Servants and Masters - Col 3:22-4:1

Colossians 3:22-4:1 Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God; And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons. Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.

​Full Transcript:

​We're in Colossians again this morning, dear saints, picking up where we've left off. I'd like to turn your attention to chapter three, the latter portion, verses 22 through 25. This is the last series of verses of this section. It's important that you do understand before we read that this last section extends down to the first verse of the next chapter, Colossians chapter three. And so that we have all that we need in view, I would like to invite you to please stand for the reading of God's Word as we read aloud Colossians chapter 3 verse 22 through 25 down to Colossians chapter 4 verse 1. Please follow along as I read aloud. Hear the word of the Lord.

Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men. knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done, and there is no respecter of persons. Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that ye also have a master in heaven. Amen. Please remain standing for prayer as we seek his face once more.

Oh, our God and our Lord, our sovereign, our master. Lord, we come to you this morning as servants, slaves, those who have bought and purchased at a high price in the blood of the Savior, indwelt by the Spirit, and are not our own. Have your way with us this morning, O God. Lord, turn our hearts.

Lord, like the rivers, whichsoever way you will. Open our minds to see where there is darkness. Lord, call forth light out of darkness. And grant us understanding, I pray, that we may walk in the light of your counsel. In Christ's name, amen. You may be seated. Precious and sobering text that we read for our scripture reading earlier in the service.

The Lord said, speaking to Pilate, a judge with great authority in Rome and over the Jews who were under their subjugation. As Pilate asks, What have you done, recognizing that he's not a Jew, but Christ speaks saying, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from hence. It's not from here.

So though we live in a world that is lying in the wicked one, We live in a world that is full of great many tribulations, pains and difficulties. We take cheer, why? Because Christ has overcome the world. And although we are in the world for a little while, we live as those who are not of the world. In the purchasing, in the washing, in the cleansing, in the redeeming, in the transforming, Christ has and is making all things new. And we who are now His saints, His sanctums, His holy ones, we will bear in mind that we are looking for another city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God, and that this world is not our home. We take that not just as a right and a worshipful introduction, but we carry the whole weight and the spirit of that triumphant reality that belongs to us in Christ as saints.

Into this next and final portion, Lord willing, of this text in Colossians 3, where we are currently in the household code, where we take all the great triumphs of Christ His triumph over the enemy, His triumph upon the cross, His triumph over sin, His triumph over death, His triumph over the world that is, His triumph over the world that was, His triumph over the world that will be, His triumph over all things seen, His triumph over things unseen. For the Father has subjugated and put all things under His feet and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, giving Him a name above every name, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. put every name and title and power and principality firmly beneath the feet of His crown rights. And this includes everything that we know, everything that we do, how we live as husbands, as wives, as fathers, as mothers, as children, and yes, today as we look as servants and as masters, All of our life is to be a thank offering unto God, all of it. He purchased it, he bought it all, he gets all the crown rights to every square inch.

Whatsoever we do, then therefore we do it not in the name of our personal achievements or comfort or our goals, dreams, and ambitions, but we do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our labors and what we do Ask yourself, are we working and serving others, including our employers, simply in the name of the rat race, trying to get ahead? Whether it's in competition with others, keeping up with the Joneses, or simply so that we can have a more respectable, prideful, ego-stroking position in the world. The same rat race that everyone else is slogging and dragging through. or are we doing it in the name of Christ? Once again, the question put before is the same as all the ones that went before.

Whose cause are you advancing and whose name are you doing what you're doing? In the creation of a new humanity, in the second Adam, in Christ, all our relationships are transformed, now being lived out underneath the conquering lordship and the banner. of the conquesting, triumphing Christ.

And as we continue in the Household Code of Colossians 3, where we've already addressed these positions of wives, husbands, children, and parents, I want you to remember something that we said at the onset of when we began this portion, particularly dealing with wives. There was something that it was necessary and important that you remembered before we got into all of this, which was the fact that every single person everywhere, regardless of status, must learn at some point to submit to authority somewhere at some time in their life, because God has ordered the world with structure. And authority. in marriage, in family, in church, in government, in the workplace, whether it's in marriage as husband and wife, whether it's in the family as parents unto children, whether it's in government as citizens, whether it's in the church as unto the elders and one another, whether it's as servants and masters in the workplace. and all the relationships that authority finds itself in. All of us are called to a place where we will have to know as a Christian in this world to imperfect people what it means to submit, and what it means to obey, and what it means to follow and take orders, and what it means to do and to do with the right heart, the right attitude, and the right motive. And that takes us into our text today. Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh.

