Masters and Servants (first draft)

Frame:

Introduction:

I. Bondservants

A. The Law

B. The Gospel

II. Masters

A. The Law

B. The Gospel

Introduction: Tough terms, why I’m talking directly to you, and a road Map

I. Bondservants

Colossians 3:22–25 “Bondservants, 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.”

A. The Law

I. What obedience

Colossians 3:22 “Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters,”

This passage is an outright command that bondservants—slaves— are to obey in everything those who are their earthly masters.

An immediate duality is shown at the end with the distinction of earthly masters.

Subsequent Scriptures in this passage make it very clear that there is a supreme heavenly Master — the Triune God.

Our heavenly Master has commanded our obedience to earthly masters.

And our obedience to our heavenly master informs our obedience to our earthly masters.

Everything?

Paul writes: “obey in everything”.

Immediately, the word “everything” scrapes against our conscience. We have to ask “everything…?”

Well, yes, in the way Paul means it…everything.

But we are not to do what God’s Law forbids and we are not to forbid what God’s Law commands.

If you’re boss asked you to kill someone, or unjustly fire, or act inappropriately — you are not to do those things.

If you’re boss makes sexual advances toward you — you have a biblical command (and example, see: Joseph) to flee from them.

If you’re boss asks you to participate in an unethical practice — you must not obey them.

However, being obedient to your earthly master by being obedient to your earthly master could (and probably will) lead you to have to make hard decision.

You could have to facilitate mass lay-offs.

You could have to fire your best friend because he’s not doing a very good job and doesn’t want work hard.

In the first century context, slaves could often act as managers of the household, they could be delegates and representatives in a political atmosphere.

Questions like these could have been pretty practical for them as they are for us.

But Paul does narrow his focus in giving a “how-to” guide on obedience in this context.

II. How to obey

Colossians 3:22–23 “Bondservants, 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,”

Paul gives 6 exhortations and steps to obeying earthly masters faithfully:

Question for class: What are the exhortations?

Keifer note: List and explain one at a time after list is made.

1. not by way of eye-service

Meaning: don’t just work when the boss is looking.

I think it’s safe to say this is one of tempting problems we have right now with the invention of the cell phone.

Question for the class: how much company time do you spend on your phone?

Anecdote: The Stranger Things phenomenon at my corporate job.

We are employed to do a job, and when we waste company time doom scrolling that is theft.

Which clearly, the Bible condemns: Exodus 20:15 ““You shall not steal.”

And maybe it’s not that, maybe it’s online shopping, spending too much time at the water cooler or in the bathroom. Whatever.

2. not as people pleasers

I think there’s three ways to look at this.

First, do you only do work when the boss is around?

Question for the class: how much time company time do you spend on your phone and when the boss comes around you shove your phone away and pretend to be doing work?

That’s sin.

and this first way encompasses the next ways.

Only working when the boss around means you’re not working with sincerity, or fear of the Lord. It means your lazy and you’re working for men.

3. not with insincerity

A second way of working as a people pleaser is working without sincerity.

You don’t really care if you do an outstanding job or not, you’re just trying to please the people who write the checks.

I have 100% been here.

Have you?

I have had jobs that felt like they were draining my soul.

I confess that there have been jobs in my life when I didn’t any of this. I was exactly who Paul’s writing to.

And I know I’m not alone because notice that Paul’s language is general and not specific, clearly disobedience to masters is a widespread problem.

The principles Paul gives are bold, broad, and biblical.

Pleasing God over man, fearing the Lord, being sincere, and not being lazy are not principles not limited to this paragraph or business ethics.

1 Thessalonians 2:4 “but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.”

Ecclesiastes 12:13 “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”

Joshua 24:14 ““Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.”

4. not without fear of the Lord

Do not work without the fear of the Lord.

Ultimately, we serve the Lord and the outworking of our obedience to Him, comes our biblical work ethic.

We ought to live and work with the fear of the Lord.

As we shall see in a moment when we talk about the Gospel — but we don’t fear that the Lord will wipe us out because we disobeyed. Christ has been punished in our place.

But we fear the Lord because he’s worthy of our fear.

The Lord deserves our fear.

He is the Triune God who’s throne room is filled with thunder and lightning.

Psalm 29 “A Psalm of David. Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare, and in his temple all cry, “Glory!” The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forever. May the Lord give strength to his people! May the Lord bless his people with peace!”

We like to talk about how God alone deserves our praise — but it should be said God alone deserves our fear too.

5. not with laziness

Since the fall, man has hated labor.

The Bible is replete with passages about laziness.

Proverbs 13:4 “The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.”

Proverbs 21:25 “The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor.”

1 Timothy 5:8 “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”

Connected to working with sincerity, some of us just purposefully do bad work because we don’t want to do the work.

We don’t work with sincerity and give 100% of time, attention, and energy to what we’re paid to do because…we’re lazy.

Because we don’t want to do whatever it is.

My first job was working at a Video Rental Store called “Hollywood Video” where basically the main task was scanning DVD’s back in and putting them on the shelf…and you know what? There were people who didn’t want to do it.

6. not for men

Colossians 3:23 “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,”

Ephesians 6:5–9 “Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would 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 Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the 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 Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.”

It’s fascinating how close these two passages are with each other.

Paul really drives home the fact that we do work for man but we work for God.

Which brings me back to my original statement at the beginning: we are commanded to obey God and God commands us to obey our earthly masters. And ultimately are obedience to our earthly masters, is an outgrowth of our obedience to our heavenly Master.

At the end of the day, whether we are working at Starbucks, Best Buy, Lifeway Christian bookstore, Guitar Center, Hollywood Video, Ruby Tuesday’s, Movement Mortgage, leasing apartments, landscaping or pastoring at Living Faith (these are all jobs I’ve had) it’s all work for the Lord.

It doesn’t really matter what your job is — the principles discussed still stand.

III. This is God’s Law

This is all in fact God’s Law.

God’s Law is what He righteously requires and we are in these multiple passages commanded to do something.

We are to uphold God’s Law personally, perfectly, and perpetually.

To be in right standing with God we must obey His Law.

If you were here for my opening Galatians sermon I talked about God’s moral law and positive laws.

Moral Law can be summarized in the 10 commandments.

The positive laws of God are laws given to a special people in a place in special time in a covenantal context.

Such as “don’t eat from this tree” (Adam, in Eden, under the Covenant of Works).

These Laws here are for Christians, in God’s kingdom, under the New Covenant.

I believe all these commands can be sourced to the Moral Law but my point is that if you’ve broken any of these commandments — you’re not in right standing with God.

If we’re honest, when the time comes each week in our liturgy to confess our sins our minds usually go to lust we’ve succumbed to or anger that’s exploded in our hearts.

We really don’t think about the poor work we’ve done or the amount of company time we’ve sunk into water-cooler gossip.

The Anglican Book of Common prayer’s confession of sin reads as: “We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have don; and we have done those things which we ought tnot to have done;…”

We also sing that in the song “Lord, Have Mercy”.

But when we confess that, I would wager that often we don’t go to the workplace commandments we have broken.

Maybe we don’t think about all the work we’ve blown off in the past week?

But the fact is — we have broken God’s Law. We’ve have not kept it personally, perfectly, and perpetually.

Thankfully, we have the Gospel. Christ died for those sins!

Christ died for your terrible work ethic.

B. The Gospel

I. What inheritance

Colossians 3:23–24 “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.”

II. How to rest in work

II. Masters

A. The Law

B. The Gospel