Biblical Home (pt3) Masters and Slaves

Well, it's been said a few times today that I am starting my vacation tomorrow. But I'll have you know that my vacation has already begun. Well, I I say that because preaching is not my job preaching is my joy.

Vocational ministry is my job. I work through the week, but on Sunday I give this as an offering to God. So this isn't work for me. I do it every day. Even if I if this was I would preach every day even on vacation.

Jennifer has to keep me from trying to find a place to go preach so. Well, I do want to invite you to take out your Bible and open it with me to Colossians chapter 3 and We're going to finish the chapter today by looking again, we're going to read verses 17 to Chapter 4 verse 1 but we're going to focus today on Verses 22 through chapter 4 verse 1 and we've been examining the home and the structure that Paul describes as a Godly home and he gives an outline beginning in verse 17 he says everything we do do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then out of that he builds a Structure and he says this is what a Christian home Looked like in the first century and I've shown this before but just to remind you the structure of the home was That it began with the wife and the husband.

The husband was to love the wife and the wife was to submit to her husband to respect him and that the main social commitment the main The main responsibility in the home is that the father and the mother the the husband and the wife are to be unified and that they are to be the primary relationship outside of that we have the relationship of children and As I've said over the weeks past sometimes that gets out of order and people make the kids the the focus rather than the marriage relationship and that often creates a problem because the children while ultimately very important they are going to leave one day and they're going to leave their father and mother and join unto their wives and the two are going to become one flesh and they're going to become a Family and the whole nucleus will begin again with a new a new husband and wife.

Well in the first century there was also an additional portion of the family one that we may not understand in our modern culture there was the relationship of the master and the servant and what we're going to see today is that this relationship between master and servant is Actually a microcosm of all authority in the world and it ultimately is a picture of how We should see ourselves in relationship to god.

We focus a lot on being children of god and we are but the bible, also says, we are his slaves and So today, we're going to see how the servant and slave or rather the master and slave relationship is a picture of God and his people.

He has purchased us and We are bought with a price and we are not our own. So with that let's stand together and let's read beginning again at verse 17. Because this i believe sets the context for the entire section and it says and whatever you do in Word or deed do everything in the name of the lord jesus giving thanks to god the father through him.

Wives submit to your husbands as is fitting in the lord husbands love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Children obey your parents and everything for this pleases the lord. Fathers do not provoke your children lest they become Discouraged.

And now moving to the subject of servants bond servants. Obey in everything those who are your earthly masters not by way of eye service as people pleasers. But with sincerity of heart. Fearing the lord whatever you do.

Work heartily as for the lord and not for men. Knowing that from the lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward you are serving the lord christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong.

He has done and there is no partiality and Then in chapter 4 verse 1 it finishes this section by saying masters. Treat your bond servants justly and fairly. Knowing that you also have a master in heaven let us pray father as we seek to understand the context in which this text was written as We seek to better understand the relationship between master and servant and as we seek to apply this in our lives and Particularly in our life of faith.

I Pray that you would keep me from error. For God as you know, I am a fallible man and capable of preaching error. And I pray that you would keep me from that. And I pray Oh God that you would open up the hearts of your people to understand the word that your spirit would go out.

That it would be mixed with faith. And as it is believed and received Lord that he the Holy Spirit would apply these truths to the heart of every person and Lord as we are going to be dealing with a Somewhat controversial subject today as we use the word slave Lord knowing that such a word often brings up Connotations that are very negative and Lord rightfully so in many cultures.

I pray Oh God that we would understand Paul's usage of this and Reminding us that we in fact are who have come to Christ in faith Have been made his slaves and Lord we ought to rejoice in that we pray this in his name Amen, when we examine this text and We look at what Paul has written here in this section of Colossians one thing Jumps out to me and has really been on my mind over the last several weeks as you all know this this Biblically functioning home.

This is our third sermon in this little short mini-series as part of our longer study of the book of Colossians and the thing that jumps out to me is That the most amount of attention that Paul gives in this text beginning at verse 17 going to chapter 4 verse 1.

The most amount of attention is given to the servant. Husbands and wives are given one verse each wives submit to your husband's as is fitting in the Lord husbands. Love your wives. Children and Fathers are given one verse each.

