wrote. 1 Peter 2, 18 and 19, just listen. Servants, be submissive to your
masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and
gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable, for this finds
favor if, for the sake of conscience toward God, a person bears up
under sorrows when suffering unjustly. That’s what the New
Testament apostles were about. That’s what they were trying
to promote was good and wholesome behavior by these slaves, these
servants. and not fostering some kind of
rebellious uprising. Well, let’s consider, if we could,
Paul’s admonition to slaves and masters, as recorded in Colossians
3. We’ll take the passage in its
entirety, although we won’t tackle the entire thing this morning.
Colossians 3, beginning in verse 22, and we course all the way
down to 4.1. 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 who
is in heaven. So Paul begins here with the
slaves of the household, and as this is the most lengthy of
his addresses, we’ll take kind of a two-part approach to this.
these admonitions to slaves. He addresses their attitude in
verse 22, and he addresses their work in verses 23 through 25. And then finally, we’ll take
up Paul’s exhortation to masters in the weeks to come. But now,
By now, this ought to be part of the routine. I’d like to revert
to the parallel in Ephesians chapter 6. So if you would turn
back there, we will again draw on some of the things that Paul
says there, and perhaps you still have a marker there in Ephesians
6 from last week. And if you would begin, please,
I want to take probably just four verses. beginning in verse
5 and coursing down through verse 8. And wait till you see how
remarkably similar these two passages are. You’ll hear some
of the same phrases, some of the same words. The order is
different, but Beginning in verse five, slaves, 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 service
as 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.” Once again, as we’ve seen, the passages are amazingly
similar. The order is slightly different
in some of the things that he says, but the terms, the phraseology,
nearly identical. We’ll dig into the passage more
than usual this morning, but for now, if you would, please
back to Colossians chapter 3. And as you’re turning, I would
add this one thought, entertain this one question. Slavery What can we possibly
do with this subject this morning? How can we possibly make that
applicable to us? And for centuries, people have
wondered whether this refers to the modern-day employee. And I would say that if it doesn’t,
at least the principles can be imported into a consideration
of our conduct as employees in our workplace. You may not think
of yourselves as slaves, although I hear that argument from time
to time, but there are comparisons that can be drawn. There are
principles that we can identify here and we can apply these same
principles, even though they were given to slaves, we can
apply those to our own work situations. And so let’s begin, if we could,
in verse 22, Colossians 3.22, where we want to look at a servant’s
heart. What does a servant’s heart look
like? And we want to begin to examine
the characteristics, if you will, of godly obedience. That’s what
Paul is calling this young slave onesimus to. That’s what he’s calling all
slaves to is godly obedience. If they’re believers, they are
called to obey. Look at verse 22, and I’ll take
just the simple sentence to begin with. Slaves, obey those who
are your masters. As he’s already done with wives
and husbands, children, fathers, he now turns his attention and
he calls out the slaves by name. All four of the gospel writers,
fascinating enough, use this term to refer to a literal slave. Matthew, Mark, Luke in both his
gospel and Acts, John in his gospel and Revelation, they all
use this term. They quote people’s use of this
word in their interactions with Jesus. Matthew 8 records that
a centurion approached Jesus pleading with him on behalf of
his slave. Jesus interacted with him. He
didn’t rebuke him for having a slave. He didn’t even discuss
the slave system. And he eventually granted this
centurion’s request to heal his slave. Jesus used the word to
teach spiritual principles, Matthew 10, 24. A disciple is not above
his teacher, nor a slave above his master. If there was ever
an opportunity to undercut and dismantle the system of slavery,
that was Christ’s opportunity, but he’s using the whole image
that was very well known to the people in the society. He’s using
that slave image to point out the fact that a slave is not
above his master. Matthew 20, 27, Jesus uses this
terminology to teach another point. Whoever wishes to become
first among you shall be your slave. Translated that way, it
doesn’t sound very appealing. We prefer the term servant. We don’t mind being called a
servant, but we certainly don’t care to be called a slave. But
Jesus uses the term to point out that if you really want to
be great in the kingdom of God, you will be a servant. You will
function as a slave. The gospel writers also quote
Jesus plentifully in employing this word in his parables. We
don’t have time to look at all of them, but think of the parable
of the tares. His slaves returned to the master
and said, somebody has sown tares among your wheat. The parable
of the unmerciful slave, remember, who goes before the king, pleads
his story, and is forgiven a massive debt, and then goes out and chokes
one of his fellow slaves. The parable of the vine growers.
