The Biblical View of Work and Labors

Transcript

GR 1279
7/18/2004
The Biblical View of Work and Labors
1 Timothy 6:1,2
Gil Rugh


We need to keep before us all the time the salvation God has provided for us in Christ, the Bible says we are born again, we are born from above, we become new creatures. And now we are the children of God and He has promised us as the culmination of our salvation, we will enjoy eternity in His presence. So our salvation takes care of our past and provides for our future. But it’s of utmost importance that we understand that the salvation God has provided in Christ also determines our present. His salvation is just as real and just as effective in His working in our daily lives as it has been in dealing with our past and as it is in guaranteeing our future and bringing that to pass. The salvation we have in Jesus Christ enables us to understand we are now His children, the children of God, living our lives under His control, seeing His perfect purpose and His perfect plan worked out in and through us for His honor and His glory. So it’s not like well we’ve been saved and our past has been dealt with and we have a glorious future and we’re just marking time until we can enter into the fullness of the glory of God’s presence. This present time is just as much an essential part of God’s plan and work of salvation as future glory is. And God is working just as real in our lives to accomplish His purposes as He will be at any time, past or future.
We need also to remember that the gospel has as its intention not to change society or culture, but to transform individual lives. It is very important--many who profess to be Christians are confused on this matter. They believe that the message of Christ should be changing our society. Americans are caught up in this kind of thinking, that we are a Christian nation. And to be sure, there are many individuals and groups of people who live their lives more in obedience to the will of the Creator. But the purpose of the gospel of Jesus Christ is not to change society. There are people, and they are very popular in the church today, called postmillenialists. And they basically believe that the world will get better and better until the kingdom of Christ will appear on the earth, and that will be a time of glory and God’s will being done on the earth and then Christ will return. That’s why they think that we ought to be changing government. It’s absolutely essential to get the right officials in. That’s why we need to get the Bible into all areas of our country, not for the salvation of souls, but for the rescuing of our country. Some of the songs we sing from the 1800s were written by men who believed that the world was going to get better and better until Christ would some day appear, after His kingdom had been ushered in, not to usher in His kingdom. We sing a song, the darkness shall turn to dawning, the dawning to noon day light, and then God’s kingdom will come, the kingdom of glory and light. Things are going to get better and better and ultimately the kingdom will come. If we can get the right people into the right offices, we get the Bible into schools and prayer and begin to come back to morality That’s not the message of the Bible. The message of the Bible is there is no hope for this world, except the coming of Jesus Christ. The hope for the individual is the salvation that is found through faith in Christ.

But the gospel of Jesus Christ does not transform nations. Now to be sure, if large numbers of people turn in faith to Christ, there will be an impact felt. And we look back and say, there have been revivals at times and through the Wesleys and so on, it impacted England. It’s just a little blip on the screen. And here we are in our country, we pride ourselves, how many Bibles are there spread throughout our country. How many churches are there that are preaching the Bible, and we have Christians in key offices.
But we can’t even decide as a country what marriage is. We can’t even think of living as a country without the opportunity to murder millions of unborn babies, and on it goes. So we ought not to delude ourselves into thinking we’re making things better and better.
The power of the gospel is to transform individual lives. Remember Jesus taught His disciples how to pray and He told them to pray like this. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. You see when God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven? It will be when His kingdom comes. You know when His kingdom will come? When Jesus Christ returns in glory and every eye shall see Him, and He shall stand again on the Mount of Olives and bring judgment to the world and destroy the wicked and establish a kingdom over which He will rule and reign.

Turn over to almost the back of your Bible, just before the book of Revelation, to the first epistle of John. I John, just a few pages before the book of Revelation, I John 5. He’ll tell you the condition of things as they are in the world, as they will be in the world until Jesus Christ comes. I John 5:19, we know that we are of God. We believers, we who have turned from our sin and placed our faith in Jesus Christ as the one who loved us and died for us, we are of God, we have been born again of the Living Word. Now note the last part of this, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. That has not changed in the 2000 years almost since John wrote this. The whole world lies under the control of the god of this world, Satan. And it will do so until Jesus Christ returns to take control of the world and bind Satan so that he no longer can roam and rule.

