Good morning.
Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to 1 Timothy chapter 6.
1 Timothy chapter 6
All right.
We'll start with a word of prayer and then we'll get into our class.
Our gracious Father in heaven, we come before you grateful for the day that you blessed us with, for the life that we have and the opportunities that we have to serve you.
Lord, we are mindful of all of your many blessings, all of the gifts that you give in this life, in the physical world that we live in and the tender mercy that you have granted to
this world and this universe and
our existence in it.
Lord, we pray that you will continue to bless those within this congregation.
We pray that you be with those who are struggling because of illness and we pray that they might be able to become fully recovered from the ailments that they deal with.
We are also mindful of those who deal with chronic illness.
We pray that you give them the endurance and the strength to go through the difficult days that they have and the ability to
maintain their perspective and their outlook uh on eternity.
Lord, we pray that you be with those who are struggling spiritually.
We pray that you will give them the heart and the mind to open your word, to study your will, that they might get their focus and attention back on eternity.
Lord, we pray that you be with those who are away from us traveling.
We pray that you bring them back safely.
We pray also for missionaries throughout the world that they might have boldness to speak, that they might be ready and prepared and have the support that they need to be able to do
the work and uh reach the souls that are around them.
Lord, we pray for this congregation and its work in evangelism.
We pray that we might have open hearts and open minds that we might speak to them to reach the lost to help this community grow closer to you.
Lord, we ask that you forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory.
All this we pray and ask in Jesus' name, amen.
Paul writes in 1 Timothy chapter 6, Let as many bond-servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and His doctrine may not be
blasphemed.
As Paul leads into this last kind of section as it's broken up in our English Bibles, he
has dealt with the care for widows, he's dealt with the care for elders, he's dealt with Timothy's focus on spiritual matters and the things that he needs to be doing and focusing
on in his work with the church.
But now he addresses bond servants.
What is a bond servant?
This would be usually a person who has become a slave due to debt.
uh This is someone who by reason of inability to pay for debts has instead enslaved themselves to pay the debt.
They have taken on the role of a slave or a servant.
because they owed a debt they could not pay.
That's why Paul often refers to himself as a bondservant of Christ, because he owed a debt he could not pay.
What was that debt?
All right?
Sin, salvation.
All right?
The debt that was paid by the sacrifice of Christ was one that could never have been paid by Paul himself or any of us.
Okay?
So Paul teaches us that we are all bond servants of Jesus Christ.
Now, he's dealing with bond servants in this context in the physical and financial scenario.
This is someone who has become enslaved to a master because they owed a debt they could not pay.
But he is addressing specifically bond servants who are Christians.
He says, let as many bond servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor.
A couple of things to notice here, first and foremost.
Number one is the situation that these bond servants find themselves in, one that is easy or pleasant.
No.
How does Paul describe their burden or their situation?
All right, being under a yoke.
What's the picture there?
All right, is, Paul's using the picture of an ox or an animal, a beast of burden that has a yoke put upon them to pull something, to do some form of work.
Okay, Paul says you've got a yoke on you for the purpose of doing your master's work.
But.
Let's just carry a connection over here.
When Jesus said to those who were listening to Him, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
What did He describe as the rest that He would grant us?
What's the rest of the verse?
All right.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Jesus promised us that if we were heavily laden, if we were those who were in need of help, we needed to exchange the yoke that we had, that was the one which we bore
of our debts that we couldn't pay and exchange that yoke for His.
He didn't say, hey, let me take all the yoke and all the burdens off of you because you never have to worry about anything again.
You're done with this whole labor thing.
That's not what Jesus said.
Jesus said, you currently have a burden that is crushing you that you cannot bear.
Allow me to replace it with a burden which is light.
but it's still a burden.
Those who imagine that Christianity is freedom from all burdens.
have no understanding of the doctrine of Christ.
They have no understanding of what Jesus came to deliver or to do.
Did Jesus have a burden?
What was His burden?
All right, sin of the world.
His burden was to give up eternity to come take on flesh, to live as a man, to die on a cross, to establish salvation and the church so that we might be saved.
Now, if Jesus, the one who we serve, has a burden, why would we expect we don't?
Too many times Christians imagine that Christianity is a free ride to a permanent inheritance.
And it's not.
salvation is described, Romans uh chapter 3 verse 24, as a free gift of God, and it absolutely is.
Because you couldn't ever have earned it.
You cannot merit it.