The parable of the king’s wedding. King’s having a wedding. He sends
his slaves out to gather in the wedding guests. And it’s noteworthy
that when the gospel writers just record these amazing parables,
they do so without explanation or opinion. They don’t record
any explanation or opinion from Jesus on the matter, nor do they
inject any opinion about the system of slavery. They use this
word indiscriminately. that is without judgment on the
system of slavery. They just refer to slavery as
a matter of fact. Nearly all the rest of the New
Testament writers also use this word slave to refer to themselves
and their fellow workers with regard to their efforts in the
gospel. Paul uses it, James uses it,
Peter, Jude, they all refer to themselves as bond slaves for
the sake of the gospel. In fact, they all use the term,
and perhaps most surprisingly of all, Paul also used the word
of Christ. Christ himself emptied himself,
taking the form of a bond servant. In addition to using this word
literally of a person under that system, a slave, Paul also uses
the word metaphorically to speak of the bondage under which we
were held as unbelievers. We were slaves to sin, Paul says
in Romans 6, 17. And as some people, Paul will
go on to point out, are still under such bondage. Peter says
the same thing, that they are slaves to corruption. But we
would be greatly remiss if we were to overlook the fact that
the slave was elevated to an equally high position by means
of the gospel. Everything is leveled, remember?
In 1 Corinthians 12, 13, Paul says that whether slave or free,
we were all baptized into one body. We remained to drink of
one spirit. Likewise, in Galatians 3, 28,
Paul tells those believers, remember, that in Christ Jesus there is
neither slave nor free. All are one in Christ Jesus. It’s a beautiful thought. In Ephesians 6.8, Paul says that
the promises of Christ’s gospel extend to all, whether slave
or free. And the Colossians, Paul declares
to them that because of Christ, there is no distinction. Remember? Slave or free, no distinction. Colossians 3.11. But Paul also speaks to the actual slave,
as an actual slave. Introducing the spiritual principle
in Romans 6.16, Paul says bluntly, when you present yourselves to
someone as slaves, For obedience, you are slaves to the one whom
you obey. This is a conversation I have a lot of times with young
people. Now, you’re applying for this job. You realize that
when you get this job, the boss is going to expect you to work. That sometimes comes as a surprise
to a young person. And Paul is saying essentially
the same thing. For whatever reason, if you come
under the slave system, the slave owner is going to expect you
to work. He doesn’t render an opinion
on the practice of slavery. He only says that if a person
enters into that role, willingly or unwillingly, they come under
the authority of another. And they are to obey. And as he does here in Colossians
3 and Ephesians 6, Paul also commands just obedience to those
who are in such arrangements. And here unequivocally, he commands
the slave, the person who finds themselves caught up in this
system, to obey. It’s the same word that Paul
used of the child’s obligation to the parent. Children are commanded to obey
their parents. We talked about this last Lord’s
Day. And slaves are commanded to obey their masters. A continual,
practical submission to their earthly masters. And so Paul
says, bluntly, slaves are to obey their masters on earth.
And I want you to be prepared to be stunned by this. The word
for masters here in the Greek is kurios. If you know your Greek,
that is the word that is so often translated hundreds of times
in the New Testament as Lord. This word is used of Christ as
our master. He is our Lord. We don’t mind
it used of him, but the word is also plentifully used of earthly
masters, earthly lords. So Paul is using this word in
its lesser sense here. I would almost say, if you will,
Lord, with the lowercase l. What I want to do is begin to
look at the characteristics. We know that slaves are called
to obedience. We know that if they’re believers,
it will be a godly obedience. What does this look like? What
are the characteristics of this godly obedience? The first thing
I’d point out is the scope of this obedience. Look at verse
22. Slaves, in all things, obey those who are your masters. We
dealt with this same challenge with regard to Paul’s command
to children two weeks ago. And there he says, children,
be obedient to your parents in all things. And we concluded
that Paul could not have been speaking in rigidly literal terms. A child cannot be commanded to
commit a crime. He’s not expected to obey that.
