Colossians 3 and verse 22 is our text for this morning. Continuing on our study, verse by verse through Paul's letter to the Colossians, verse 22, continues his discussion about household duties, or as one preacher said in this greater context, verses 18 to 22, chapter 4 verse 1, that a new man makes a new home. The new man who we are in Christ. How ought a Christian household look? What should be the characteristics of it? We've seen that in relation to wives to husbands, husband to wives, children to parents, fathers specifically to children. And now we're looking at slaves, and we think slaves? What are we talking about slaves for? From the earliest time in human history, and notice I didn't say prehistoric, because there's no prehistoric time. If you want to talk about prehistory, it's eternity. It is outside of time. But everything from the very beginning, right? Genesis 1.1 says, in the beginning, that's the beginning of time, God created the heavens and the earth. And so there is the beginning of history. And that history is recorded for us, a lot of it here in the scriptures. Anyway, we see at the very beginning of history how slavery was practiced. It was not endorsed necessarily by God, but just because we live in a fallen, cursed world, we see how different economic structures have come into being, how the difficulties, as God said in Genesis 3, the curse upon Adam, and by the sweat of your brow you will labor, and the ground is going to issue forth thorns and thistles, and it's going to be bad. It's good for Eeyore, right? Donkeys like thistles. But not for people. It's bad stuff. And through all the difficulties, the distresses, the disappointments, you plant a crop and you don't get to harvest it. Well, you're not going to eat. You're not going to have enough to go around. issues of slavery then arose and by the time of the patriarchs that would be Abraham Isaac and Jacob and a corollary to him to them is Job probably we don't have exactly an idea when Job was established but throughout Job he talks about servants the book of Job I say he talked about servants and slaves we see in relation to Abram and Abraham, same guy, different names of course, talked about servants born in his house. He had 318 I think it was at one time, went to fight on behalf of his nephew Lot when they went to go and restore the people from being captured by other stuff. And he had these trained men born in his household who were part of his household. These were not family members in the sense of, you know, biological children, but they were men attached to Abraham and cared for by him. They were slaves in some sense, and yet also were trusted and intimate members of the household. By the time, well, throughout that biblical history, we see how slavery rises and falls with various things. This, of course, is Paul This letter from Paul to the Colossian Church is written in the first century AD. This is the time of the Roman Empire, and Rome had a whole civilization based upon slavery. There was one Roman senator, historian, Seneca, who mentioned in kind of passing, I think to Emperor Nero, maybe at the time, that there was a proposal made at a certain time saying that slaves ought to dress in a certain way. They couldn't wear the toga, they couldn't wear the aristocratic kind of garb, but let's make them all wear the same uniform. And then they said, wait a minute, if we do that, they will notice and recognize how many of them there are. At that particular time, there may have been up to 20% of the population of Rome were slaves, were forced laborers. And they said, we don't want that. It was in the first century BC, if you remember Spartacus. You've seen the movie, the documentary. It's loosely based on history, but it talked about a slave revolt. So slave revolts were prevalent in that time period and the crushing of them, put your thumb down on those revolts. Paul addresses this thing because slavery was part of the Roman Empire. He is in Rome, by the way, imprisoned, having been there for two years or so under house arrest. He says slavery, being part of the Roman household, needs to be addressed here. We're talking about husbands, wives, very important, the parents, children, but also how do slaves interact with one another? And I think it was specifically on his head, on his mind, excuse me, that he wanted to address slavery. He does it also in a parallel passage in Ephesians chapter 6, but here he talks more about slaves. They needed about wives. about husbands, about children, and fathers. He talks more about slaves here in verses 22 and to the end of the chapter, and then, of course, masters in verse one of chapter four. Why did he do that? A number of reasons, I think, but one, maybe the primary thing is, do you remember Philemon? Do you remember Onesimus? There's another letter that Paul wrote at the time of this letter to the Colossians, and that is Philemon. A very short little book letter written to a