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Ephesians 6:1-9
6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” 4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
5 Bondservants,1 obey your earthly masters2 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 Master3 and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.
[1] 6:5
[2] 6:5
[3] 6:9
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Invite you to turn to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6. You gotta love exegetical preaching. When you just go through whole books, that means that last week, I got to preach on wives submitting to your husbands, and this week, I get to preach on, slaves obeying your masters. But it's what, it's one of the reasons I really do love exegetical preaching is it forces you to to really dig into God's word into areas you would not normally touch.
Joel Brooks:And, and it has been incredibly rewarding for me to do this. I've loved working through Ephesians. We only have a couple more weeks in it and then we begin a series on the gospel through the life of Jonah. We'll begin that in a couple of weeks. But till then, we have Ephesians chapter 6 before us.
Joel Brooks:Children, obey your parents in the lord for this is right. Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart as you would Christ, Not by the way of eye service as people pleasers, but as servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart.
Joel Brooks:Rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man. Knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bond servant or free. Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him. This is the word of the Lord. It is my time.
Joel Brooks:If you would, pray with me. Father, I pray that through your Spirit, we would hear your word clearly, Not because we want to know just more about you, but because we want to know you. We want to know your son, Jesus, who is the way to you, and so I pray that things would be clear, that you would shake the cobwebs off of dull mines, that you would break up hardened hearts so that we might receive your word. I pray that my word would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but, Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen. I heard Tim Keller once say that although the world has largely rejected Christianity, it has plundered our ethics. The world has largely rejected Christianity, it has plundered our ethics, and this is true. Where Christianity has gone forth over the last 2000 years, we see entire societies changed in the way that they view, marriage, women, children, slavery, workers. With Christianity's belief that all people are created equal.
Joel Brooks:All are in God's image. All have an innate dignity to them, and that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. We're to treat others with the way that we would like to be treated, when that goes forward, we see that a formally oppressive society becomes utterly transformed. All one has to do is look at the places in the world where Christianity has never set foot. It's never gone, and when you go to those places, you will see a drastically different way that women, children, and workers are treated.
Joel Brooks:There is a reason that Christianity spread most rapidly through the poor and the oppressed. It's because it was good news for those who were poor and who were oppressed, and it raised them up from their position. Now last week, we looked how Jesus transformed marriage. And and I didn't talk about this last week, but really, if you were to study 1st century marriages, you would see they they don't look anything like ours now, but in 1st century Roman and Greek cultures, women were essentially treated as property. Men had absolutely absolute authority over their wives.
Joel Brooks:They could divorce them on a whim. Adultery was expected, even seen as good. You you had wives for having legitimate children, but you had concubines and prostitutes for everything else. And then comes along Christianity with this idea that we were to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. And now the husbands are to sacrifice and to love their wives.
Joel Brooks:And and so with all this talk of submission and respect and sacrificial love and tenderness and even 2 people becoming 1 flesh for life, when that came on the scene, it utterly transformed the way the world viewed marriage. And now this morning, we're gonna see how in addition to Christ transforming marriages, he transforms the way we we think of families, and the way we think of work. Basically, there is not an area in our lives that Jesus does not transform. And so, first let's look at family here. Let's look at the way that Jesus transforms our relationships that we have between a parent and a child.
Joel Brooks:Once again, first three verses, chapter 6. Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you, that you may live long in the land. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction And the 10 Commandments, when when they're laid out, that's the 5th commandment, but notice that that we don't hear that we are to obey our parents, but we are to honor them.
Joel Brooks:We're to honor them. We shouldn't always obey our parents. As we age and we move out of our parents household, we no longer need to obey them, but we should always, for life, try to honor them. But when we were young though, which is what Paul is talking about here, honoring our parents looks like obedience. When Paul says, children, obey your parents, the word he uses for child there is just that, it's a child.
Joel Brooks:This is someone young enough to where they're still living under the protection and the provision of their parents. And now notice Paul does not say that the these children are to love their parents, that they are to trust their parents. It just says, you're you're to obey your parents. Honoring looks like obedience for a child. There's a lot of scripture that talk about the same principle.
Joel Brooks:Let me give you my favorite. My favorite is Proverbs 30:17. You might wanna write this down, parents. Says, the eye that mocks the father and scorns to obey the mother will be plucked out by the ravens and will be eaten by the vultures. You should probably make your children memorize that one.
