Building The Body Study 19 - Slaves and Masters
Ephesians 6:5-9 NIV
[5] Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. [6] Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. [7] Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, [8] because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free. [9] And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/eph.6.5-9.NIV)
Almost a decade ago, I was asked to go on strike. I refused. I don’t agree with strikes as a method for resolving labour disputes. I certainly think that some labour movements rush to them as a first resort to show how powerful they are, rather on a last resort, as they should be, and they do so without any care or consideration for those who use their services.
But in this case, I also didn’t agree with the cause. I was asked to strike because the pension fund of which I was a nee member had needed to be revalued, which meant that its members were going to receive less when they retired. However, it was, and still is, one of the most generous pension funds in my country. I thought it was more than a little churlish to be disrupting our work for something that most other people, particularly those in the private sector, could ever hope to receive.
Needless to say that my views were not very popular. And neither was I.
Workplace relationships should be important to us. We spend between thirty-five to forty hours a week on average with our colleagues and our line manager. In an ideal world, we’d want to at least get along so that our working days pass a little easier.
Christians have a habit of standing up for the little guy, of pioneering labour relations before they were ever a thing. Many of the early reformers of working conditions and even trade unionists were Christians. Men like Kier Hardie, the founder of the Labour Party, or Lord Shaftesbury, who campaigned to end child labour in mines and to restrict working days in factories to ten hours, are known for their strong commitment worker’s rights.
These are significant people in our history.
Yet Christians have largely backed away from the workplace, as if God has nothing to say after 9am.
But nothing could be further from the case.
God is still God when Sunday ends. He is still the same God when Monday begins.
What we see in these verses is highly controversial as it refers to a trade that we – absolutely correctly – find repulsive: that of a slave.
Historians estimate that around 10-20% of everyone living in the Roman Empire, and around 25-30% of the people living in Rome, were enslaved. Around 15-20% of the manpower in Roman military encampments were enslaved civilians.
Could you imagine lining up to pay your taxes and realising that one in every five people in the provinces and one in every three people in Rome in the queue beside you had no rights or freedoms and were non-persons in the eyes of the law – just objects to be bought, sold or inherited?
Shocking, isn’t it? Our modern perspective finds this utterly abhorrent.
Now, that’s not to say that these slaves were all mistreated. Some were treated inhumanely, of that we can be in no doubt. But others would have been treated very well indeed, and could even find themselves in positions of influence, just without any freedom.
Paul’s teachings on the relationships between slaves and masters may seem regressive to us. However, we need to understand them in context. As an imprisoned missionary, Paul was hardly likely to start a social revolution that was so widespread across the Roman Empire.
What he did do is hand Christian slaves and masters guidance on what to do now that Christian teaching was upending social order.
Look at these verses:
Galatians 3:26-28 NIV
[26] So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, [27] for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. [28] There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/gal.3.26-28.NIV)
Colossians 3:11 NIV
[11] Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/col.3.11.NIV)
Christian teaching says that all are equal before God: all have sinned, all are saved by grace and made righteous by Jesus Christ. No-one is better or worse than anyone else.
This created issues for a society that was built on and polarised by the separation of people into categories like slave and free. And it still does.
However, it also created issues in the workplace. How should a slave react towards their master now that both were saved by grace alone? And how should we behave towards our bosses, and then towards us, now that we know that their position has no bearing on whether or not they will be saved?
These slaves were in the worst possible working conditions – worse than we will ever endure. They had no union or labour organisation or co-operative or government looking after them.
So what should they do? And what should we do?
Let’s look first at The Slave’s Role.
The Slave's Role
Ephesians 6:5-8 NIV
[5] Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. [6] Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. [7] Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, [8] because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/eph.6.5-8.NIV)
If you are reading this and you are a worker, I want you to answer this question:
Who is your boss?
I have had quite a few interesting bosses. I’ve had at least one who was obviously very interested in how their team contributed to their salary and wasn’t particularly interested in them as people.
I met one who took an almost masochistic approach to management and willingly sacrificed his bonus so his team would earn more.
I had at least one who was so laid back that if we had found him napping in an empty meeting room I would not have been surprised.
Who is your boss?
These verses contain a very interesting perspective:
God is your boss.
