Sunday Sermon: Slaves Obey Your Masters (Ephesians 6:5-9)

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You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.

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Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

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New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament, and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

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Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series, presently going through the book of Ephesians. Here's Pastor Gabe.

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Ephesians 6, starting in verse 5, bondservants obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would

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Christ. Not by the way of eye service as people pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the

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Lord and not to man. Knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the

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Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. Masters do the same to them and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their masters and yours is in heaven and that there is no partiality with him.

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Let us pray. Heavenly father, as we come to this word today, we continue these instructions that are given to us as to how we conduct ourselves in these earthly relationships.

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And in today we see this passage that is directed toward bondservants obeying their earthly masters.

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We probably have a certain idea that comes to mind whenever we read some kind of instruction related to slaves and masters.

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What I pray that what we will all come to see through this passage is that we all have a master who is in heaven, our

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Lord and savior Christ, whom we all have been called to serve. There are those of us who by the quickening of the

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Holy Spirit in our hearts have turned from sin and unrighteousness to follow in righteousness in submission to the master who calls us.

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But if there is anyone here that continues to remain rebellious to that call, still in love with the flesh and following the passions and desires of their sins, that they would feel the conviction through even what we read in this particular passage to turn from the sin to which they are enslaved and to find freedom in Christ alone.

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May even passages such as this, which might be difficult to grapple with at times, direct us to the

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Lord Christ who saves us and has set us free. For if in Christ we are set free, we are free indeed.

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We pray and ask these things in Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen. Thank you. You may be seated.

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There was a horse that walked into a bar and the horse goes up to the bar and he orders a drink and the bartender says to the horse, you have been here every day for the last month.

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Aren't you concerned that you might be becoming an alcoholic? And the horse said, I don't think

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I am. And then he vanished, disappeared from existence.

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I saw that got your attention there. Everybody's head jumped right up.

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See this joke is actually about Rene Descartes, the philosopher who said,

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I think therefore I am. And when the horse said, I don't think I am, he disappeared.

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But if I had explained that to you before I started the joke, I would have been putting

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Descartes before the horse. You're welcome.

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You've grown, but you're going to be using that joke later today. When it comes to talking about the subject of slavery, whenever this comes up in scripture, we have this tendency to put the cart before the horse.

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We think we've got a definition of this in mind and then we try to fit scripture's definition into ours because there's a certain stigma related to slavery in the

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United States of America, given our history. And this is not just in the history of the

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US. This is even quite prominent in the history of the Southern Baptist denomination. The denomination itself exists because it broke away from the

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Baptist denomination that it was a part of so that missionaries could own slaves and still be able to go over to Africa and be a missionary.

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That's how the Southern Baptist convention came to be. When the Baptist convention that was much larger at that particular time and included

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Baptist churches in the Northern portion of the US, when they said, no, a person cannot own slaves that were shipped over here from Africa and then go over to Africa and share

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Christ, that's kind of a conflict of interest there. Well, the Southerners who were Baptists, who still wanted to keep their slaves and be missionaries as well, broke away from that convention and started the

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Southern Baptist convention. So the convention itself began on slavery and the horrible practice that was the transatlantic slave trade at that particular time that went on for 400 years from about the 16th century to the 19th century.

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So we know that we have that even in the history of our own denomination. Now I'm grateful to be able to stand up here and say that the denomination at large has repented from that.

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There are still echoes of that racist past that exists even within the denomination, but we see that within our culture and our society as well.

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So much so that this word slavery has such a stigma attached to it, there's like this instant revulsion.

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In fact, some have even misused this understanding of slavery as it's presented in scripture. Skeptics and critics of the

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Bible have used it to say, discard the Bible altogether for it permits slavery. You guys want to be part of a religion that permits and enslaves people?

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But we know that there is a context of this much deeper than the one that just exists in our own

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American history. We're going to talk about that a little bit today as we come to understand these instructions that exist for bond servants to their earthly masters.

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And let me be quite clear about this. Though the word bond servants is used in the English standard translation of your

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Bibles, the word is translated from the Greek word doulos, which is slave.

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And some of you probably have translations that use that word. The New American Standard Bible uses the word slave.

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There is such controversy on the translation of that word that your English standard study

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Bible will even have a section at the start of the Bible explaining why they decided to translate the word doulos as bond servant instead of slave.