As a result of sin in the world there are circumstances and situations which make some people’s lives much more difficult, much more unpleasant, and much more painful than other people’s lives. All we do is look around. Some people seem to have lives that are relatively free of physical difficulty; other people have lives that physical pain and unpleasantness are a daily part of their lives. Some people we look at in the world can’t get enough to eat, and we’re worried about obesity. Some people have abundance, some people have little, and on it goes. In the Roman Empire in New Testament times it was the same. One of the unpleasant things about the Roman Empire in New Testament times was the subject of slavery. It wasn’t unique to the Roman Empire, but that’s where we want to focus, on the time when Paul wrote his letter of I Timothy, when much of the New Testament was naturally recorded, during the time of the rule of the Romans.

To be a slave was an unpleasant lot in life. Doesn’t mean certain slaves didn’t have it pretty good, but no matter what kind of slave you are, you belong to someone else, you are their property. Everything you were, everything you had was owned by them and you could be bought; you could be sold. And it was a regular part of life. One writer gave the estimate, there were something like 60 million slaves in the Roman
Empire. Another writer noted that in Rome it’s been estimated that one-third of the inhabitants were slaves. So this was a prominent class of people throughout Rome, throughout the Roman Empire. It naturally, then, comes that when the gospel was proclaimed, as is often the case, since it’s harder for a rich man to enter into the kingdom than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, that there is a response and an openness to the gospel among the lower classes. Now we ought not to be surprised that many of those who responded to the gospel would have been slaves. That helps us to understand why in a number of New Testament letters there are particular instructions given to slaves—Ephesians 6, Colossians 3, Titus 2, I Peter 2, I Timothy 6. All give instructions to slaves; on some occasions there are also instructions to masters.

Turn back to I Corinthians 1, I was going to read it to you since I wrote it out, but turn to it so you can see it in your Bibles. Going back in front of I Timothy, just after the gospels and the book of Acts, Romans, you come to I Corinthians. I Corinthians 1:26, for consider your calling brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. So look around, Paul says to the Corinthians, God didn’t call many noble people, not many mighty people, not many rich people. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong. The base things of the world and the despised God has chosen the things that are not, so that He might nullify the things that are. Now note this, so that no man may boast before God. The glory of God and Him receiving all the honor and all the credit is what it is all about. You know we have some discussions going on in our day and it relates to what we’re going to talk about today, about the Protestant work ethic, and we’ve lost the Protestant work ethic. But you know what we’re really talking about with the Protestant work ethic is not really what the Protestant work ethic was. The original Protestants, the Reformers, men like Luther, understood that the purpose of man’s labors, man’s toils, man’s work was not to make himself more prosperous, more successful, more comfortable and more at ease. But the purpose of man’s work and man’s labors and man’s toil was to honor God and bring Him glory, to serve Him with all of our energies, all of our abilities and all our strength. The Puritans carried that on. The enlightenment came and men like Benjamin Franklin then promoted the idea that we work to be successful, to become healthy, wealthy and wise, accomplish things. Poor Richard’s Almanac motivated those things, but work became essential so that we could prosper, so we could be successful, so we could become more comfortable in life. That’s not the Protestant work ethic, as the original Protestants had it, the reformers, and what is the biblical view of our work and labors? It is so that we might bring honor to God and give Him all the glory, just as He spoke why He chose the weak, the unimportant, the average. So that He would receive all the glory.

I say this because as you come back to I Timothy 6 we come into the subject of slavery. And many people are beside themselves because the Bible didn’t condemn slavery; the Bible didn’t command masters to free their slaves. The goal of the New Testament is not to change society or culture. People are right; the Bible does not condemn slavery. Oh what a great sin. It’s amazing; people want to say oh what a great sin slavery was. They don’t understand sin; sin is a rebellion against the holy God, refusal to give Him all the honor and the glory. The Bible gives specific instructions regarding slaves and masters, but it’s a mute point. We say well see, they often want to correlate it—the role of women, slaves. They’re not correlated. The creator of all things expresses His purpose in creating male and female; that’s His intention in creation. And it’s true slavery, along with a lot of other things, is as a result of sin in the world, even though the practice of slavery itself is not sin. There are abuses in slavery that are sin. Anymore than it is sin that one person works for another, and the person who works for a boss, the boss gets a lot richer than he does. There of course are philosophies in the world that say everything ought to be equal and wealth ought to be distributed and so on. It just becomes an excuse for the rich and the powerful to get more riches and more power for themselves, as we note in the communist countries where the rulers have their own private residences and vacation homes, while they are graciously helping the people descend into poverty.