This approach is so important that Paul mentioned it three times:
‘Obey your earthly masters... as you would obey Christ’
‘Obey them... as slaves of Christ’
‘Serve them wholeheartedly as if you were serving the Lord, not people’
Now, some of these masters would have been far from Christ-like. Some of them would have been ill-treating these slaves in ways that we would find profoundly distasteful. But notice what Paul added to this:
Ephesians 6:7-8 NIV
[7] Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, [8] because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/eph.6.7-8.NIV)
Again, from Colossians:
Colossians 3:23-25 NIV
[23] Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, [24] since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. [25] Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism.
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/col.3.23-25.NIV)
The whole point of this is that slaves should work as if for God because they are accountable to God, as were their bosses. If those slaves were mistreated by their masters, the masters would still face justice from a God who needs to witnesses as He sees all and knows all:
Hebrews 10:31 NIV
[31] It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/heb.10.31.NIV)
Now, I am aware that someone reading these lines could be facing astonishing injustices at work. I am fully aware that businesses are not run as charities and they there are people there who are motivated only by power, position and pecuniary benefits and who will stop at nothing and stomp on anyone to get them. I am not naive. I’ve been around that particular block. It is far from pleasant.
I am also fully aware that there are employment laws and unions and HR departments who can step in when anyone is ill-treated and disadvantaged at work. These are channels are open to anyone being abused or treated unfairly in the workplace. As Christians, we have every right to use than, just as much as anyone else. It is not disrespectful to your boss to use these channels to obtain justice, provided due process is followed and you do not in any way bear a grudge about it.
But I am also very painfully aware that there others who may feel like the are in the same situation as these slaves: victims of an horrendous injustice for which they have no recourse.
To these people, Paul would say that they should serve their unjust master to the very best of their ability, as if for the Lord and not for men.
Why?
Because who knows if their good attitude and conduct could win their boss over? It wouldn’t be the first time.
And because God is watching. He will see that we get justice.
We can trust ourselves to that.
So we have seen the slave’s role, and we have learned a whole lot about what it means to follow God in difficult work situations. It doesn’t always make them easier. Sometimes it makes them a lot harder.
But it is always right.
Now we will change perspective and look at The Master’s Role.
The Master’s Role
Ephesians 6:9 NIV
[9] And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/eph.6.9.NIV)
Colossians 4:1 NIV
[1] Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/col.4.1.NIV)
I want to start off right away by saying that not everyone can manage and not everyone can lead. I still remember the day when I was asked to lead a team in Romania. I was chosen simply because my Romanian was the best of the men in the team (as we were in Romania, the team leader had to be a man) and I was already preaching in local churches. Those were the only reasons why and I was well aware of it. Other than that, I was not confident in my abilities as a leader.
I felt very intimidated by the role.
I was also asked to take a few tricky decisions at the start that made things even harder for me.
I learned on the job. It was a steep learning curve.
When I moved into regular employment, it didn’t take me long to spot people in management positions who were great at their operational job, but way out of their depth as managers or leaders. A manager’s job is to set their team up for success. It isn’t just to process annual leave requests. There were several managers I felt had either got there by default or by some other means who didn’t exhibit that level of interest or control of their team.
A leader’s job is to influence their team towards success: to show by example how it can be done. I have to be honest: at an operational level, and even at the layer above that, I have almost never seem people who truly lead. They are rare in all walks of life. I have even seem presidents or prime ministers who are barely managers, let alone leaders.
This is a tough job. The air is truly ratified. You are on the hook when your team fails. Your head is on the block beside theirs. But any true leader seeks to build up their team members to surpass them.
That’s precisely why they are so hard to find.
So how should a leader react towards their subordinates?
Paul reminded masters that they were not the ultimate authority. Every one of them was ‘middle management’, as Jesus noted:
Matthew 20:25-28 NIV
[25] Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. [26] Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, [27] and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— [28] just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/mat.20.25-28.NIV)
Every single Christian boss has to recognise that the ultimate authority in their life is not their manager, nor the board, nor shareholders and not even regulatory authorities, but God Himself. While bosses may have some power and authority, God has infinitely more. No boss is ever in full command of their own life, not even at work.