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So that's how controversial the translation of that word is and its understanding within the

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English language given the history of slavery that exists in the English speaking world. But this description of bond servants, this is a person who is bonded to a master.

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A bond servant was a slave. It's not a softening of the word. It is exactly a synonym of the word.

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Bond servants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling and with a sincere heart as you would

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Christ. But do not miss that we also have instruction for masters. Just as we've seen this kind of back and forth the last couple of weeks.

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Wives submit to your husbands, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church. Children submit to your parents, parents raise up your children in the training and the instruction of the

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Lord. Bond servants, obey your earthly masters. But masters, you must treat them fairly.

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Stop your threatening knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven and that there is no partiality with him.

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Paul directly addressing that there is a partiality or even a prejudice that exists between a master and his slave.

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A master thinking that he is a better person than his slave. But Paul reminding them there's no partiality with God who judges all men and women and we ultimately will answer to the master who is above all and that is our

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Lord Christ. You see even a greater responsibility placed upon the masters in this case than you see even upon the bond servant.

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What I would like to do is we exegete it and understand the instruction that is given to us and how it would apply to us even in our modern context.

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I want to look at the context of slavery in the Bible both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament and I want to be able to save enough time at the end that we can also do a summary of these three

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Sundays put together where we've talked about wives and husbands, children and parents and then this relationship with bond servants and masters.

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Almost kind of seems to be a departing from the family relationships that we've talked about the last two weeks but I tell you they're actually very much the same for this still deals with a context of relationship within the

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Christian home. So first of all related to slavery as we read about it in the Old Testament, Exodus 21 verses 1 through 11 is the first set of instructions where we find on how a master should regard his slaves and it's regarding more specifically the purchase of a

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Hebrew slave. So you're talking about a slave becoming a slave within his own brethren.

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Verse 2 in Exodus 21 says, when you buy a Hebrew slave he shall serve six years and in the seventh he shall go out free.

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This instruction is also repeated in Leviticus 25 and in Deuteronomy 15. As a matter of fact throughout the

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Old Testament we see more written about freeing slaves than you see anything written about making slaves.

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Lest anybody should say that the Old Testament in particular if they're going to single out that two -thirds section of the

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Bible as being friendly to the idea of slavery rather than desiring to free slaves.

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We actually find in the law of God this instruction to set the slave free more so than keep the slave in your service.

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He shall serve six years in the seventh he shall go out free. This is referred to as a year of Jubilee.

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So when a person was a slave for whatever reason even if it was to pay back a debt though he may still have debt to pay off in that seventh year he gets let go.

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The number one way that a Hebrew acquired a slave was because that person had a debt to pay off.

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That was the number one way that a person became a slave in Old Testament Israel. A second way a slave was acquired was if that person sold themselves into slavery.

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That was not an uncommon practice either. Like we tend to think of who would ever want to be a slave? Well some people want a job.

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They want somebody else to take care of them. They want the guarantee of pay, a roof over their head and clothing on my back, food that I can eat, a way to take care of my family.

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If I'm scrounging around for jobs that's difficult but if I'm a slave to somebody that guy's obligated to care for me.

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The master was obligated to care for his slave. So if he sold himself into slavery that was one way that a person became a slave.

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He willingly submitted himself. The third most common way that a slave was acquired was as a captive following a military conquest.

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Now of course we find in some places in Scripture where God instructed Israel to utterly wipe them out.

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But then there were other occasions where people would surrender and there were provisions given in the Scriptures for that.

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If a nation comes to you and surrenders, here's how you are to deal with them. And so if a nation comes in surrender following a military conquest or a certain faction of people would break off of a people that was going to be conquered and say, hey, we don't want to have any part of them.

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We submit to you and we want to worship your God. Then in some of those cases those persons would become slaves to the

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Hebrews. Merrill C. Tenney in his pictorial encyclopedia of the Bible says, quote, limit the excesses of brutal punishment which captives received, unquote.

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So we do not see this overbearing God that is telling the Israelites, hey, utterly wipe out anybody who is not one of you.