man, Philemon, here, who lived in Colossae, and he was a slave owner, a Christian man, who had a slave named Onesimus. And you can read all about Onesimus, and there's a little play on words. with his name Onesimus is based on a verb to mean to be a benefit to and Paul uses that in his letter you can trace that down but I think because Onesimus ran away from Philemon from Colossae all the way to Rome hundreds of miles away and somehow in God's kind providence found Paul and found Christ or Christ found him Onesimus is a believer now and Paul says I'm sending Onesimus the slave back to you master Philemon for your reunion of your your brother, your fellow worker, and so forth. You can read about Philemon. I think it's on his mind, then, how ought slaves to conduct. Maybe he's thinking especially, hey, Philemon, notice, or excuse me, Onesimus, look at this, what I'm writing to the church back in Colossae. You're going to take this, perhaps, back with you when you go back to your master Philemon. Let me read the text to get us, get it, excuse me, in our minds as we go forward, and then we'll look at verse 22 specifically. He says, slaves in all things obey those who are your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men pleasers, but with integrity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. Serve the Lord Christ. Masters, excuse me, for he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done and that without partiality. Masters, show to your slaves what is right and fair knowing that you too have a master in heaven. Just here in verse 22, and we'll look at the other verses here as we, in weeks to come, but verse 22, and even this first word. You know, sometimes I get just hung up on words, and you say, can't you just move on? Well, you know, slavery is such an important thing, and it's very important in our American history. Many people call slavery the the original sin of America, that we were founded based on slavery. Well, that isn't exactly true, and we can go into that, but I want to talk about biblical slavery. What is the evidence? What is the practice of it? We're not going into it in too much depth, but it is interesting, as you read in the Mosaic Law, that is to say, the law that Moses delivered to the people Israel, After the Ten Commandments, which is Exodus chapter 20 and Deuteronomy chapter 5, especially in Exodus, the very first section of laws has to do with slavery. Exodus 21, he talks about slavery and how these slaves, how this relationship should go on. If you want to turn there, we'll just read a few passages. And it's helpful, even in that context, to regard What are slaves to the masters? How ought they to regard their identity, and how ought the masters relate to them? Exodus 21 speaks about this. Laws about slaves. And he says, if you buy a Hebrew slave, well this indicates that slaves can be bought and sold, he shall serve for six years, but in the seventh he shall go out of the free man without payment. Okay, so there is a limitation on this. It's interesting how God acknowledges the practice of slavery, but he says at the end of six years, you let him free. It's enough of this stuff. You let him free. You bought this Hebrew brother, a slave. And then it says, if he comes alone, you shall go out alone. If he's a husband of the wife, his wife shall go out with him. If his master gives him a wife. And you can read all these things. God is legislating how our masters relate to slaves, how our slaves conduct their business before God. If you notice down in verse 20 and 21, verses 20-21 in Exodus 21, we see if a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod and he dies at his hand, he shall surely be punished, but if for a day or two he is able to stand, no punishment should be taken. And notice this phrase, for he is his property. We often talk about chattel, C-H-A-T-T-E-L, chattel slavery. That is to say that slaves are no more than a tool, like a hammer, or a cart, or a horse even. That's not exactly true. God is protecting the identity, the honor, the integrity of the person, even by those opening rules and legislations. But here he says, this slave is your property. Maybe your translation is a different word. word there or the Hebrew word there is silver or money. He is your money. He's your silver. He's your wealth evidenced in these slaves. Remember Job, his household was characterized by lots of livestock, lots of children, lots of slaves even in his household. It wasn't an unrighteous behavior, unrighteous activity. I'm sure he was very kind to him. Paul will talk about masters in relation to slaves. But here the concept is slavery does have a sense where you are your master's property. You are under that master's, that lord's control and concern and responsibility. It doesn't mean that that master can misuse you. Paul says in verse one, of course, do to others, essentially do to others as you'd have them do to you. not the word, the kind of controverted