Now, as we understand and remember the context of the Book of Colossians and the issues that are going on there, you don't need to remember too broadly or too far that really all the churches are existing in a time frame in the ancient Roman world where slavery was very common and even global reality, but especially so in the context of the Roman Empire.

And the word here, servants, literally is slave. In the ancient world, slavery was very different. We hear that word and we think from the racial slavery of the 19th century America and that we remember the horrific evils that painted that particular time. But in ancient Rome, there was much difference. Households, normal households often included servants and slaves, and not a few.

Anywhere between, at the lower end, one third of the entire empire up to as much as nearly half of the population were slaves. And it wasn't race-based. It involved many different nationalities. And many people entered into it for many different reasons, including fiduciary reasons, settling debts, results of the conquest of war, many different things.

And so among your slaves and servants in the nation, there would be included within them many very skilled and even sometimes well-known artificers and skilled occupations. You could be living in a town or in an area where the preeminent blacksmith or the metal worker or the horse trainer, et cetera, lived and did his labor as one that carried the status of a slave. It was a common and integral part of society's caste-like divisions, where you'd see the Romans as opposed to the barbarian, or the Jew as opposed to the Gentile, or the slave as opposed to the free, or the male as opposed to the female. We see that in this world that the gospel is infiltrating and coming in Many Christians at this time who were believing upon the gospel of Christ, many of them, we could even say just reading the book of James alone as well as other letters, many of them were in this caste. They were slaves. Many of them were of the poor of society. Not many rich, not many mighty, not many noble are called, Paul said in 1 Corinthians. We see that they were the poor, and James argues, don't the rich afflict you?

And so on and so forth. And so it was very common for the saints that were sitting in on these Lord's Day gatherings and homes where these letters are being read aloud to find themselves in a situation where the instructions of the apostolic authority by the power of the Holy Spirit is reaching them in an ordained place and in an ordained time where they are under direct immediate supervision and authority of someone else. And so the question is, well, what then do I do? Am I a slave of Christ or am I a slave of my master? And in one sense, the answer is yes. But in a great and deeper sense, the ultimate answer to all questions, regardless of whether you're a bondman or a freedman, is Christ.

And so the gospel enters into the Roman Empire. The gospel enters around the coast of the Mediterranean. The gospel not only enters into Jerusalem and to the surrounding coast, but it penetrates all the way up into Europe, into the regions of Philippi, all the way up into Italy and into the Praetorian Guard, even Caesar's household. It enters into Africa in the Book of Acts through that Ethiopian eunuch, The gospel goes and where it goes, we find the gospel does not immediately abolish and radically change all the social structures of the society in which it enters.

But rather, what the gospel does is the gospel transforms how we live within them. The gospel tells us that in Christ, not necessarily in this world, not in its caste systems, not in its places of employment, not in the rank and authority structures, not necessarily in the military, but in Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek.

There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. So although the world that has all of its structure, all of its ranks, all of its civilian, government, citizen, employer, employee distinctions, yet our primary identity as Christians is now sons and daughters of the Most High God.

We are Christian first. And we live out this new self, not in opposition to, but in subjection in every single kind of role the Lord has sovereignly placed us in. Just like that of a husband. Husband, you've been placed there. Don't escape. Do it with all your might as unto the Lord. Wife, the Lord placed you there. Do it as unto the Lord with all your might. Dear child, the Lord placed you there. Do it as unto the Lord with all your might. Are you a military man? Are you a civilian? Are you in a place of government? Are you in the lowest places? Grew up like I did in the single wide trailer on food stamps with nothing? Do it with all your might, the Lord placed you there. Do it as unto the Lord.

The big idea of the message is this, and of this text. Whatever your position is, whether you are under a great amount of authority on one end, or you are in and possessing a great amount of authority on the other end. Do everything from the heart as unto the Lord Christ. Do it with a spirit and an atmosphere of Christ identification and submission, not for mere human approval. but because Christ Jesus is, by the Father's appointment, the ultimate master, the ultimate rewarder, and the ultimate judge, the man by whom he will judge the nations, even Pontius Pilate. So verse 22, servants, obey in all things your masters, according to the flesh, not with eye service as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. This is the command, firstly, to those who are under authority, to servants, bondservants, slaves, employees.