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On the contrary, there was quite a lot of mercy and grace that was given to those who wanted to come into submission under the

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Hebrew God. And so these laws existed to make sure that in the master -slave relationship there was not going to be abuse of that master upon his slave, but that they should treat one another as equals, even in the

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Old Testament law. You'll note that among these three ways, these three most common ways that slaves were acquired, no one was being kidnapped and made a slave, which was a crime worthy of the death penalty.

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In Exodus 21, 16 it says, whoever steals a man and sells him and anyone found in possession of him shall be put to death.

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The person who stole him and the person who owned him would receive the death penalty if they were responsible for kidnapping a man and enslaving him.

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The same is said in Deuteronomy 24, 7. So in no way would the slave laws of Israel have endorsed the transatlantic slave trade that went from the 16th to 19th centuries, rather if these laws had been read in reverent fear of the holy

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God who gave them. The inhumane kidnapping and sale of human beings never would have happened.

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There are certainly preachers in the past, particularly in the slave south who had abused, twisted and misused scriptures like this to try to justify the transatlantic slave trade.

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I tell you, they will stand before God in judgment. Sometimes we as a certain people will kind of think of ourselves as high and mighty and more enlightened than that group.

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Oh, what a horrible group of people that they were at that time. There are sins today that we are way more guilty of than they were back then.

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So none of us should ever think of ourselves more high and righteous than another nation of people because we think we're right on this one issue.

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We've got our own demons that we've got to battle in this day and age. But when it comes to slavery in the history of our country, scripture would have forbidden it, not permitted it.

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But this does not stop the skeptic from painting this caricature of the Old Testament as being the trusty handbook of the

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Ku Klux Klan. Philosopher Simon Blackburn in a chapter entitled The Death of God wrote that God, quote, seems to have no problem with a slave -owning society, unquote.

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Entertainer and outspoken atheist Penn Jillette, if you're familiar with the magician duo Penn and Teller, he has said that the

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Bible is what made him an atheist. In his words, quote, there is a whole anti -family thing, a pro -slavery thing, a pro -rape and pro -killing aspect of the

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Bible. Now guys who are atheists, who are skeptics of scripture, when they make statements like this, they never qualify those statements.

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And their arguments are often so bad, you would get a failing grade if you cited them in a research paper as a credible source.

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When I was writing my book, 25 Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says, I read Christopher Hitchens' book,

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God is Not Great, to use as one of my sources. I read these things so you don't have to.

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And I read the book trying to find a scholarly argument expressing skepticism against the

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Christmas story. But Hitchens' arguments were so bad.

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They were so unqualified. I almost didn't use them. I actually had to kind of dress it up a little bit.

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You can tell when you read in the book, it's on page 83. If you're interested, there's books. By the way, those books that are sitting on the table out there, those are free.

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But they're the first printing that came out last year. So there's no page numbers at the bottom. I don't know how that printing error occurred.

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So if you're okay with having a book that doesn't have page numbers at the bottom, you can take one of those. But if you want the updated one that has the footnotes at the bottom and whatnot, that's $10.

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Anyway, so on page 83 of the book, good luck finding the page since there's no page numbers at the bottom,

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I had to divide up Hitchens' quote into sentence fragments because like I said, his argument was so bad

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I could barely even use it. And he expresses his disbelief in the virgin birth. I was always under the impression that these great atheist bestseller guys like Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, that these guys presented these unbeatable scholarly arguments against the scriptures.

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And that was what led to the skepticism that's been growing in the US today because of a lot of the things these guys said in the 90s and then in the early 2000s.

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But when I actually go to these books and I read them, the arguments are just so bad. That like I said, you try to put it in a research paper and your professor would not let you present that as credible source material because they're really just expressing their opinion and they don't qualify it in any way.

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In Hitchens' book, he also makes several comments condemning Christianity over the issue of slavery, but he did not actually engage with the text of scripture to see what the

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Bible said on the subject. Dare I say to you that these God -hating hot airbags are nervous that you might actually read the

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Bible and see that the jig is up on one of their favorite talking points. In the

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Mosaic law, more ink is committed to granting slaves their freedom than justifying the possession of slaves and no man is justified in keeping a slave for life unless the slave wants to be his slave for life.

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In which case, the master is obligated to care for his slave as if he were a member of the family.

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The laws that are set for freeing slaves were not just for the sake of the slave. In some cases, the laws of Jubilee were a relief to the master who owned the slave.

