Being built up... (25)

Work as if God is your boss...

This morning, we’re going to look at a section of Scripture that deals with slaves and masters. Slavery was a part of society in the 1st century, and it has plagued society in the last two millennia. Even today there are slaves in parts of the world.

Many might think,

How is this possible?

According to World Population Review, there are 167 countries that harbour approximately 46 million slaves.

Modern slavery might have another definition than other forms of slavery, but here’s their definition.

“...the U.S. Department of State defines modern slavery as

"the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for compelled labor or commercial sex acts through the use of force, fraud or coercion."

Similarly, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs describes modern slavery as not just laborers "owned" by other people, but also forced marriages, state-imposed forced labor, and victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

In the Apostle Paul’s day, many slaves were treated less than human. Masters could be brutal, so he addressed the way slaves, as Christians, should act towards their masters, and then he addresses those who owned slaves.

It ‘s crazy to think this, but slave owners used the same Bible to condone their right to own slaves, as men like William Wilberforce did, who pushed for the abolition of slavery.

Let’s take a look at our Scripture and see how we can apply it to our lives.

Ephesians 6:5–9 NLT

5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. 6 Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. 7 Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. 8 Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do, whether we are slaves or free. 9 Masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Don’t threaten them; remember, you both have the same Master in heaven, and he has no favorites.

Paul starts with the statement,

Slaves obey your earthly masters...

Paul uses the same word “to obey”, for slaves obey your earthly masters, as he did for,

Ephesians 6:1 NIV

1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

Why did Paul instruct slaves to obey their earthly masters? Didn’t he see the atrocities and mistreatment? Did he care for the slaves? Didn’t he know that they deserved to be free?

We can see injustices in our day. We can even feel like we have been mistreated. Possibly we have even experienced some form of abuse in our lives, and I want you to know that God has seen each tear that you have cried. He empathizes with us in our times of weakness. He carries us in our times of sorrow.

I think in life, we’ll find that we aren’t always in ideal circumstances. The grass can look greener on the other side of the proverbial fence. The work is too hard. The pay is too little. I’m not being treated very well.

We can allow the circumstances of life to embitter us, or

We can bloom where we are planted...

How do we react in the adverse trials in life? Is your work just a job, or do you treat it as the place where God has positioned you for this season in your life?

Let’s read the first part of our Scripture again, and then look at a couple of stories from the Bible in which we can glean truths for our lives.

Ephesians 6:5–8 NIV

5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.

Here are a few words that pop out of these verses:

Respect

Fear

Sincerity of heart

Slaves of Christ...

Doing the will of God from your heart

Serve whole heartedly

The Lord will reward you...

Paul is speaking to slaves, but we can apply this to the

employer/employee relationship

or to

business

such as custom work or paying bills.

How seriously do we take our work? Do we treat our work the same when nobody is watching, or if others see what we do? It should be the same regardless if nobody will ever see or if it is seen by all.

In the book of Genesis, we have the story of

Joseph

He had every reason to be angry, bitter, despondent, apathetic, and yet Joseph did God’s will in whatever he did.

We first hear of Joseph in Genesis 30, but there’s a back story that leads us to the birth of Joseph.

His father, Jacob, who was a conniver. Twice he duped his brother Esau. First out of his birthright, and second out of his father’s blessing. So Jacob fled to his uncle Laban’s where he fell in love with his cousin Rachel.

If it was up to Jacob, he would have been married to Rachel on the spot, but his uncle Laban agreed to a bridal price. The cost, Jacob would work for Laban free of charge for seven years. At the end of the seven years, Laban out smarted Jacob and gave him Leah instead. After the wedding night, Jacob realized what had happened, he was fit to be tied. After this, Laban agreed to give Jacob Rachel for another seven years work.

To make a long story short, God allowed Leah to have children but not Rachel. After many years, Rachel was finally able conceive and this is what transpired.

Genesis 30:22–24 NIV

22 Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive. 23 She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.” 24 She named him Joseph, and said, “May the Lord add to me another son.”

Joseph grew up and was loved by his father more than any of his other brothers. They despised him and sold him into slavery. He ended up in an Egyptian’s house named Potiphar.

Genesis 39:2 NIV

2 The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.

Joseph was given great responsibility because Potiphar saw how God blessed Joseph.

Joseph worked hard. He honoured and respected his master. Even when you are seeing blessing, Satan can try to destroy the work of your hands.