There is nothing you can do that would cause God to owe it to you, but over in Ephesians chapter 2, where Paul emphasizes that we are saved by grace, that it is a gift from God,
he then describes the fact that God is creating in Christians His workmanship.
He saved you so that you could become a worker.
He works in you so that you can become a diligent servant.
And every single picture of every single faithful righteous person in all of scripture, they're diligent workers.
They all have different tasks, they all have different roles, they find themselves in different scenarios, but all of them are diligent workers.
That's what God's looking for.
So, as we bring this back, He is talking to those who are in a physical circumstance that they would probably be happy to trade.
If someone came along and said, hey,
I will trade you my freedom for your bond servant position.
They would go, yes, I think I'll accept that.
But Paul reminds these Christians, and specifically reminds Timothy to teach these Christians that their role is not in subordination, their role is not rebellion against
those who are their masters, their role is not the upheaval and the overthrowing of the bonds and the chains and the bearing, the yokes that they have.
What does Paul say they are to do toward their masters?
All right?
He says, they are to be those who count their own masters as worthy of all honor.
Paul makes it clear that these individuals in their plight in life, which he recognizes, but just by calling them bond servants, he recognizes the difficulties they face.
He says, you react, you relate to your masters as those who are worthy of all honor.
Now, in order to do this, notice, in order to understand this,
you have to keep the context.
Just because we jumped into chapter 6 doesn't mean we just kick the context from chapter 5 away.
How many times in chapter 5 have we used the word honor?
multiple.
If you go through and look, you have verse 3 of chapter 5, honor widows, who are really widows.
If you carry on down, you've got verse 17, where elders are worthy of double honor.
As you continue through the text, you're going to find even more instances of this idea of honor.
Question in every one of those instances what type of honor is being discussed
monetary honor.
The honor that God was discussing when He told the Old Testament Israelites, honor your father and your mother and it shall be well with you that you may dwell long on the earth.
Jesus applied that directly to monetary support.
Now, here you have an example of Paul going honor widows, honor elders, bond servants, honor your masters.
Why are they slaves?
because they owed a debt.
And Paul is making it clear, you do not back out of that debt.
You owe them something.
And he tells them, because it wrapped up in this honor is yes, the monetary, but it's also the respect.
It's also the recognition they have done something for you.
You now owe something back to them.
With the widows, what type of widows were worthy of that honor?
All right, ones who didn't have family.
Alright, they had spent their lives up to that point serving the church.
And Paul says due to the fact that they have lived this sort of life serving the church, the church owes them this honor.
Now, he set qualifications on it, right?
He said they have to be 60 years old, they have to be in this type of situation, they have to be those who don't have family who should be taking care of this instead.
What about elders?
When he talked about those who are worthy of double honor, what did he qualify this discussion as?
Those who are worthy of double honor are those who've done what?
those who have ruled well.
They have established uh a consistency and a life of working on behalf of the Church, and Paul says the Church owes them something.
Go over to chapter six and he reminds the bond servants that you owe your master something.
They did something for you.
What did the master do for the servant before the person became a bond servant?
Alright, they helped them out financially.
There was a requirement under the Jewish culture, now I understand we're dealing with beyond the Jewish culture, but I'm going to use the Jewish culture as a reference point.
There was a requirement amongst the Israelites that if an individual was poor and was destitute or was in need of help,
and they asked to borrow money from their fellow Israelite, God says you can't refuse them.
What else did he also say?
Not only can you not refuse them, you can't charge them what?
Interest.
Because they're already in debt, they're already unable to pay, they're already in a state of being destitute, you can't charge them interest for the money.
Let's say for instance you have an Israelite who ah say they have a plot of land, they've planted their crops, they used all the money they had to buy what they needed to plant the
crops, then a famine begins and a drought begins.
They lose their entire crop.
Now the next season comes.
They somehow managed to get through that season.
They're still alive.
They're still there in the land.
Next season comes.
They have no money to buy what they need to plant the next crop and they had no harvest.
Therefore they have no seeds.
So they come to one who's well off, who survived and managed to have the abundance necessary to get through the famine and still be doing well, and they say, need the seed
in order to plant.
Or we're going to starve to death.
And so they borrow the money from the wealthy individual and say, uh we need the seed.
He says, fine, here's the money to buy the seed, go plant.
And the second year.
a bunch of uh critters come in and they eat up all the field.
Now they have a second year with no harvest.
But what do they also have now?
A debt.
Now, God established in the Israelite law a forgiving of debts on the seventh year, the Sabbath year, and on the year of Jubilee there was a forgiving of debts that was part of
the Israelite law.