All these things are not issues. We as believers don’t need to be involved in them; we don’t need to be apologizing for them; we don’t need to be arguing over it. Can’t get over the commentators who want to try to explain why Paul didn’t condemn slavery. He couldn’t do it on that occasion because it would have caused turmoil in the Roman Empire and that would not have been good. Otherwise, he would have done it. Says who? Do you think God had any concern about whether He caused turmoil in the Roman Empire? I mean all He has to do is snap His fingers and He’ll throw the whole thing into turmoil. I mean He is the God who declared that He raises the nations up, the leaders up, and puts them down. He says the nations are like a drop in the bucket, they are nothing. People don’t understand inspiration, even men who claim to be believers in the Word of God want to explain, well Paul couldn’t condemn slavery here
because He couldn’t condemn slavery here because it was not God’s intention
to condemn slavery. Now people are going to go out and say, Gil Rugh at Indian Hills believes in slavery. No, I don’t believe in slavery; I think it’s better we don’t have slavery. Quite frankly, I think I would be better if I were rich and didn’t have to work for somebody. And I’d be happy for you to be rich if I were rich, as long as I get rich first, then I don’t care if you get rich. I mean these are not issues the Bible is dealing with.
And in the New Testament in particular there are some of these issues that are dealt with in the Old Testament because Israel was an earthly nation, living as an earthly people. We’re not going back there, but even Israel had provision for slavery. But the New Testament, we are not an earthly nation; we are not focused on developing an earthly country. We are proclaiming a message of salvation in Jesus Christ.

So what Paul is going to do in the first two verses of I Timothy 6 is give instructions to slaves, their responsibility to their masters. We say what is pertinent about this? Thank God we don’t have slavery today, so none of this applies to us, but the principles established here clearly apply. And they apply in the relationships we have as we work and serve someone else, as you work at a job and you have a boss, and you must do what he wants done in order to get a paycheck and live, and on it goes. There will be good bosses, bad bosses; there were good masters and bad masters; there were good slaves and bad slaves, and good employees and bad employees, and on it goes. What we’re dealing with here is the present tense aspect of our salvation being lived out in our lives, and the failure to do this results in God being spoken evil of, and the gospel of Jesus Christ being discredited.

What Paul has to say is very important. Look at I Timothy 6:1, all who are under the yoke as slaves are to regard their own masters as worthy of all honor. First instruction is given and it includes every believer who is a slave. Obviously he is writing to believers. I Timothy 3:15, I am writing so you might know how to conduct yourself as part of the household of God, the church of the living God. This is how believers are to behave, so I’m talking to all slaves who are believers, who are under the yoke as slaves. That expression, to be under the yoke, one commentator wrote, the phrase is a stock one for being under a tyrant or in a condition of slavery and brings out its burdensome character. Slavery is recognized as a situation of low standing on a social level in which the slave was subject to the will of the master and had not innate personal freedom. So he not only talks about a slave, but you are under the yoke, like oxen would be yoked together. And what are they doing? Menial tasks, grunt labor, they’re just grinding it out. So to speak of being under the yoke, you are under the control and rule of someone, doing lowly, burdensome work.

Turn back to Matthew 11. Jesus invited people to come to Him and they would become His slaves and take upon them His yoke, but note what He says. Matthew 11:28, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. You do become His slave, but serving under His yoke, the burden He gives, that’s not like the other yokes of slavery. This is life. It is a privilege, an honor, a blessing, a joy. It brings rest to your souls to serve Him. So that contrast.