Joel Brooks:Actually, that that scripture there, and there's a number like it, is really not any different than what Paul is teaching here in Ephesians. He's basically saying, hey, children. If you disobey your parents, there's a good chance something bad's gonna happen to you. There's a good chance you might have your eye plucked out by a raven or something along those lines, an accident that leads to a shorter life. This is why Paul says, this is the first promise we have or the first commandment we have where there's a promise.
Joel Brooks:You obey this, you live longer. You live a better life and and this is a a general principle, which of course, we all know is true. Parents, they warn their kids of dangers. They try to break their kids of bad habits. They try to teach them how to live a good and safe life.
Joel Brooks:And children, if you listen to that, things are gonna probably turn out all right. You realize, parents early on, that when you have these kids, they really don't know anything. They really don't. You're astonished at the things that you have to tell them that just seem like common sense. And so, you know, for instance, there's the classic, don't run with scissors.
Joel Brooks:Okay. That's pretty common sense, but you have to actually tell that to your children, not to run with scissors, or don't run across the road, or don't put metal things in the microwave, or don't play with matches, or put the hot poker down, don't drink from the toilet, don't eat roaches or caterpillars or grasshoppers or or anything that you find. Put the snake down. No. That will not work as a parachute.
Joel Brooks:So so all of those have been things I have said. I have had to say every one of those things. And even as I'm saying them, like, I can't believe I have to tell you that that will not work as a parachute. But you have to say this as a parent, and if they listen to me, they live. And if they don't listen to me, then they have a horrible accident.
Joel Brooks:And so that's what Paul's getting to here. Now children, you're told to obey your parents not because they are perfect or not because they deserve it. Many times, parents don't deserve to have their children obey them. They don't. But children, you were told to obey them because you are to obey Jesus.
Joel Brooks:That's why Paul says here, obey your parents in the Lord. And once again, like we saw last week, Paul is attaching every command to the Lord. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. Christ or, husbands, sacrifice for your wives as Christ gave himself for the church. Now, children obey your parents in the Lord.
Joel Brooks:It is only out of obedience to Jesus. It is only through his spirit that we can really be obedient children. Now, after addressing the children here, Paul then moves to talk to the parents. That's what he's in verse 4. You know, he says, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger.
Joel Brooks:Some of your translations might say, exasperate your children, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Now, I don't know why the moms get a pass here. Alright? I don't know why Paul decides to just address the fathers. My theory is he actually knows fathers.
Joel Brooks:And fathers tend to be the ones who exasperate their children. Fathers tend to, way more than the moms I know, it's the dads who bring their children to anger. And so that's why I think he's addressing the fathers here. Now this would have been pretty radical in this culture, To now tell the fathers how they're supposed to act, before their children, because fathers could do whatever they wanted to their children in this day. Fathers literally owned their children like you would own property, and they could do whatever they wanted with them.
Joel Brooks:Even they had power over over their life. Life or death rested in the hand of a father. When a child was born, the father didn't pick it up, the child was to be discarded. And that happened too often if the child happened to be a girl, would be discarded like trash. But that that power over over a child's life extended for the entire life of that parent.
Joel Brooks:A father could literally kill his child and never be prosecuted for it. So does now address the father and say, hey, there's limits to your authority, and you need to act this way, would have been really counter cultural. Paul says, you're not to provoke your children to anger. You're not to exasperate them. You're not to infuriate them.
Joel Brooks:You're not to constantly make them angry. Now literally, there are hundreds of ways that fathers can do this. I know because I've done them. I've done them all. Fathers, we do this, I have found, when we over discipline.
Joel Brooks:When we're constantly riding our children, we're nagging them. And I don't know about you, but I have found, dads, that I often sin issues. I often nag my children about things like, tidying their room, or this is the way you would make your bed, or put your dishes up when you're when you've used them. Those might not be sin issues, but I find that those are the ones I tend to ride them the most on. We exasperate our children also when we are inconsistent in our discipline with them.
Joel Brooks:When they never know what's gonna what's gonna get them punished and what's not, or if we're inconsistent in our affection, or when we are stubborn or unreasonable. There have been a number of times that, I'm arguing with one of my children, and then I realize that I'm actually the one who looks most like a child. I'm actually the one who is the most stubborn in this position. And so I'm exasperating them. We we provoke them to anger when we expect things from them that are above their age.