commandment, do to others before they do unto you, make sure you get in before they get to you. No, you lay down your life, you serve, you think, remember you have a master in heaven yourself, and he will give the reward of the inheritance, you serve the Lord Christ. This idea of slavery is old, it's not a new phenomenon, it's not an American phenomenon, it's not even ultimately a racial phenomenon, maybe had that connotation here in America over the last, beginning in the 1600s, but in the Bible and biblical record and throughout history, it hasn't been based on color of your skin or what country you're from. It's based on various other situations. In fact, perhaps the most significant way that slaves came into the possession of somebody else is through warfare, through conflict, through conquest even. There is a beautiful story, and you can turn to it again, 2 Kings chapter 5. 2 Kings 5 is where the remarkable happening goes on. Of course, it's in the larger context of a healing that God is going to accomplish on a Syrian general, Naaman. Naaman is the guy's name. But it's interesting how the whole healing episode happened because of a Hebrew slave girl that was working in Naaman's house. and mentioned, oh, I wish that my master, I'll just read it, 2nd Corinthians 5, Naaman, commander of the army, the king of Aram, was a great man, and his master, Excuse me, some of these letters are jumping around on me. There we go. And highly respected because of him, Yahweh had given salvation to Aram. The man was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. Now verse two says, now the Arameans had gone out in marauding bands, these are warfare and taking prisoners and so forth, and had taken captive a little girl from the land of Israel, and she waited on Naaman's wife. And she said to her mistress, I wish that my master, Naaman, were before the prophet who's in Samaria, then he would cure him of his leprosy. And Naaman went in and told his master the king, and you can read the rest of the context. But what is so remarkable about that is this is an enemy kingdom who went in a marauding band, I mean mean evil kind of folks, and taking Israelites, Hebrew people, and especially the younger ones, because they will last longer than the older people. And this little girl had compassion upon her master, this new master, Naaman, not a Gentile guy, not a Hebrew guy, somebody who had probably killed her parents and just done nasty things, and yet her compassion and pity and love even for her master. is evidenced here, and then of course the story goes on, and Naaman even comes to faith, comes to submission to Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, and it's just a tremendous way that shows the Sensitivity, not the anger, not the revenge, oh, I wish that you'd curse God and die kind of thing, that's what Job's wife said. But here, this young lady honored God, honored her situation in life, not vengeful, not pining away, I wish that you'd just let me go home to my people. No, she's seeking the best interest of her master. She's doing things that are in his, I mean, she's loving him, essentially, right? Seeking the best interest of the object that is loved. And so we see one of the ways that slaves come into possession of other people is through conquest, these marauding bands. Another way is through indenture or because they were in financial scrapes. They were in a difficult situation. Maybe you buy, you pay their debt, but now they owe you some time. Kind of what's going on with Jacob when he goes and wants to marry his cousin Rachel, but of course the whole trickery going on there with Laban and Leah and Rachel and all that. But he worked seven years for the one wife, another seven years for the other wife. Don't get married to two women. That was his... What a bad thing. But... servitude or forced labor, an agreement that, okay, I'll pay their bride price by my, I'll exchange that for my labor. The scripture talks about this, Deuteronomy 15 talks about this, how this ought to go on. Even if the slave, at the end of his time, the six years, wants to serve you the rest of his life, then you can, there's a procedure that you can, that he can declare his devotion to you. You take an awl and pierce it through, ah, Deuteronomy 15, there it is. Paul talks about this. Again, we go from Deuteronomy, like 1,400 years BC. By the way, I was going to say this. Very important. If you ever read in a lot of different things or watch movies, documentaries about the Exodus, when God, by the way, this is a big thing, God brought Israel out of Egypt because they were slaves in Egypt 400 years. and the giving of the law. The date of the Exodus kind of tips the hat or reveals the attitude that people have toward the scripture. Why do I say that? Why does the date of the Exodus matter? Well, because many people, and you can read it in scholarly literature and in books and videos and whatever, that the date of the Exodus is