Come back to I Timothy. You were a slave; you were a slave, and you might have a fairly good master, but for many, they are serving in difficult circumstances and situations. Notice instructions to those who are slaves, all, every believing slave is under obligation to regard their own masters as worthy of all honor. That word translated regard means to come to a conclusion as a result of careful consideration. This is a settled conclusion these slaves have come to, that their own masters are worthy of all honor. Now the word for masters here, despotas. Sound familiar? A despot. We’ve just carried the word over into English. The word despot denotes absolute ownership and uncontrolled power. There are other words for master, korios being one of the most popular in the New Testament. This word is a little stronger word. We use the word despot to refer to those tyrants who may rule over a country, a banana republic as we might refer to it. But they rule with meanness and only self-interest. The word itself does not carry that connotation, but since it carries the concept of absolute ownership and uncontrolled power, it often would degenerate to that. But if you have complete authority over someone and complete power over them, obviously the sinful heart could use that for wicked means. This is the word used of God the Father and of Jesus Christ in four passages of the New Testament. He is the one who has absolute power.

They are to regard their own masters. You’ll note he doesn’t mellow it and say as a believer you understand they are not your master. They are your despot, they are the ones who own you and have absolute power over you in the physical realm. You are to regard them as worthy of all honor. The word honor means respect, honor. And to put all with that means that this honor or respect should not come grudgingly or it is some honor and respect. I mean I realize they are worthy, because they are my master, of some honor and respect, but there are limitations. Paul writes here, there is no limitation. You show them all honor and all respect. It’s to their own masters. You know in every area of our lives where we have responsibilities to someone else; it’s always easy to look, well
if my situation were different. In our marriage relationship I could you know I
wouldn’t mind being married to them, then I could be the right kind of husband, or I could be the right kind of wife. Or if it’s in our job, well if they were my boss I wouldn’t mind going to work. Or if I got treated like they get treated, it would be a pleasure to go to work. You ought to work for whom I work for. Well, it’s made clear here, you are to regard or consider as worthy, deserving of all honor, your own master. There is no distinction made here between good masters and bad masters, between kind masters and unkind masters, between masters who treat you fairly and masters who treat you unfairly.

Now we say if you work for a boss and he doesn’t like what you do, he might fire you. In those days they might beat you to within an inch of your life; they might sell you to someone and put you in a much worse condition. They had power over your life; you belonged to them. And he says, you consider them worthy, deserving, of full, complete respect. Every one of you slaves who are believers in Jesus Christ. This could be a problem. Here you have a church, a family of believers. Imagine a part of what went on might be a complaining situation. As they got together they would say, what do you want us to pray for? And here comes so-and-so, a slave, pray for me, I have the most wretched, godless, unfair master. I just can’t stand the man. You couldn’t respect him at all if you knew him like I do. And now here comes Paul’s letter, show him all honor. Consider him worthy of it.

Turn over to I Peter 2, toward the back of your Bible, go through the book of Hebrews, that big book back there. And right after Hebrews you hit James and then you’re in I Peter. Look at what Peter writes in I Peter 2:13, submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution. You do this for the Lord’s sake, to every human institution. Jump down to verse 18, servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable, a word that can be translated perverse. They are not fair, they are not right. You’ve worked hard, you did the best job that could have possibly been done, your master benefited from it, then he beat you for it. Submit to your masters with all respect. You’ll note, it’s the position, and not because well I can’t respect him, he’s not a respectable character. That’s not the issue. He has the position of master; you have the position of slave. That means he is worthy of all your respect. Believers don’t understand this. We get into the political realm; it’s disgraceful. We’ve talked about this before, how some Christians talk about the political leaders. If we have a President we think is worthy of respect, then we speak well of him; if we have a President we don’t think is respectable, it is terrible what comes out of our mouths about it. We are to show all respect. The end of verse 17 the instruction was to honor the king. Peter wrote this, you know who would have been king—Nero. Despicable. There is nothing respectable and honorable about his character. But he is Caesar; you honor him, show him respect. So it doesn’t matter what kind of master, what kind of boss, whether he is fair or unfair. He’s the boss; he’s the employer; you’re the employee. We have one thing that the slave did not have, we can quit. Oh I can’t do that, I need the money. Then shut up and get to work.