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We think of the slave as having it rough, but in Israel, the master had a far greater burden than the slave who only had to worry about doing his work, eating his meals, and getting a good night's rest.

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Overall, it was much cheaper for a master to hire labor than it was to own slaves.

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So there were some masters probably look forward to that year of Jubilee. Finally, I can get rid of these slaves.

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The Mosaic law granted slaves civil and religious rights and it went to great lengths to protect slaves from inhumane treatment.

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No man was to be considered another man's property. On the contrary, the

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Scripture states plainly in the Old Testament as well as the New, love your neighbor as yourself.

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It was the command of Moses as it is the command of Christ. Deuteronomy 24, 18 says, you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the

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Lord your God redeemed you from there. Therefore, I command you to do this.

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Slavery existed as a reminder to the Israelites that they were once slaves in Egypt and the

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Lord God set them free. So they must never consider another human being their property, but rather seek freedom and justice within the nation of Israel, within the nation of God's people.

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As this instruction was given in the Old Testament, it's no different for us today, for we all were enslaved to our sin.

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No one is ever born free. We are born enslaved to the passions and the desires of our flesh.

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And we've already read that in Ephesians chapter two, where the apostle Paul says, you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, to which you were once enslaved.

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And we did what we did following the passions and pleasures of the mind because we were enslaved to our own flesh.

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We were enslaved to the sin that had ensnared us having descended from Adam, our forefather who had sinned and disobeyed

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God and all the world was subjected to futility because of Adam and Eve's sin in the garden of Eden.

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All of us were enslaved to this. We have only come to freedom because Christ has set us free.

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We were set free from the bondage and slavery to sin when you heard the gospel and you turned from your sin and you followed

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Christ and now you are free. You are free to worship

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Christ where previously you could not. Enslaved to the passions and pleasures of your flesh, that's what you were going after.

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That's what you in your nature had the disposition to do, rebel against God and follow your sin.

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But it was when the gospel was given to you and as I prayed this morning, the Holy Spirit quickened your heart to hear it and understand it and obey it, that you were convicted over your sin and you turned from those things that you walked in when you were in the pattern of this world and instead you were given a new heart that desired the pattern of Christ and you followed the master who was now the governor of your soul.

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And in this as a servant of Christ, you are free.

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Enslaved to Christ and yet we are free. That's just another one of those beautiful paradoxes that we enjoy and appreciate as Christians.

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We're enslaved. We're enslaved to righteousness as Paul says in Romans 6. You're a slave to something.

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You've either enslaved your members to unrighteousness and you continue to walk in sin or you've enslaved your members to righteousness and you continue to walk in Christ.

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You are a slave to someone. As the old Bob Dylan song goes, you're going to have to serve somebody.

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Even he got that and it comes right from scripture. You're a slave to something, either unrighteousness or righteousness.

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But it's that beautiful paradox once again that we see being enslaved to righteousness, we have been set free.

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And if the son has set you free, you are free indeed. This was the lesson of the

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Old Testament and it's the lesson that we have also in the New Testament. So what does

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New Testament slavery look like? Well, it's a slightly different animal than Old Testament slavery because the laws that existed regarding masters and slaves in the

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New Testament era were issued by the Romans, not by God over his people

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Israel. So all who lived in the Roman Empire, Christian or otherwise, they were at the mercy of the slave laws instituted by Rome.

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It's interesting to note that neither Jesus nor any of the apostles condemned slavery.

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That's right. Neither Jesus nor the apostles condemned slavery in the New Testament with one exception.

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In 1 Timothy 1 .10, the apostle Paul says that those who enslave others have broken the law of God and will not inherit his kingdom.

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This is likely in reference to something like Exodus 21 .16, where it says, whoever kidnaps another and makes a slave of him shall be put to death.

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So enslaving others here in 1 Timothy 1 .10 is being equated with theft, which of course is the eighth commandment of the

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New Testament. And it's to demonstrate that we have all broken God's law and we all need a savior.

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Now, apart from this one command in 1 Timothy 1 .10, apart from this, there is no blanket condemnation of slavery given anywhere in the

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New Testament. Instead, what we find are instructions that are like the one that we're reading here in Ephesians 6, instructions for Christian slaves on how they should engage with their earthly masters and instructions to Christian masters as to how they should treat their slaves.