about 1100 BC. 1100 BC. Well, what's the problem with that? Everything is wrong with that. The reason people say it's 1100 BC is because they think that the Israelites coming in land ought to be evidenced archaeologically by destruction layers in the cities that they destroyed. Well, destruction layers being like burned timbers and weapons and covered over treasure and things that normally you'd not let that stuff be buried. Well, that's wrong thinking. That's not what they did when they came into Israel. They did not destroy and burn every town. They destroyed a handful. In fact, they destroyed Jericho. Remember that whole thing? Joshua 7, 8, somewhere in there, in the early parts in Joshua. And they destroyed Ai. towns in the south destroyed, Hazor up in the north, I mean burned down to the ground. But other cities, God said, hey, you are going to come in to cities you did not build, houses you did not build, vineyards you did not plant, and you're going to just make yourselves a home. They didn't burn everything. So by looking for a destruction layer, which they did find in the 1100s, 1200s BC, they said, oh, that's when the Israelites came in. By the way, they're just a peasant revolt, nothing this supernatural signs that God was doing, the river turned to blood, and the frogs, and the flies, and the gnats. No, nothing like that. It was just a peasant revolt. They're coming out of Egypt. No, this is anti-supernatural, false reading the scriptures. My point is, if you see something that says 1200 BC Exodus, don't believe it. It's 1446 or 1445, but it's 400 years after Jacob and his family came down into Egypt. All that to say is God brought them out of Egypt. They were slaves 400 years and now God brought them out. And because you were slaves in Egypt, you remember how you ought to show kindness to other people. You didn't like being mistreated. You didn't like being beaten and enslaved all that time. You didn't like all that forced labor. So you be mindful how you treat one another. You be mindful how you treat other people. As you go in, you're gonna be destroying these other nations, these Canaanite nations. One of them, of course, that they didn't destroy was the Gibeonites. You can read all about that in Joshua. But they became forced laborers, drawers of waters and hewers of wood for all that time. Much is written about in the Bible about slavery. Paul speaks about it in 1 Corinthians 7. Of course, this is the context of marriage and divorce and these different things that are going on. But he says about slavery, in 1st Corinthians 7 and verse 20, he says, each man must remain in that condition in which he was called. Were you called while a slave? Don't worry about it. But if you were able also to become free, rather do that. So he says, look, if you can become free, great, but if you can't, You be the best slave that you can in your present situation. He who was called while a slave is the Lord's freed man. You ought to regard yourselves as I am free to the Lord. I serve Christ. In fact, that's what we read. We'll see it next time in Colossians 3. It's the Lord Christ whom you serve. And you can read other things there in 1 Corinthians 7, 20 through 24. There is no distinction. We read earlier in Colossians 3, there's no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised, uncircumcised, slave. Barbarians get the enslaved or free man, but Christ is all and in all. God has, through Christ, destroyed all these other distinctions that we could typically place upon ourselves. It doesn't mean there are no implications of those distinctions, but as we come to Christ, it doesn't matter that you're a Jew or Gentile. We come to Christ. It doesn't matter what your religious upbringing, your social, spiritual being, your socioeconomic identity is. We come to Christ. It doesn't destroy the roles that we have. Galatians talks about there's no male or female. Well, there is still husband and wife. There are still roles that we play, responsibilities we have to play. And here he says, just because there's no slave or free man doesn't matter about those things. Hey, if you're still a slave, though, you make sure that you obey. In all things, obey your earthly masters, your human masters. Paul talks about this elsewhere, 1 Timothy 6. Titus 2, he talks about it. Peter, in 1 Peter 2, also talks about the slavery, and he says, not just when your masters are Christian guys or ladies, but you be subject to your masters with all fear, 1 Peter 2, verse 18, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are crooked. For this finds favor, for the sake of conscience toward God, a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly or unrighteously. And he goes on there, Peter talks about his whole letter, his first letter is about suffering. Hey, if you're in a suffering, disappointing kind of situation as a slave, you be the best slave you can be. You remember that Christ suffered and he kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously, verse 23 says. He says, there are things more important than your freedom in this life. Hey, if you can be free, do it. But if you can't, you, as the saying goes, I think there's a song, bloom where you're planted. You're in this situation, be like that servant girl back with Naaman. You pray for the household, you act in ways that would honor and show esteem for those who are your earthly masters. Here, coming back into slavery, source of slaves is by conquest or warfare, people being taken in battle and becoming the forced labors of different folks through indenture or through debt, the difficulties that are faced there, through kidnapping, Not through kidnapping. Actually, that is a restriction upon the obtaining of slaves. Don't you go and kidnap. Now, what is interesting about that is that, and I don't have time to belabor it too much. If you think you've already belabored it so much, I feel oppressed. That Joseph, Joseph, son of Jacob, he was sold into slavery. But wait a minute. Who sold him? His brothers did. Was it because Joseph owed a debt? No, it's because they hated him. He spoke negative things about us. The whole thing, you can read all about that. How did Joseph perceive his the process by which he became a slave. In some regards, he says, I was sold into slavery. But in Genesis 14, verse 15, when he's talking to other people about his situation, he says, I was, in fact, stolen from the land of the Hebrews. Stolen is this word that elsewhere translated as kidnapped. I was taken. I was snatched away. Exodus 21 verse 16 says, he who steals or kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or is found in his hand, shall surely be put to death. If Joseph regards his slavery as a result of being stolen, then all of his brothers, Reuben and the whole lot of them, ought to be put to death. Now, of course, that happened before the giving and the loss, so this Exodus 21 verse 16 was not in force at that time, but the point is, they were guilty. They did what was evil. They lied to their father, they deceived him, which was bad, bad news. The idea of kidnapping is also mentioned in First Timothy, First Timothy chapter one and verse 10. The law is not made for good people, but for kidnappers, those who steal people. And even in Revelation 18 talks about those who trade human souls, human lives. So kidnapping is not a good way. You don't just take people. By the way, we're coming up upon an international holiday. And now you think, which one is that? St. Patrick's Day, where everybody's Irish for at least one day. Do you know St. Patrick wasn't Irish? What? Destroy my world in one moment. No, Patrick was not Irish, he was British. English Welsh, but he was taken as a slave to Ireland and that's and he was saved in the course of Escaped of course saved and went back to Ireland and was an agent of God's miraculous redemption of that land out of darkness out of just pagan whatever and Patrick was So powerful, showing compassion even upon his enslaving a nation. Paul says here, slaves in all things obey. Very similar to what Paul said to the children back in verse, whatever verse it was, when he said, children obey your parents in all things, for it's fitting or pleasing to the Lord. Here he says, in all things obey. In other words, there aren't very many things where you should disobey, which is to say, Just obey. Obey what they want you to do. Go draw the water, do this, clean this, do that. Did you know slaves, especially in the first century, you could find them in pretty much every tier of society. They were doctors, physicians, lawyers, they were accountants, they were cooks, they were clothing Seamstresses, or seamsters, is that how the guy, I don't know, you figure that out. They were teachers, they were tutors, they were, of course, the agricultural workers, they were the drawers of water, they were, I mean, just any place in society. And so to say that you obey those who are your masters according to the flesh, you do what they want you to do, you fulfill their orders. They say jump, you say how high, you say how often, how much, when can I, you don't ask when should I stop, you just keep doing it. You serve them, you seek their best interest, you lay down your life for the sake of your master. This word master is the word Lord. And he has to qualify here. He says, obey those who are your masters according to the flesh. Because he's going to say in a moment, you serve Christ. You serve Christ the Lord. But here, you still have lords on earth. You still have masters to whom you are bound. You serve them. He says here at the end of the verse, puts up a contrast. Obey your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men pleasers, but. So it's not this way, but this way. This way over here, not with this way, is how you would normally want to do it. You would make out your life in such a way that, yeah, I mean, I'm serving, I'm obeying my master, you