I invite you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Ephesians and the sixth chapter. Once again, this morning, Ephesians chapter 6. It's just verse 9 that's before us, but I will begin reading at verse 5 and continue through to verse 9. Coming to the close of this section in Ephesians where the apostles singling out saints for a special word of exhortation. The pair that are before us or have been before us last week in this are slaves and masters. So, I begin reading at verse 5 of Ephesians 6. This is the Word of God. slaves. 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, rendering 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 slave 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. Amen. Again, let's pray. Again, we call out to You, O Lord, for aid. Even at this midpoint of our service of worship, we ask afresh for Your Spirit. We ask that He might undertake for the servant who preaches, as well as for the servants who hear. Build us up in Your ways, in Your Word. We ask it in Jesus' name. As I came to chapter 9 of Ephesians 6, I realized with just a little bit of thought that through the blessing of God, this verse has direct application to not a few members of this church. That is to say, God has given to many in this congregation the privilege of leadership in the workplace. This is a congregation not only of employees, but of employers. Now there's a few that are both. I realize not a few, perhaps. You may well be supervisors of others' labor in your vocations, but you also have a supervisor. And so you get hit twice. Last week was to you, and this week is to you as well. Others of you are thinking of your careers that is not too distant for you. And you will, by God's blessing on you, very, very possibly be in a place of authority in the workplace. Verse 9 is explicitly for such persons. The apostles turning from slaves, who he had an exhortation for, to masters. And in his day, it's the second part that would have been counter-cultural. Slaves were always being exhorted to be submissive. Slave rebellion was a very serious offense and problem in the Roman Empire. The apostle's not only, however, concerned about slaves who are in defiance of the authority of their masters, he's equally concerned about the abuse of authority by masters. This has been his pattern, right? He spoke to wives about submission, but then he came and spoke to husbands about how they are to carry their authority in a way that nurtures and upholds the well-being of their wives. He'd spoken to children about submitting their parents' authority, and then he'd spoken to fathers about an unwholesome abuse of their authority, and he's following the pattern. Now, last week, if you're not here, you should know that we took up the very subject of slavery itself, what is the circumstance of Paul's day and the letter that he's writing. We recognize that there's a basic principle to slavery that applies even where the institution is long gone. The basic principle is when one person has a right to the labor of another, and it was reasoning thusly that we said this passage particularly applies to us in our day is we find ourselves in work relationships of either being under the authority of another, who by contract has a right to our labor, or we find ourselves in such authority. So, this morning, we're talking about what a Christian employer looks like, a supervisor, if you will. know when I'm going to again preach on this particular subject. I don't know if I ever have before. I'm not going to confine myself to verse 9. His words are brief, and I want to just touch on ways in which the Scriptures as a whole speaks to this issue. Indeed, it does. We'll divide our time into two parts. First of all, something employers should do, I'm keying off his expression, do the same to them, and then something employers should not do, I'm keying off his expression, stop your threatening. We'll take a look at verse 9 under those headings. First, something employers should do. Masters, do the same to them. And he goes on to say, and stop your threatening. knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with him. Do the same to them. You have to have remembered something of what he just said to slaves in order to understand what he's talking about. But even so, it's a little cryptic in some people's minds. Do the same. He just told servants or employees or slaves to render obedience to their masters. Is he now saying that masters are to render obedience to their servants? Clearly not. He's not obliterating the authority structure that he's just established. But he's appealing to the broader context in which he exhorted servants to render obedience to their masters. You remember what he had said. He said that servants were to obey their masters as servants of Christ. And that obedience was to be rendered as unto Christ. So that servants were to do the, he says it this way, do the will of God from the heart. And he says that they will be rewarded by Christ himself as they do that. Now, all of that applies equally to those on the other side of this authority relationship. That's what Paul has in mind when he says, do the same to them, be the same way, be mindful of the same things. Namely, if you're a boss of somebody, in the workplace, you also are a servant of Christ. You may be a master to that man, but you're a servant to Christ. And he goes on to say that in verse 9, knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven. If you're the employer, you're bound to follow God's will from the heart, just as a servant is. And if you're a master, you will also give an account. to Christ Himself for doing good to your servant. That's actually the most specific part that Paul is picking up on when he says in verse 9, do the same to