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Nowhere do you see a call for some kind of rebellion? Like there should be an uprising? Slaves should just band together and rebel against their masters?

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In fact, the apostle Paul advocated in his letter to Philemon that a runaway slave should return to his master.

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But he appealed to Philemon, who was a Christian, a man whom Paul led to Christ.

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He appealed to him that he should deal with Onesimus, his slave, who was also a Christian, deal with him not as a slave, but as a brother in the

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Lord. We're entering the Christmas season. I know that every Sunday that passes by,

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Sonia's disappointed that we haven't yet sung a Christmas song. But as we're entering the

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Christmas season, one of those songs that you're going to hear most prominently is a favorite carol of mine and yours as well,

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O Holy Night. And one of the verses in that song says, Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother, and in his name all oppression shall cease.

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We do have these dynamics that exist in the world today in which wicked and evil men will seek to oppress others.

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But the scripture tells us how we should behave even in the midst of those situations.

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Turn with me, if you will, over to 1 Peter 2, 1 Peter 2, and starting in verse 18.

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This, by the way, is a passage of scripture that Martin Luther King Jr. read while he was in prison, and it caused him to take his

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Bible and throw it against the wall because he was appalled at the instruction that was given here regarding servants' subjection to their earthly masters.

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1 Peter 2, starting in verse 18. Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust.

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Be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust.

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Verse 19, for this is a gracious thing when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.

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Once again, let me read that to you. Verse 19, this is a gracious thing.

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It seems to be contrary to our modern American sensibilities that a person should suffer at the hands of another, and this is gracious?

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This is a gracious thing to be dealt with unjustly?

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How is it gracious? Because we are to be mindful of God even when we suffer unjustly.

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Verse 20, for what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure?

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What credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? In other words, if you sin and you're beaten for it, you probably deserve the beating.

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But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure.

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This is a gracious thing in the sight of God. Now, let me give you practical application for this, because as far as I can tell, no one in here is enslaved to anybody else, right?

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Okay, so none of us are in a slave master relationship. So how exactly does this pertain to us?

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How does this have practical application? How quickly are you to complain about the person driving slow in front of you?

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How quick are you to complain about the paycheck that you're getting that isn't reflective of the wages that you think you deserve?

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How quick are you to complain about your spouse, justly or unjustly?

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Like some of you complain about your spouse and you just need to pull your big boy or big girl pants on and get over it.

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But maybe you are actually in a rough or an abusive relationship in which anybody in our culture, our society would give you a pass to complain about your situation.

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Do you do good and endure in this suffering and recognize it as a gracious thing that is from God?

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See, if in the context of slavery, these instructions are given to slaves to submit to God and submit even to an unjust master, then how much more is the instruction upon us who are free to stop complaining and arguing about our situations, but be thankful to God that we enjoy the freedom and the luxuries that we enjoy as American Christians.

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Philippians 2 .14, do all things without grumbling or complaining so that you might be shining stars in the universe, holding out the word of life in the midst of a wicked and crooked and depraved generation.

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There's people all around you complaining all the time. We had a presidential debate this week. This is all nothing but complaining.

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People are complaining about politics. People are complaining about the president. People are complaining about things that are going on within their own community.

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We're complaining about the school system right now. You might have complained because there were orange cones out in front of the church when you tried to pull into the parking lot this morning.

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We all find things to complain about. We are a society of complainers. If you're not complaining, you might not be an

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American. So how unique then is that instruction to us in Philippians 2 .14

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to do all things without grumbling or complaining? There are some persons that I'm acquainted with who have jobs that are physically more taxing than my job.

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Some of you are soldiers. Some of you are police officers, work in law enforcement in some way, the people that you have to deal with.

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And yet I see some of these police officers that I engage with downtown do way better about the people that they have to deal with as officers.

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They do way better than I do, I think, in my complaining about other people who annoy and irritate me.

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And they have more cause and more reason to complain about the people that irritate them because it might cost them their life if they don't do something right on a daily basis.

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But we have this call to subject to a master who is above and to be grateful for the freedom that we've been given in him.

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And if we endure in these things in which we suffer, it is to our blessing and to our favor.

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As we go on here in 1 Peter 2 verse 21, for to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you.

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Christ suffered for you. So who are you to complain about the guy that's driving too slow in front of you in traffic?