Joel Brooks:That that they really, they they shouldn't be required to do that, because that's above them, but we expect this. So, you know, sometimes I might ask my kids, hey, you fix yourselves breakfast, alright? Because I've gotta do this. And then I come back and I find that they're eating donuts, you know, or eating some kind of chocolate. I'm like, what what are you doing?
Joel Brooks:That's terrible for you. I'm like, dad, I'm a kid. It's like, you're right. You are. I should expect that if I just say, fix breakfast, this is what you're going to do.
Joel Brooks:I shouldn't expect that they have the responsibility or the maturity of an adult. And although we can exasperate our children at times when we over discipline them, know that parents, we can also provoke them to anger when we don't discipline them enough. Children need clear boundaries. To never know where the line is is one of the most frustrating things for children. They'll lash out.
Joel Brooks:When I was in college ministry, I found that a lot of college students, for the first time, became really, really angry with their parents. And the reason was this, for a lot of it, but the reason was they were told for most of their life that they're the world's most special snowflake. Alright? You know, they're they literally, they could do no wrong. That everything, the world, you know, is theirs for the taking.
Joel Brooks:That You know, the parents are just the cheerleader. Constantly the cheerleader. Saying, you can do whatever you want in your life. Oh, that's great. No matter what the child does.
Joel Brooks:And then they get to college and they realize that no one else in the world believes that. Nobody else in the world treats them like that. And they get angry. Why didn't my parents tell me? Why didn't they correct me when I did this?
Joel Brooks:Why were they always bailing me out when I messed up like this? And there's Let's adjust anger to have with the parents. The key is you're you're finding this balance as a parent. What's just the right amount of discipline that I could put in? I'm not prescribing this, okay, but I wanna describe what Lauren and I have chosen to do.
Joel Brooks:I've I've I know better than to prescribe anything about parenting here, when it comes in the details. Well, Lauren and I, we have decided that we only discipline our children when they disobey. That's it, when they disobey. Not if, you know, if you get that dreaded little note when they're in preschool or whatever that they bit somebody, you know, that dreaded, and you're like, my child's a biter. You know, you're just saying like, I have failed.
Joel Brooks:And now y'all are like, it was you, because they never tell the other parents which child bit their son, you know, or daughter. You you get that note, you're like, we we didn't spank our child for that. We instead, we would come up and we say, you know, biting's wrong. And we're telling you, don't bite. And we explain why.
Joel Brooks:Now, if one of our daughters would ever do that again, they're disciplined. We wouldn't spank our child if they just ran across the road, but then after they do that, we sit them down and say, hey, listen to us. You don't run across the road. If they ever do it again, you're spanked. We would discipline them.
Joel Brooks:And the reason is, we want them to know that obedience is what matters. Obedience. And you're to obey us just as we are to obey our heavenly father. And so we have really tried to instill that in our kids. Take that as you will.
Joel Brooks:When my kids are completely messed up from 20 years from now, then you could say, you were wrong. Alright? Now we'll listen to you. Alright? Alright.
Joel Brooks:But before we move on from this section, I wanna just challenge you, your parents, just to think of this. Think of your children as a mission field, and the great commission applies to you. You don't have to go off to some distant country. You can actually be really present with your home, in your home, and you can fulfill the great commission, where you could go and you can make a disciple. You can lead them up to where, hopefully, they are baptized in the faith, and you can teach them and train them all that Christ has commanded them, And when you do that, lo, Christ is with you always.
Joel Brooks:He's with you as you do this. Alright. Paul, now he talks to the, the parents here. He gives them some specific things. He says that that you are to raise up or to bring up your child.
Joel Brooks:You were to instruct them in the Lord. He says, bring them up in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord. That word bring them up is really nourish. You were to to constantly find that way that you can nourish your children, that you could teach them, you could gently lead them to the Lord. Once again, you're fulfilling the great commission for your child.
Joel Brooks:And then parents, I wanna say this, or children, I guess I could say this, it applies to both. We are to, in our entire lives, try to find ways to honor our parents. Some of you now, I mean, you're no longer children. You're grown up, but you have aging parents. You're no longer to obey them, but you are still to honor them.
Joel Brooks:I saw the most beautiful picture of this yesterday. I went over to a friend of mine's house, to help him build a handicap ramp for his dad, who's in a wheelchair. And so, the whole time we're working, I get to see the way that he is relating to his father. He's in his fifties. His dad's in his eighties.
