Sermon Tone Analysis

*Slaves who Make their Savior Beautiful and the Gospel Believable ~~ Titus 2:9-10*

/Preached by Pastor Phil Layton at Gold Country Baptist Church on August 10, 2008/

www.goldcountrybaptist.org

* *

Teachers Rules from Old Town Sacramento Schoolhouse for the year 1872:

-         Men teachers may take one evening each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if they go to church regularly

-         After ten hours in school, the teachers may spend the remaining time reading the Bible or other good books

-         Women teachers who marry [will be dismissed, and any who] engage in unseemly conduct will be dismissed

-         Any teacher who smokes, uses liquor in any form, frequents pool or public halls, or gets shaved in a barber shop will give good reason to suspect his worth, intention, integrity, and honesty

 

Here are the Rules for Teachers in 1915 (Cabell County West Virginia Board of Education):

-         You will not marry during the term of your contract

-         You are not to keep company with men

-         You must be home between the hours of 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.

unless attending a school function

-         You may not loiter downtown in ice cream stores

-         You may not travel beyond the city limits unless you have the permission of the chairman of the board

-         You may not ride in a carriage or automobile with any man unless he is your father or brother

-         You must wear at least two petticoats

-         Your dresses must not be any shorter than two inches above the ankle

/ /

It’s interesting how much things have changed.

But as we look at Titus 2 again today, while societies change and and while there are some cultural connotations that may differ and vary depending on time and place, a scriptural truth never changes and always applies.

Our conduct and how we carry ourselves before others reflects on what or who we represent.

You may disagree with some of the rules of a superior, you may think a standard unfair or unnecessary, but all your opinions and complaints don’t change the reality that /who you work for/ and /how you work for them/ (in submission with a cheerful heart rather than grumbling) is very important to God.

I can guarantee you that you have less to grumble about at work than the group we’ll see addressed today – slaves in bonds to masters who didn’t have just labor laws in their society, or love in their heart for them.

Ultimately you’re representing something much more critical than any earthly organization, you work for a much higher Master and reality, and how you live your everyday life (whether inside or outside your workplace or home) either reflects God and the gospel or it rejects God and the gospel practically.

/ /

Titus 2:4 calls women to “encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 /to be /sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, *so that the word of God will not be dishonored.*

6 Likewise urge the young men to be sensible; 7 in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, /with /purity in doctrine, dignified, 8 sound /in /speech which is *beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.* 9 /Urge /bondslaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, 10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith *so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect.

*11 For the *grace of God* has appeared, bringing *salvation* to all men

/ /

This is a God-centered, gospel-motivated, grace-empowered plea: Something much more important than your sense of fulfillment in your life and work is at stake here, and Titus 2 tells us it is the glory of God, the honor of Christ and His Word, the beauty of our Savior and believability of the transforming grace of the gospel!

/ /

We have been studying through this wonderful /little/ book to Titus that has /big/ truths.

Originally this book was written to Titus for the churches on the island of Crete, a colony of the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Sea.

As the letter would be read by Titus in the churches there would be Christian slaves in the room, many of whom had non-Christian masters.

God’s Word in Titus 2 has something to say about the vital role of all His people, of every status and sex and stage of life as we’ve seen in past weeks (male and female, young and old) including those in bonds who may have been very low in the eyes of the pagan world, but who had a very high calling and role in the eyes of the Most High God who they ultimately serve.

Titus 2:9-14 (NASB95) 9 /Urge /bondslaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, 10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith *so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect.*

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to *all men* *[all classes of men, including slaves and even wicked slave-traders]*, 12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, 14 *who gave Himself for us to redeem us* from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself *a people for His own possession [NKJV “his own special people”]*, zealous for good deeds.

Slaves may not have had a promise of earthly redemption from slavery or earthly deliverance or emancipation, but they were well familiar with it (hoped for it), understood the /spiritual/ redemption of v. 14 well.

They may not have been a special people group in the eyes of the Greco-Roman world, but they were in the eyes of God.

They may not have had a good human master, but they had an unspeakably glorious and loving Heavenly Master, Jesus Christ.

And this passage calls on them despite their difficult and degraded and discouraging circumstance in life, to glorify God and His gospel by how they lived and served.

And if God’s grace was sufficient for them to do that, it is sufficient for us as well!

In fact, God’s amazing grace is the /only /explanation for how this passage could be possible for slaves in the Roman Empire and that is the whole point that should be seen by a watching world.

I’ve often heard well-meaning preachers read the passages addressing slaves in the NT and they’ll say “just substitute the word /employee/ instead of slave and /employer/ instead of master” – but let’s not be so quick to do that lest we miss the full import and impact God intended.

We went to be careful to keep interpretation and application in order.

I can understand why it’s easier to jump over this uncomfortable subject and instead just view it through the lenses of our more comfortable modern society, and of course God’s Word here has /application/ to our labor force structure in America, by extension.

But we need to first understand, as always, not /what does this mean to me, /but what did this mean originally when God inspired it through the original author to the original audience and setting.

As we do that, we will see in even greater light how immensely relevant and revolutionary and powerful God intended verse 9-10 to be both then and now.

Verse 9 does not begin with “employees” or “volunteers” and it doesn’t even use “servants” (this is not any of the six different Greek words that lexicons say can be translated “servants”).

This is the plural of the Greek word /doulos, /which all the best sources unanimously say /doulos /refers to a slave.

If you weren’t here in April 13 of this year when I taught on “slaves” you really need to get that CD or listen or read online, because that may be one of the most important messages I’ve ever understood in life.