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Or complain about the person who messed up your order at the restaurant.

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I once had a waitress thank me in tears because she knew she messed up my order and I did not complain about it.

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She came up to me as I was leaving the restaurant in tears and thanked me for my gracious attitude because she had had a day that was full of people complaining about things even when she got it right.

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Now I set that for you as an example not to say that I'm better than anyone because I struggle with this complaining issue as much as anyone does.

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But that was a particular circumstance that really kind of stuck out to me. You really have no idea whom you could be blessing today just because you didn't complain when you could have.

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My family is well acquainted with my road rage. So I have areas to work on as well regarding this.

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But if the instruction for slaves was to endure unjust treatment because Christ suffered for you, how much more should we who are not being treated unjustly rejoice in our

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Lord Christ because He suffered for us. He left us an example so that you might follow in His steps.

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He committed no sin. Neither was deceit found in His mouth. When He was reviled,

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He did not revile in return. When He suffered,

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He did not threaten. But He continued entrusting Himself to him who judges justly.

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He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

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By His wounds, you have been healed for you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

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My friends, I am ridiculed and criticized every day for the job that I do.

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And you don't have to look far to find that. You just look at any one of my videos online in the comment section. You'll see plenty of people saying things that they don't like about me.

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And sometimes that ridicule is more personal.

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Sometimes it actually comes from somebody I know rather than just faceless, nameless persons online. But I hope that what you see demonstrated in me, and this is the discipline that I try to bring myself under.

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I hope that what you see demonstrated in me is a gracious attitude even toward those who would falsely accuse me.

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Because the example that I follow is the Lord Christ. This instruction that we have here in 1

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Peter 2, when He was reviled, He did not revile in return.

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When He suffered, He did not threaten, but He continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly.

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So as you might be convicted over these things that we are reading today, I hope you don't despair or lose heart.

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But realize that this process of sanctification that we're in, of growing in holiness and righteousness, is painful and it's a long road.

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I'll be gracious toward you, and you be gracious toward me, for our Lord Christ is gracious toward us.

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We come back again to Ephesians 5, verse 6, reading this again in the context of our passage today.

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Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart as you would

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Christ. Even fearing your earthly masters. We have a society and a culture that says, hey, if anybody else is over you, you should rebel.

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Well, we've got such a strain of rebellion against authority that's going on right now. I don't know that in my lifetime

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I've ever seen this level of rebellion. So again, as I've said with every section of this

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Ephesians 5 and 6 that we've looked at, this is countercultural. The call for wives to submit to their husbands, children submit to their parents, bondservants submit to their masters, countercultural.

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That you would actually have to submit to authority, not by the way of eye service as people pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a goodwill as to the

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Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the

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Lord, whether he is a bondservant or free, as we are instructed in Colossians 3, 18 through 25, which gives us the same instruction.

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You are bondservants to Christ. You are a slave of Christ. Masters, do the same to them and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven and that there is no partiality with him.

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Slavery in the Roman Empire, there were actually slaves that had it quite good. At the time that we enter into the

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New Testament, roughly one -third of the population in the Roman Empire was slaves. So as Paul is writing to the church in Ephesus, you're talking about a third of this city, a very rich and thriving, bustling port town.

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A third of it was made up of slaves. We could probably apply that ratio to the church as well. Two -thirds were either master or did not own slaves, and the other third were slaves that were indebted to a particular master.

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A person became a slave in the Roman Empire in any number of ways. They may have been inherited or purchased.

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They could have been a prisoner of war. They may have been kidnapped and sold into slavery. That was common in the

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Roman Empire. Some of the more dastardly slave traders would even breed and sell slaves. Though Rome was populated with many slaves, they were also known for freeing many slaves.

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Some foreigners actually wanted to become slaves because slavery in the Roman Empire meant an opportunity to become a

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Roman citizen. When a slave was set free, the master would see to it that the slave was set up with their own business, which the master was a shareholder of.

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Some slaves became like family and inherited the name and property of their masters.

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This was depicted in the film Ben -Hur, starring Charlton Heston. But the character turned down his master's offer to inherit all of his possessions, his name and his possessions, and instead returned to his home in Jerusalem.

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You notice here that as we're reading these instructions, these contrasts that we've been looking at, starting in Ephesians 5, verse 22, all the way up until now, the relationship between bond servants and masters falls in the context of family.

