1 Timothy 6:1-2 (February 9, 2025)

1 Timothy 6 and the Call to Honor in Christian Relationships

We can turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 6. 1 Timothy chapter 6. We're gonna be in verses 1 and 2 this morning. 1 and 2 as we continue our series through the book of 1 Timothy. As we hit the homestretch of 1 Timothy, we come to the last chapter of this book.

And as we begin, I want to remind you of the theme that we have drawn attention to repeatedly as we've gone through 1 Timothy, and that is the theme of this book is church order for godliness. Church order for godliness.

So I want you to keep that in mind as we read these first couple of verses of chapter 6. Let's hear the Word of the Lord to us. God's Word says, let as many bond servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and his doctrine may not be blasphemed.

And those who have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather serve them because those who are benefited are believers and beloved. Teach and exhort these things.

Amen. This is God's Word. So the word bond servants there, it's another word for slaves. Some of your translation may say slaves there. And these verses are instructions to believing Christian slaves and how they are to interact with and treat their masters.

And so I think a little bit of context will be helpful here for understanding this passage. And so first, at the time of this writing, when Paul's writing to Timothy, there are about 50 million slaves or bond servants in the Roman Empire.

And in major cities like Rome, like Corinth, and like Ephesus where Timothy is ministering, where Timothy is leading the church there. In cities like that, about a third of the population of those cities were in servitude.

They were slaves. Now Roman slavery was different from the Hebrew slavery that you read about in the Old Testament. We'll come back to God's instructions for Israel as it related to slaves a little bit later in the sermon.

But for now, we'll just note what you see in Hebrew slavery is temporary in nature and basically was indentured servitude. Roman slavery was much worse. It was an institution ripe for physical and sexual abuse.

It was a social evil in many respects. However, even then, it was still different from the race-based man-stealing and particular cruelties of the Africa to America slave trade of the colony period through the war between the states.

And so it was different in many respects from some popular conceptions of slavery that we know of. It was different than what you read about in the Scriptures. And it had its own particular evils to it.

Now in the church in Ephesus, where Timothy was pastoring, you'd have this type of situation. You'd have believing slaves in the church who had unbelieving masters outside of the church. You'd also have believing slaves in the church who had believing masters who were also in the church with them.

There could have even been slave-owning elders in the church, as was the case with Philemon in Colossae. In that situation also, they probably had encountered Paul's teaching that we find in Galatians 3 .28 that in Christ there is neither slave nor free.

They may have even heard the false teaching that the end of the world had come and that all earthly relationships were thus superseded. And so you put all of this together and you have the recipe for a very tense situation.

You have a recipe for conflict within the church. And remember, Paul is writing that the church will be godly and would resolve this conflict in a right way. And so into that tense potential for conflict situation, Paul, he doesn't come with a blazing brimstone and fire message of slavery abolition.

Instead, he says, let as many bond servants as are under the yoke count their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and his doctrine may not be blasphemed. I want to briefly explain this text and then I want us to dive a little bit deeper into its meaning and to its application for us in our lives today.

And so first I want you to note the instruction to the bond servants. If they're under the yoke of slavery, Paul, he doesn't give them license to inwardly stew on it, to be brooding or full of rage about it, to be disrespectful.

Instead, the instruction is that they are to give all honor to their masters. Now it's interesting to note the progression of honor in 1st Timothy chapters 5 and 6. You go back to chapter 5, you see that Paul had instructed that the church should honor widows who were really widows.

And then he said that elders who rule well were to be counted worthy of double honor. Now we get chapter 6 and he's saying that bond servants, they were to count their masters as worthy of all honor. So you go honor, double honor, all honor in this progression.

Now you might think that it would go the other way around, that there might be room for dishonoring masters because of the nature of the institution, because one is in slavery to another, but Paul says to give them all honor.

Why? Well he tells us in the the second half of verse 1, he tells us, so that the name of God and his doctrine may not be blasphemed. This means that dishonoring masters would blaspheme the name of God and the doctrine of God.

If the slaves were, or the bond servants were rebellious, or if they were lazy, or if they reviled their masters, then it would give opportunity for the gospel, it would give opportunity for the church to be slandered.

It would give the church a black eye. And a slandered church loses power for evangelism because its witness is tainted. A Christian's good works undergird his evangelism. A Christian's good works undergird his evangelism.

And so a slave's honoring of his master, it would adorn the doctrine of God. It would undergird the witness of himself and of the church. We see this in Titus chapter 2, verses 9 and 10, where it says, exhort bond servants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well-pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior, in all things.

They were to prioritize the doctrine of God. They were to prioritize the name of God, the reputation of the church, over and above their own interests. Again, remember, 1 Timothy is about church order for godliness.