You are commanded, according to the word of Almighty God, who is sovereign over heaven and earth and all that therein is, to submit to those over you whom he has appointed according to the flesh. The earthly authorities that have been placed over you are placed there for a reason and you are to submit to them.

Whether as it says in Romans chapter 13, to render honor unto whom honor is due, tribute unto whom tribute, custom unto whom custom. Whether you have a job description that is 10 miles long or you could fit it all on a note card and you've got great lateral. Whatsoever you do, do everything that you do with an attitude of obedience. Obey in all things your masters according to the flesh.

Now, notice it says, according to the flesh, it speaks of those authorities that are in this world, that are of its systems, that are of its organization, of its ranks and of its structures. And again, this does apply today to many different aspects of life, as we've said before, employees, soldiers, citizens, church members. The big caveat that you keep in view, the same as it was with husbands and wives and children, is that these are those authorities that are according to the flesh, not according, as it were, to the spirit. meaning they cannot command you contrary to what you have been so clearly commanded to in the Word regarding the spiritual matters and affairs of this life.

Your employer, his authority for how you organize your family worship at home ends before it gets there. This is according to the flesh. If I could think of the closest modern parallel, if you will, for one who is living life under the real, constant, felt authority of another, I liken it unto military service. At least in the American context, it is the very weakest, closest place to slavery, I think, that we can imagine in this context.

And I say that because it's well known that the moment you sign over all 5,642 some odd pages of that paperwork, They own you, they own your blood type, they own your name, they own your rank, they own your identity, they own where you live. The saying was, if you needed a wife, the Navy would issue you one.

Everything you show up to boot camp with gets put in a box and shipped away, and you only have, even down to the toothbrush bristle, what is put in your hand by the authorities of those put over you. They tell you where you go and where you can't go.

They tell you when to sleep, when you cannot sleep, when you can wake up, when you need to be marching. It doesn't matter if you haven't slept in two days. If they say march, you march. How far? That is all that you need to be mindful of. And when you go, you're told to go. And if it hurts, tough.

You know, if they need to, if your conscience is one kind of way and they need to load you up full of a whole bunch of vaccines in your left shoulder and your right shoulder, they'll march you through a line, give you every single one they think you need. And when your arms are sore, they'll make you do pushups. You have no rights. You are government owned property.

And to sweeten the deal, they give you some pay. But what happens when you get a little further along and all of a sudden you have a wife, you have children, and you're gone for months on end, and all of a sudden you want to give your time more to them? Do you just go home? Say, no, I think I'm done. No, you've got a contract. And if you just don't show up, and you're absent without leave, then all of a sudden, the consequences of the full might of the US government can find you and justly condemn you.

Yet even in that place, the Lord is saving his people and making slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ right underneath the most stringent forms of authority structures our society knows anything about. Go right into the midst of our prisons, where if there's only one place I could think of where it's a bit farther, it would be there. Many things are similar, but you don't even get pay. You just stay because you owe a debt to society. And whether it's time to eat or time to sleep or lay down or go to the yard or lights out or whatever, you are property of the state at that point. And you are simply commanded to do as you're told. And even there, the spirit of our Lord invades beyond concrete walls and barbed razor wire fences and converts unholy sinful souls there and makes slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord is reaching into tribes all around the world, some who have a great degree of authority over them, some that have very little. And the spirit of our God is claiming every elect soul of his precious people that the blood of Jesus Christ has been shed to purchase to make them his own in every context around the globe. And sometimes it is a young child in a Muslim society and they have to withstand parents and say, no, I'm gonna follow Christ even as they come under threat of life. Sometimes it's in places of great power in government while all of a sudden they can no longer receive that money. that they've been getting paid off to vote a certain way and to talk a certain way and to claim and to proclaim and to vote a certain way and all of a sudden now they must stand as men and women with integrity as slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see that the Lord will find men and women in any context in any place and he will make them his own.