Joel Brooks:He sleeps in the same room as his dad to take care of him, in a chair. He's done that for a couple of years now. He is taking care of his dad in so many different ways. It's unbelievable. And as we're putting together this handicap ramp, I said, you know, I'm actually preaching tomorrow and honoring your father and your mother.
Joel Brooks:And he goes, you know what? I remember hearing that as a child, and it just always stuck with me, that I'm to find a way to honor my parents. I mean, this is he's in his fifties. And then he said this, he goes, I gotta be honest. In the last year, I've cussed more than I've ever cussed in my life.
Joel Brooks:It's been really hard, because I've also never known more joy than I know now, where I literally get to be Jesus to my dad. I get to be Jesus to him, and I get to find ways to honor him. And so no matter your age, as you as you mature in life, we have to find ways to honor our parents. I tell my kids all the time, they're like, you know, we're talking about, you know, when money comes up and retirement comes up, like, are you saving anything for retirement? I was like, no, you are my retirement plan.
Joel Brooks:Like, it is completely dependent upon you. Take care of me. Honor your father and mother. So I encourage you, as you as you grow and as you get older, to continue to find ways to honor your parents. Alright.
Joel Brooks:Let's look at work. Let's look at work. Ephesians 6:5, Bond servants obey your earthly masters. First thing I wanna say, right at the start, is hear me that the Bible condemns every form of slavery. It does.
Joel Brooks:Any form of racism, any form of slavery is outright condemned. You find in 1st Timothy, Paul, he talks about how the gospel is not compatible with those who enslave. You see, in Paul's letter to Philemon, how he is pleading with Philemon to free his bond servant Onesimus. And then you really find just the entire theme of the Bible itself, in which we want people from every tongue, tribe and nation to come before and worship Jesus. How everybody is created in God's image.
Joel Brooks:Everybody's created with dignity. We are to love our neighbors as ourselves. We are to treat others as we want to be treated. Literally, everything chops down slavery. And you would find that in Rome, slavery decreased in proportion to Christianity's increase.
Joel Brooks:Directly decreased as Christianity grew to within just a few centuries, slavery was gone. So I wanna say that at the start, but I also want to point out this, that the view that we have of slavery is not what Paul's describing here. That's not what he's talking about. Some of your Bibles say, slaves obey your earthly masters, and some say, bond servants obey your earthly masters. Even if you have the ESV, I have a ESV here and it actually says, slaves obey your earthly masters.
Joel Brooks:Some of you have a ESV that says, bond servants. And in the older ESV's, they say slaves and as a footnote, and it says this could be translated as bondservants. The new ESV's say bondservants and as a little footnote, these this could be translated as slaves. And really, context is what best leads you to know how to translate it one way or the other. The Greek word is just doulos and it can mean slave, it can mean servant, or it can mean bond servant.
Joel Brooks:It has a very broad meaning to it. And the reason it's kinda hard to translate this is because there is in the 1st century, no one size fits all view of slavery or serving. There's all types of slaves, all types of servants. And the biggest obstacle we have as we're coming to this text is actually trying to, to understand this passage and its own culture of slavery, versus what we think of slavery. Our own image we have is the biggest thing we have working against us, because we picture 18th, 19th century slavery in America.
Joel Brooks:And that is not at all what it's describing here. For starters, race had nothing to do with slavery in the 1st century. It did not matter where you came from. It did not matter what color was your skin. Slavery also was not for one's entire life.
Joel Brooks:Usually, it was for a negotiated period of time. Most slaves were set free by the time they were 30. Also, slaves did not, they were not seen as a distinct social class. They could freely go within any of the classes. Slaves had all levels of education.
Joel Brooks:They had all sorts of jobs. They could be teachers, secretaries, barbers, accountants, physicians, shoemakers, bakers. Slaves could be any profession there. Slaves could own property. Often household slaves even had some superior conditions to the majority of the poor.
Joel Brooks:So at the time that Paul's writing this, slavery in all of these different forms, and then it runs the gamut there. Well, it's culturally accepted over the entire world. In Italy, or in yeah, in all of Italy, there's about 7,000,000 people at this time. 3,000,000 were slaves. 35 to 40 percent of the population in the 1st century were slaves.
Joel Brooks:Some, some came as a result of, conquest and captivity. And then, many came as a result of just being hired out. People chose to enter into slavery as a way of having financial security. That's when when you would think of a bond servant. Alright?
