It's good to be here this morning and it's time to open up the Word of God with you. Please turn with me to Ephesians chapter 6. We're continuing in our sermon series through the book of Ephesians and we're heading into the end. Today we broach a difficult subject, the subject of slavery, slaves and masters. We're going to focus on the duties of slaves, Christian slaves, those who are under slavery. But before we do, I'd like to read, starting in verse 15 of chapter 4 and through verse 9 of chapter 6 if you'd follow along with me for the reading of the word of God. Paul writes, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her. having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband. 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 bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. Render service with a goodwill 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 bondservant 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 that there is no partiality with him. Lord, open our minds, open our hearts to see your word and to be challenged and confronted by it and be comforted in our struggles. We pray this in Christ's name, amen. Well, our passage this morning, like I said, brings us to the difficult topic of slavery. Paul is developing the topic of submission in various practical realms of human authority, and now he speaks to slaves and masters about how God would have them behave in their roles. Slavery, of course, is an extremely old thing. From almost the beginning, it's been a part of human existence. It's been a reality at most times and in most places. Discussing slavery is not a pleasant thing, and I think most of us, it's fair to say, find the concept of slavery abhorrent. The idea of losing your freedom, of not having autonomy over your own life, not getting to direct your own life according to your own desires and your own structures and own plans, but having to submit to another person to serve him or her and to have to do whatever you're told. And of course, with that, to be subject to the horrible abuses that slavery allows, humiliation and dehumanizing treatment, often at the hand of cruel masters who might beat or abuse their slaves, possibly even for their own enjoyment. Living in suffering and misery for someone else's gain is truly a terrible and terrifying idea. And we don't like it. We don't really like to talk about it directly. But our passage leads us here, and so we're going to discuss it. In this day and age where slavery is abolished, it's a wonderful thing to live where slavery isn't a common practice. And we despise the institution of slavery, and we despise it so much that if you go online and read people's discussions, and I don't encourage that, but if you happen to find yourself online, people's objection to Christianity, common arguments that atheists make, is that the Bible, since it doesn't condemn slavery outright, cannot be a good book. It cannot be the word of God, because how could God condone an institution so corrupt and so prone to abuse as human slavery? Well, Paul certainly doesn't condemn slavery as an institution. He isn't teaching us how to abolish slavery in any society. He's not trying to turn us into social activists who work toward justice in our communities and in our countries and for people. There's a place for those things, but Paul has a much more important goal here. Paul is dealing with Christians who need to act like Jesus Christ. He's trying to tell people who are believing in Jesus Christ what their faith means when they're in this difficult place of being a slave. How does the Spirit of God work in your life when you're living under these circumstances? If the Holy Spirit is guiding you, living in you, strengthening you, then you will live a godly life, not only when things are going your way, but when circumstances are at their worst. After all, God himself is more consequential than your greatest suffering, than your greatest struggle. God is more powerful and more fearsome than any human master. Think of what Christ said in Matthew 10, 28. He said, do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. So this morning, we're gonna discuss the role of slaves. Next week, we'll talk about the role of masters. Roland will be preaching to you then. But as we talk about the role of slaves, I don't intend to sugarcoat this or try to make it an analogy to anything in your particular life. I wanna take the passage as it's presented to us. I think that's the best way to look at it. Paul is dealing with a difficult and often brutal reality, and we're gonna focus on it in the way that he addressed it. Notice he doesn't respond to the hard circumstances of being enslaved by fighting, resisting, or rebelling against the slavery, but by obeying the master. It's hard to accept, isn't it, if you think you're going to give advice to someone who's trapped in a difficult situation, who's been enslaved, who might be being abused by our recollection, by our understanding, and to say, what you should do about this is submit. What you should do about this is obey. And I get why that's hard for people to accept, especially those outside of Christianity. But it's also hard to see how this applies to us today. Right? I'm not a slave. I don't know any slaves. Slavery is not a reality that we deal with in our daily lives. Praise the Lord for that. A lot of preachers, when they preach this passage, they simply make it an analogy to the employer-employee relationship. And there certainly are points of commonality between the slave and master relationship and the employer-employee relationship. But there are also significant things that are missing in the employer-employee relationship. And I don't want us to miss what Paul is speaking about. So, before we get into our passage this morning, I