Servants who are made slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ then have a difficult task to do because they may and must continue to discharge their current duties that they have been assigned by the providence of God in such a manner as to submit to the authorities that are over them, to do what they are called upon and summoned to do with all their might, but now not for whatever motive they were doing it before, not for whatever reason they found themselves in the midst of doing it before, not just for good behavior so that they can shorten their sentence, not just for the eval so that they can get a better promotion path, Not just so that they can be esteemed by their colleagues and so on, but rather they do it ultimately for the honor and the glory and the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it affects all the why of what they do. And that they are convinced now that they should obey their master's commands in all things which are consistent with their duty to God, their heavenly master. And one of the key aspects in how they discharge that and carry that out is it says here, servants obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service.

Scripture is very specific here. Not as men pleasers. It's to be done in singleness of heart. It's to be done fearing God. And what does that mean? What does all that mean? doing it with the right heart, doing it with the right motive, not with eye service, not men-pleasing.

First off, when it says not eye-pleasing, what's amazing is the word pleasing is that servant-slave word again. So literally, not with eye slavery. Actual slavery, not mere eye slavery, is the idea. You are to carry out your servanthood, you are to carry out your service, not merely for the eye, of the authority structure that you're submitting to. You're not to do it simply so that you appear to them to be a good servant, but that from the heart you actually are. You're not doing what you do merely so that you can be seen of men and receive a reward directly from them.

But that you do what you do because you know your father sees everything. You do what you do because you know the eyes of the Lord go to and fro throughout the whole earth, beholding the good and the evil. The eyes of the Lord go to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are perfect towards Him. You do it as those who whether you are seen or not seen, whether it's public or whether it's private.

The integrity and the reason why you do what you do does not change. and that you're not ultimately doing it so that you can receive the praise and the applause and the awards and the benefits of men. But you do it because you know your master has purchased you. You've been bought with a price and he's worthy for you to do everything with excellence unto him. Because as we said here, pleasing is good. To please those who are in authority over you, to please your boss, this is good. but to do it as mere eye service is not good.

And the difference between the two being an eye and a heart. We're called to singleness of heart, literal sincerity, where we are kept out, walled out from even the opportunity of being duplicitous. As it says in the Beatitudes, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. What does it mean to do something with purity of heart? It means to do it with purity of motive. A single intention, not a mixture of intentions. Not two intentioned, as in duplicitous.

Doubling up on your reasons, doubling up on your motive. One, yeah, it's good, I should do this, but my other reason that's mixed in is I know that if I do this thing, it will benefit me. And I sure like being benefited. So I'm gonna do what benefits me, I'm gonna do it regardless of how I feel in the moment, and I'm gonna put a smile on even when my eyebrow's twitching, because I want them to see how happy I am. And I want them to think, wow, look at that great worker.

While inside you are bubbling over and seething with rebellion, bitterness, aggravation, annoyance, and a hard-hearted attitude that's ultimately directed, whether you realize it or not, not so much against them in their mere leadership style, but against the Christ who put them over you.

We just read from John, didn't we? In our next reading, our Lord Jesus will speak to Pilate because Pilate will get quite frustrated that this Jesus of Nazareth does not seem to understand what great power and authority Pontius Pilate his has to either set the Christ free or crucify him. Then saith Pilate unto him, speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? Hear the words of your master, dear saints. Jesus answered, thou couldst have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above. Therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.

Behind every authority, you will find the sovereign, all-authority work of the living God. Behind every authority structure in this world, when you get to the backbone and the bottom of it, you will see that there is one who has declared the end from the beginning. who does all things according to His power, His will, His purpose. He works all things after the counsel of His own will. And no one can say unto Him, what have you done? Everything belongs ultimately to Him.

And everything is for your good, even your sanctification. And so you may feel the sting of it. You may feel the annoyance of it. You may feel the fill in the blank of it. But one of the chief places that your mind needs to begin to be renewed is that Christ, our living God, is not marginally or only technically sovereign, but rather He is actually, truly, fully, completely, totally sovereign over every aspect of your life, whatever appears grand or minuscule to you. The heart of the kings is in the hand of the Lord, and like the rivers, he turns them whichever way he will.

Right, if people have good favor towards you, it's not just because you're so great and winsome. Have you ever given it your all to someone, and they looked at you and went, and just looked the other way? Have you ever just sort of been about your normal trajectory and method of not really putting the effort in and someone looked at you and said, that's amazing, thank you for what you do. And you just left scratching your head. The favor you find in the eyes of other people.

You need to understand, yes, you're responsible for your actions. Yes, if you want to be friendly, you need to. If you want to have friends, you need to show yourself friendly, right? You're going to give an account for all that you do. But in terms of God's sovereignty, even the favor we find in the eyes of other people towards us comes from the hand of God. Do you believe that?