them. Look at verse 8. knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he's a slave or free. Verse eight talks about doing good if you're a servant to your master, and now he's speaking of that same doing good as a master to his servant. Masters are to do good. to their employees in keeping with the will of God as those who will give an answer to the one who's both their master and their servant's master. Now, that apostle says that and doesn't elaborate on what that doing good would specifically look like as a master to a servant. He's content for his purposes in this letter to just be very general. You figure out what it means to do good. But Paul's not writing in isolation from the rest of the Scriptures. And I took a little time to just ask myself, what's the big issues in the Bible when it addresses itself to those who are employers, those who have a right to the labor of others and supervise others and have others accountable to them? What are the big issues? And I found two. There are two main issues that are actually repeated in the Scriptures for those who find themselves supervising others in the workplace. Employers do good for their employees by providing a good wage for them. That's number one. And employers do good for their employees by preserving a Sabbath rest. Let's look at those two things, and I'd like you to turn in your Bibles now to a few passages. Leviticus chapter 19 is where we'll begin. I don't know how many preachers this Sunday morning are turning their congregations to Leviticus, but I am. Leviticus chapter 19, to the law of God given through Moses, and we'll see this first point. Employers do good for their employees by providing a good wage for them. This is in my Bible in a section labeled, Love Your Neighbor as Yourself, Leviticus 19. The section begins, verse 9, listen to the appeals that are being made, particularly to those who have both possessions and authority. We'll begin at verse 9. When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner. I am Yahweh your God." He goes on, "'You shall not steal. You shall not deal falsely. You shall not lie to one another. You shall not swear by my name falsely and so profane the name of your God. I am Yahweh.'" Verse 13. You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning. Now, that reference to how men pay other men for labor that they've entered into contract for, and that interesting reference to withholding the wage for some period of time, even overnight, that's actually something repeated. Look over at Deuteronomy 24, the second giving of the law. And in Deuteronomy 24, you'll see Moses on God's behalf again emphasize this duty. of employers, there are only 24. Verse 14, you shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land, within your towns. You shall give him his wages on the same day before the sun sets, for he is poor and counts on it, lest he cry against you to the Lord and you be guilty of sin. You see the law is concerned about paying the worker his wage, and it envisions a certain kind of sinful tendency that employers could have. It's a form of swindling, of course, where an employer finds some kind of pretext for not paying what he owes, what he's committed to, and so he's slow to pay. In these passages, he's slow to pay, and typically that's a form of a passive aggression, we would say. not fulfilling obligations, perhaps even so that the one who money is owed will give up and won't have to be paid. Of course, these passages would very simply, gentlemen, ladies, if you are in the position of this kind of service in your workplace, it calls most obviously for prompt and full payment of what you promise. Very basic. And in civilized societies, that's something that's fairly common. Not entirely, but often something that can be counted on. But I want to point out to you, brothers and sisters, God's will goes even beyond this. A prompt and full payment according to contract, but God's Word would go even further than this. Not only that our employees are paid, that they're paid well, paid fairly, paid justly, that there's not been stinginess but true benevolence in paying those whose labor we have a right to. Look at the last book of the Bible, which is Malachi, and you might just find Matthew and turn a few pages back. Malachi chapter 3, This issue arises again. The same law that had specified these things and emphasized this particular part of the duties of the covenant has been violated. Malachi, of course, is anticipating the day of the Lord when Messiah himself will come. And as part of the foretold day of the Lord, Malachi 3 speaks of judgment. upon disobedient Israel. Verse 5, then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts." You hear that expression? It's a broad one. Malachi speaks of those who oppress the hired worker in his wages. This is broad enough to include all kinds of underpayment or withholding of payment for service. We won't turn to these passages, but this is a theme picked up in the New Testament. James 4, or rather 5 verse 4, echoes this. The wages of the laborers who mow your fields, which have been kept back by fraud, are crying out against you. Colossians 4, 1 as well. Here's what I want us all to see. God's law goes deeper as it typically does. from just the surface concern that employers should have. Am I paying what I promised to pay and in the timetable that I've promised to pay it? It goes further than that. It presses beyond that question to this question. Is what you committed to pay itself good and fair and even benevolent? That's how Christian employers or to use their authority in the workplace. John Murray is one of our OPC fathers. I hope his name will be dropped on Wednesday night before long as we come up to the founding of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. But