And likewise here, a slave cannot be commanded to obey his or her
master in any possible command. It cannot possibly be stretched
to include immoral. or illegal or unethical commands. A slave could not be ordered
to kill another person, to steal from someone, or to go against
their conscience on some biblical principle. You remember this,
Peter and John Acts 4, they healed a crippled man. The Jews of the
city just go completely haywire. They have a dither over what
Peter and John, the popularity that they’re enjoying. They throw
them in prison and then warn them not to preach about Christ. And this provides such a great
model for us. They said this, whether it’s
right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than
to God, you be the judge, for we cannot stop speaking about
what we’ve seen and heard. In other words, you tell me,
should we listen to you or should we listen to God? We reviewed
that principle that whether it’s a parent or a boss or a governing
authority, If they command what God forbids or they forbid what
God commands, then it’s not an order that we can obey. In fact, it must be disobeyed,
even if the most severe consequence is threatened. Some of you know
this story. I’ll give a shorter version of
it. Years ago, when I was in the
work world, the corporate setting, I had a supervisor who instructed
me to do something that was blatantly unethical. Some of you have been in that
similar predicament and at first he asked me to do it and when
I hesitated he demanded that I do it. And then a whole back
and forth went on for several weeks. The drama was building
And he assured me that others in the company were doing this,
and even his boss was aware of this practice. And in my heart,
I knew that there was no way that this practice could ever
be justified. And I refused, knowing that it
may well cost me my job. Some of you know the Lord protected
me, by the way, through that. We can’t do what is contrary
to God’s Word. We can’t obey in those situations. And what Paul is referring to
here are reasonable, appropriate orders. Things that do not violate
the principles of God’s Word. Paul is not commanding some kind
of universal obedience, but what I would call just obedience. Obedience to just, good commands. They may not be enjoyable tasks,
They may be hard and dirty and unpleasant jobs. No matter. The slave in that circumstance
is called to obey. So in relative measure, the slave
is called to obey all just commands. And our second observation offers
a helpful piece of detail as well. It suggests that this Slavery
arrangement is not permanent. Glanced down at verse 22, where
we see the second characteristic of godly obedience, not only
the scope of obedience, but the realm of obedience. Look at verse
22, slaves in all things obey those who are your masters on
earth. There’s a reasonable limitation
placed on slaves that are commanded to obey. It’s only to those who,
as the New Testament standard has it here, masters on earth. Or as the ESV has it, they’re
earthly masters. Just as wives are not universally
subjected to all men, children are not, they don’t have to field
commands from every possible adult with the exception perhaps
of a teacher or a coach, someone in authority over them. So also
a slave has a singular master. It’s not like any and all masters
have authority over any and all slaves. And observe this, Paul
calls them your masters on earth. This is not an eternal arrangement. It is limited at the very most
to this life. But that particular translation
by the New American Standard and the ESV is just a bit problematic. Let me show you why. We need
to examine it a little more closely because in both places, Colossians
and Ephesians, Paul expresses it exactly the same way. Literally,
the master’s according to the flesh. This points immediately
to the fact that a slave is ultimately under another master’s authority. One who is not according to the
flesh. In other words, we have another
master who is in heaven, the Lord Jesus himself. And ultimately,
if he commands one thing and our earthly master commands another,
we must obey him. That’s a point we’ve already
made. As such, they are masters of
their bodily frame, Their physical capabilities, but not their spiritual
soul, these earthly masters. So that practically speaking,
the earthly master’s authority is limited to that which is external,
the physical realm. It refers only to this earthly
relationship. The earthly master has authority
only over this physical realm, and that realm is very temporary. Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the
other hand, is our eternal master. He is our Lord. He is the one
to whom we are ultimately responsible. All right, point understood. That brings us to our third characteristic
of godly obedience. We know the scope of such obedience
and the realm of this obedience is here on earth. But what does
this godly obedience look like? That’s our third point. Not only
the scope and the realm, but the integrity of obedience. The
integrity of obedience. Would you look at verse 22 once
again? Slaves in all things obey your masters who are on earth,
not with external service as those who merely please men. So this obedience in all things
rendered to our masters according to the flesh, what does it look
like in practical terms? The first thing that Paul wants
to tell us is what it doesn’t look like. He urges that this
obedience must not be rendered with external service only, like
one who merely pleases men, who’s only out to satisfy an earthly
master. Paul says the same thing almost
exactly in both places. Here in Colossians, literally
he says, not in eye service as men pleasers. And in Ephesians,
it literally says not by eye service as men pleasers. And in Ephesians, here in Colossians rather, it’s
translated just slightly differently. than it is in Ephesians. For some reason, the NAS translators
have it as external service and not as eye service as it is in
Ephesians. And it’s this concept of eye
service, doing one’s work only or primarily to be seen by other