Children obey your parents for this pleases the Lord and fathers do not provoke your children. One verse one simple sentence and even masters. When they are brought into attention in chapter 4 verse 1 even masters are only given one verse.

Masters treat your bondservants justly and fairly knowing that you have a master in heaven. But when the servant comes into view The servant is given four verses longer more full verses to describe his role.

Now that could be merely coincidental. However, I am of the mind that there is nothing in God's Word that is merely coincidental. I believe in fact instead of it being mere coincidence. I think it actually points to the uniqueness of the role of the servant.

Unique from husband and wife unique from child and unique from master. The servant is being pointed out in a unique and specific way. Several weeks ago. I showed that there is a relationship between verse 17 and verse 22.

If you're looking at your Bibles, I just want to remind you of this relationship in verse 17. It says and whatever you do in word or deed do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That phrase and whatever you Do is repeated in verse 23.

It says whatever you do work heartily as for the Lord and not for men. The same Phrase the same Greek word is used at the beginning of both of those verses and it is translated in the English Standard Bible whatever you do.

In verse 17, it's talking about all of life. Whatever you do in word or deed do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. But in verse 23, it is specifically focused in on the servant. That is the context of verse 23.

Because the servant has a unique role in the home. The servant was the one of lowest rank. The servant was the one who exercised no authority of his own. But rather any authority he may have maybe he's the teacher of the child.

Maybe he is the head of the the preparation of the food or maybe he's running the the family farm or whatever whatever Position of authority the servant had it was very well understood that that authority was not an inherent authority.

But was a derived authority. That is inherent his his inherent authority was none he was a servant. So when he acted he acted on behalf of who of his master. You remember when Jesus told the parable of the servants who were given the talents and the master left and he gave each one a different talent and when Jesus came back each one Had done something different with their talents and the two that had taken their talent and used it.

To further the master's kingdom who had used it to make a profit and on behalf of the master. He said well done my good and faithful servants. Because they were working on behalf of him. You've done well in my stead you were good servants.

But then there was the wicked servant. You remember what the wicked servant did he buried his talent in the ground so that when the master returned He didn't lose anything. But he also didn't gain anything and the master said the least you could have done was was you know put it up at by star?

And got point three percent. You know you could have at least done that. But you didn't even do that. And the servant said well, I knew you were a harsh man. I knew you were a man that was exacting and Untrustworthy so when I did this I did it out of fear not out of loving fear, but out of a fear of your harshness.

And what did the master say to the servant? Depart from me you wicked servant. Why? Because the servant didn't have any inherent authority but he did have a derived authority given to him by the master and his Responsibility was to do for the master and when he didn't he was considered wicked.

The title of servant is one of the ways that we as Christians are described over and over in the Bible. In fact this week I read a book and preparation for the sermon along with my regular study. I added a book to my Study this week, and I read the book slave by John MacArthur and It was a good book I would say the vast majority of it didn't really break any new ground.

Mike had read it and we talked about it before it. Was it was sort of a lot of things that were relatively well known, but there were a few little nuggets. That he mentioned in that book that I thought were very important and probably the most Fascinating thing in the book is the introduction to the book and how he talks about having come to have written the book.

Because the book is entitled slave. And he says I chose specifically To use this word slave because I have come to realize and again. I'm not quoting directly I'm just recounting what MacArthur said he said I've come to realize that many modern translations Refuse to translate the word for slave into slave.

Because it has so many culturally negative connotations. So instead we have instead of using the word slave. We've used the word servant or bond servant or something like that, and he says if you study the history of this word and the word here is the word do-loss and It is used over a hundred times in The New Testament and almost every time it's used to refer to our relationship to Christ.

That we are Paul calls himself this he is the do-loss of Christ Paul and Timothy the do-loss of Christ. He uses it over and over and over and again and if you pick up a lot of Bibles the English Standard Bible you pick up modern translations and Even the King James you will find oftentimes.

It's translated servant Rather than slave and the reason for that is Probably pretty well understood is we have a negative understanding of the word slave and partially because the only context that we understand slavery is of course in the context of American history.