Joel Brooks:And so typically, one would go and they would, if they wanted financial security and they wanted a good job, they could enter into a 7 year contract. That was the most common contract. And they would enter into that and say for 7 years, I will serve you for this amount of pay. And then when the 7 years were up, they were free to do whatever they wanted. Some people even entered into slavery because you could gain Roman citizenship by becoming a bond servant to a Roman household.
Joel Brooks:This is how you can make sense of a lot of the passages in scripture, like in 1st Corinthians 7, when Paul says this, were you a bond servant when called? Don't worry about it. But if you could go ahead and gain your freedom, do it. Are you free? Well then, don't become a bond servant.
Joel Brooks:I mean, the way we're thinking is like, if you're free, why would you ever want to become a bond servant? But many people chose that path. But Paul says, hey, if if you're already serving, great. You can still worship Christ in that role. If you're not, if you're free, well, don't do that.
Joel Brooks:Don't jump in and be a servant. It's really incompatible with the gospel that we're gonna find to to willingly have that kind of relationship. So because of all of this, I think the best way for us to try to and apply this passage is for us to think of this in terms of work relationships. Paul's describing the way we should view work, how employees and their bosses relate. How should an employee view their boss?
Joel Brooks:How should a boss view their employee? So many of you actually have a job that's very similar to that of a bond servant. You might not know it at the time. You might not like like that label, but you're probably pretty much a bond servant. And once you've gone into a job and you've thought this, and I know a lot of you have thought this, because I've talked to you.
Joel Brooks:Alright. The first few years in this job are gonna be terrible. They're gonna be terrible. But if I just kill myself in this job, if I just give up having a personal life, if I'm just, if I just work crazy, do everything my boss expects, do all the grunt work, just push through, then after a few years, there's gonna be a payoff. You're a bond servant.
Joel Brooks:It's who you are, and that's why many of you did what you did. Some of you have no time off because you always have to be have your phone on you. You always have to be at your boss's beck and call. You always have to be prompt in the way that you respond to the email. You can never tell your boss, no.
Joel Brooks:What he says is essentially law, and you've basically sold your freedom for a few years hoping for the payoff. If this is you, well then this passage applies to you. Paul Paul tells you then to obey your boss with fear and trembling, which is a way of describing the utmost humility, even reverence. With a sincere heart just as you would serve Christ. Just as wives were told to submit to the their husbands as to the Lord, Children were told to obey their parents as to the Lord, and now we have these bond servants being told that they need to do their work unto the Lord.
Joel Brooks:Now, you are not told to do this because your boss is honorable. You're not told to do this because he or she is a great person. You're told to do this because it honors the Lord. So Paul tells us several places, but I think he says this best in Colossians 3. He says, whatever you do, work heartily, not as to men, but as to the Lord.
Joel Brooks:We do all of our work as to the Lord. Now I'm sure that most of you in here, you probably are thinking that in order to have a job where you can where you could do it as to the Lord, or whether you could make your work an act of worship, or you could do the Lord's work, that that job has to be ministry. Or maybe a non profit. If I go to do a non profit, or if I go into ministry, then I could, you know, quote, do the Lord's work, but I want you to hear carefully what Paul is saying. He says, no, no, no, you don't have to do that to do the Lord's work.
Joel Brooks:All work is the Lord's work. Whether you're an accountant, a sales rep, a janitor, whatever, it could be the Lord's work. Look at verse 6. It says, not by the way of eye services, people pleasers, but servants of Christ doing the will of God. Doing the will of God from the heart.
Joel Brooks:In all of your professions, you can do the will of God. God's word. Alright. The person who I think explains this best is Martin Luther. He does his best.
Joel Brooks:Keller does a good job of explaining Martin Luther, but go back to Luther if you really wanna understand work. And Martin Luther, he says, if you really wanna understand how God, you could do God's will in all of work, just think of the prayer, the Lord's prayer when he says, give us this day our daily bread. And think of all the professions, all the work that had to happen in order for God to answer the prayer of you having bread. So I did that this week. I had to make a sandwich, and I got out my Nature's Own Wheat Bread, that I got from Publix.
Joel Brooks:Alright? And so I, as I was opening that up to make the sandwich, I thought, I deliberately took time to think, what all had to happen for me to get bread? For me to get this bread? I've prayed, father, give me this day my daily bread. I have it.
