Eternity Daily Bible Study No. 255

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Living In Christ – 17

Ephesians 6:5-9
(5)  Slaves, obey your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as to Christ;
(6)  not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,
(7)  with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men
(8)  (knowing that whatever good thing he does, he shall receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or a freeman).
(9)  And masters, do the same things to them, forbearing threatening, knowing that your Master also is in Heaven. There is no respect of persons with Him.

SLAVES AND MASTERS

Slaves and masters are equal before God who is “no respecter of persons”. Therefore slaves are to serve their masters as if they were doing the will of God and masters are to treat their slaves with equality and respect and not threaten them.

Firstly human employers are “masters according to the flesh”, they are not masters in the spiritual sense and have no abiding claim on the employee – their claim goes as far as the employment contract and no further.

Yet they are to be served with due respect, and given good single-hearted service. Not just to please them for a moment but high quality work, the sort you would do if you were serving Christ. This says a lot about Christian ministry as well where we claim to be serving Christ but which so often is done half-heartedly or to please men.

Servants/employees are to ”do the will of God from the heart”. In so far as their work is within God’s will they are to perform it well.  Obviously they are not to be lazy, corrupt, dishonest or fraudulent in their dealings. Pilfering is not to be part of the life of the Christian employee.

Work is to be done “with good will” (v. 7 above). That is it is not to be performed resentfully or grumpily. There is a savage ill-will in some workplaces that makes the air miserable and sour. This should not come from Christians.

The good we do at work is noted by God and is part of our reward in Heaven. “knowing that whatever good thing he does, he shall receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or a freeman”. (V. 8 above) This is an interesting verse and seems to imply that we receive “in kind” from God the good that we have done for others.

Masters are to do the same for their slaves. No Christian is to treat another with superiority, disdain or contempt.  Rather there is to be mutuality within the body of Christ. 

Employers are to act “without threatening”. There is to be no abusiveness , no tirades, in a Christian workplace and security of employment should be present (within the limits of good work being done).  If the staff is fearful, uncertain and insecure, walking on tip-toes, then the firm will not only be less productive – it will also be out of the will of God.

(I thoroughly commend “God In Work” by Christian Schumacher as a guide to good Christian work practices. The author served as s consultant to British government and industry and has thought deeply about work structuring in the light of Christian theology.)

Masters / employees have a Master in heaven who is no respecter of persons or of socio-economic indicators or class structures. Heaven has no Hilton for rich Christians. We are all equal before God – and equally poor before God as “all our righteousness is as filthy rags”. (Isaiah 64:6)

Therefore whether we are rich and employ many – there is no ground for elitism; or whether we are a clerk in the basement – we have no ground for inferiority.  God does not judge as man judges and many of the first will be last. (Matthew 20:16)

We are judged by the standard of Christ in our place. If Jesus was doing your job – how would he be doing it, if Jesus walked in your shoes, where would He be going?  Jesus does dwell in you if you are born again and can do your job and does walk in your shoes.  As you surrender to Him and walk in the Spirit you will discover how he would do your job.

Thus even at work we can be taught of God, as we listen to Christ in us, in the midst of the bustle of life. As we listen to our conscience, and to the prompts of the Holy Spirit we will hear a voice behind us saying “this is the way, walk ye in it”. (Isaiah 30:21) We can learn of God in the pressures and challenges of work if we determine to do that work as if it were for Christ.

Blessings,

John Edmiston johned@aibi.ph

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