We don't often consider that slavery has existed since the dawn of man and It has existed in every culture in every form and has existed throughout the history of man. In fact, I want to quote from Thomas soul.

Now soul is not a Christian that I know of he may be but he doesn't write as a Christian. He writes as an economist if you're not familiar with Thomas soul I I would encourage you to read especially if you're interested in economics and Cultural and political history he writes on those subjects and he is a social commentator and he writes this.

He says when slavery is mentioned too many people automatically think of whites and slaving blacks. That is not even one-tenth of the story of slavery which existed on every inhabited continent. The very word slave derives from the word.

For some white people who were enslaved on a mass scale the Slavs. That's where the English word slave comes from. It's from the Slavs. Moreover slavery existed in the Western Hemisphere. Before the first black or white person ever set foot here the indigenous peoples of this hemisphere enslaved one another.

Just as Asians have enslaved Asians Europeans have enslaved Europeans and Africans have enslaved Africans. Western civilization Actually was the first civilization to regard slavery as morally wrong and it is the civilization With the most guilt about it.

He goes on to say to this very moment slavery continues in parts of Africa in the Islamic world. But very little noise is made about it because there's no money to be made in denouncing it and there's no political advantage to be gained.

Of all the tragic facts about the history of slavery the most astonishing to an American today is that although slavery was a worldwide? Institution for thousands of years nowhere in the world was slavery a controversial issue prior to the 18th century.

People of every race and color were enslaved and they enslaved one another. White people were still being bought and sold as slaves in the Ottoman Empire decades after American blacks were freed and More whites were bought as slaves to North America North Africa than blacks brought to slaves in the United States or to the 13 collar Colonies from which it was formed.

He goes on to say this the September 2003 issue of the National Geographic had an article about the millions of people still enslaved around the world right now. There are an estimated 27 million men women and children in the world who are enslaved today.

27 million people today. There are more slaves in the world today than there ever have been in history. So when we think of slavery as a one part of one culture that existed at one time We are missing the grand scale that has been all throughout human history and still exists to today.

Now am I am I supporting slavery? Am I endorsing slavery or certainly not? But what I am saying is that when we look with a myopic lens at one period of history and say this is what slavery Is or was we miss the bigger picture.

Paul lived at a time where slavery was the norm. Think about it. There was no Walmart to work for there was no public's that you could go and become a. We work for public's it. What are you looking at management?

Yeah, it's something yeah, you couldn't become a management manager at Publix in general there were Cultural divides and the cultural divides were those who own things and those who didn't and those who had Property and those who didn't and those who had property tend to own the property and tend to have servants who work for them.

There were slaves and Slavery was based in the time of Paul more on economics. It was a matter of social status. People sold themselves as slaves and they could not pay their debts or provide for their families.

And in The time of Paul sometimes doctors and lawyers and even politicians were slaves of someone else. Some people actually chose to be slaves so as to have all their needs provided for them by their masters.

And here's a good example of that. Do you remember the time when? Jesus told the parable of the prodigal son. I remember the prodigal son takes his father's wealth and he squanders it in loose living and then ends up in the pig slop and The prodigal son when he comes to himself in that moment in the pig slop and he says what he says my father's hired servants Live better than this.

I'll go back and be a slave to my father because we better to be that than to be this. So he understood that there was a Way in which he could live a better life, even if he was living as a servant of someone else.

It's interesting when you study the scripture and you look throughout the Bible. You'll note that the Bible never really condemns slavery as Outright. In fact John MacArthur did say this we're talking about his book.

He says in no place in scripture. Is there any effort ever made to abolish slavery and at no time did any prophet or preacher or teacher or apostle ever attack it? That makes us uncomfortable. Well, I don't like that.

But understand this the Bible does address certain things. The Bible does condemn Kidnapping and what we would call the Bible uses the term man-stealing. So to go and kidnap someone and force them into slavery was an abominable act even prior to the New Testament even in the Old Testament Exodus 21 16 Whoever steals a man and sells him and anyone found in possession of him shall be put to death.

So there was a law which Forbid stealing men and selling men and it was punishable by a capital punishment so we're not endorsing any form of treating human beings in That way the Bible doesn't endorse that.