Why do you do this? Well Gil said. No. Verse 19, for this finds favor if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrow when suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if when you sin and are harshly treated you endure with patience. But if when you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently endure, this finds favor with God. In other words, I am going to do what is right, even if I get no credit for it.
I’m doing it because I serve the living God. It’s what will honor Him, it’s what pleases Him. You know we condition ourselves. Well if that’s the way you’re going to treat me, you aren’t going to get much work out of me. Maybe I can work in such a way that they probably won’t be able to fire me, but they won’t get a lot of benefit from it, either. And that’s fair, because they haven’t treated me very well. Do you realize that is sin? That is a disgrace? That dishonors God? That dishonors the gospel of Jesus Christ? These are serious matters. Honor the king. Peter is going to die at the hands of that king, unjustly, unfairly. Paul is going to die at the hands of that king. Read Romans 13, what does Paul have to say? Honor him. What does Peter have to say? Honor him. Because he’s the kind of character you want your children to model their lives after? No, because he’s the
king, because he’s the master, because he’s the husband, because whatever the
position is. Because I’m the slave.

Come back to I Timothy 6:1, so that the name of God and our doctrine will not be spoken against. Most of these slaves who get saved will have unbelieving masters. What kind of testimony is it that a slave is declaring his faith in Christ, worshipping with the church at Ephesus, and he’s a lousy slave. You don’t get much out of him, and he’s always grumbling; he’s always complaining. It causes the name of our God to be blasphemed, spoken against. They say, he claims to belong to the living God and look, I get a lot more work out of my slaves that go to the pagan temple. Claims that the message of believing in a Savior who died on the cross to pay the penalty for sins and was raised in victory changes your life, but I hope it doesn’t change too many of my slaves or I’ll die poor. Because the gospel is the truth concerning the living God? This gets around and we think oh it’s terrible. How can people be practicing and doing what they’re doing today? We go to work and do the very things that cause God’s name and His gospel to be blasphemed. I mean, what is serious here? The disgrace if that would be the case.

Look over in Titus 2, just after Timothy. Titus 2:9, urge bondslaves to be subject to their own masters in everything. He didn’t say that becoming a child of God does not change your social or cultural or those kinds of situations. Be subject to your own masters in everything. Well I’ve been set free by Christ; I’m now a slave of the living God; I should not be a slave of man. Says who? The God whose slave you are spiritually, if He is your master, tells you to subject yourself. I mean here I am, boasting that I’m a slave of the living God when I’m rebelling against Him and refusing to do what He tells me. If I’m not working to be the best employee or the best slave in this context, I’m denying what I claim to be believing. Oh, I’m a slave of Jesus Christ, I don’t serve men, I serve God. That’s a lie if you’re not the best worker on the job. I mean the hardest worker; you may not have the most ability, but you can sure say, I’ll work harder than any of them will. That’s what he tells them, be subject to their own masters in everything. Be well pleasing, not argumentative. You know if people do the job but they think they have to have their say. Let it be known that they don’t agree, let it be known they don’t think this is right. Doesn’t mean we never use the right occasion to speak up. Doesn’t mean I can never go to my boss and talk over something, but always has to be with respect, never losing sight of the fact he’s the boss, he’s the employer and I’m the employee. A slave might have that opportunity to express to his master a concern here. But it always has to be done properly with the complete understanding of the roles that we have.

Not pilfering, but showing all good faith. In other words, I’m trustworthy. I’m not taking anything, either his time or his possessions. Slaves could sometimes steal from their masters, sell it on the side to make something for themselves. People go to work for bosses; they don’t overtly steal, sometimes they just don’t give a full day’s work I can get by with doing less, so why should I do more?

You know what’s at stake, at the end of verse 10, they do this so they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect. So that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect. Know why I do this? Not for the personal gain for me, not because I make more money, not because I’ll get a better retirement, not because my master will reward, not because my boss will promote me. But because I want people, when they look at me, to see the work of the living God. The doctrine that’s taught, I’m to close on it. So I adore the doctrine, I am dressed, what people see, my life that I’m living, that is a proper reflection of the truth of God that has worked in my life. He could get by doing less, and that master sure doesn’t appreciate it, and the master sure doesn’t share his gain with him. Why is he working so hard? You have to understand, he’s a Christian and he thinks everything he does, he does for his God and so it has to be done the best. Even when it’s done for such a wretched master as he has. Can you figure that out?