Potiphar’s wife took a liking to Joseph and tried to get him to sleep with her. Joseph refused to sin against God and against his master. Being a man of integrity cost Joseph everything, except his integrity and his character. His reputation might have been destroyed, but he still had his character.

Joseph was thrown into prison. He could have became bitter. He could have given up. He could have quit. Even though Joseph had been slandered, he still walked with integrity and trusted God.

Genesis 39:20–22 (NIV)

20 ...But while Joseph was there in the prison,

21 the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.

22 So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there.

During all these seemingly wasted years in prison, Joseph served faithfully. There seemed to be no end to this dungeon, and yet God had a plan, and Joseph was in training so that one day he could lead this country so that when hard times came, they would survive.

What trial, what dungeon do you feel that you are in? Maybe God is preparing you for something ahead that you can’t see.

Work as though it is for the Lord. Serve Him faithfully. Trust Him fully. Let’s be respectful even when we don’t feel like respecting. Let’s honour even when honour isn’t due. Let’s do the will of the Lord out of a sincere heart.

You may not be rewarded by your employer. Hold on to hope, it is the Lord who will reward you. One day you will receive the crown of life.

James 1:12 NIV

12 Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

The Lord fought Joseph’s battles and he will fight yours.

What about the

Parable of the talents

In Matthew 25:14-30, we have the story of the parable of the talents, or bags of silver or gold. To one the master gave 5. To another he gave 2, and to the third servant he gave one. The first two doubled what had been given to them, and were commended, but the third servant buried his and did nothing with it. The master was furious and took from him what he had been given, and gave it to the one who now had ten.

Is there a take away from this story?

One would probably be,

Be faithful

with what you have been given.

Don’t be afraid to try...

The third servant believed that the master was hard and if he tried and failed, he would be punished, but he was actually punished for not trying at all.

God has blessed each of us with gifts and abilities. Let’s use them for God’s glory. If we hide what God has given us, we can’t grow in the gifts that we have, and it really doesn’t do anybody else any good either.

Colossians 3:23–24 NIV

23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

Let’s take a few minutes and see what Paul had to say about

Masters

Ephesians 6:9 NIV

9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

Just as slaves were called to treat their masters with honour, respect, sincerity of heart, to work with the same effort if seen or unseen, masters had the same calling from God.

As those in leadership, in management, bosses, we are called to honour those who are subject to us. In whatever we do, we need to walk with integrity of heart.

Does this mean that we should get trampled on by those who work for us? Does it mean that we should be taken advantage of by others. I don’t believe so, Christians should be enjoyable to work for and to deal with. We should be honest and fair, as well as merciful and kind.

I worked for a Christian boss for almost 9 years in the marketplace. He expected his employees to work hard, not being lazy, or cutting corners. He expected us to be honest and integral. He usually treated us with respect, and at times showed mercy. We were compensated fairly for what we did, and at the end of each day, he thanked us for what we did.

I want to give an example of fairness, and still a little bit of mercy.

One morning, I was unloading a pallet of eggs. There were probably 50 boxes of eggs each containing 15 dozen eggs per box.

Instead of unlatching the skirt at the top of the trailer, I thought I could unload the eggs. As I proceeded to back up with the forklift, one of the boxes caught the skirt. I’m not sure how many dozens of eggs became Humpty Dumpty, but I’d guess that there were 6 or 7 boxes that fell. That means 90-105 dozen plus the cartons or flats that they were in. Not every egg broke, but you probably get the drift.

John could have deducted the loss off of my wages. He could have fired me for doing something lazy and lacking intelligence, but he came up with a plan. The plan was that I could pay for the eggs by going and helping the customer, who was his brother, a former boss of mine for a Saturday on the farm doing whatever he wanted me to do.

That mistake cost me 8 hours of my life, but I even made $2.50, and a life lesson.

My mistake was never held against me, and we moved on. That was mercy.

Why were masters to treat their slaves honourably?

As Christians, we have the same Master.

When we are born again, when we give our lives to Jesus Christ, we become children of God.

John 1:12 NIV

12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—

As Christians, we are brothers and sisters in Christ. God is our Master and it doesn’t matter to Him if we are rich or poor, slave or free, male or female. He treats us all better than we deserve. He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve, and He doesn’t pick favourites.

You are the apple of God’s eye.

1 Peter 2:9–10 NIV

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Let’s be quick to love each other and use our gifts and abilities to the best of our ability to bring glory and honour to the Lord.

Let’s pray!