In fact, it thoroughly condemns it but there was a sense in which the culture of Slavery master and servant was understood to have its place at this time in history so much. So that when Paul wrote a letter To a man named Philemon.

And you have this in your Bible go home and read it today it's one of the smaller books of the New Testament and Back a few months ago. I preached through the little letters I called it this little letter series and I preached 2nd 3rd John Jude and Philemon because they were all the one chapter books and I showed how.

The interesting thing about Philemon is if you're unfamiliar with the story the story of Philemon is very simple there is a man named Onesimus who was a slave to Philemon and Onesimus ran away. He he ran away from his master and as he ran away from his master at some point He came in contact with the gospel probably under the preaching of the Apostle Paul and upon hearing the gospel and preaching from the Apostle Paul he asked what should I do and the Apostle Paul sent him back to Philemon, but he sent him with this letter.

And if you're unfamiliar with the letter the letter was simple. Paul says I could command you To treat this man like a brother. But I'm not going to do that. I'm gonna leave it to your conscience. I mean you maybe interpret it a little differently, but that seems to be the way Paul comes.

He doesn't command Philemon what to do, but he says here's what here's what you should do you should understand this man has become your brother in Christ and You should receive him as a brother. However, notice he doesn't say to Onesimus.

He doesn't say fight for your freedom. He says go back and submit yourself to this man, and we'll pray that this man will do what's right. So there is still the understanding of the master and slave relationship still the understanding of the one who has authority and the one who?

Is in submission and Paul Writes the letter to Philemon calling him to receive the slave as a brother so as we think about this subject of Masters and slaves and we think about the subject of slavery in general and we come back to Colossians.

What we need to understand is that? What is in view here is more important than masters and slaves? What is in view here is the concept of authority and submission? And this has been the overall concept that has been going since Paul began this section in fact.

This is what we've been talking about for three weeks if you've been here listening to me. We've been talking about authority and submission. What was the first thing wives what? Submit unto your husband and all God's people go away they right we don't want to hear that but the Bible is very clear it calls wives to submit unto their husbands as unto the Lord and it calls the husband to love the wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her and so there's a relationship of Respect and a relationship of authority and the wife is to respect her husband's authority.

So authority and submission is seen in the husband and wife relationship, and then it's children. Children do what? Remember we said last week the Greek word means to listen listen to your parents obey them.

Hear them and he says children obey your parents. But fathers understand this you have a role in the home as well. Your role of authority is not unchecked power. You are not a mini tyrant, but what you are is you are to be a godly man?

Who does not provoke your children? I was thinking about that this week. Jennifer and I were talking about that very thing. About how easy it is for a father to pervert to provoke his children in regard to faith to lay upon his children burdens and expectations.

That aren't in line with Scripture or maybe maybe they are in line with Scripture. But your child is not yet a believer and yet you're placing these burden and saying you must do this. You must feel this way.

You must think this way not allowing the Spirit to do the work. But thinking you yourself are the Holy Spirit. How many fathers have exacerbated their children in regard to the church? And how many children grow up and say I don't want any part of that.

So there are dangers and there's a responsibility For the child to obey but for the father to under recognize his authority and and to be a godly father to be a loving father and. Then we come to this third Relationship again the outside relationship the masters and servants the the master and the slave and he says to the servant He says you are serving Christ.

Because in every act of submission in this list when wives submit to the husbands. It's asked to the Lord when the children submit to the parents. It's fitting in the Lord and when the slave submits to the master it is as to the Lord.

Why. Because the ultimate authority is not the husband the ultimate authority is not the father. The ultimate authority is not the master. The ultimate authority is Christ. That's Paul's Entire point in every area of life where we are called to recognize authority.

We are being called to recognize the authority of God first. In fact, if you have your Bibles just very quickly turn with me to Romans 13. Now I don't have the time to go through all of Romans 13 and there are many things that we would do well to study.

But I want to look at verse 1 very quick quickly. I don't have it on the screen. So I'll just read it to you from here. It says in Romans chapter 13 verse 1. Let every person Be subject to the governing authorities.