Joel Brooks:What had to all happen? Well, first off, there had to be a farmer who bought some land, who bought, you know, some tractors Then some other workers had to come in and had to harvest it. After it was harvested, then they had to be transported to another factory where there would be a mill and they would they would turn it into flour. And then it had to be transported to another factory, in which there would be bakers who would turn it into bread. And of course, there would have been all types of machinery and things there that had to come from some place where other people were working.
Joel Brooks:And then they would load this bread onto trucks after they had wrapped it in plastic, which came from some other place, another factory with other people working in it. They loaded on trucks and the truck drivers would drive it to the publics. And of course, were driving on roads that had to be maintained by other workers. Gets to Publix, and of course, there's accountants there, there's managers there, there's cashiers there, there's people who clean up, there's people who stock the shelves. There's all types of workers there, to where I finally could get the bread and buy it from money that I got from doing all these other stuff.
Joel Brooks:And literally, when you just take a step back and you begin to think, how did I get bread? Literally, hundreds of professions you start thinking of. All of these different people working to answer God's prayer of when you pray to him, give me this day my daily bread. So God was working through all of those professions to give you bread. So, really, there's nothing that we do.
Joel Brooks:There's no kind of work we do that's detached from worship to the Lord that's not done in service to him. That's what Paul's getting at here. We worship God and we we do his work when we work. And then he describes how. He says, you know, you do this not as a way of eye service, not as people pleasing, but as servants of Christ.
Joel Brooks:In other words, don't work hard just when your boss is watching, or when other people are watching. And don't just act like you're working, but you're really checking Facebook, you know? You're really doing personal emails, but everybody else just thinks you're working hard on your computer. It's like, don't do that. You're not just trying to have the appearance of work, or you're not just trying to impress the boss when he comes in.
Joel Brooks:Remember, you're doing your work to Christ. He's your boss. Now this would have been so liberating for people. Liberating for those who who thought they had such, unfulfilling jobs, who hated what they did, thought it had no meaning at all, and now Paul is saying, hey, forget about your boss here. Your real boss is the Lord.
Joel Brooks:And all work is God's work. And if you honor your boss here, that's a way of honoring Christ, and all of a sudden, you have given them meaning. And we all find meaning in the work that we do. They all could be worship. Alright.
Joel Brooks:So after Paul addresses the servants, he then goes on to address the masters. Verse 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. The masters or the bosses are now supposed to do their work as to the Lord. They're to treat their servants as they would want to be treated, and they are to never threaten, let alone be physically abusive.
Joel Brooks:They're not even so much as to verbally threat. A master must always keep in mind who his master is, and that master shows no partiality. That master is not impressed by a title. That master holds everybody the same before him. And bosses, you should always, always remember to whom you will have to give account.
Joel Brooks:And you always treat those who are under your care and your authority with utmost respect and dignity. Alright. I've got to conclude. Let me conclude by this, by reminding you that whether you are a wife or a husband or a child or a parent or a worker or the boss, Christ has modeled this for you. He's modeled it.
Joel Brooks:Wives, he modeled submission for you and the way he submitted to the will of his father. Husbands, He modeled sacrificial love for you in the way that He gave Himself up for the church. Children, he modeled obedience for you in the way that he obeyed his father perfectly. Parents, he modeled, being a loving and merciful father, the way that he cared for and nourished his disciples as children. Servants or employees, he modeled this by becoming a servant himself.
Joel Brooks:Jesus said the son of man came not to be served, but to serve. He was a servant. And masters or bosses, he modeled what a good, loving, merciful master looks like. There's not an area of life that Jesus did not transform or model before us. And hear me, if he was not the perfect model in every one of these things, you wouldn't be saved.
Joel Brooks:If he dropped the ball on any one of them, we would have no salvation. But because he did these things perfectly, now when we do them, we actually point people to the way of salvation, and we point them to who Jesus is. That's why it's so important that we live this way. We point people to who Christ is, and we show them the gospel. If you don't live this way, be encouraged though.
Joel Brooks:Christ did not just come as a model, He did come as your savior. And I know as I go through this, I fail over and over and over again. If Jesus was just a model, man, how damning that would be, but He is more than that. He saves us from all the areas that we have failed. He lived the good life we should have lived and He died the death that we should have died.
Joel Brooks:All that He might or we might be His. If you would pray with me. Father, the gospel is such good news. It's good news for marriages, for the family, for work, utterly transforms every aspect of our life. There's not an area in our life that you have not claimed mine.
Joel Brooks:Not one area. And praise praise God for that. It's all for your glory and for our joy. And I pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.