want to just clarify the context of it, because I think that's important in understanding what Paul is doing. We are almost done with the book of Ephesians. We're in chapter 6, of course. Ephesians, the first three chapters, are largely doctrinal. The last three chapters are largely practical or applied doctrine. And the practical section is laid out in a series of five walks that Paul gives us. Starting at the beginning of chapter four, he tells us to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we have been called. And he goes to give a number of other walks, how a Christian should conduct themselves in the course of their life, walking being a metaphor for daily living. And the final walk that he gives us, we looked at a couple of weeks ago, and it's in chapter five, verse 15. He says, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise. So this is the walk of wisdom. And as we walk in wisdom, he lays out what it looks like to walk in wisdom. And the final thing he says about the wise walk is in verse 18, do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the spirit. So those who are in Christ are to walk wisely, which implies that they will be filled with the Holy Spirit. And then when we're filled with the Holy Spirit, he gives us certain attributes of those who are filled with the Holy Spirit. In verse 19, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart will worship genuinely in the heart. We'll give thanks if we're filled with the Spirit. Verse 20, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then in verse 21, he says, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. We will submit to one another. So those three attributes of those who are filled with the Spirit. But this idea of submitting to one another, Paul then lays out in a series of three human relationships that are based on authority and submission. And I see them as an increasing severity of authority and submission in the relationships he addresses. First, husbands and wives. There is a biblical submission of wives to their husbands. Al preached on this a couple of weeks ago. And When wives submit to their husbands and husbands love their wives, they are a picture of Christ in the church, and it is a beautiful thing. The second relationship, human relationship of authority and submission is children to parents. She says, children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. This is right, it's good, it's natural. It's how it should be that children submit to their parents, and that fathers then carry their authority well, not provoking their children to anger, but bringing them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. So these two relationships are both divinely instituted relationships. Marriage is instituted by God from the beginning when he made a wife for Adam. He instituted marriage, and it's a beautiful picture of Christ in the church. It's a loving relationship, and here he's described it as a sanctifying relationship for the husband and wife. If you're believers in Christ, you make each other better. You make each other more holy. You call each other to righteousness. Children and parents, this is a divinely appointed relationship as well. The parents are to nurture and protect and provide for the children. The child's submission is in his or her own best interest. As they look to their parents for all things, and the parents are to bring them up in the fear of the Lord and His discipline and His admonition to instruct their children. So it is, again, a sanctifying relationship, a maturing, a discipling relationship. These are institutions that God has created for our good, for human flourishing and blessing. And then he addresses slavery, which certainly is not done for the benefit of the slave. It's difficult for the slave. It's harsh for the slave. But if that slave is a Christian, if that slave is filled with the Holy Spirit, what is it that he or she will do? How will they live their lives under this difficult and painful institution? How does all the teaching of the book of Ephesians, being a part of the body of Christ, being raised from the dead spiritually, made alive in Christ, sanctified by his power, walking in his spirit, how do these things live out to someone who is under the authority of a master? Even a good master is still a master, still owns you. When you're transformed by the blood of Christ, made into a part of his body, the church, and filled with the Holy Spirit, then you will submit to all proper authorities, and that means a slave will obey his master. This is what Paul brings us to. He starts out with a clear command, doesn't he? And I wanna look at the command to obedience first before we really dive into this paragraph. He says, bond servants, obey your earthly masters. Bond servants, obey your earthly masters. This command is easy to understand. It's unambiguous. He's not giving them any way out. He's not giving them any place to kind of barter or reason or fight against it. It is very clear. Obey. What he calls them, who he addresses this to, my translation says bond servant. The word is doulos, which literally means slave. Slave is an uncomfortable term. It's a humiliating term. It's filled with stigma and insult. And so we don't like to use the word. Even in our Bible translations, they tend to shy away from translating the word doulos as slave. And a lot of times they'll translate it as servant. And they have their reasons for doing it. I just think they lean a little too much into the servant language because the word comes from a root deo, which means to bind. A servant is hired. You don't hire a servant and put a chain on him. It doesn't work that way. They won't accept it. And even in passages, the word servant doesn't always quite make sense. When Jesus said, no one can serve two