Did that exist for...
uh the Gentiles and the Romans and the church in Ephesus and all the people who grew up under the Ephesian way of life?
No.
So here sometimes you would have individuals
both in the Israelite situation and in the Gentile situation where because of circumstances, not because they were lazy, not because they wouldn't work, not because of
other circumstances within their control, but because of circumstances beyond their control, they have realized, you know what, kind of like the prodigal son, even the
servants in that guy's house are better off than I am.
Here I am.
the prodigal son found himself realizing that he was slopping the hogs and he was starving to death to the degree he was desirous to eat what the hogs were eating.
And realizing his situation, he realized that the servants in his father's house had it better than he has.
So he determines, I'm going to go back to my father and I'm going to say, you know what?
I owe you a debt.
Just make me one of your servants.
And I'll work off the debt.
Now.
there would be times in the life of individuals in that day and time where they would look at their situation and they would look at their debts and they would go, there's no way
I'm ever paying this.
So they would sell themselves into servitude to a master who they owed because the situation as a bond servant was better than the situation as a free person starving to
death.
But as they find themselves potentially in a better situation than they would have been had they not been a bond servant, do you often still find times where people begin to have
animosity at their situation and anger towards the one who is their master because of their situation?
Yes.
And Paul says, not as a Christian.
No, as a Christian, he says, you need to count your own masters as worthy of all honor.
What was the reason?
All right, so that the name of God and His doctrine may not be blasphemed.
Paul says you are a representative of Christ.
You are a representative of God.
And if you do not honor your master, if you do not live in such a way as you bring the benefit of your work and your labor
to him, then you are creating an opportunity for God to be blasphemed by this individual.
He will say, look at you, you claim to be a Christian, you claim to be one who's following this Savior of yours, yet you don't even do your work.
How could that be?
Now.
Name a servant who did exactly what Paul's talking about in the Old Testament.
There are a number of options.
Just pick one or two or a few.
Joseph, under the service of who?
Potiphar.
Potiphar made it clear, Joseph made it clear, the text made it clear that
Potiphar didn't even know what he had in his house anymore.
He just knew it was in Joseph's hand and therefore it was in good hands.
Okay?
Who else?
Alright, David, while he was tending sheep, though he was a shepherd for his father, so he was a son, not a servant per se, but you could certainly use David as an example as he
served Saul in his army, as he became the captain of the army.
Everything he did was to Saul's benefit, not to his detriment, yet Saul actually mistreated David because David's popularity grew.
Alright, so Joseph, David, who else?
Daniel.
Who did Daniel serve as a servant, as a slave?
Nebuchadnezzar.
By the way, you can add into that Azari, Hanani, and Mishael because it wasn't just Daniel who excelled in his service.
These, those three individuals were uh escalated all the way up to the level of being governors because of their service, because of their faithfulness.
How about another one?
go even further into the history of Israel.
All right, well, Moses, he became a servant of who?
His father-in-law.
He was the one who tended his father-in-law's sheep.
When he arrived in uh Midian, what did he have?
By way of possessions, wealth, money?
Nothing.
Okay.
So, Moses, when he's out tending sheep, he's not tending his sheep.
He's been with his father-in-law for 40 years.
He still is not tending
his sheep.
He's sending his father-in-law sheep.
Okay?
How about Nehemiah?
Nehemiah is a cup bearer to the king.
Nehemiah can't even go to Jerusalem unless the king sends him.
And yet Nehemiah is one who lives every single day keeping the king alive.
All of these examples from the Old Testament are examples of individuals who have a situation similar to, if not identical to, these Christians in that they're bond servants
for a master.
And Paul is letting them know as Christians, you do what is in your master's best interests.
You operate so as to bring your master
the benefit of your labor.
you provide for his needs.
That's what the word honor carries out in this context.
He says he is worthy of all honor so that the name of God and his doctrine may not be blasphemed and those who have believing masters let them not despise them because they are
brethren.
Paul says you as a bond servant may find yourself in the situation where you're a Christian and your master's a Christian.
He says, don't you begin to despise the one who is a master because he's a Christian.
Rather, he says, treat him as a brother.
You are to be those who have even greater honor and respect and a greater relationship with one who is a Christian.
He says, but rather serve them because those who are benefited are believers and beloved.
He says, you by your service
and by the financial benefit that you bring to your master are actually bringing financial benefits to someone who is a Christian.
So you ought to even more so not despise them, but work for them.