people, that is primarily Paul’s caution here. Sadly, not only
did slaves mostly operate this way, most workers throughout
history, even outside of slavery, have operated this way. They
conduct themselves only on the basis of avoiding being detected
as lazy or unproductive. They may be unproductive, They
just don’t want to be seen and known as such. Such a person
is a men-pleaser, as it’s translated there in Ephesians 6. These are
those who merely please other people, as the same phrase is
translated here in Colossians. So he challenges the integrity
of these slaves. Don’t conduct yourselves this
way. This word, eye-pleasers, is an
image for which we have no previous literary example. Did you hear
what I said? There isn’t a piece of literature
throughout history prior to Paul’s using this image that also employs
this image of being an eye-pleaser. In other words, Paul may very
well have coined this phrase. He watched. He watched slaves
at work. He saw slaves energetically working
when the boss was standing over them and then sloughing off as
the boss walked away. The image it presents is so incredibly
accurate, isn’t it? So that this phrase has become
permanently lodged in our thinking ever since. And that’s because
unfortunately most work has to be watched, observed, monitored,
if the job is going to be completed at all or completed correctly. In one industry there’s even
a catchphrase for it, inspect what you expect. You give it
an order, a command, Just as it may be, you have to follow
along and inspect what was commanded. Did they do it? And did they
do it the way that you commanded them to do it? Inspect what you
expect. Check up on everyone. Monitor
everything. Make sure that the workers are
doing their job and that they are doing their job correctly. That’s the sad challenge of humanity
at work. I remember a long time ago working
at a job. There was an individual, maybe
he worked at your place, too. Everywhere he went, whenever
he went, he walked very quickly. And it was always like he was
late for a meeting or in a hurry to accomplish some task. And
he was always walking and always walking quickly, walking here
and there, shuffling papers as he went, looking, reading. As
it turns out, the more that I observed this individual, he had quite
a reputation among those who worked very closely with him.
That was his thing. He only looked busy. He was always
scurrying about here and there, but he never really did anything. Sad thing was, everyone knew
it. This word, eye-pleasing, here
is in the plural. It’s the habit of doing eye-pleasing
acts. This isn’t something that, you
know, you get caught one time, a boss walks up. This is a regular
feature of this individual’s life. This is the kind of person
that, when the supervisor is out of the room, out of eyesight,
slows the pace of his work to a crawl, if at all. He finds
many, many other things with which to occupy himself. Yet
when the boss returns to the pace, the pace of his effort
ramps up so that he appears to be the most industrious of all
employees. He’s working to please a person. And what parent has not had this
same experience? We assign a child or two to the
task of cleaning their room, and we leave them to the task,
right? But in the other room, we can
hear by their conversation, their laughter, that they have become
distracted from this job by some toy that they’ve come across
in the course of cleaning their room. They’re no longer about
the goal of completing their task. And as soon as they hear
or see us in the doorway, immediately they resume their hurried pace
of cleaning up, right? That’s eye-pleasing. And we should check our own hearts
here too, shouldn’t we? Who among us hasn’t found himself
in the same position, picking up the pace or the intensity
as the boss draws near? The kind of hypocrisy is embedded
in our nature. People who live like this only
out to please people and then only when they are watching they
do this because they either don’t know or they’ve forgotten that
there is another master watching. And that brings us to point four. considering the characteristics
of godly obedience, not only its scope and the realm of disobedience,
the integrity of disobedience, but fourthly, the genuineness
of godly obedience. Would you look at verse 22 once
again? 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. Paul here immediately counters
the servant who only renders this eye service, who only seeks
to please an earthly master. And in the place of such empty
and deceitful service, Paul urges slaves, both here and Ephesians
6, to labor with sincerity of heart. The word sincerity is
a fascinating one. It’s only used eight times in
the New Testament. And on the face of it, it refers
to just a simplicity, a generosity, a liberality. And it’s used that way in Romans
12, eight. He who gives is to give with
liberality. And it could be rendered literally
without folds. Kind of a sort of a contrast
to curtains that are pleated in many different ways. It points to a singleness of
mind or aim, as opposed to one who is double-minded. And given
the context before us, what Paul is doing here is urging slaves
to work with a single-minded devotion. A man who does his work only
to be approved by an earthly boss is double-minded in the
sense that he feigns working one way when his heart really
is inclined in another. When the boss is around, he appears
to work with the utmost diligence, but as soon as his earthly master
departs, he returns to his slothful ways. The person who works with
a singleness of mind, on the other hand, is an undivided mind. He’s the person who works in
sincerity, honestly, uprightly, whether his master is watching
or not. There is with him a single-mindedness,
doing the opposite of the eye service rendered by the double-minded
hypocrite. He gives a focused effort to
this task at hand. He provides an undivided service
to his master. In this individual, there is
no falsehood. There is no hypocrisy. There
is no pretending. He’s not working to please a
person. He’s working to please his master
in heaven. He’s working to please his Lord.