masters, well, of course you can, right? You just need a schedule. Serve one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Serve one today and one tomorrow. But no one can be a slave owned by two masters. And that's what he's saying. So, when we look at this command to obey, this is the worst economic system other than communism that I can imagine. Slavery. These are slaves. So, what does it mean to be a slave? I want to take a moment out of the text and just talk about the historical context here, because I think that's very significant in this passage to understand exactly what he's talking about. Because slavery means different things in different times, in different periods. Ephesus was a part of the Roman Empire, and the Roman Empire made heavy use of slavery. By some calculations, there were about 60 million slaves in the Roman Empire. Slavery was extremely common. Most slaves lived a very difficult life. They had no legal rights. They were barred from any sort of legal representation. and they were subject to not only a brutal and heavy workload, but also cruel and dehumanizing treatment. This is probably no more true than the slaves that worked in mines, whether gold mines or salt mines. Slaves that worked in mines, conditions were extremely harsh. Slaves worked past the point of exhaustion, they were held to their post and told to continue working at the threat of whipping and beating, and they were treated as expendable. A constant supply of new slaves was required in the mining operations to replace those who had died, whether through sickness, through harsh conditions, through exhaustion, or simply most lost the will to live. Working in fields was nearly equally harsh. They served long days and were expected to continue to work through the heat of the day and the cold. They were not treated well by any stretch of the imagination. Cato once instructed a friend, he had a friend who was taking over a farm, and he told him to get rid of all the old equipment, throw it out, and of course that meant the old slaves. Let them starve to death on the garbage heap, That's how highly he thought of these people. He advised him that if a slave fell sick, that it would be wasteful to give him food. One writer wrote that farming equipment is to be considered in three categories, articulate, inarticulate, and mute, and by that he meant slaves, animals, and equipment. A slave was considered a tool, no better than an animal or a shovel, just happened to be able to speak. This dehumanizing view is extremely common. Aristotle wrote that masters and slaves can't have real friendships. He said, for a slave is a living tool, just as a tool is an inanimate slave. Those who worked out in the fields or in the mines faced just a brutal reality until they perished and new slaves would be brought in to replace them. A lot has been written on Roman slavery and some people try to rehabilitate the horrors of it and make it sound like it wasn't so bad. because it wasn't a terrible circumstance for everyone, especially those slaves who served in cities or in homes. They tended to have an easier time of it and better treatment, but of course, their treatment depended entirely on the character of their master. See, slaves were so common, they were used for all kinds of work. Houses would own slaves, hire a slave or purchase a slave as a tutor for their children. Large houses would have slaves that would manage their finances. They would have accountants. They might even hire a physician. Most doctors were slaves in the Roman Empire. bankers, chefs, so many occupations. It's a dizzying variety of them. And some of them, as such, were highly educated and very skilled, often musicians and performers, were very expensive slaves. So, many slaves were incredibly valuable to their masters and were well-educated. In fact, young people would often sell themselves into slavery because it did offer certain benefits. Perhaps by being a slave, they could, when they were freed, gain Roman citizenship. Or they could study and learn a trade and learn a skill. Many did this. Slaves were often set free, and slavery could be a useful stepping stone. Rome had a large population of freed persons in their society. This was a common thing. But even at its best, these slaves were subject to the whims of their master. Roman slavery was chattel slavery. You could be bought, sold, or traded as a commodity, and you had no rights. Roman law gave the master almost unlimited power. A master could have a slave executed, could have a slave beaten, could rape their slave, and there was no legal recourse. These things were perfectly legal. If a slave wanted to resist slavery, wanted to try to riot or escape, it wasn't a great option. Slaves who ran away were typically killed. They were executed when they were found. If they weren't killed, they were branded as a fugitive and sent back to slavery and treated, again, very harshly. Slave revolts were put down brutally by the Roman Empire. Maybe one of the most famous was the Third Slavic War, the one led by Spartacus, and that succeeded for a time. They had about 120,000 people in a freed slave community that was able to fight off many, many assaults of the Roman army, but of course, eventually, the Roman army won. And at the end of that war, there were 6,000 left, and every one of them was executed, crucified along the Appian Way, as an example to other slaves who might be tempted to revolt. Typically, all were killed, not only the leaders of the rebellion. And in a household, if one slave killed the master of the house, typically all the slaves of the house were executed. All of them. It was a brutal, brutal system. It was harsh and inhuman. And this is the reality that Paul understands when he addresses these slaves and tells them that their duty before God is to