Where does it go on? We’re not going any further in Titus, but you’ll note the next verse begins with the preposition for. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation. That’s why slaves function this way. The grace of God has come, bringing salvation. And it teaches us to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the now age. This is part of living sensibly, righteously and godly in the now age.

Come back to I Timothy. Verse 2 in the Greek text begins with a conjunction, but. It is not translated in our English Bible. But it indicates probably a contrast being drawn here. But those who have believers as their masters. The instructions in verse 1 were all inclusive; this is the general responsibility of a slave. It has nothing to do with whether your master is a believer or an unbeliever, good or bad. You owe him complete honor and respect. But those who have believers as masters must not be disrespectful to them because they are our brethren. Now what about a slave who has a master who is also a Christian? Well they must be careful not to be disrespectful. The word means to look down on them. It’s translated that way in chapter 4 verse 12, let no one look down on your youthfulness, same word translated disrespectful. If you look down on someone it would be disrespectful; you despise them; you think little of them. They must not be disrespectful to them because they are brethren. It would be easy for a slave whose master got saved and now a believer to look and say, my master is a Christian. I ought to be treated better than the other slaves. I ought to get preferential treatment; he ought not to expect me to work as hard as the others. He ought to reward me more than he rewards them. And pretty soon there is a breakdown in his respect because spiritually we are equals, we’re one in Christ. I mean they go and sit in the church at Ephesus, probably meeting in someone’s home, their living room, their family room, and here he sits, the slave, and it’s later in the evening and one of the elders is teaching the Word and the slave can hardly keep his eyes open; he’s been working so hard and he’s here. And he doesn’t have anything, and there sits his master, alert and writing notes, alert because he hasn’t slaved all day and he has so much and I do all the work and I have so little. It’s not fair. How can he be a godly person? And pretty soon you’re looking down on him, being disrespectful. It’s unbiblical. Has nothing to do with it.

You know we always become experts in what someone else ought to do. You know I become an expert in what my wife’s role is, and she just doesn’t understand that God’s appointment for me is to see she knows what she ought to do. I can’t forget God’s instruction to me is what I need to be as a husband. You know I’m an employee but I have to have all kinds of ideas and advice for my boss on how he ought to do his business. And then if he’s a believer I feel that I have the right to go into his office and tell him how he ought to run his business because we’re both Christians. We’re both Christians; we’re both equal in Christ; we both serve the living God, we’re both destined to glory in heaven. And he’s the boss and I’m the worker. And that relationship hasn’t changed. I need to be careful to maintain the respect and the honor, even though he’s a believer. I would have thought he would have given me a raise by now or a promotion. I mean he is a believer and he knows I’m a Christian. And just how are these two related? It might be because you are a Christian you are one of the hardest workers he has, one of the most diligent he has, and it wouldn’t be good for his business that he promoted you. The idea that you ought to be promoted or treated better or paid more because you’re a Christian and he’s a Christian, I don’t find that in the scripture.

Sad thing, I was out of town visiting with a man who owns a business. And I’ve heard from businessmen here, but I’m using him as an example because he’s never been part of this church, so you don’t know who he is. He shared how difficult it is in a business, and we were just talking, and he said, you know to get workers today is just so hard. People don’t want to work. And you know it’s even been worse when I’ve tried to hire Christians. I thought, what a terrible testimony. I mean, Christians of all people, they don’t think they ought to have to work.

So slaves, nothing has changed. The sinful condition of man is unchanging apart from the power of the gospel. There are people who are grumbling and complaining because they have a job but they’re not paid what they’re worth. Well you’re not a slave so you can get another job. Well that’s easier said than done. In the history of this church I’ve had people come and want to tell me why their boss is not being fair. I say, well maybe you ought to get another job. Oh no, that’s not an option. Well complaining is not an option either. I might say to people, talk to your boss respectfully and ask him to consider whether you might be worth more. Well I did but I never heard from him. Well get to work. I mean