he has comments about the inadequacy of an employer being only concerned with whether he's fulfilling the terms of his contract. Professor Murray says this. It would be easy for us to think that what is to govern compensation is simply and solely contract between employer and employee. It is to be admitted that compensation in agreement with contract may be perfectly proper and equitable. But it is easy to see that if this are the only governing principle of compensation, The grossest injustices could arise as they have arisen. Contract can be the instrument of grievous oppression. A laborer can be compelled to agree to a contract that will reward him a meager pittance of adequate compensation simply because the alternative is to be without any labor or reward. Did you hear that, brothers? Murray continues, has not history exemplified the frequency of that abuse? He's pointing out, brothers and sisters, the logic of secular business is not to be the logic of the Christ-pleasing employer. The logic of secular business is pay only as much as I have to. Market determines that. Market realities determine I will only pay as much as I have to pay by those criteria A Christian businessman is to have another logic. He is to have a benevolent heart towards those who work for him. His logic is to be very much the opposite. I will pay as much as I can afford to pay. The needs and demands of the business considered. We're just calling this paying a good wage, recognizing there is much judgment to be exercised in that. I just want to remind the businessmen and women in this congregation, we as Christians have a radically different view of business than the world of business all around us. chiefly for me. I'm in this for me, and I'm in this for money. That's the prevailing view of business in the secular world. The Christian loves this reality we call business, and he loves it for this reason. Business, commerce, the pooling of labor in all manner of creative ways is a means of glorifying God and advancing the good of our neighbor. That's the ultimate purpose of business. Yes, the immediate purpose is to make money. That's what the quarterly reports are. That's what the annual reports are. That's the immediate purpose, but that's subordinated to bringing into display the glory of God and the gifts and skills and talents of men and women, and it's a means of advancing the good, not only of employers who benefit from the labors of those under them, but those who work for them. and yes, customers, and shareholders, and the like. I trust that the thought of a Christian who is stingy with their tips in a restaurant is somewhat sickening to you. I hope that that strikes you as something very perverse. We are heirs of the riches of God's grace, and were we to be known as stingy in compensating those who labor for us, this would be a great contradiction, wouldn't it? And likewise, a Christian employer who becomes known for paying bottom dollar for the service that is rendered to him. Why, that man or woman is a living contradiction. to be sure. You who are in supervisory roles in the workplace as a Christian should be known for holding those who are employed by you to a higher authority than most, a higher standard than most, to be sure. You should also have the reputation of caring for those who labor for you, to include paying them. Well, second thing that the Bible speaks much of and emphasizes in a particularly dramatic way is this, employers do good for their employees by preserving a Sabbath rest for them. You see this and you say it with such regularity it might have still escaped you. Did you know that there's a portion of the Ten Commandments, the actual words written in stone, that has a very explicit word to Christian employers? You know this, don't you? Now, all the commandments are relevant for Christian employers. All of them have significance. The sixth commandment would call for safe working environment, for example. The seventh commandment would call for strict, severe consequences for sexual harassment. The eighth commandment calls for honesty in business dealings and transparency. But I'm, of course, thinking of the fourth commandment that actually singles out those who have people working for them. You probably don't need to turn to Exodus 20. You know it by heart. Exodus 20, verse 8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant or your livestock or the sojourner that's within your gates. Now, stop with me just for a moment and be reminded of what is so blessed, what is so good about God's Sabbath strictness. This is a strict commandment. He's being very specific in what he means, and it's very easy for us to bristle and to bow up at the sounding of this as strict, but here's the Let me just remind you, here's what's behind this. This is God's desire for the things most precious to us and to Him, our time and attention. That's what the Sabbath is about. He wants us to go, go, go, and then stop. The Hebrew is Shabbat. Take a Sabbath so that we can, in the Old Testament terms, have a holy convocation—that's what we're doing right now—so that we can be together with God's people and with Him. He wants us to stop so He can be with us, so that He can nourish us and cause us to flourish in that relationship. That's the good stuff that's behind the Sabbath. Don't forget it. But notice now how this Sabbath day is to be kept holy. It's to be kept holy. by stopping from the labor of the other six days. And when God gives this commandment, He gives it to a people who are not only themselves laborers, but as has continued to this very day, who are also in the position of supervising the labor of others. And so, he doesn't just say, you must stop. You must stop to spend this time with me, with God's