Because the benefit is to the church and to the believers and to those who are part of the body of Christ.
He then says,
to Timothy teach and exhort these things.
Paul is telling Timothy, you're gonna have to get up and preach this.
This is not gonna come natural.
This is not the disposition of culture.
This is not what the people around you and around those bond servants are going to tell them.
They're going to say, hey, you gotta get out from under that master.
You gotta focus on yourself.
You gotta get ahead or you're gonna be stuck as a bond servant forever.
Don't you want to be a bond servant forever?
The world will tell them you need to leave the situation.
Paul says you need to work to your master's benefit.
Now, as you examine that, what New Testament example do we have of a bond servant in this scenario?
Onesimus.
Alright, turn over to the book of Philemon.
Book of Philemon, Paul writes, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon our beloved friend and fellow laborer, to the beloved Apophia, uh our kippis,
our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers.
hearing of your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints, that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgement of
every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.
For we have great joy and consolation in your love because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother.
Therefore,
Though I might be very bold in Christ to command you what is fitting, yet for love's sake I rather appeal to you, being such a one as Paul the Aged, and now also a prisoner of
Jesus Christ.
I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains, who once was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me."
I am sending him back.
You therefore receive him, that is, my own heart, whom I wish to keep with me, that on your behalf he might minister to me in my chains for the gospel.
But without your consent I wanted to do nothing, that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary.
For perhaps
He departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive Him forever.
No longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
If then you count me as a partner, receive Him as you would me.
But if He has wronged you or owes anything,
put that on my account.
I, Paul, am writing with my own hand.
I will repay, not to mention to you that you owe me even your own self besides." Now Paul, as he is writing, he is getting ready with this letter to send back who.
Onesimus.
He's sending him back to hoop.
to Philemon.
Philemon is one who is a master.
Philemon is also one who is a Christian.
Philemon is also one, if you look at, notice the text there in the beginning, who was using his own house for the assembly of the church.
He is also one who is benefiting Christians.
But he's a master, and Onesimus is his servant.
Do we know all the circumstances around how Onesimus ended up connected to Paul?
No.
But we know from what Paul says that as Paul was in Rome, Onesimus had somehow left, departed from, escaped from the house of Philemon and has through some circumstance found
himself in connection with Paul and as a result of being connected to Paul in Rome, he's been converted.
The text is quite clear.
When Onesimus left the house of Philemon, he was not a Christian.
Now, as he's being sent back by Paul, he is.
So he left a slave and a non-believer.
He's returning a slave, a believer, and a brother.
Paul is telling Philemon, when he comes back to you, you don't accept him as a slave who's been returned in chains.
You accept him as if it's me walking in the door.
But what else does Paul ask for?
Not just that Philemon accept Onesimus, but he does what?
All right?
He says, if he owes you anything.
pay it.
Now, he also asks Philemon to do what with Onesimus?
I hear a lot of whispers, but I'm only your dancer.
send him back.
Paul is making it clear, Onesimus is valuable to me in my work, but I won't demand this of you.
I will rather ask this of you.
So, I'm sending Onesimus to you with hope that you will send him back to me because he's profitable for my ministry.
Paul is trying to get Philemon to take his bond servant, who is his servant, who should be benefiting his work, his labor, and instead send that bond servant to Paul to benefit
Paul's labor.
But he says, won't have you do it by compulsion.
I won't have you do it because I demand it of you.
He makes it clear, I could.
I could command you to do this.
But I won't.
I want you to do it voluntarily, not by compulsion.
Then he goes to the debt and he says, if he owes you anything because, you know.
Here's a business person.
One of his assets finally comes back through the door that's been missing, and now he goes, all right, how do I get this asset to finally start paying for itself?
In the modern world, you would have written that one off as a bad debt.
At least I got a tax write-off off of him escaping.
But now he's back.
All right, get back to work, Paul says, but if he owes you anything, because by the way, he still had a debt, right?
And now he has most likely a further debt given the fact that he has departed and escaped and now has returned.
Paul says, if he owes you anything, you put it on my account and I will repay it.
But I love the way Paul addresses the situation.
He says, he makes it clear, I will repay it, though it might remind you, you owe me your very self.
Paul is pointing out that without his work, Philemon wouldn't be a Christian.
And Paul is saying, if you owe me your very soul by bringing you the gospel, what's onesimus by comparison in the financial value that he can bring you?
But I'll pay.
I'll pay for the debt.