Now what puts this all in perspective for us as believers Look at a couple
of passages with me, then we’ll wrap this up. Ephesians 6, that’s back before Timothy in your Bibles, going toward the front of your Bible a little bit. Paul wrote this letter to the Ephesians before he wrote this letter to Timothy. Now you remember if you’ve been here and have studied I Timothy, Timothy is at Ephesus helping to straighten out things in the church at Ephesus, the same church Paul wrote to earlier, the letter to the Ephesians. And note what he wrote in Ephesians 6:5, slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling. I mean there is such a reverence and honoring of them, they are fearful of displeasing their master. I mean that’s how strongly they desire to be a good servant. In the sincerity of your heart as the Christ. This sincerity means with singleness of heart. In other words, you’re not just doing this as a man-pleaser, you’re doing it to honor the Lord. You’re doing it because this comes from your heart. You’re doing it as service to Christ, and the desire and goal of my heart is to honor and serve Him, so I serve my earthly master, recognizing that is the will of my Lord. I mean who placed me in this situation? Who made him the master and made me the slave? Is God sovereign or is He not? We’re grumbling and complaining and murmuring and who are we grumbling, murmuring and complaining about? Oh my boss, oh my master. Now who gave you that master? Well, God. Then who are you complaining about? Well I don’t think it’s God’s will for him to mistreat me. No, it’s not, but is it God’s will for him to be your master? Are you where God would have you in His will and plan now? So in other words He’s given you the opportunity to glorify Him in a very difficult situation, in an unfair situation. That’s what we read in Peter; this is what we’re reading in Ephesians.

You do this not by way of eye service, as men-pleasers. In other words you don’t do it because the boss is looking. You know it’s the old picture, here comes the boss, get to work. Well slaves were like that. We think oh we can ease off because nobody is watching. So Paul says, you don’t do that. I’m sure the slaves would say, don’t work so hard, nobody is watching. Well, somebody is watching, the one I do serve. You have to do it as slaves of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. With goodwill render service as to the Lord, not to men, knowing that whatever good things each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free. There is ultimate reward for us, but it will come ultimately in the presence of our God when we stand before Him and hear, well done, good and faithful servant. We adopt the thinking of the world, well the only reason I’m working is to get enough to retire. Oh is that right? The Bible doesn’t say retirement is wrong, but if that’s why you’re working, that’s sin. You are to be working because you serve the living God. Well I’m working to put food on the table; there’s an element of truth in that, but that’s not the real reason I’m working. I’m working to please my Father.

We develop the world’s thinking on work, then we’re frustrated, we’re upset, we’re discontent. We think we would be happy if the Lord gave us a different job, if we hit the lottery. That would take all the pressure off. Well is the goal of our life to have the pressure off, or is the goal of our life to bring glory to the living God? Well, of course I want to bring glory to God and if I won the lottery I’d bring glory to Him, I’d give Him a lot of it. And the Lord doesn’t need the lottery anyway, so why do I try to bargain with Him—Lord, if you give me the winning ticket, I’ll give you 90%. Well He says I own the cattle on 1000 hills; if I had any need I wouldn’t ask you. Oh, well then I’ll keep it all for myself. Either way, Lord, I’d like to win the lottery. Why? Because the real issue is not honoring the Lord, the real issue is me.

It was the same with these slaves. Lord, if you only gave me a better master, I could serve you so much better, it would be so much more honoring to you. Lord, if you
only provided my freedom I could What’s the Lord say? I put you here because
this is the place you can honor Me the most; you can bring glory to Me in the greatest way. Oh but I don’t want to do that, Lord. What you’re really saying is that’s not the goal of my life. I don’t mind it to be a minor goal or a side goal. Lord, the goal of my life is my own pleasure, my own contentment, my own needs, my own prosperity. And as I pursue that goal I would like you to come along and there’ll be something there for you. You say, I don’t even like to hear you talk like that. Do you think God likes to see us live like that? Why does he have to keep repeating in each of these letters instructions to these slaves? Didn’t they get it the first time? He wrote to them in the letter to the Ephesians, why does he have to tell it again in a later letter that will be read to the same people? Same reason we have to hear it again and again—I forget. So I find myself complaining about my job, complaining about my boss, easing off. Everybody around me does it, why should I work harder than they do? Because they don’t serve the living God, I do.