For there is no authority except from God and Those that exist Have been instituted By God, why are we called to recognize authority according to this passage? Because God establishes authority. Why are we called to submit to authority?

Because authority comes from God. Now, I know you're itching in your seat to want to talk about the exceptions. Well, what about when the government commands us to do that, which is evil? Well, the Bible is clear We obey God and not men.

But you know not everything the government calls us to do is evil. And not everything we are called to submit to is wrong. But we are always looking for the exceptions rather than the places where we should submit.

You say but I'm an American we don't submit to nothing don't tread on me, you know. Get the flag with the Rattler and on it and the yellow and you know, it's called something. Thank you. I Should know that I'm gonna get I'm gonna get somebody gonna say something for me not knowing that.

Yeah, you can give me a hard time and I'm you know I Am for standing for truth, you know that I've said from this pulpit I think there may come a time where I have to talk to my family through glass because some of what I say may eventually Become illegal.

That don't mean I'm gonna say it. There's a movie one time. My wife and I were watching there's a movie about a missionary in Russia and he was. They were in a room this guy was saying things that were ungodly and the man Said to his wife.

He said someone should say something and she said well, why don't you say something? And he said well if I say something you won't have a husband. And she said I'd rather have a husband. She said I'd rather not have a husband than to have a husband who's a coward.

Thanks wife, here we go. All right. But that's the reality right. Submission to authority does not mean that we give up godliness because there's one authority that's above all authorities. There's an authority that's over Joe Biden.

There's an authority that's over the UN. There's an authority that's over every organization in the world. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ and we submit to him first. There's an authority that's over you husbands.

There's an authority that's over you fathers. And it's the Lord Jesus Christ and his authority. Trump's your authority. And when you exercise authority in your home, you should do so under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And you should actually when speaking to your children explain to them that I'm not speaking on only on my own authority. But I'm coming to you as an ambassador of Christ. When I call you to repentance when I call my children to not do something or to do something I'm telling them it's because God has said this not me.

So again, this whole section is about recognizing authority and submission. I did put together a little a little graphic on the screen. Because and this is important and I know that some some some people have misused this some people have twisted this but it is very true.

So if you don't know this there God has established three authorities in the world that are all described in his word very clearly and the three authorities are the home the church and the government we would say the familial authority the Ecclesiastical authority and the civil authority.

So when we're thinking in terms of masters and servants. We no longer have masters and servants in our world. We no longer live in America where there are masters and servants there are in other places, but there's not here.

So we say how do we apply this whole whole idea of masters and servants? Well, we step back and we say what's the underlying principle. The underlying principle is authority and submission. The underlying authority is there are times where you're in a position of authority there are times where you're in a position of submission and you need to understand where you are and you need to Relate to each one of those under God so for instance in your home in Your home there's a structure at least there should be a biblical structure.

The structure is the father is the protector the provider and the pastor of the home and Men, if you haven't heard my sermon on that, I'll send it to you if you want it. You have a threefold role in your home.

You are to protect your family even if it means your own life and I don't just mean from the guy trying to break in in the middle of the night you protect your family from bad theology. You protect your family from wolves and sheep's clothing.

You protect your daughters from boys who only can see one thing and from your sons from women who are. That's the Proverbs says the whorish woman who wants to come and steal his virtue. Right. You have a responsibility to protect your family.

You have a responsibility to provide for your family if your family's going hungry. I ain't talking to your wife. I'm gonna talk to you. As you have a responsibility to provide for your family and you have a responsibility to pastor your home.

Meaning be the spiritual shepherd of your family. And so that's the structure the husband is in the role of protector provider pastor the wife is the is the Supporter she is his Help mate as the scripture says she's created to be everything.

He isn't not everything he is and She comes alongside and she submits to his leadership. Together they raise the children and the fear and admonition of the Lord that's the family and Then we have the second structure which is the church and in case you didn't realize it there's actually ecclesiastical authority.

The Bible does establish an authority within the church and it ain't me. I'm not a Protestant Pope. I'm serious people think sometimes the the the the preaching pastor is the head guy. He's in charge.