The Bible tells us that our heavenly master sees everything, right? I mean, isn’t this a good reminder
for us? Listen to this sobering truth.
2 Chronicles 16, 9, the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout
the earth that he may strongly support those whose heart is
completely his. God sees your effort at work.
God sees the slave. Proverbs expressed this same
truth. Proverbs 5 21. The ways of the
man are before the eyes of the Lord. He watches all his paths. Sees him when he clocks in. He
sees him when he’s at work. He sees him when the boss walks
away. We need to remember that principle.
Proverbs 15.3 says essentially the same thing. The eyes of the
Lord are in every place, watching the evil and the good. Or how
about this one? Psalm 139. You know when I sit
down and when I rise up, when my break’s over, you understand
my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my
lying down. You’re acquainted with all my
ways. Even before there is a word on
my tongue, behold, Lord, you know it all.” I mean, did you
get that? He not only sees our deeds, he
knows our thoughts and our words even before we utter them. God
sees and he knows everything. Why wouldn’t we do our work with
that in mind? See, Paul knows that God sees
all and knows all. He knows that God not only sees
his effort, but he knows his heart. The slave needs to be
reminded of this too. God knows the what and the why. He knows what you did at work,
and he knows why you did it. The godly servant looks to please
not an earthly master, but a heavenly one. This is why Paul adds that
little cap to his exhortation. Doing our work with sincerity
of heart, he says, it is brought about by fearing the
Lord. That doesn’t speak of a cowering
dread, being unreasonably afraid of God, but Paul says it even
more forcefully in Ephesians, remember, with fear and trembling. he says, so that there is in
these phrases a healthy respect for God. For the slave, ultimately,
it isn’t their earthly master that they fear, rather it’s the
Lord himself. And it provides a deep desire
to please him. The fear of the Lord prompts
his eager service. They become God-pleasers, not
men-pleasers. Finally, in that passage in Ephesians,
Paul adds an important three-word clause to this whole discussion. He adds that disobedience is
rendered as to Christ. I remember when I was in seminary,
I had a pool company. And as God would have it, I had
a very well-to-do Jewish customer. And one day, I was out there
working on their pool, and this very well-to-do, very well-respected,
very important woman of Her society came out and greeted me and thanked
me for my efforts. And she said, why are you different? Why do you do what you do? How
come you’re so good at taking care of our pool? And I knew what the Lord was
doing. He was giving me a great opportunity,
but with this very, highly respected Jewish woman. And I just told her, well, I work on every pool as, I’m
a Christian, and I work on every pool as if Jesus himself has
to come and swim in this pool. Well, that ended the discussion
pretty quickly, but This unto Christ is a forgotten
element in our work, isn’t it? This is work that ultimately
is done for our Savior. It’s unto the Lord. And we already
have it, don’t we, from Colossians 3.17 that we do, 3.11 rather,
that we do all that we do in word or deed, we are to do in
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We do everything to please our
Savior. Everything that we do is to be done to His glory. And
that elevates everything that we do to the level, really, of
spiritual service. So that in the end, regardless
of who our earthly master is, regardless of the difficulty,
the unpleasantness of the task, regardless of who is or is not
watching, we may, by God’s grace, please and glorify him in the
conscientiousness of our efforts. And so I ask you in closing, if God, for the sake of the gospel,
takes such a strong position toward those who are serving
as slaves, sometimes even against their will, how much more Would
God urge us to a consideration of these principles? Since we
are paid, shouldn’t we obey our earthly superiors? Ought we not
work carefully and diligently, whether people are watching or
not? Ought we not work with integrity, fearing the Lord, by serving
with sincerity of heart? Let’s examine our own hearts.
in prayer. Our merciful God, we thank you
and we praise you for your kindness to us in this. Lord, we thank
you for the system of work and effort that is present here in
our country, the freedoms that we enjoy. We know that those
throughout the world have not always enjoyed it, and it isn’t
permanent here either. Lord, we do pray that you would
grant us wisdom as we ponder these things. Help us to examine
our work, our effort. Are we men pleasers, or are we
ultimately about the goal of pleasing and honoring our Lord
in our work effort? Lord, likewise, if there are
any here who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, these things
are not possible for those who are without the Savior. Father,
we pray that you would first lead them to yourself for repentance
and for salvation, and then by your grace, equip them to serve
you plentifully and passionately in the things that they do. Lord,
we thank you. We ask your blessing on the remainder
of our day. We pray all of these things in
Jesus’ name. Amen.