obey their master. He's not sugarcoating it, he's not defending it, he's not excusing it. He's simply presenting the reality that they lived in and telling them what they ought to do. And he says, bond servants, obey your earthly masters. I love Paul because he throws a word like that in, earthly. The word literally is flesh, fleshly masters. Earthly gets the sense just fine. He's not clarifying, right? It's not unclear. Slaves, obey your masters. No one says, who do you mean, Paul? He says, obey your earthly masters because he's making a point. He is describing the role of the masters. He's giving them the scope of their authority. He says, your authority covers what's fleshly, and that's it. Right? There is a fleshly authority they have, but it is not ultimate. It is not over the soul of the slave. It is not an eternal authority. It ends with this world. There is real earthly authority. When the Pharisees wanted to turn people against Christ, they tried to trip him up by confusing earthly, fleshly authority with human authority. And they asked him, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar? And they thought they had him here because this was a hot button political you know, debate. If he says, yes, pay taxes to Caesar, then they can put him before the Jews as disloyal, as siding with their oppressors and their conquerors. But of course, if he says you shouldn't pay taxes to Caesar, then he's an insurrectionist and they can bring him before the Romans as a charge him with some sort of a crime against Caesar. And they thought they had him. But, of course, Christ, wiser than them, wiser than us, asked them to bring him a denarius, the coin that was paid in the tax. And so, when they brought it to him, he simply asked them, whose image is stamped on this coin? And, of course, they had to answer, Caesar's. And then Jesus, in Matthew 22, verse 21, responded to them, therefore, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. See, there are real layers of authority in this world and we are to respect them, we are to honor them, we are to give them their due. But only God has ultimate authority. It wouldn't be right to deny Caesar's authority and not pay the tax, but it also wouldn't be right to deny God's authority who has authority over all things. All authority is God's. He has ordained lesser leaders. And it is Paul's view, and therefore the word of scripture, that he has ordained masters to rule over slaves in areas where that is the practice. And a Christian accepts that authority. but it's fleshly authority, right? The clear implication is that they have a fleshly master, but they have a spiritual master, Christ, who retains His rights over their soul. And it's to Him that they do their service for. The rest of our passage, Paul is encouraging them to obey, And there is a repeated insistence that their obedience is not to their master ultimately, but ultimately to Jesus Christ. And he repeats it over and over again to convince them, to encourage them, to comfort them in the difficulties that they'll face in carrying out this command. So what I see here in our passage, Paul now gives us four aspects of the spirit-filled slave's obedience. Four aspects of the spirit-filled slave's obedience. And starting in verse five, we see the integrity of a slave's obedience, where he says, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ. They were to serve their masters with fear and trembling. It was very common for masters to control slaves through fear, but this is different. This is an internal posture of the heart. And what he's describing here is an insistence on serving well, on doing the job well, on doing it right. The fear and trembling is that the Christian slave is concerned about about following through and doing a good job. John Calvin said that this means fear and trembling. It means with the careful respect which springs from an honest purpose so that I have a right heart and integrity in doing the work that set before them. And Paul continues fear and trembling, he says, in the sincerity of your heart. with a sincere heart as you would Christ." So a sincere heart, the word haplos means single, whole, or united. In other words, sincere or pure in intention. So you serve in fear and trembling and in the sincerity of your heart. So he's saying, serve diligently, serve wholeheartedly, don't be duplicitous. The idea is to do your best. any resentment, any temptation to be lazy or to slack off, to scheme or undermine the master, to grumble in your hearts. He's saying, don't do those things. Do your work with integrity. This sort of attitude would confuse your fellow slaves, wouldn't it? The master tells you to do something and you do it willingly, do it wholeheartedly, you do it with integrity. They might even be angry with you. They might think you're trying to curry favor with the master or make them look bad. You might even face some conflict from other slaves when they see you doing your job and doing it well. But what motivates you to do it isn't your love for the master. It isn't your agreement with the master's priorities. He may be a terrible, terrible master. But Paul says, you do it as you would serve Christ. As you would serve Christ. This is how all of us are to work, isn't it? Proverbs 16 verse 3, Solomon writes, commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established. Do it for the Lord. Work for the Lord. Colossians 3.23, Paul writes, whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men. In all circumstances, the best and the worst of us, when we do our work, we're supposed to do it for the Lord. We're supposed to do it with that same integrity. And so Paul is calling the slave, what your hand finds to do, whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your might, do it well. Do a good job for