Now Ecclesiastically the Bible says that Paul appointed elders in every church and the elders led the church the presbyters the overseers the word Episcopal means to oversee and That's the elders of the church and they have the responsibility like in the home they have the responsibility to protect the church from false teaching and to provide sound teaching and To lead and guide and provide counsel and wisdom and all of the things that we struggle so much to do and there are men in the church who are called deacons and those deacons are responsible to serve the body and To come alongside.

The elders now, they're not our wives. But in a way they are they are helping to Serve the body in any way the body has need and the body still has a responsibility to serve within itself. What does Ephesians say.

Ephesians says we do the work of ministry? No, we we teach so that the church does the work of ministry that you minister to one another. And that's the structure of the church. Governments are different governments.

You know, we're living at a very weird time only in the last 250 years. Has there been anything like a constitutional republic or a state? Government throughout the history. It's almost exclusively exclusively been monarchies.

Even though we could go back to ancient Rome and talk about some of the democracy and things that existed in that time almost always there's been a form of democracy or egal. Was egalitarian leadership or there's a small group leading.

But in any way there's a governmental authority. There's also two other authorities and these are ones that we don't talk about a lot. But the two other authorities are the authority within the individual you realize that on an individual level.

You are called to be self-disciplined. That we shouldn't always have to have somebody to tell us right from wrong. But that God has given us his Holy Spirit and the Bible actually says the Apostle Paul says he said I my favorite verse in The King James I buffet my body.

No, he said I buff it my body. Bad joke. No, he said he said he said I Discipline my body and bring it under subjection so that when I preach to others I myself will not be a castaway. He's saying I actually discipline myself so as I don't have to necessarily have to have this one or that one tell me what's wrong because I know what's right from.

Wrong and I have to discipline myself to do what's right from wrong and there's also vocational authority. I threw this one in there because this is the way most people apply the master-servant relationship today.

Most people don't do any of the stuff I talked about. I listen to several sermons this week trying to see is anybody gonna talk about slavery. Nobody want to talk about slavery by the way, the legacy standard Bible Is a recent translation and I'm not for new Bible translations.

And I just think we have too many to begin with but I I will say this about the legacy standard Bible. One of the things they did was they went and translated Dulos as slave rather than a servant to try to bring back this understanding of.

We are slaves to Christ. So if you don't have one, you know, look it up online. You'll see in this passage. It says in in Colossians 3 it says slaves. Obeying everything you're earthly masters. Just a thought.

But getting back to the the idea that I was saying. Most people don't want to talk about masters and slaves today. So they immediately run to the idea of vocational authority and I will admit that that is an application that can be made.

If you are in a vocation, and by the way, that means your job. If you are in a vocation. You have a responsibility to your boss. You have a responsibility to your manager to be on time to do what you're supposed to do to work as unto the Lord.

And when you don't do that, you're actually sinning against God. When you take advantage of a man who's paying you to do a job and you don't do it. Yes, that's a sin you're robbing from that man. I Don't like to hear that Paul says when we do this job.

Whatever it is. We're to do everything in the name of Christ. We do everything to glorify him. Christians should be the best employees. Christians should be the best volunteers. By the way, just if you're just in case you even if you're not being paid if you've committed to doing something.

You should do it the absolute best you can. You shouldn't have to have a paycheck to do it unto the Lord. If you've committed to being a servant you be the servant in whatever way you have committed to being we don't have heart.

We give our whole heart. So looking back at the text, I want to I also want to read real quick. We have Colossians chapter 3. We just read that. I want to look at Ephesians 6 and then I want to give some thoughts about these two as we begin to Not really draw to a close.

I'm just too excited. But as we begin to Move to the body of the sermon. Bond servants. This is Ephesians 6 and again this I'm reading from the ESV. We could say slaves. It says bond servants obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling with a sincere heart as you would Christ.

Not by way of eye service as people please pleasers. But as bond servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. Rendering service with a goodwill as to the Lord and not to men knowing that whatever good anyone does this he will receive back from The Lord whether it is whether he is a bond servant or free.

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 so if you compare Colossians 3 and Ephesians 6 these are the things you can draw from that in regard to being a slave or a servant he says obey your earthly masters and Do so with sincerity.