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See, we're still talking about a relationship that exists within a

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Christian household. This isn't like my slave that lives down the street, but who comes and works for me five days a week.

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This is a slave who lives within that house. The master is obligated to provide for and care for that slave who is in his possession.

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So we have these instructions that have been given in the context of family. Wives, submit to your husbands.

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Children, submit to your parents. Slaves, submit to your masters. This is all within the context of a household.

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How are we as Christians to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ, which was the instruction in verse 21, and then that's been fleshed out ever since in the sections that we've been reading over the last three weeks?

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By the time you get to the end of the first century AD, a slave had the same rights as a free man, but a slave had an advantage over his free counterpart in the sense that he had a guaranteed job, food, and clothing provided for and a roof over his head.

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Some masters wanted their slaves to dress nice because it made their master look good rather than going around looking drab and sloppy.

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Now, this was so common in the Roman Empire that according to the Roman historian Seneca, a law had to be passed requiring slaves to wear a certain type of clothing that distinguished them from free men.

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So it actually became a problem that the slaves looked as rich as their masters, that a law had to be passed telling the masters, hey, you actually have to dress your slave in clothing that distinguishes them as a slave.

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This was the treatment that slaves got in the Roman Empire, but not all was good because masters certainly had certain rights over their slaves that a slave did not have as a slave.

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In particular, if a slave was caught stealing from his master, the master had the permission of the

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Roman Empire to put him to death. So it was not quite as hunky -dory as it might seem in the

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Roman Empire. Slaves were indeed mistreated. And were treated as property and less than human, which is why you have instructions like we just read in 1

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Peter 2, and why Paul has to say to masters in Ephesians 6, 9, stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven and that there is no partiality with him.

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Notice that as Paul addresses this, he doesn't say stop your beating. He goes even more strict than that.

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Stop your threatening. Don't even point your finger in the face of your slave and chew him out.

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Has the Lord Christ dealt that way with us? He who, thank you. He who suffered on our behalf and laid down his life for our sins.

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So we shouldn't treat each other that way. You have a master in heaven.

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That master is your slave's master and he is your master. And there is no partiality with God.

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He's not looking at this relationship between master and slave and going, well, I'm going to be a little more lenient on the master and I'm going to come down hard on the slave.

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That's not the way God deals with us. As a matter of fact, we have all indication in Scripture that the one who has the power will be judged more strictly than the one who was under that power.

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And by the way, that is what we've seen in these three contexts that we've been looking at these three

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Sundays. Though the instruction is given for wives to submit to their husbands, in keeping with the instruction in verse 21, to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ, what's the husband's responsibility?

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Love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, dying for her that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.

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More responsibility is placed on the husband than on the wife. Look at the next context,

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Ephesians 6, 1, children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Honor your father and your mother, that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.

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Children submit to your parents, but what's the instruction for the parents? More specifically, the father, verse 4, fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and the instruction of the

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Lord. The greater burden and responsibility is placed on the father, though the child has been instructed to submit to their parents.

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And now we have this context in verses 5 through 9, slaves obey your earthly masters, but what is the instruction to the master?

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Masters do the same for them. Be a servant to your slave.

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For our Lord Christ said, Mark 9, 35, if anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.

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Mark 10, 44, whoever would be first among you must be a slave of all. Now understand when

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Jesus said that, that was wildly controversial because remember

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Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for seeking the best seats in the house. They sat in the most important places in the synagogues.

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And Jesus rebuked them for that haughty behavior. And instead he turns to the people and his own disciples and he says, if you want to be first in the kingdom of God, you must be last of all and you must be slave to all.

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And there's people who are sitting there that would have gasped at these words from Christ. I'm already a slave.

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You're telling me I have to be a slave in order to enter the kingdom of God. We thought we were following you because we were going to get relief from this oppression.

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And now Jesus is saying to everyone there and everyone here, if you are going to be first in the kingdom of God, you must be a slave to all.

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Good leadership is a person who demonstrates that he will serve others.

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And so as you have these instructions here to certain contexts of people, to submit to those who are in authority over them, because that certainly was the instruction in Ephesians 5 .21,

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you have the instruction then given to those who do have the appointment as heads, as leaders, husbands, fathers, masters, that they must even serve those who are under them.