your master. And what we see here is that God values the work of the slave. His labor, his exhaustion, his effort, his learned skills, his craftsmanship, isn't dishonored simply because he's a slave. He can do a good job and take delight in his work and take pleasure in the things that he's done and in a job well done just like anyone else, and he's to do that. Just like any other work that a man or a woman might do, the slave's work is first an offering to God. The character of his master according to the flesh, the treatment of that master to the slave isn't even mentioned. We serve Christ, He is worthy of our work, and we give Him our best efforts, and we perform our best skills for Him. So, if you find yourself in that difficult situation of being a slave, you do your work in obedience, and you do it with integrity, Paul says. Next, in verse 6, we see the honesty of the slave's obedience. We see the honesty of his obedience. And Paul says it this way, not by the way of eye service, as people pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. This word, eye service, seems to, Paul just made it up. It's clear enough, though, isn't it? You're serving the eyes. You're appearing to serve. It looks good, right? It's the practical dishonesty of looking like you're working when you know that you aren't. Those of us who work on computers, we're very good at this. It always looks like you're working. It doesn't matter what you're doing. We're not to do that. Don't look like you're working to your boss. Be actually working. Paul connects this idea of eye service, appearing to work, with being people pleasers. This would be those who are trying to please, typically those in authority over them, trying to look like they're the good ones, making sure they get credit for anything they do. recognition for anything that's accomplished. When you put these together, it's a very clear picture. And you may feel that you've worked with people like this. People who contribute minimally to the project, but brag as if they had done it all. People who won't do the difficult stuff in the background, but will only do the flashy stuff in front that gets noticed by the boss. People who won't do work if they think it might fail, because they don't want to look bad, they don't want to be seen as someone who failed. They impress their superiors, but any wise boss recognizes this sort of behavior and knows that if you give them a project, a difficult one, it doesn't get done very well. This is the sort of slave you could imagine wants to make sure that he doesn't get in trouble, and so he takes credit for another slave's work, Acts busy and diligent when the boss is around, and then lazy when he's not. Well, that would be dishonest. This is a worker who lacks integrity, a worker who lacks honesty, and Paul contrasts this by saying, not with eye service as people pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. Doing the will of God from the heart. Once again, we see that the work of the slave is actually being done for the Lord. You're serving your master, but really you're serving Christ. You're a slave of Christ's. Paul elevates their lowly bondage. He once again takes their focus off of their cruel master and their thankless work and sets their eyes on Christ instead. And look what he says. It's kind of amazing. What are you doing as a slave? You're just plowing a field. You're just cooking a meal. You're just doing whatever it is that you were told to do. And he says, you're doing the will of God. You don't have a menial task. You have a noble task. If it's done for the Lord, it is worship. You're doing the will of God. He elevates their work. He gives it hope. He gives it meaning. He gives it purpose and nobility in their toil. It's the work the master doesn't want to do himself. It's the lowly stuff. It's the hard stuff. And Paul says, you're doing the will of God. When they look at it this way, they can do this work from the heart. Honest work, hard work. The word literally isn't heart. Paul says psuche, soul. You're doing it from the soul. It means the same thing, but it's just so personal, so deep that this slave believes in what he's doing and he's doing it well. He's a good worker. He's a hard worker. He's a diligent man or she's a diligent woman. We see the integrity of their work and the obedience in verse 5. We see the honesty of their work in verse 6. We see the willingness of their work in verse 7. The slave is a willing worker. Paul writes, rendering service with a goodwill as to the Lord and not to man. He describes the slave's goodwill. This word, eunoia, means benevolence or friendliness, and this actually is a word that's used in secular writing of the time to describe the ideal characteristic of a slave. Secular writers use this word, and Paul seems to be agreeing with them. A slave should give willing, and the word would imply even enthusiastic service. This is the opposite of a begrudging or protesting spirit. This is not your teenager when you tell them to do the dishes. Okay. This is someone who simply takes a command and obeys willingly. It's the ideal slave. So, The slave is to work in integrity. The slave is to work in honesty. The slave is to work willingly. This describes a very effective and useful person. This is a very good slave. And I wanted just to stop it for a moment and give an example. Because I don't want this to be theoretical for us because it's, again, so outside of our scope of reality, of our experience. But I can't imagine a slave who served better than Joseph. Joseph, who was betrayed by his brothers, Joseph, who was sold into slavery in Egypt. And he finds himself at the house of a man named Potiphar. And Potiphar takes note that this young man, Joseph, just serves well. And so Potiphar then makes him his personal slave, his