people. He goes further and says that the keeping of this commandment involves stopping the labor of those who report to you, who do their labor for you. We can't work because God has better things for us to do on that day, and we can't let those who work for us work. So, parents, you're named here. Last week, we made the observation that this principle of master-servant does come into play in the home. You have a right to the labor of your children, and believe me, the average Hebrew father used that right. The boys were in the field. The women were there with their mom. They were working, and they could work six days. But God says, your son and your daughter has as much a right to the Sabbath as you do. They may not work either. And He also takes up masters. On it you should not do any work, you or your male servant or your female servant. He even includes the ox. Because God cares about animals. We could talk about that a little bit more. We won't. God cares about even the livestock, even the infidel, the one who isn't a follower of Yahweh, but he's employed by you, the sojourner. Everybody on the estate stops. He's very clear in saying that. Do you know how there are Bibles that have been edited or at least comments added to them to fit a certain kind of person? There's the teenager's Bible, and there's the single mom's Bible, there's the dad Bible, there's a proliferation of Bibles. There's actually an employer's version of the Ten Commandments in the Bible. There is actually an employer's version of the Ten Commandments. It's the second giving of the law. It's in Deuteronomy 5. You might be interested in turning to that. And it's given to us in basically the same terms, but with this difference. It drills down on this issue of the role of employers in keeping the Sabbath with regard to those who work for them. Sounds a lot like Exodus 20. Verse 14, on it, you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter. And listen, this is what we've just seen in Exodus 20. Or your male servant, or your female servant, or your ox, or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who's within your gates. That's just like you heard it in Exodus 20. This is the employer's version of the Ten Commandments. He adds this. that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you." That's new and different from Exodus 20. The second giving of the law includes this as a variation on the first. It goes on, you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. employer's version of attendant commandments. Many of you have encountered this as employees, the conflict between this commandment of God and your boss's expectations. You have, haven't you? God says to stop work on the day of worship, but your boss is calling you in. I'm afraid there are very few Christians these days who show any willingness to stand up to human authority in this area. It immediately becomes a work of necessity because the boss has called me. It is necessary to avoid a conflict between human authority and God's authority. We're not very willing to suffer for righteousness sake in this area. But I'm actually wanting to look at this issue from the other side this morning. Employees can find themselves in excruciating predicaments in light of the expectation of their employers. And the answers are not always simple in those predicaments. But my point is, If it's shameful for us to not even consider standing up to the whims of a human authority in favor of God's authority, it is even more shameful for Christian employers to be the cause of men and women breaking the Sabbath. You know this about the way God thinks. Those in authority bear the greatest accountability. Yes, the servant answers before the Lord for keeping or breaking the fourth commandment, but the master, especially the master who uses all his power and influence and leverage, he will answer far more deeply. I'm making an observation, brothers. If other men answer to you at work, you need to have a firm grasp of the fourth commandment. You need to know what it says, know what it means, and know how it applies for you. It singles you out in a conspicuous way. None of you can make a Sabbath keeper out of your employee. You can have as a matter of policy not to require them to profane this Sabbath and treat it like any other day. So these, I submit to you, brothers and sisters, are two very conspicuous requirements that the Scripture places on those who have a right to the labor of others, to pay a good wage. and to preserve the rest of the Sabbath. By the way, if this talk of the Sabbath is new to you, you're not alone. This is a forgotten commandment in our day. Speak to me. I would love to get you started in your reading, considering the blessings of God's Sabbath strictness. He has your good in mind. and your servants." So Paul says, do good to them. And we've seen how the Scripture fills out that simple exhortation. Let's look lastly, the next moment or two, at something employers should stop doing. Back to Ephesians 6, masters, do the same to them. And stop your threatening, knowing that he was both their master and yours is in heaven. and that there's no partiality with Him. Over the years I have come to see, I think about as clearly as I can indirectly, I've come to see how devastating for a person's life, for a whole family's life it can be to groan under the bad boss. I have commiserated with some of you. I've prayed with some of you under that circumstance. It's really quite remarkable how much the influence of the one who supervises you in the workplace can actually degrade one's whole quality of life. Some of you know this poignantly. You may even be experiencing it now. Not quite the whip and the lash of Israel under slavery in Egypt, but you know something about this threatening