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Knowing that we have a master who is over us all, and that is our master in heaven.

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And what did he come and demonstrate to us? The son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

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And as our Lord Christ has done this for us, so my friends, we should do this for one another and praise

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God that we exist in a context in which we don't have to be concerned about that master -slave dynamic, but it's all the more upon us.

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You who are free and are not being oppressed by anyone, shouldn't you be all the more willing in your freedom to be a servant of all, following the example of our

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Lord Christ? And to do so with joy, seeing that this is a gracious thing that God has called us to do this, do it without grumbling and complaining, but rejoicing, and great will be your reward in heaven for the

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Lord has promised us this. Turn to Matthew chapter 18, we'll conclude with this.

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Matthew 18, you have the parable of the unforgiving servant toward the end of this particular chapter.

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This is right after Jesus has given instructions on how we deal with a brother who sins against us.

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It's the section that we typically single out as instructions for discipline in the church.

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That's Matthew 18, 15 through 20, and it begins with Jesus saying, if your brother sins against you, and then the instructions that follow.

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And Peter says, this is verse 21, Peter came to Jesus and said to Him, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me?

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And then I forgive him as many as seven times. And Jesus said to him,

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I do not say to you seven times, but 70 times seven. Therefore, and then

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Jesus gives this parable, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.

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When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10 ,000 talents.

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Now that's difficult for us to fathom because we don't deal in talents. That's not our currency in modern

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America. How much money was 10 ,000 talents? Well, let me give you an idea.

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It would have taken the average Jew 10 ,000 years to pay it back.

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It was an incredible amount of money. And so we deal in America in like billions and trillions.

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These are the numbers that get thrown around on the news. So -and -so who is a billionaire.

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The nation is trillions of dollars in debt, okay? So these are the kinds of astronomical numbers that we hear all the time.

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The number 10 ,000 doesn't really seem all that great. But 10 ,000 talents was an incredible amount of money that a

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Jew would have thought there's no way he could pay that back. How did he even get into that much debt? It would have been if somebody comes knocking on your door and said to you, hey, you owe us a hundred million dollars or you're going to jail.

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It would have been something like that. And so 10 ,000 talents. People are hearing

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Jesus telling the story, they go, 10 ,000 talents. Verse 25, and since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and his children and all that he had and payment be made.

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So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, have patience with me, I will pay you everything.

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It seems completely impossible. But it says verse 27, out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and look at this, forgave him the debt.

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He didn't even owe it anymore. What mercy is this? 10 ,000 talents.

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But I'm not only going to let you go, the slate's been wiped clean. You don't owe me that debt anymore.

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Verse 28, but when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, which was much, much less than 10 ,000 talents.

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And seizing him, he began to choke him saying, pay what you owe me. So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, have patience on me and I will pay you.

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Just like this servant had done with his master. But he refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt, which was impossible.

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How can he pay the debt while he's in prison? When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed and they went and reported to their master, all that had taken place.

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Then his master summoned him and said to him, you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.

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And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you? And in anger, his master delivered him over to the jailers until he should pay all of his debt.

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Verse 35, Jesus said, so also my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.

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We understand from this story, the great debt that our Lord Christ has forgiven us of, a debt so great we could not have paid it back.

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But he gave his life for us. He died for us. We are justified before God.

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The Father in heaven looks at us and goes, what debt? It's been paid, paid in full.

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Tetelestai, it is finished. The last words Christ spoke when he breathed his last on the cross.

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That debt has been paid for us by Christ. So if we have been forgiven much, how much are we also expected to forgive?

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Showing that same grace and forgiveness to one another. And in the words of my wife this morning, do not just be hearers of the word, go do it.

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Do what it says. Chains shall he break for the slave is our brother.

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And in his name, all oppression shall cease. And all

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God's people said, amen. See who bears the awful load.

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Son of man and son of God, here we are.

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Hear the red. Christ the rock of our salvation is the name of which we boast.

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Lamb of God. Sacrifice to cancel guilt.

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None shall ever be confounded.

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Thank you for listening to our weekly sermon presented by First Southern Baptist Church of Junction City, Kansas.

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For more information about our church, visit fsbcjc .org.

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On behalf of our church family, my name is Becky, inviting you to join us again this week. Growing Together in Christ.