Slavery and Submission

Ephesians 6:5-9

How do we practice submission under injustice? When it isn’t fair. When authority is unjust? Birth, circumstances, talents and work have put us in a position unfairly advantageous above some and below some.

A Christian serves whole heartedly. A Christian leads compassionately.

This kind of love changes civilizations and destroys injustice from within.

Life Isn’t Fair

Job at Comcash. Some great stories there.

Boss got paid four times what I did. And he did not do four times the work. In fact, he sat and played online poker all day. And he was really bad at it.

That was unfair.

Injustice

How do we practice submission under injustice?

Does the Bible condone slavery? Does it support it?

God – Submission under Injustice

Ephesians 6:5-9

5 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, 8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. 9 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.

Slavery in the Bible

“apparent indifference to the institution of slavery has to be seen in light of the prevailing attitudes to slavery. Hardly anyone considered the system optional or thought of an alternative.”

“In practice there was a broad continuum of statuses between slave and free… slaves of Greek owners could own property, their own slaves, obtain permission to take other employment…”

Some people sold themselves into slavery to climb in social status or to enjoy a better standard of living.

Some sources have said under Roman law a slave would normally be set free by age 30.

As much as two thirds of the Roman empire were slaves.

There were only really two employment categories. Either you owned land, in which case you were in the market to buy slaves or servants. Sometimes these were indentured servants, serving for a contracted period of time. Sometimes these were lifelong servants. There wasn’t a “middle class”.

So Paul applies this radical new life to the sphere of work and captures the reality of his audience.

You either “worked” as a master, as an employer, in which case your Christian life should radically affect the way you work.

Or, if you are a servant, an employee, your Christian life should radically affect the way you work.

Slavery is Unfair. So is Mastery

No all of that doesn’t sugar coat this: slavery is wrong. It is unjust. It is not right. Paul, when urges Philemon, the master of the runaway slave Onesimus, to free his slave. There is a circumspection in the way NT writers speak about slavery.

The gospel subverts slavery from within. In particular, Christian masters who are serving and submitting to their slaves should and must free them if that is for their good or if they desire it.

But even in the common NT situation, where it is best economically and culturally for a slave to stay and slave… and even for a master to stay a master

It is unfair that one is a slave and one is a master.

It is mostly determined by birth. It is somewhat shaped by circumstance. It is nudged by a combination of talent and hard-work through lifetimes, but talent and capacity for hard-work are also hugely shaped by birth and circumstance.

The whole story that leads to one being born into slavery is unfair. The whole story that leads to one being born into mastery is unfair.

Slaves – as Slaves to the Master

5 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, 8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.

Obeying. Fully. To the best of one’s ability. Not simply to look good but actually as if you were serving a Master worth serving with all your heart. In other words, take the unfair service you render now to people who don’t deserve and do it as an act of service, an act of worship even, to Jesus.

In the economy of God, he takes any good done for anyone and gives it back.

So there is this great simplifying principle: You are a slave. Serve a Master worth serving.

Life isn’t fair. He is. He is just and He is good. There is no cosmic Karma… but there is One who created the cosmos who returns good for good.

Serve a Master worth serving. Because He is worth serving, that changes the way that you work. It changes the way you work with others and for others.

Master – as Slaves to the Master

9 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.

Masters, do the same… Do the same refers to rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man. That is, the “Masters” who claim to follow Christ are then slaves as well to Christ. This then radically alters their interactions with their slaves.

If their slaves are Christians, they already have this obligation to submit themselves to them as to Christ. And what insanity would it be for one slave to Lord over a fellow slave, to threaten them knowing they both answer to the same ultimate Master. And Jesus is not going to honor any economic superiority, any social standing. There is simply nothing external that you could possibly have that would influence Jesus. There is no partiality with him.

You too serve a Master worth serving. And that changes the way you work. That changes the way you work with those who for you and those who you work for.

It Isn’t Fair. Serve Anyway.

My Boss was Wrong. I was Wrong

So my boss was unjust and unfair and wrong in his treatment of me and my friend at work. He shouldn’t have threatened me.

But I was wrong too. He wasn’t worthy of serving. He wasn’t a fair master. It wasn’t fair that he was my boss. He wasn’t qualified, necessarily… but my service was unworthy of my actual Master.

Life isn’t fair. You already know that. And this especially comes out in our workplaces. You know who works hard and who doesn’t. Have you ever done a group project where you did all the work and someone else shared (or even stole) all the credit? Unfair. Or where your boss makes twice what you do and plays online poker all day.

You are Disadvantaged

We all can list people who are more blessed than we. They have more money. They have more talent. They are better looking. They have had more opportunities in life. They have had less disaster and complications in life.

And, as has always been true, the images and stories of the “best of the best” get broadcast everywhere, so you are always hearing about those who have more.

You can make a lifetime of grasping after the “more”. Social status. Economic gain. More kinds of freedom, more kinds of opportunity. They call that the rat race and we know it is empty.

Or… you can serve a Master worth serving. The good you do in His name, for His name, comes with the only guaranteed return on investment in this life in this Universe.

Life is unfair, but He is good.

You are Blessed and Gifted

Most of us usually tend to see ourselves on the down side of this unfairness, because we are looking up at those who have more.

Understand that you are on the tippy top of the heap in this “fairness” game. If your annual family income is $34k or higher, you are in the top 1% of the world! Crazy town. And that is just counting people alive today. Across history, your quality of life is insane, your freedom of choice, your vistas of opportunity. It is ridiculously unfair in your favor.

And you are responsible to God for what you have been given. To leverage your wealth, your freedom, your opportunities for His glory and His Kingdom. In particular, in the context of this passage, you are responsible to use your economic and social power .

It isn’t fair how much you have. Use it for your Master. There is no favoritism with him.

It isn’t fair. Serve anyway. Love anyway.

This is incredibly humbling. God is not impressed with my programming ability. He programmed the Universe. He crafted my intellect. He was Sovereign King over every shaping event of my life, every educational opportunity, every moment. So he isn’t impressed if (when) I program the most advanced software known to man. He is glorified if that software is used, somehow, to love Him and love my neighbor.

It isn’t fair. It isn’t equal. We aren’t after equality. We are after something better. Serve anyway. Love anyway.

Serve the Master worth serving, and allow that to change the way you work. Your time card goes to Jesus. Your expense report goes to Jesus. Your Internet History goes to Jesus. Work in a way that glorifies your Master.

A Community of Slaves

Ultimately this is what we are: a community of slaves to Christ. We are united in that. United by it. We serve together and we serve a Master worth serving.

Our context is still this mutual submission to one another as we are filled with the Holy Spirit. The early church was radically diverse across economic and social lines. Slaves and Free serving right alongside each other. And they were willing, eager, to serve as slaves to the Master worth serving together.

And that put them on one plane together. All on the same bus. All chasing after the One.

And ultimately it is that kind of love, the love that realizes we are brothers and sisters together… it is that love that changes and Empire.

In later years, a man named Onesimus became bishop of Ephesus. Entirely possible that it is the same Onesimus that Paul urged Philemon to free from slavery. Brother to brother, slaves together to the Master.

It is taking Millennia, but again and again it has been the great Truths of Christian love that have been eradicating slavery from our world. This is the kind of love that changes society, changes culture, transcends politics. It subverts from within.

It is no small thing when our lives change to look more like his. It feels like these small steps in Christian discipleship… but the it changes things in the spiritual realm. We will see over the next few weeks, it wins spiritual wars.

Let it start in our families.

Let it start in our workplaces.

Let it start in our church.

Let’s serve the only Master worth serving.