Therefore, the bond servants in the church were to care for the reputation of the church and her witness by their godly demeanor and behavior toward their masters. This is the instruction. Then you get to the question of, well, what if the master's also a believer?

Now, that changes the situation, right? That would give grounds for the slave to insist on being set free, right? And if the master doesn't set him free, then that would be grounds for the slaves to despise him, right?

Wrong. Paul says the exact opposite. Far from excusing a slave from honoring his master, the fact of the master's faith should make him serve him all the more faithfully, because one benefiting is a brother and beloved.

That's what he says there, verse 2. Now, someone might object here, say, well, what about Galatians 3, 28? I mentioned it earlier. That verse says, there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

But this verse is talking about spiritual privileges. This verse is talking about salvation in Christ Jesus. It means all can be saved. Jew and Gentile can both be saved. Man and woman can both be saved.

Slave and free, all can be saved. All can find forgiveness of their sins in Christ Jesus. It doesn't mean that all natural stations and distinctions are obliterated once someone comes to faith in Christ.

For example, there is, you know, Galatians 3, 28 there says there is neither male nor female, but you did not cease being men and women when you believed. In the same way, they did not cease being slaves and masters when they believed, because grace doesn't destroy nature, it perfects it, and grace doesn't dissolve civic relations, it reforms them.

Now, I'm going to make an argument in just a bit that grace worked out over time in a given people, in a given place, will lead to the end of slavery. But the fact of a slave-master relationship is not inherently sinful according to the Bible.

No one is disciplined in the New Testament, for example, or in the Bible, for simply that fact. Now, it can be sinful. It often has been sinful throughout history, including here in our very own state, and I would surmise in Ephesus in the first century, which Paul is writing to.

The question is, how should a Christian live and behave in such a situation? We'll give a little bit more of an expansive answer in just a little bit, but for now we know that Paul's instructions to Timothy are that slaves should count their masters as of all honor.

Now, that's the two verses, just what it says. I want us to draw out a couple of things. First thing is that I want us to see that this instruction, which let's just be honest, like particularly if you're the bond servant, if you're the select, like it's a hard word to you, right?

I want us to see that it is rooted in the fifth commandment. This is an instruction that is rooted in the fifth commandment. You remember that from Exodus chapter 20? Honor thy father and thy mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

That's the fifth commandment. Now, slaves are not their master's children. Masters are not their parents. And so how can first Timothy 6, 1, and 2 be rooted in the fifth commandment? I mean, that's talking about parents, right?

Well, this is where we need to grasp the nature of the 10 commandments. You see, one of the reasons God could give 10 main commandments and only 10 is because there are so many duties and so many other commandments that are all bound up or embedded in each one of the 10.

Each commandment is a summary heading for all sorts of duties and commandments that we are to keep before God. And so I want to read from a catechism here in just a minute. But first, I want to say I'm not a Presbyterian, and so I don't subscribe to everything that's in the Westminster Confession of Faith or its complementary catechism.

But the Westminster Larger Catechism, its teachings on the 10 commandments are just excellent. It's especially detailing what is entailed in each commandment. So I'm going to read a few excerpts which demonstrate how so many Christians throughout the years have understood the fifth commandment.

Just bear with me for a minute. I want to read a couple of these questions. So the first one is, who are meant by father and mother in the fifth commandment? Obviously, father and mother in the home is meant, but who are meant?

The answer is, by father and mother in the fifth commandment are meant not only natural parents, but all superiors in age and gifts, and especially such as by God's ordinance are over us in a place of authority, whether in family, church, or commonwealth.

You can start to begin to see the expanse of understanding of the fifth commandment. We're talking about anybody in authority in any sphere of authority in the world. Why are superiors styled father and mother?

Answer, superiors are styled father and mother, both to teach them in all duties towards their inferiors, like natural parents, to express love and tenderness to them, according to their several relations, and to work inferiors to a greater willingness and cheerfulness in performing their duties to their superiors as to their parents.

And what is the scope of the fifth commandment? Answer, the general scope of the fifth commandment is the performance of those duties which we mutually owe in our several relations as inferiors, superiors, or equals.

What is the honor that inferiors owe to their superiors? The honor which inferiors owe to their superiors is all due reverence of heart, word, and behavior, prayer, and thanksgiving for them, imitation of their virtues and graces, willing obedience to their lawful commands and counsels, due submission to their corrections, fidelity to defense and maintenance of their persons and authority, according to their several ranks and the nature of their places, bearing with their infirmities and covering them in love so that they may be an honor to them and to their government.

Then last one, what are the sins of inferiors against their superiors? The sins of inferiors against their superiors are all neglect of the duties required toward them, envy and act, contempt of, rebellion against their persons and places and their lawful counsels, commands, and corrections, cursing, mocking, and all such refractory and scandalous carriage as proves a shame and dishonor to them and their government.