God is.
And so they ought to be governed by God’s governance, risk and compliance framework way more than that of their own company. What does God say they should do?
Matthew 22:37-40 NIV
[37] Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ [38] This is the first and greatest commandment. [39] And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ [40] All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/mat.22.37-40.NIV)
In both Ephesians and Colossians, Paul is applying this principle to the slave-master dynamic. So yes, slaves ought to treat both their masters and the work they do for their masters with respect. That much is a given.
But masters are also commanded to treat their slaves with respect. They were not consider them as objects or property, but as human beings made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27), as God’s artwork, an expression of His creative genius (Psalm 139:13-14), as someone for whom Jesus Christ gave His life.
And yes, that includes paying a proper salary (Matthew 10:10; Luke 10:7;James 5:4) and on time (Leviticus 19:13; Deuteronomy 24:15-16).
There is no way on this earth that the slave of a Christian should be mis-treated. None at all.
I think it often escapes us how incredibly ground-breaking this was. In an age without unions or human rights organisations, slaves had no rights. Jewish law was more advanced in this area, despite being thousands of years older, but even there we find some things that cause us to shudder.
Yet here was Paul stating that a slave, a legal non-entity, should be treated with respect, and even love!
The Gospel was overthrowing the established order and bringing in revolutionary teaching that was completely changing the dynamic between slave and master.
Maybe we need this to happen again in our day.
Conclusion
Ephesians 6:5-9 NIV
[5] Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. [6] Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. [7] Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, [8] because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free. [9] And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/eph.6.5-9.NIV)
It isn’t every day that we come across a slave. We might if we work for law enforcement. If that is ever the case, them my sincere prayers is that whoever is guilty of such a heinous crime faces the full force of our judicial system.
But for the rest if us, slavery is, thankfully, a distant memory that we absolutely do not care to recall.
For others, these verses are a reminder of a deeply troubling time when human beings forgot how to be human and behaved worse than savages, forcing their own kind into unpaid labour for personal gain. We, quite right, view that time with complete disgust and wish the Bible didn’t mention it.
I do not come from a group of people who were enslaved. I come from a nation that, to our deep shame, profited from slavery.
It was wrong. It was unjustified. It was unjustifiable.
It was a sin.
So what does this passage have to teach us, in the twenty-first century, at a time when slavery should have been eradicated but, sadly is not?
We need to remember that these verses, as with the three studies that preceded this one, are an outworking and application of the basic principle behind all aspects of the Christian life:
Matthew 22:37-40 NIV
[37] Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ [38] This is the first and greatest commandment. [39] And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ [40] All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’
(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/mat.22.37-40.NIV)
I have repeated this principle several times in this series because it needs to be repeated.
Now, we might be of the opinion that this is fine for church life, but it is deeply impractical for life elsewhere in the ‘real world’.
God disagrees.
This principle frames how you interact with your spouse. They are your neighbour.
It frames how you interact with your parents and children. They are your neighbour.
It frames how you interact with your boss and your subordinates. They are your neighbour.
These teachings may be controversial. They should not be, but for some they are. However, that is only because we have either not taken the time to review them, or because we resent the fact that God’s call on our lives is so all-encompassing and all-consuming.
But it is. That is the reality. He is either our Lord for twenty-four hours or He is not Lord at all.
He made us. He owns us. He therefore owns our working hours just as much as He owns our churching hours.
So here’s how this has to work.
If we are an employee, then, regardless of the company, we show respect to our bosses and others by giving of our best. No slacking. No work-to-rule. No striking.
None of these are respectful.
If we are an employer, then we do not demand loyalty, we earn it. We treat our employees with kindness and respect. We care about them. They are not just lines on a spreadsheet to us. They are human beings, made in the image of God.
Why do we do this?
Because God is our Master. Because God is just.
Because God is watching.
And we are seeking to bring Him glory.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I confess that sometimes my attitude isn’t what it should be at work. Help me to realise that I am really working for You whatever my job is, and to work ina loving way with my colleagues and subordinates. Amen.
Questions for Contemplation
Does God care about where, why and how we work? Why is this?
What does God want from you in your work?
What are you going to change in your workplace to bring God glory?
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