personal servant, puts him in the house and puts him over everything in his house. He makes him the manager of all things so much that Potiphar had no clue what was going on with any of his affairs. Only the food that he ate he knew was in his house. What sort of person would you put in charge of all of your possessions like that? What sort of a person would a capable and competent government official like Potiphar put over all of his affairs? This is a man who worked diligently. Joseph was a man of integrity and honesty. When he was given a task, He didn't just do the bare minimum. He wouldn't just do exactly what he was told, but he would find issues, find problems, and fix them. Or maybe ask Potiphar. I'm sure he asked Potiphar how he wanted to deal with some problem, and then Joseph would handle it and deal with it and do it just as Potiphar had requested. He earned his trust by his good work. And of course, then Potiphar elevated him to the chief of his slaves and managed all of his affairs. Joseph then, of course, was falsely accused and sent to prison under false charges. And again, how would you feel? I'm sure he wrestled with his emotions. I'm sure he struggled. The scriptures don't record that for us. But you know he felt victimized. You know that he felt defeated. He felt discouraged. He felt the temptation to anger and bitterness like any of us would feel. But in the prison, what did he do? He just continued to serve, as honorable as before. And it wasn't long before the warden of the prison put him in charge of everything that was done in the prison, and didn't even bother to follow up and see if Joseph was doing a good job, because that's the sort of man, the faithful slave that Joseph was. He did his job, and he did it well, and he did it with integrity, and with honesty, and with skill, and he was willing to do it. He certainly served his masters with goodwill. And what this did is provided a testimony of his God in a pagan land, earned favor and honor despite his lowly circumstances. And of course, when Pharaoh met him, Pharaoh put him over all of the kingdom of Egypt, and Joseph was given the governance of the kingdom of Egypt. We could talk so much about Joseph and his character and his godly life, but his acceptance of the role of slave is significant because his life wasn't over when he was sold into slavery. His work had really just begun and it started out very lowly and it was through his successes as a slave that he was elevated highly. We could talk about others. Daniel would be a wonderful example of someone carried into captivity. into slavery in Babylon, who handled himself with such integrity and such diligence that he was found to be just the best of the land, the most competent, the most capable, the most knowledgeable, the best at working and doing his job. So this Christian slave does all these things. He does all this work. He obeys willingly. He obeys honestly and with integrity. And he does it, of course, once again, Paul says, as to the Lord and not to man. Over and over again, Paul repeats this. Why? Why is Paul continuing to say the same idea that you're serving not your master, but you're serving Christ? Because it's difficult. Because these slaves are in a tough position. And so he wants to remind them. He wants to put their minds off of their earthly masters and back onto Christ. He says, serve the Lord rather than people. Because this word here, Lord, is actually the same word for master in verse 5. So you serve your master and not people. He's got to clarify. It is fitting and right and appropriate that we be willing to be Christ's slave. Why? Because He was willing to be ours. Christ is glorious beyond our understanding, but when He came to the earth, He came as a servant. In Philippians chapter 2 verses 6 and 7 it says of Christ, who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men. Servant here again is doulos, literally slave. Jesus took on the form of a slave. in Christ, then, the concept of greatness has been turned upside down. Just as Christ humbled himself to serve, the greatest Christians are those who are humble servants, even slaves, to Christ and to one another. I want to read Matthew chapter 20, starting in verse 25. It says, Jesus called them to him and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant. And whoever would be first among you must be your slave. Even as the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. rather than being humiliated to be lowered to the point of slavery, we all lower ourselves to the glorious role of being slaves of Jesus Christ and slaves of one another. These people who are enslaved in reality, in their lives, they simply are living it out practically before one man or woman who owns them. But that humility, that lowly, humble service is to be the characteristic of any Christian. Paul wrote in Galatians 5.13, do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another. Again, serve, duluo, be one another's slaves. Serve with that humility. It's a hard thing. to consider. It's a difficult topic, but we have this idea of our lives and what they ought to be. And if we live our lives for pleasure, for enjoyment, then really the most important thing is that we be free to direct our lives so we maximize our pleasure in the things of this life. But if we live our lives for Christ, then we set aside our priorities, we set aside our personal prerogatives, and we accept that there's nothing better, there's nothing greater than to be a servant of Jesus Christ, to be His slave, to do what He tells us to do. Well, Paul's encouraged them to do their work well, to be excellent slaves. And he gives them one final motivation, one final aspect of their obedience, and then verse eight, that is the hope of the slaves' obedience, the hope of their obedience. Paul