What do you have that you have not received? And if you've received it, then why do you boast? No authority could be given to Pontius Pilate were it not given to him from above. No authority could be given to your boss over you except that it was given to him from above.

So when you serve them, you're serving Christ. Assuming that you're serving them from the right heart and the right motives. Don't aim, don't design, don't work in such a way as to touch your employer's eye with grand displays of your obedience as a way to veil your heart towards your disagreement. Keep in mind, you do what you do because you want to be rewarded a certain way and you don't want to be punished a certain way, right? Okay. Take it to heart.

The Lord is not merely the author and finisher of your faith. He is the rewarder and the punisher of your service. He is the great grand architect, and he will dispense where the eye of your employer cannot see. You want to do good? You want to do good in the manner of which our Lord preached on the Sermon of the Mount? Do it when your left hand doesn't know what your right hand's doing. Do it in such a way so that your father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly.

The question is, why do you do what you do and for whom are you doing it for? Who do you want to see? That's a good question to ask yourself, practically speaking, when you're in the midst of your labors. Who do I want to see this? Paul says in Galatians 1, verse 10, for do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ."

And what is Paul speaking to there? The Galatians have taken great offense at his preaching of the gospel and of his withstanding their legalism and their Judaistic retreat. And so he's telling them the truth. Am I now your enemy because I tell you the truth? And there is huge amount of pressure on Paul to retreat and to step back.

And Paul is saying, who am I going to be a slave of man or am I going to be a slave of God? It's like Peter standing before the chief priest. Is it is it right to serve man or to serve God? You be the judge. Where is the heart of that? In the life of you as a Christian, as a saint, do you know that conviction? Do you know it? In 1 Thessalonians 2, 4-5, But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. For neither at any time used we flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness God is witness.

What are flattering words? Flattering words are words that you use to sound a certain way to the person that you want to gain an advantage of while you are concealing your actual motive. Duplicitous speech, manipulative speech, cloaked speech. It is like in Jude, those who have persons in admiration for advantage.

We must not ultimately make it our aim to please man, but to please God in all that we do, in the way we speak and the way we labor. Now, with that being said, look here, 1 Corinthians 10, 31 through 33. Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Give none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God. Now listen to the Apostle Paul, verse 33.

Even as I please all men in all things. Paul says, I please all men in all things. Not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. And so Paul is saying, not as pleasing men in 1 Thessalonians. He says, if I yet pleased men in Galatians 1.10, you shouldn't be the servant of Christ.

And then in 1 Corinthians 10.33, he says, even as I please men in all things. So just for clarification, put before your mind, to please or not to please?

That is the question. What's the difference? The answer is simply this. why you do what you do. It cannot be because you're seeking your own advantage. That cannot be the reason. It cannot be you're doing what you're doing because you're seeking your own advantage. To do it for that reason is diametrically opposite of what Paul is summoning us to hear, which is to do it not with the grand aim of pleasing ourselves, ultimately, but in the fear of the Lord, pleasing the Lord.

There are two reasons, as motivation given in this text, for where to be working, not merely from the externals, from the flesh and from eye service, but we're literally working, as it were, from the soul. We're working from the heart. We're working from the spirit of the matter. as for the Lord, because we know, as it says in verse 24, we will receive the reward of the inheritance. As it says in verse 24, it is the Lord whom you serve.

And that when you're doing what you're doing, you're doing it ultimately with that grand reward structure in view and with that authority in view. God himself, because we know, he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done and there's no respecter of persons. Well, before who? Before God. The employers of this world, they do have respecters of persons. They do.

I have known and felt the difficulty of that, not only in the military. I remember getting so used to military structure and framework and rules being bigger than a person. Protocols, standard operating procedures, didn't matter what your rank were. You could take your legs out from underneath. If you disregard it, then all of a sudden I went to the civilian sector.

I'm working at a commercial shipbuilding group. Someone's doing something wrong that they're not supposed to be doing. I'm a safety officer. I call them out. I go to deal with it. Well, that guy calls his boss. His boss calls his boss, who's friends with my boss, who comes and pulls me into an office, and I get royally negatively affected for doing what I thought was the right thing.