Catechism goes on to outline what is required of superiors then to their inferiors and equals to and what are the sins involved in those relationships too. We won't read all of that, but what I hope you see is that the fifth commandment is not a narrow command simply limited to the immediate family and particularly when the kids are young and in the house, but it is an expansive commandment that speaks to all human relationships and how we are to interact with each one.

And it's a commandment that recognizes that we exist in hierarchical relationships. In some relationships we are the inferior and in others we are the superior. Now this type of language to be honest with you is kind of taboo today.

We don't we don't really talk about it in those ways and I think it's important to point out that in speaking that way we're not talking about anyone's dignity or value or worth as a person. Rather it has everything to do with one's station in life and in that particular relationship that God has put you in.

And so sometimes you know they got a husband and as husband and as father he's a superior in his home then he goes to work and he's an inferior there and and then you go out on the street he'd and he might be 50 years old but the the 22 year old police officer is his superior there because the relationship between a citizen and civil magistrate and we exist in all of these different relationships.

Again it has nothing to do with anyone's dignity or value or worth and everything to do with relationships that God puts us in and our stations in life. And in 1st Timothy 6 Paul applies it to bond servants telling them to give all honor to the masters.

It's an application of the fifth commandment. Now at this point I think it would be good to spend a few moments just looking at what does the Bible say about bond servants? What does the Bible say about slavery?

And the reason I think it would be good to to get our minds around that is because the the fact that slavery is addressed in the scriptures is often used as a cudgel against Christianity by Christianity's adversarial opponents, by adversarial non-believers.

They they will point to the Bible's teaching on slavery, they will misunderstand it, they will import all sorts of foreign meaning to it, and then they'll say aha you Christians y 'all are pro-slavery.

Therefore it would be wise for us to understand what the Bible actually teaches. And so first we now this is the fact that the Old Testament you go back to to Exodus and and you have you have laws governing or regulating slavery but the first thing I would have you see about that is that it was always temporary in nature and temporary by design.

And so the the first time slavery is mentioned in the law, Exodus 21 to it limits the term of service so to speak to six years saying and in the seventh year he shall go out free and pay nothing. And so Hebrew slavery was not a permanent status.

It was temporary by nature and temporary by design by God's Word. And the second thing we would say is that it was indentured servitude or like a bond apprenticeship. It was an economic relationship that one could move into and out of.

And so this is distinct from any race or ethnic based permanent slavery of the pagans. When we're seeing a certain class of people as always and only slaves. So what we see in the Bible is distinct from that.

By the time of Paul, Hebrew slavery wasn't what was on offer in Ephesus. It was the pagan kind of slavery. Not always as bad as it could be there were kind and generous masters but certainly taken as a whole the institution could be categorized as a social evil.

And here we want to say two things about the Bible's teaching. First and all the credit Pastor Doug Wilson for pointing this out. The logic of the Great Commission is that the gospel leads to ending slavery.

The logic of the Great Commission is this. Here's what he means by that. Christ died on the cross to set men free from their sins. To set men free from their slavery to their sins. Socially evil slavery is built on the bedrock of slavery to sin.

Therefore it follows that as men are set free from their slavery to sin, their nations will eventually set their men free from their slavery. The logic of the Great Commission worked out over time and a culture leads to its end.

Second, that end is helped along in the process as those who are set free from their sins begin to live with godliness in their stations. And so that's what we have in the New Testament is the teaching on how are slaves to interact and how are masters to act.

Slaves are instructed to give all honor to their masters. First Timothy 6 1 and 2. To be obedient to them as unto Christ. Ephesians 6 5. To work heartily as unto the Lord. Colossians 3 23. Masters are instructed to remember they have a master in heaven.

Therefore they are to treat their bond servants charitably. Ephesians 6 9. In other words, the fifth commandment has duties for inferiors to superiors and superiors to inferiors. And all are to be godly.

All are under the obligations of the fifth commandment. When this is carefully observed over time, it leads to the end of slavery. Because as it becomes more biblical, it becomes more temporary. This is especially so when combined with righteous civil rulers enacting and enforcing righteous law that restrains evil and promotes and teaches righteousness.

So that's a little bit about how the Bible addresses the subject. And so by way of application, I want to exhort us in two different ways. The first is this. It answers the question of how do we confront a social evil?

How do we confront a social evil? There are three general approaches. I'm going to borrow some categories from a pastor named Michael Foster here. Three general categories. One is you have compromisers.

Compromisers have a can of paint. They just whitewash the problems. They pretend that the problems aren't there. They go along with the spirit of the age. Second category is you have the revolutionaries.

They have a can of gasoline and they burn the whole thing down. They go along with the spirit of revolution. And then you have the reformers. They have a toolbox. They fix and they build knowing that culture is always a fixer-upper.