know, as long as he's looking at me or at least to get his attention or to make it go well with me, I'll do what I have to do. But I don't like it. I'm not going to do my, the best job. If I were working for myself, you know, I don't want to, You know, there's no way ahead for the little guy, et cetera. The big guy always gets out. No, you work not with eye service, not as men please. You work with integrity of heart. You fear the Lord, not the Lord, your earthly master. You fear Christ. You honor him. As you know, in some respects we can say that this is talking about employees and employers because to some degree we exchange a certain measure of our freedom, our independence, our autonomy by saying I'll work for you, you know, these times of the day, these many days a week or a year or a month or a year. I'll do it in exchange for this amount of money, these kind of benefits. I'll do it with an anticipation this will be renewed, you know, at each, successive term and so forth, I'll do it recognizing I'm not accomplishing my own vision or dreams or ambitions, but I'm accomplishing your vision and dreams. And it's all good. We like that. Normally, that's how we all do things in this world. So what are you doing? How are you fulfilling that? Are you doing it with eye service as men pleasers? Are you doing it with integrity of heart, fearing the Lord? Paul often likes to coin terms, not like to create terms. He likes to put words together, make compound words. This word, I service, is basically that. It takes the word for I and takes the word service and puts them together and says, this is I service. And yet, what do you mean by that, Paul? What are you talking about here? Some have regarded it as a service that is performed only to make an impression in the owner's presence. which is as I'm doing, as long as that person's watching me. But after he or she is gone, I'm going to slough off. I'm going to read my book. I'm going to go and have some little me time. No, you do it, not only to get their attention, not only to prove to them that you're doing what they required you to do. But you work with integrity of heart, as we'll look at in a moment. Don't do it to impress others. Don't do it to attract attention. You know, I wear work and feet, but look at this sweat on my brow, all this kind of, look at how hard I'm working. Don't draw attention to yourself. Just do your work. Just do what they've asked you to do. Don't do it just for outward compliance. Don't do it only when the master is watching. He says, don't be with eye service. And the motivation here is, as men pleasers, to have a, the whole motive is that we would create a favorable impression upon the other person. What is our motive? What should our motive be? Do your work, fulfill your obligations, accomplish what they've asked you to do. Don't do it for, to be obsequious. obsequious obedience, kissing the ring, or just doing things to make the boss happy with you, or to be pleased, or to try to get promotions. No, you just do your work. If you're a Gali slave on the bottom of a Roman ship, you do your work. You pull that thing. You've seen the movie Ben-Hur. I was going to say Spartacus had the same master. No, that was Kirk. Anyway, Ben-Hur talks about a Galilee slave. And they pulled that thing and just do it. And then now they go to war. And all this goes on there. You do it not by way of eye service, not by way of men pleasers. You do it because you're serving not this earthly master. That's just a placeholder, a proxy. You're serving Christ. in the way that you manage that ore, in the way that you teach or be a physician. As a slave, a slave physician, you serve Christ. Don't try to make things better for yourself. Don't try to win favor with your boss. Although if that happens, don't shun it, but don't seek it. You seek to please Christ. You seek to serve him. You seek to make him glorified. There's so many ways that we should not get the attention on ourselves. Maybe there's just one way, and that is in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 16, I think it is, where he says, let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who's in heaven. The point there is, yes, you do your works. Yes, people are watching you, but the glory goes to God. Give the glory to God. Don't take it to yourself. What are you? What do you have that you haven't been given? Your health, your strength, your intellect, your relationships, your connections. It's all God's providence, all his kindness. You give glory to him. If you're gonna get anybody's attention upon your work, make sure that you redirect it to the Lord. You are serving him. He says that we should be those who are acting with integrity of heart or, and even this phrase, integrity of heart, it has to do with a single-mindedness. We're serving not this master over here, not this earthly master, we're serving Christ. We are devoted to him. Do you know, perhaps, and I didn't quantify