So then I didn't do it the next time. And I got in trouble again. Because I didn't do what I was obviously supposed to do, which I thought I knew to do last time, but that didn't work out. It's so easy, too easy. My dear brothers and sisters, I'm not calling you to theory. It's too easy to find yourself in a conflicting situation where people do prefer people, and you feel outside that preference.

And all of a sudden, you allow bitterness to come to your heart and you change the reason why you do what you do. Listen, if there was anyone, anyone who had the right to know the sting of unfair treatment, false accusation, wrong, impure, unholy quality of judgment, condemned and rejected by a kangaroo court.

It is our Lord Jesus Christ. And he submitted absolutely to the authority of his father in every place. And when he could have mightily defended himself, not only verbally before Pontius Pilate, not only verbally before the Sanhedrin and before the chief priest, before Annas and Caiaphas and even Herod, but powerfully. He could have called 12 legions of angels and his father would have delivered him speedily. When he could have defended himself, he chose rather, as his prayer in the garden was, Father, not my will, but thy will be done.

That the cup should not pass from him, but he should drink of what his father gave him. The cup my father has given me, will I not drink it? That's what your Lord says. Now let me ask you a question. The cup that your father's given you in your difficult work situation, will you not drink it? It's not there by accident. It's appointed.

Whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men. See, that means laboring in all things with the right attitude, the right spirit, the right heart, the right motive, and it doesn't stop there. When it says do, do, that's action, do it heartily as unto the Lord and not unto men, what it brings into view is not just doing it at the onset with the right motive and right attitude, but follow through that brings about the best and right result. action. Do all things, Christians, with excellence in your places of work. Do everything that you do with excellence.

How you frame together cabinets matters before God as it matters before God how I spend my time studying for a sermon. You hear me? How the minister spends his time in the service of God is greatly important before the Lord. You need to understand how you spend your time in your area of labor and the discharge of your responsibility is of great importance unto the Lord, for He's called you and commanded you to do that as unto the Lord. When you're cutting down a tree and you're dropping branches, With everything in your being, make sure the branches don't hit the fence or the structures that you're trying to cut it down around. When you're doing accounting and it's gonna take an extra 30 minutes of brain work to hunt that last cent, rather than just stroke a few stray spots of ink to make it look right, you chase that one cent. When you're in a place of your work and your labor, when you're driving, when you're having meetings, when you're, if you're organizing the meeting, or if you're on the receiving end of another meeting that you don't necessarily want to be in, it could have been an email.

Do it as unto the Lord. Listen, the Lord has given us all such wildly different personalities, strengths, and weaknesses, and so on, especially as the saints. Let us lovingly forbear with one another. and know that in the context of the church we get the opportunity to figure out what this looks like to yield and to serve. And in the workplace and in the world before the watching eyes of a wandering world, wandering out there with a starless sky on the pitch black of a storm-tossed ocean with no shoreline to guide them at all, a wayfaring man with no celestial help that they can discern, the Lord has sent you forth to be a lighthouse. and to be a sign by which they may find safe passage into the harbor of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you cannot dispense with or distinguish your work ethic from your verbal proclamation of the gospel.

Whatsoever you do, do it with excellence. Do it as unto the Lord. Do it not ultimately as unto the men. Christian labor should be diligent labor. Christian labor should not be idle. It shouldn't be slothful. It shouldn't be flippant. It should be zealous.

Because what this truth tells us in these verses is that our work is elevated. All of our work is elevated from the mundane or the merely difficult and it's raised into the atmosphere of worship. All that we do is raised into the context of worship. Do you not remember when the Holy Spirit came upon the gifted artificers in the Old Testament so that they could work with their hands and lay out the trim and the seams and the bolts and all the intricate inlay work of gold and silver and bronze and brass of the tabernacle? Can you labor with your hands late into the night to the glory of God?

Absolutely. Knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ. But he that hath done wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done, and there is no respecter of persons. Remember, beloved, your true master is in the heavens. and your future reward is there too.

It's not just the promotion or the ease of having a good work environment. Now, granted, in many cases, you come to your work with a good work ethic, you come there, you show up on time when other people can't figure out how to do that exactly. You give yourself to an attitude and a willingness to serve that's ultimately Christ-oriented. In the Lord's kindness, very often, there are a great many work-related benefits that go with that. When your employer sees that they can trust you with a job that they can't trust the other three, four, five, seven guys.