writes, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or free. He broadens it out to all of us, doesn't he? Whatever work you have to do, you know that God is the rewarder. God is the one who sees and knows. Slavery was a very unappreciated occupation. Slaves don't get a thank you. Slaves don't have parties in their honor. They don't get bonuses when they've done a good job. Even Jesus described the life of a slave in Luke chapter 17. He told a story, an example. He said, will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he's come in from the field, come at once and recline at table. Will he not rather say to him, prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink? Does he thank the servant because he did what is commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, we are unworthy servants, we have only done what was our duty. We are to do our duty before God, like a slave, and not demand recognition but an evil master would withhold what was good from a slave. Maybe a slave would have sold themselves into slavery with an agreement to be released after a certain number of years, and they come to that point, and the master says, I'm not going to free you, I'm going to keep you. That slave would have no legal recourse. If a slave were to inform against their master, it was a capital offense. They could be executed simply for trying to bring charges against them. There was no way to hold them accountable. But in God's accounting, nothing is missed. Do you see that? The promised reward, he says, is for each slave, right? Knowing that whatever good anyone does, it's for all, it's for every slave, and it's for whatever good. All of it is seen by God. And the good that he does is not just what's judged useful or profitable from his master, but the good that God deems as his sincere and honorable work, the moral good that he does. And God will give him the reward. God will give him the honor and the recognition that's due him. How many wicked masters do you suppose there's been who despised and looked down on their hardworking slave when God himself despised the master and loved that slave? Charles Hodge wrote, in this world, some men are masters and some are slaves. In the next, these distinctions will cease. There, the question will be not who is the master and who is the slave, but who has done the will of God. And of course, this promised reward, this recognition, this the wages of the good we do, is not just for the slaves. He says whether he's a bond servant or free. Paul clarifies, it's for anyone. Consider the strength we can find in living in hope of God's promised reward. Paul said in Romans chapter eight, he said, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. It's not even worth putting them in the same category. The scales are so weighted to the glory that whatever suffering we face in this life, it's irrelevant. It's not even worth considering. You can't compare them. God's reward is so much greater. It has a power to keep us going, to keep us strong through the worst of circumstances. 1 Corinthians 15, 58, Paul wrote, Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. Our labor is not in vain, and the labor of the slave wasn't in vain when it was done for Christ. We know that by God's promise, there will come a day when all of us will face the judgment seat of Christ. First Corinthians 5.10 says, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. So Paul here repeatedly tells these slaves who are living such a difficult life to look at Christ, to serve Christ, to be a bond slave of Christ, to do it as to Christ. Look for your reward from Christ. Get your eyes off of the difficult things and put them back onto the one who can help you through it. Or as the songwriter wrote, turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim. in the light of His glory and grace. So we've seen this encouragement for slaves to obey their masters, and praise the Lord that it's kind of an alien encouragement. It's not something that we relate to very well. But the question is, we do know the one who gave them the strength to do this difficult task, to live this difficult life, Do you know Jesus this morning? Does He take away your burdens? Does He strengthen you to walk the path that you have to walk? Do your trials and struggles look small compared to Him and His glory? In the Psalms, King David wrote that he could walk through the valley of the shadow of death without fearing any trouble if only Christ was with him. Is that your experience of Christ? Is it because even though as a believer you'd rather walk in sin and selfishness and pride and things that you should be ashamed of? Do you prefer those things to walking in the holiness of God and obedience to Him? Repent. There's joy and there's grace. This life is serious and it matters and you can walk in His righteousness. Or maybe you don't even know Christ this morning. You're not sure even what this means. If that's the case, I encourage you to talk to me. Really, talk to anyone. Beg God to show you Christ. Come to us. Sir, I must know Jesus. You do. You need Him. You must have Christ, because He's your only hope of heaven, and He can strengthen you through the trials of this life. Lord, we thank you for this passage. We thank you for the integrity of the Christian slave, we thank you for the strength that you give them to endure, and we thank you that for all of us, whatever circumstances we face, when we do our work, when we suffer oppression or opposition or persecution of the cruelty of men, you walk us through it, you empower us to do what's right and righteous, no matter what our circumstances are. Bless us this morning, Lord, and use even this difficult passage to encourage our hearts and to help us to walk this week closer to you. In Christ's name we pray, amen.