Colossians 3:22, slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do our work heartily as for the Lord, rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. I mean, is this not clear? It’s true, my ultimate service is to God, but the one who is my master in the ultimate sense has ordained how I serve Him. And sometimes it is in the most difficult and unpleasant of circumstances. Ought to be true of us as believers on our job. They ought to say, all I can say about him is he is one of my hardest workers and I never hear a peep of complaint out of him. You say, you don’t know my boss. Isn’t it nice, I don’t have to. And you don’t have to struggle. Well, is my boss worthy of that? You might come to the conclusion he’s not, but he is because God says he is, and my God is worthy of my best. So I always have to give my best. My life is simplified. I don’t have to lie awake at night stewing because of what my boss did or didn’t do, what my master did or didn’t do. I can rest, Lord, I’ve done my best, I’ve tried my hardest and I will do so again tomorrow when I get up. And all that matters, Lord, is that you are pleased and I honor you with my life.

Let me give you a summary of some principles I wrote down, they come from a variety of passages and we won’t take time to go back to those. I’ve put them in the context of what we do with our bosses since none of us are in true slavery. Now some of you may want to share, you don’t know my job; it’s slavery. Well it applies anyway, and it does apply to all of us in one way or another.
1. We are to be showing proper honor or respect to our boss.
2. We are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative. That came from Titus 2:9. Well-pleasing, not argumentative, not always contradicting, not always have to have the last word or get our 2 cents in.
3. Being trustworthy, not pilfering, showing all good faith. They trust us; the boss knows I’ll work just as hard if he leaves for a week as if he’s there every day looking over my shoulder. I’m trustworthy. He’ll lose nothing, I won’t take anything that belongs to him, and I won’t take any of his time and use it improperly, either.
4. Work is to come from a right heart, not just to look good. That was in Ephesians 6. It comes from my heart, the sincerity of my heart, the singleness of my heart. It isn’t just so I’ll look good before someone.
5. We do our work for the Lord, not men. That comes from Ephesians 6 also. Ultimately that’s why it comes from the heart that is committed to the Lord, then everything I do is serving the Lord and everything has to be done in that context.
6. Believing bosses are worthy of our best work. You work for a believer, you ought to rejoice. Why? Because Paul told Timothy that believers, then, are the benefit of your labors. Rather than begrudging them the fact that they may live in a beautiful house, driving several lovely cars and you live in something that doesn’t fit your family’s needs, your car is always broken down, you can’t afford a vacation. Well God instructs masters, they’ll be accountable if they’ve been fair or right, but your job is not to get your master straight, your boss straight. Your job is to do what God has given you. If your master never gets straight, your boss never gets fair, even as a believer, but if I’m working for a believer I can rejoice that a believer is benefiting from my labor. And if he’s prospering, I can rejoice before God that He has used me to bring prosperity to that believer, rather than being jealous and upset.

How important is this, why do I have to give this sermon? Well at the end of verse 2, teach and preach these principles. They are important. These things that God has spoken through Paul are things that must grip our heart. You know I want to appreciate what God has done in the past for me in my salvation, I want to appreciate what He has prepared me for in the future, but I want to be very sure I am living as He would have me live in the present tense of my salvation. It’s wonderful, that the most mundane, miserable of jobs is transformed into service that brings honor and glory to the
living God. Could any job be more important than that, that I’m privileged in my work to glorify the living God and offer Him my service.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, that you are a great God, and all the minute details of our lives are under your sovereign control. Lord, even as we study a passage like this, doubtless there are a number in our own fellowship of believers who have exceptionally unpleasant circumstances at work, difficult people to work with. They’re not treated fairly; they’re not rewarded fairly; they’re not given credit properly. Lord, yet in all these things we rest at peace and confidence knowing that you are in control. We belong to you; you have placed us in the right place; this is the best place for us at this time. And our responsibility is to honor you with our service, and as you would choose to provide freedom, you would choose to provide a better situation; we will rejoice in that. But Lord we accept from you what you have provided for us. Our desire is to honor you and bring you glory. May we see every situation and every circumstance in that context and thus as a great privilege. In Christ’s name, amen.