this, so I don't know exactly how this goes, but probably the, well, a lot of times in scripture service or slavery is not in relation to other people, it's in relation to God. Serving God, serving Him, being a slave of Christ. Paul, at the beginning of Colossians, as he does many of his letters, says, I am a slave of Christ, a bond slave of Jesus Christ, and our identity ought to be Forget about what, even if I'm a freed man, even if I have my independence, my autonomy, I am still a servant of Christ. I still am not my own person. I can't just live for my own lusts and pleasures and desires or my own ambitions. I live as a servant of Christ himself. And if we regard that regard Christ as our supreme master, as our boss, then all this other stuff, whether we have a mean and nasty master or a very gracious and kind master, like Philemon to Onesimus, that we have a single minus, a devotion, a simplicity even, in our minds, of our heart, we are wholeheartedly, completely committed to Christ himself. We don't resort to being one person over here. Oh, the master's watching. We're going to be this sweet and submissive and successful kind of. Oh, but he's not watching. We're going to go off and do this devious thing over here. You are serving the Lord Christ. Make sure that you are acting with integrity of heart, not just external, because we all can put on appearances. Don't do it for eye service. Don't do it to please men. You do it from the heart. Masters probably won't even pay attention to what's going on in your heart, but they can see, you know, the scripture says, a joyful heart makes a cheerful face. There are implications of what goes on in our heart. And I focus here, not because I'm talking about this organ, but because the inner person, the real you, what is the seed of your emotions, your volition, your affection? Where are you heading? It's your heart. And he says, make sure at that level that you are acting with integrity, not because you fear or Firstly, not because you want the pleasure of your master, and not because you fear the master. It's because you fear God. You fear the Lord. Not just the earthly master, the one who's calling the shots. No, you fear the Lord, the one who is ruler over everything. You do what is honoring to Him. One person said it this way, the motive for the slave's wholehearted, obedient service is not to be cringing servility before an earthly master, but reverential fear before the heavenly Lord. We have earthly masters. We have folks who say you can do this and go this far and no farther and different things. And yet Christ is the one over all. He is the Lord himself. How ought we conduct ourselves? Whether you're slaves because of conquest or somebody brought you kicking and screaming to Kentucky. Maybe they did, I don't know. Or you sold yourself, you've got debts to pay off and so you can do this. You serve the Lord, you serve him, fear him, recognize, and we'll see it in the next few verses, he's the one who rewards. Yeah, you can get some advancements, some promotions, maybe a little ease of whatever over here. But Christ is the one that we really ought to be concerned with. Christ is the one that we honor. He said that in relation to wives, in relation to husbands, children, and parents, fathers. He said in relation to the Lord, you do all these things. Here, he does the very same thing. Slaves, you do your work in such a way that you honor Christ's identity and Christ's lordship over your life. That is our goal. We are servants of the most high God. Let's serve him. Our Father in heaven, we're so grateful for the truth of your word from the very difficult text even of slavery and how that has been so sorely abused over the centuries, and yet you have put restrictions upon it. You have put the context, not just between masters and slaves, but between the master, the Lord Jesus, and each one of us who serves not ourselves. We don't use our liberty to suit ourselves, but through love we serve one another. In a sense, we're slaves to one another. We are bound by an obligation to seek the interest of the other person. And that's love. Help us act out of love. Thank you for your redemption even of this Hebrew slave girl back hundreds of years ago, to Naaman and his household, who brought a word, I wish that my master would go and to see the prophet and receive the healing from God. Help us to have that sweet, submissive, hopeful, loving disposition of heart, a sincerity, a devotion, a simplicity of heart, fearing you. Thank you for work. Work is not evil. Work is not a curse. And the complications of it is difficult because of the curse. And yet you told Adam in the garden, tend the garden, keep it, exercise dominion over all things. Work is not evil, but it has become a burden because of our sin and rebellion. Please help us to act out our new identity in Christ by being willing servants of you and to serve one another in love. We are thankful. In Christ's name, amen.