There's always work to do. There's always building to do. And they go along with the Holy Spirit. I want to encourage us to be reformers. We don't participate in the evil of our age by compromising with it or pretending it doesn't exist in any way.

We don't want to compound the evil either by attacking it sinfully like the revolutionaries. Rather, we want to be plodding, principled builders, obeying the scripture at every turn, neither content with half-measured solutions like the compromisers, nor discontent with the pace of change so as to become a revolutionary, the pace of change which is often slow in God's world.

So you think back to slavery in the American context. Those who used the Bible to give moral cover to man-stealing and the transatlantic slave trade, they would be examples of compromisers. You have John Brown, who incited a slave rebellion, would be an example of a revolutionary.

And then you have, not in America, but in England, you have William Wilberforce, labored for decades in the English Parliament to abolish slavery. He would be an example of a reformer, using the tools available to him over time to lead to a godly and righteous result.

And so when we're faced with the social evils of our day, name one is abortion, we ought not to be compromisers. Being okay with carving out exceptions or drawing a line at 15 weeks or six weeks or making allowance for the, for abortifacient contraceptives or the abortion pill shouldn't be compromisers, nor should we be revolutionaries.

And so we don't go and bomb the abortion clinic. We should be reformers. And that entails the work of evangelism, perhaps adoption, being a resource and a help to families, working legislatively, encouraging our legislators to pass godly, righteous bills, including ones that give equal protection to pre-born babies.

And so the first application of 1 Timothy chapter six, one and two would be, be a reformer by obeying the Bible and being a builder and obeying even in the hard passages, how we treat one another with honor, given our stations in life.

And then the second application builds off of that, and that is keep the fifth commandment in all of life. Keep the fifth commandment in all of life. And so I would ask you to think about in what relationships are you an inferior?

Or another way of asking the question, in what relationships are you under someone else's authority? If you have wife to husband, child to parent, employee to employer, church member to pastor, student to teacher, player to coach, citizen to civil magistrate, whether that's the local police officer or the president.

In various relationships, we are under the authority of someone else. And Paul's instruction to you there, and the fifth commandment's instruction to you there, is to give honor to those who are in authority over you.

To not chafe against authority. Don't envy them. Don't complain and fuss about them. Don't brood about it. Be content. Be diligent. Be respectful. Give all honor so that the Word of God, the doctrine of God, are not blasphemed.

And then I'd ask you to think about in what relationships are you the superior? Or asked another way, in what relationships are you in authority over someone else? And again, God has duties and commandments to you when you are the one in authority.

Husband to wife, parent to child, employer to employee, pastor to church member, teacher to student, coach to player, civil magistrate to citizen. In these relationships, various relationships, when we're over someone in authority, Paul's instruction to you, and the fifth commandment's instruction to you, is to love, pray for, and bless those under you.

You're not the Lord at all from like the Gentiles do, Jesus said. You're not to be harsh or to seek your own glory, ease, and pleasure. Do not provoke them to wrath, as Paul instructed fathers in Ephesians, but be charitable and work diligently for their blessing and good.

And so our obedience to this commandment, what it does is it adorns the gospel, it adorns the name of God, it adorns the doctrine of God, and so like a like a diamond necklace adorns the neck of an already beautiful woman.

It makes her even more beautiful still. Our commitment to give honor to whom honor is due adorns our confession that Jesus Christ is Lord, and makes the gospel more beautiful still. It makes the gospel more glorious still.

Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, I thank you for your word and its wisdom, and you give us instructions and commandments because you know our hearts, and you know it would be easy for us to chafe against those over us, particularly those who may not treat us in the best ways, and yet you've told us to give honor to whom honor is due.

You've told us to give all honor. That takes submission to your word, and therefore it takes humility, and that takes love, which is, see, acting for someone's good even if it costs us something, even if it's at great personal expense.

That takes grace, your spirit working your power within us, and so give us humility, give us love, and give us your grace that we may interact in all of our relationships, whether we're the ones in authority or under it, that we might conduct ourselves with godliness, giving honor to whom honor is due, loving and blessing those to whom love and blessing is due.

Father, we know that living in such a way isn't natural to us. Again, it comes by the work of your spirit, and so Father, I pray for all of us in here that we would remember the gospel of Jesus Christ, that we would remember that Christ Christ lived perfectly in our place, always obeying God, that we haven't always obeyed God.

We ascend in so many different ways, and we sin in our relationships, and Christ died for those sins, nailing them to the cross with our record of debt, burying those sins with him so that he might raise, but our sins would stay buried, and we might have new and everlasting life.

That is the message that changes us and makes us capable of living in this way, and so Lord, I pray that we will all remember the gospel of Christ and be changed, being conformed into the image of your son Jesus, whose name we pray.

Amen.