But that's not why you do it. Your ultimate motivation is Christ. Not earthly promotion, earthly praise, or earthly advantage. Christ is the rewarder of your faithful service. He's the impartial judge who will get down beneath the mere veneer and to the heart of the matter and judge rightly. You must contrast that with men-pleasing. If your drive is self-promotion, hidden selfishness, or just you want to appear better than others, you are a slave to men rather than to Christ.

You remember when Joseph was enslaved in Potiphar's house? How did his attitude of service greatly advantage him in Potiphar's house? It greatly advantaged him. What began very likely from what we could assume was a little very quickly, even at a young age, grew and grew and grew until it could be said that there was nothing Potiphar had that was not under the care and oversight and discharge of Joseph. Joseph, in terms of a slave, was about as free as a slave could be. Joseph was the chief over Pharaoh's prison house. He enjoyed a great degree of privilege and rank. And here is Joseph overseeing and stewarding all the goodness of it.

All he would have had to do to maintain that place of distinguishment and honor is to please not only his master, but this one more thing, to please his mistress. But what was the problem? In order to please his mistress, he would have had to sin against Potiphar, and most importantly of all, to sin against the Lord God. And when there were no eyes there to see his secret betrayal, The conscience of Joseph was so stirred by the work of the Spirit that he fled from that scene. And it cost him two years in prison, and his feet were hurt in the fetters of iron.

But whose eye saw? The Lord, the Lord God, who had prepared for Joseph something better than oversight of Potiphar's house. but second in command of Egypt, and the means by which the covenant people, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, would persevere, and by which the seed promised to Abraham would come to be a blessing to the nations. We can rightfully praise God today that Joseph was faithful, for out of that one faithfulness comes a promise kept by God to the nations that the Messiah would come.

How about that? Why do you do what you do? There's gonna be times where to please your employer is going to be very advantageous, and then all of a sudden, after years of faithful advancements, you will all of a sudden have to look them directly in the eye and say, no, I absolutely will not under any circumstances. I will run from pay and position now. And they may say, then go.

And you will go home without the foggiest clue where your next paycheck's coming from, where your next meal's coming from, but your conscience will be right before God. And He will take care of you. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. God is your employer ultimately. Serve Him with diligence, serve Him with excellence, but serve Him ultimately. Seek Him first. Remember Joseph.

Masters, you have a fearful, terrifying place. I will say this, give unto your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that you have a master in heaven. All the ground is level at the foot of the cross, as many have been right to say. You are exceedingly sinful. Your employees are exceedingly sinful. You both have a great need of God's far exceeding and abundant grace to redeem and to forgive and to make new. The Lord, the true master of heaven and earth has put you in a very, very temporary position and a stewardship that you will have to give in an account.

And you need to remember authority is never absolute among the ranks of men. Your authority has a limit and it ends not only in scope, but in duration. Not only in what you can speak to, but how long you can speak to it for. You need to remember, if you're a Christian and you're a business owner, you wield a great degree of authority, or you're a high ranking officer in the military, you have a master too. You too are under authority. The Lord Jesus Christ who has been given, not some, but all authority in heaven and in earth.

Treat those under you, this text says, with justice. Treat them with fairness. Treat them with equality. Treat them with dignity that belongs to image bearers of God, even if they're not Christian. Treat them according to the standard that the Word of God demands you are to love your neighbor. Hold them accountable to their job.

Don't be lax and create an atmosphere where you reward laziness and you reward slothfulness and you reward those things that are not just and not honoring to the Lord. Have a structure in place which is true and which is right and which is righteous and which is just. But hold everyone to that standard equally. For God is not a respecter of persons.

The gospel levels the ground. Both servant and master serve the same heavenly master and both will answer to him. Ephesians 6-9, and you masters do the same things unto them, forbearing, threatening, knowing that your master also is in heaven, neither is their respective persons with him. And this is in the broader context of mutual submission evident in Ephesians 5-21, in particular as it deals with the brethren and with the saints.

Listen, let me say this. Dear saints, if you work for a Christian employer, if you work for a Christian leader, Doubly so. Because they're a brother. Labor with all your might because they're a brother and you know that Christ dwells in them and you love them. Don't use the fact that they're Christian as an excuse to skirt the rules and think you're going to be able to get some sort of privilege that the others won't get in the employer because your brother should just automatically look the other way when you do not do your job with excellence. And employers. Love those that are under your charge, that are saints doubly, because you know the Lord is using you in a precious place to be the means by which they can put food on the table for their family and for their children and love them.