Of the groups Paul addresses in Titus 2, slaves may have been the largest.

If you can try and imagine this auditorium is a large house church on Crete, at least one out of every three of us in this room would be slaves.

Statistically that’s how many cities were.

In some parts of Asia Minor, slaves and ex-slaves outnum­bered free men.

/Is the Bible teaching slavery is good and ok? /

-         Paul is not arguing for the virtue or goodness of slavery as an institution by any means here; God is teaching us the virtue of glorifying Him by living grace-filled lives even in institutions that are not good, or by submission to ungodly authorities (Christians are also to submit to husbands who may not be good or to bad governments)

-         Paul does not condone or command or commend human slavery, and he didn’t own slaves himself

-         In 1 Corinthians 7 he says if you have a choice not to put yourself in bondage to another, and if you have the opportunity to become free, take it by all means

-         In 1 Timothy 1:10 Paul lists kidnapping for slavery as one of the sins that is practiced by the ungodly 

-         God did sometimes allow conquered nations in the O.T. to be slaves as a judgment on their sin, but they were not to be treated as pagans did.

Slaves were freed on year of Jubilee

-         If a Jew was caught kidnapping or slave-trading, Exodus 21 imposes the death penalty 

-         If someone did have a slave and treated them very cruelly (ex: beat them to injury), OT law required them to be freed

 

The concern and care for slaves and aliens and foreigners and widows and women in need in Scripture is in stark contrast to the rest of the ancient world.

God’s Word had hope for each group.

The fact that the Bible discusses slavery does not mean that God instituted it, ordained it, or approves of it – any more than its discussion of divorce which it also regulates though God hates it.

The Bible recognizes that some human situations exist because of the hardness of sinful hearts, and what God does is provide principles for how we can glorify Him under any circumstance.

Slavery at that time was not the same as slavery in America:

-         Not mainly agricultural (slaves might be physicians, barbers, administrators, tutors, etc.), not kept uneducated (many were intentionally educated), not skin-color-based

-         many were freed either by good owners or by someone who would come and pay a ransom to redeem them, to buy back

-         Sometimes their children could be granted citizenship which may have been true of Paul’s parents (grandparents?)

-         If you had a good master, it could be quite different than the slavery we think of, but there’s no question that many slaves were severely mistreated and life could be miserable 

-         Legally and socially they were not on the same playing field with everyone else, they were at their master’s mercy

-         You can read horror stories of how cruel masters treated slaves in ancient times.

Far better to be a day laborer, toiling in the sun up to 12 hours a day at least six days a week, than to be an unpaid slave with an evil master

-         When you read v. 9, don’t think of an employee who gets paid hourly for a 9-5 job and goes home on the weekends

-         think of someone who has been paid for by someone else who is his owner and master and who every day of his life is now controlled by his master for better or worse

-         A /doulos /did not negotiate his salary, there was no signing bonus or benefits in his contract, there was just bondage

-         A /doulos /did not have much choice or rights or free will or hope for freedom or personal fulfillment or anything independent of the whim and will of his master or lord

-         The master had legal power to do essentially anything he wanted to his slaves.

You can read real-life examples of some who crucified their slaves for killing a household pet

-         one had his slave eaten by animals for breaking a vase

-         You can read Greek writers as famous as Aristotle on down who described slaves as being just a tool or instrument you own, hardly distinguishable from the animals you own

-         A common view was that they were basically subhuman

-         Not all masters or lords were so cruel or harsh, but many of them were, and it is to some of these that Titus 2:9 says:

*9 **/Urge /**bondslaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative,** **10 **not pilfering, but showing all good faith*

 

~*This is why it’s important to understand the historical context: Paul is not giving this command of proper submission and work attitude to 21st century Americans sitting all day in a chair in an air-conditioned office.

He is talking to bond-slaves, some of whom may have been in working conditions and environments far worse than we could ever imagine, with masters that would make the worst of your bosses look nice in comparison.

And Scripture tells *slaves* not to complain – /how dare we be complainers and discontent Americans?!/

 

The application – if Christians should and could glorify God by their attitude and service as slaves where they had pagan masters who mistreated them mercilessly – if these commands applied to them, how much more should we respond when we get to go home with our freedom at the end of each day?

If overworked unpaid unappreciated people in bondage were to obey these principles, how much more those of us who get paid to work?

Without question and without exception, no matter how difficult your week was at work, or what project you’re working on or who your dealing with or have problems with, or what’s stressing you out, none of us can come close to what some of the original readers of this passage had to go through.

It’s not even in the same arena.

But the same Word of God and same Spirit of God applies to both us and them – we have no excuse not to glorify God in our work.

So God inspired Paul to write this passage giving slaves (and us) *five ways to glorify God in YOUR work*.

*#1 – Be Submissive*

9 /Urge /bondslaves *to be subject to their own masters in everything,*

 

The verb for urging is actually carried over from v. 6. Submission must be exhorted.

This is the same expression in verse 5 where wives are to be submissive to or subject to their own husbands.

This same expression is used in Titus 3:1 where it says we are “to be subject to rulers, to authorities” (ex: government).

The Greek word appears some 40 times where the KJV elsewhere translates it as “subdue” or “subject” or “submit ~/ submissive” or “put under” every time except for Titus 2 and one other place where they translate it as “obedient” for some reason.

But the word is broader than and different than the other Greek word translated “obey” in the next phrase of Titus 3:1 – the word for obey is more a subset of and flows out of submission.