You're not gonna say that I was unwilling to do that, but I might remind you what you owe me.
So, here's a scenario where Onesimus was once an unprofitable servant, he's escaped from his master.
Now as a result of the fact that Paul taught his individuals and the people he was around, the same thing he's telling Timothy to teach.
The bond servants in his company, he says, I'm sending Onesimus back and Onesimus is going back not in chains, but freely.
He's willing to go back to his master because he now understands the sin and the error of his way by departing from his master.
He knows he owes Philemon something in the physical world and that to fail to deliver on that debt is to
cause God to be blasphemed.
And yet, as a result, Paul taught the people in his uh sphere of influence the same thing he's telling Timothy to teach the Ephesian brethren, that bond servants are to count their
masters as worthy of all honor.
Now verse three he says, if anyone teaches otherwise,
you could probably, knowing the way Paul writes, wrap up the discussion about doctrine, the discussion about widows, the discussion about elders, the discussion about bond
servants, and wrap all of that up into this statement as Paul concludes it and says, if anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even to the words of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness,
He is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, revilings, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men, of corrupt
minds, and destitute of the truth.
Paul does not mince words when he describes false teachers.
Paul rather says, if you find someone who doesn't agree with these things, you find someone who opposes the teaching of the truth instead of profane and vain babblings.
He says, let me tell you what that person is.
You find someone who opposes the help of the helping of widows who are widows indeed.
Let me tell you what that person is.
You find someone who opposes giving honor to an elder who has labored on behalf of the church.
He says, me tell you what that person is.
You find someone who opposes bond servants paying and serving their masters faithfully?
Let me tell you what that person is.
He says that is an individual who does not consent to wholesome words.
What is the idea of wholesome?
You know, we talk about and see in branding, this is a whole wheat product.
This is something which is good.
This is, it carries with it all the aspects of its original thing.
It's that which is health giving is the idea of wholesome.
These are words which bring health to someone spiritually.
These are the things that produce
good in a person's life.
He says if someone will not consent to things that are good for people, words that benefit people, he says if they won't consent to those, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ
and to the doctrine which accords with godliness.
He says these matters that we've been discussing, these matters that I'm telling you to teach and to exhort,
are matters that deal with being like God.
and the teaching and the doctrine of Christ, which enables us to be like God.
He says the number one, the person who opposes this, first problem they have, they're proud.
Their pride is a problem.
This lack of willingness to consent to these words, their lack of willingness
to obey this teaching.
Paul says, Timothy, as you are teaching this and someone stands up, as it were, metaphorically or physically, and begins opposing the doctrine that you're teaching, he
said, you check and you're gonna find pride is a problem in their life.
That their primary motivation is the fact that they are self-interested.
But he further says, and they're ignorant.
He doesn't just say that they're unlearned.
He says they know nothing.
He didn't say they need a little further education.
No, he said they are at zero on their knowledge of God.
They know nothing, but rather, he says, I'll tell you what they will be.
They're going to be obsessed with disputes
and with arguments over words.
He says, you're going to find those individuals coming to you with some argument on some textual basis where they can interpret a text so as to say they don't have to do it.
Isn't that what the Pharisees did with the commandment to honor their father and their mother?
They said, well, hold on now, if someone dedicates everything that they have to the Lord,
Well, you can't give what belongs to the Lord to your parents.
They make an argument from the text of Scripture that says this belongs to God, you give it to somebody else and you're going to sin.
So you can't honor your parents.
Paul is saying that the life and the actions of the Pharisees is being lived out in the lives of Christians who oppose these things.
because they're turning the words against the point of God's doctrine.
He says, this person is proud, this person knows nothing, this person is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil
suspicions.
Paul says, you want to infect the congregation?
You let these guys get up and talk.
You want to ruin the happy state of brothers working together in unity even though one of them is a bond servant and one of them is a master, one of them is an elder who's
receiving double honor, and one of them is an elder only receiving single honor, and here's a widow who's being supported, and here's a widow who's younger who needs to go
remarry and isn't being supported.
He says you can have all of that in harmony or you can let these guys get up and talk.
But if you let these guys get up and talk,
You can't.
Because what's going to come from that is going to be envy.
This group over here is going to start looking at that group over there and going, well, why should we cooperate with them?
After all, I'm a slave.
They're a free person.
They can do whatever they want.
I'm forced to do whatever they say.
Paul says you don't let those people talk.
You don't allow those people to teach because all they'll do is destroy everything that godliness builds up.
All right, that's what we've got time for.
Thank you.