the apostle speaks of in verse 9. It's apparently a reference to the whole mode of administering authority by an employer. It's the preferred mode of motivating an employee. You know, you have two ways you can motivate, encouragement and reward or threatening and abuse. It's interesting that Paul actually seems to assume that this is actually going on. among Christian employers. Stop! You're threatening. Why would he assume that? Well, it's because this is as easy and as instinctive for those in authority as grumbling, complaining, and so on is for those under authority. It just cuts right with the grain of our fallen nature. Brothers, You are an authority in the workplace. You've known this for a long time. You can wield your authority in these two basic ways, motivating by threats or by kindness. Now, threats can be very productive, especially if those under you need the work, they need the job. They can get instant results. Encouragements typically involve entanglements of ongoing relationship and so on. Threats are more immediate, but do you see that God is weighing in in favor of one of those ways of using authority in the workplace? And you need to recognize that He actually is speaking very strongly He's actually wanting those who are employers to be afraid of motivating their employees by fear. Masters, do the same to them. Stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven, and there's no partiality with him. You need to have a little of your own fear and trembling. He said that to servants a moment ago. Employers, you need to have your own version of this, a fear and trembling on your part, because though you're in a situation now where you always have the last word, On the last day, you'll have no more social standing before the great master than your lowest servant. You'll be standing equally before him, both of you giving an account." This is how the law had actually put it back in Leviticus, you shall not rule over your servant ruthlessly, but shall fear your God. Here's my appeal to you who have, by God's goodness, been given authority in the workplace. Go far beyond the minimum requirements of our capitalist society or the mercenary motives of our materialistic society. Do you know what the Bible actually holds out? If we had time, we could go through it. It's been impressed upon me this past week. The Bible actually holds out, even in the days when the relationship is between a master and a slave, the Bible holds out a relationship that is mutually beneficial, just like the other relationships that he's been speaking of. Husbands and wives, mutually beneficial. Parents and children, mutually beneficial. Masters and slaves mutually beneficial. That's actually the standard that he holds up. It's so high a standard that God in the Old Testament after regulating this way of dealing with each other, calling for in the law, actually has to make a provision in the law for what do you do when a servant or slave is freed and yet says, I don't want to leave. I want to stay in my master's house." You can look it up, Deuteronomy 15, among other places. What's happening with such an employee? He's come to love the one over him. He's come to see that that person loves him and has his best interests at stake, and he's been a recipient of his beneficence. Last week, I said that Christians should make the best employees because it cuts with our grain. We're servants of Christ, after all. It ought to also come naturally in our new nature for us to be masters in a very gracious and benevolent way. You know why? Because that's all we've known. from Jesus the Lord, the Master. That's all we've known. That's His every way with us. We came here this morning and we said we're coming into His presence to serve Him, and this is what we expected from Him, only to reward our service with great goodness and blessing. That's probably not written in the employee handbook. That's probably not an explicit policy in the company. It is the way of Christlikeness. is the question for supervisors, what kind of master do you have? Do you treat your servants the way He treats you? I don't know about you, but I love having a Bible that scrubs into the corners of our Christian lives. That's what we've been doing this morning. Now actually, one could say, that's actually not a corner of my life. I spend the largest part of my waking hours and energies overseeing the labor of others. Some of you can say that. That's actually not a corner, is it? It's the biggest part of your life measured in terms of time and energy. The Lord has much to say, and you know why? Some of you hear me, this is the way your Christian testimony is manifest to the world. It is the way. Many other ways, it's the primary way for not a few of you. So this has all been appealed. Don't leave your love for God, your love for your neighbor at the door of the church. Take it with you on Monday. If you're an employee, I remind you, render your service to that boss man as unto Christ. If you're the boss man, you serve Christ as master the way He is master to you. Amen. Shall we pray? Our Father, in each of these authority relationships, you have snatched up great swaths of this congregation. Many are husband and wife. Many are parents and children. Many serve as employers and as employees. We recognize that You have had words to us in those areas of our lives where we are most in service to You. And so, we are praying as we come to the close of Your Word in these matters, that You will give us such a sight of Christ's way with us and Christ's way towards you, the Father, that these things will sit lightly around our necks. They will be not just what we do, but who we are, make us Christians into the corners. We seek this from you, as we all have need. In Jesus' name, amen.