What Starts at Home Goes to Work
Third, Paul never hints that he endorses the institution of slavery. He tells slaves and masters how they are to conduct themselves within the institution, but it is a bad misreading of Paul to read into his teaching approval of the institution itself.
For Jesus and the apostles to have called for slavery’s abolition would have been to promote unemployment and social chaos. Further, the saving message of the gospel would have been swallowed up in the call for social reform. Eventually, the influence of Christianity helped bring an end to abusive forms of slavery in the Roman Empire.
Slaves were attached to households in Paul’s day, but we can apply these same truths to Christian employers and employees today. Paul reminds servants that they have masters according to the flesh as well as a heavenly Master, Christ. The Christian employee is to work to honor and please Christ. “Eyeservice” (v. 22) means working when the employer is watching. But the heavenly Master is always watching! We are not to be men-pleasers, but Christ-pleasers.
They need to serve the Lord Christ not only in order to receive their inheritance but also to avoid punishment for doing wrong (v. 25).
Slaves and masters ultimately serve the same Lord, and that fundamental spiritual reality not only relativizes their earthly relationship but even sets the stage for its abolishment.
They must resist the false teachers, but they must also continue to reach out to their fellow citizens.
The obedience required of slaves is not external service, doing a duty with a reluctant attitude, as those who merely please men. Rather, Christian servants are to please the Lord by working with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Holding God and His will in high regard is the right motive. They are to work heartily (putting their whole inner man into the effort), as for the Lord rather than for men, serving their master as they would the Lord Himself.
It would be well for us to review Ephesians 5:18–6:9 and note the parallels between that passage and the one we have just studied. This section of Ephesians emphasizes being filled with the Spirit, while the Letter to the Colossians emphasizes being filled with the Word; but the evidences are the same: joyful, thankful, and submissive living. To be filled with the Spirit means to be controlled by the Word.
The fullness of the Spirit and the fullness of the Word are needed in the home. If family members are controlled by the Spirit of God and the Word of God, they will be joyful, thankful, and submissive—and they will have little trouble getting along with each other. Christian employers and employees will treat each other fairly if they are filled with the Spirit and the Word.