Don't change the standard. Don't take the fact that they're a brother as a way that they can just assume your motives when you have a bad attitude and you get the threatening. Well, their brother, they have to forgive me. No, forbear threatening. That's a brother in Christ from whom the Lamb of God shed His blood and died.

So lead them with that in view. Interesting note before we close. Why is there so much press at this last section? We had fathers, husbands, wives first, husbands, then children, right, fathers, and then all these verses on servant and master. That's an interesting observation.

Obviously the scope at which this kind of servanthood existed in the ancient world, but it's also probable because Paul will later mention Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother in chapter 4 verse 9. And so a church that, especially when you read the book of Philemon, which is given to a master-slave issue, we see how Paul upholds the standards of mutual responsibility in the context, but also brings in the New Testament Christian spirit of how to live in those contexts and those duties and responsibilities. We see that in every sphere of life, every sphere of life, work, home, church, society, service, servanthood, slave, master, all, government. The gospel calls us to a new way of living.

Sincere, wholehearted service to Christ. Regardless of your position, you need to constantly be on the alert and check your motives. Are you working for the smile and the advantage of your earthly boss and employer? Or can you honestly say you're doing it ultimately for the reward that Christ will bring on the day of His judgment and appearing?

Avoid eye service. Avoid mere superficial eye slavery. Avoid flattery, dear saints. None of this should belong to you. Avoid the manipulative people-pleasing. It has no place in our lives. Instead, fear God. Serve God with singleness of heart and do all things heartily, zealously, excellently as unto Him.

Whether you are free right now in the eyes of the world or you're under a heavy amount of authority, you need to remember, regardless of your station, you are a slave of Jesus Christ first. For he that is called in the Lord being a servant is the Lord's freeman. Likewise also, he that is called being free is Christ's servant. Ye are bought with a price. Be not ye the servants of men. Discharge your duties in this temporary fleeting world as one whose true inheritance and true judge is in heaven, the true rewarder and the punisher of all services.

Because when he comes, he's gonna test all things by fire, beloved. Some are gonna be found out to be gold, silver, and precious stones, and they'll endure the testing. Some will be found out to be hay, wood, and stubble, and they will perish. And there'll be no bringing it with you. you will suffer loss.

Labor, and if you want to carry more with you, ensure that your motive for why you do what you do and the manner in which you do it and the result that you're aiming for is Christ honoring start to finish. And the Lord will honor those who honor him.

This gospel transforms your workplaces. This gospel transforms all your relationships. This gospel will cloak and beautify and set forth your witness in all spheres of life. The gospel triumphs in this present evil age not by instantaneously overturning every structure around us. Rather, it triumphs by making our identity and motives thoroughly Christian within us, that they may see Christ within us, that we may proclaim the gospel in the highways and in the byways, in the halls of Congress, in the Oval Office.

We may proclaim them on the battlefield fronts and in the foxholes. We can proclaim them the airplanes overhead and in the submarines below. We could proclaim them in the carpenter shops and in the mechanics garages. We could proclaim it in the barber shops. We could proclaim it in the supermarket stores. We can proclaim it when we bag groceries or when we are a general manager over multiple stations.

We proclaim the gospel in our living rooms to our children as we wash the dishes. We proclaim the gospel to our relatives when we sit around the table at a Thanksgiving dinner. We proclaim the gospel in in every sphere, in every venue, in every aspect of this life, we take to the streets of need be and we herald it from the stoplights. We tell the gospel everywhere because we have been commanded to go. And you need to remember that your workplaces are not off limits, they are a means and a channel by which this gospel, this knowledge, this faith overcomes the world.

Let us pray. Oh Father, A slave in the ancient world would never have received an inheritance from their masters, but the slaves of Christ do. Lord, help us to see and to live this new creation, New Testament, Holy Spirit, Christ-centered life, and have you be the focus of all that we do in our family and in our workplace. And in our dealings with one another, let us remember that the blood of Jesus Christ has broken down the wall of partition. We are all one. And there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

In his holy name we pray, amen. Our benediction. Please stand. I'll ask you to stand this time for our benediction. 1 Thessalonians 3, 12 and 13. And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another and toward all men. even as we do toward you, to the end, that he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. Amen. Lord bless you, dear saints. Go in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.