Carl Provost's sermon, 'Serving the Master,' explores the biblical context of the relationship between slaves and masters, particularly through the lens of Ephesians 6 and Galatians. He discusses the various forms of slavery in historical contexts, contrasting them with modern perceptions and emphasizing the application of biblical principles to contemporary employee-employer relationships. Provost highlights key Christian attitudes such as obedience, respect, and sincerity in work, drawing parallels between historical slave-master dynamics and today's workplace environments. He emphasizes the importance of serving as unto Christ, regardless of one's earthly position, and the eternal rewards of good works. The sermon concludes by urging believers to respect authorities and serve one another, reflecting Christ's kingdom on earth.

Please take your copy of God's Word and turn to Ephesians chapter 6. Starting in verse 5. Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters, according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ. Not with eye service as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart, with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that Whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And ye masters, do the same thing unto them, forbearing, threatening, knowing that your master also is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with him.

Father, we come before you and we thank you Father that you've given us your Word, instructions for life. And Father, we pray that as we open this word today that you will teach us that your Holy Spirit will come into our hearts and apply this word and transform us and help us to live our lives unto Christ. We pray Father in your Son Christ Jesus name. Amen. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen. Over in Galatians, Paul wrote, There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor female. For you're all one in Christ Jesus.

If you're familiar with Paul's travels, while in Rome, he came in contact with Onesimus. Onesimus was a runaway slave. He belonged to the laymen. And by God's providence while in Rome he became a believer and he became close to Paul and he became very valuable to Paul. And Paul wrote a letter back to Philemon and encouraged Onesimus to go back.

And he encouraged him to be received, not just as the slave that he had left but to look at it as a providence of God that he now was receiving back a brother in Christ Jesus. So when we look at the New Testament as it speaks of slaves and masters, some ask, Why didn't Paul condemn slavery here? Why didn't he encourage Onesimus to stay free? And why does he speak of there being no partiality? Why does he speak of there being Jew or Greek, neither bond nor free, they are neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

First of all, we've got to remember that when we look at slavery, often times we see it through the lens of what we know in our own history and what we know even in modern-day slavery. But we have to recognize that in God's Word that there were different forms of slavery, and not all forms of slavery were condemned. In fact, the Old Testament speaks of the proper way to treat a slave. In fact, there were laws regulating how you could treat a slave, And there were different forms of slavery. There were those that were prisoners of war.

But there were those that were indebted slaves, those who sold themselves because of a debt into slavery. And then in the Old Testament law, you would have been freed on the seventh year, your debt settled or the year of Jubilee. And so we see that God regulates this And we also see in the New Testament that slavery was also spoken of. And in some places, as we see here, Paul is encouraging the relationship, a proper relationship between slaves and masters. But in other places we see that those who are stillers of men are condemned as not being a part of the body of Christ.

And so we recognize that there were forms of slavery that were not acceptable even in this time. But in slavery in Rome and Greece in the first century, in order for us to understand this and then for us to shift and apply it to today, I want us to understand what slavery looked like then. Slavery in Rome and Greece in the first century, At this time there had been some sweeping changes and some of the earlier persecutions of slavery had changed greatly. And at the time it's believed that one third of the Roman Empire was made up of slaves, roughly 60 million slaves. In fact it was believed at this time for a Greek or Roman citizen that it was beneath them to work.

And so they had slaves to do all of the labor. So their entire economy was based off of slave labor. And You do read of stories of extreme abuse, and there were abuses even in a system that had laws to protect slaves, and they were still considered property, even in the Roman and the Greek slavery. Fifty percent of slaves were freed by the age of 30. Many of the slaves were well educated, oftentimes educated beyond their masters because they were to serve in capacities as accountants, oftentimes running their masters' businesses for them, trained as doctors, lawyers, because this type of work would have been seen as beneath a Roman citizen.

So oftentimes he would have his servants well trained so that they could better serve him. They could own property. In fact, some slaves owned other slaves themselves. They were given payment for their work. And in fact, part of their payment was to be reserved for the purpose of buying back their freedom later on.

And for those that were outside of Roman citizenship slavery for some was viewed as a way to get into the citizenship. They could sell themselves as a slave and at some point buy their freedom and become a Roman citizen. And so slavery that we see in the first century is not the slavery that we saw in early America that led to our Civil War. The slavery in America was for the most part, man-stealing. They would take ships over and they would pay other natives to capture other tribes and force them on ships and bring them over here and then they would put them on plantations and put them to work, stealing them away from their families and their people.

They had no rights and oftentimes they were not allowed to be educated. But we know also from our history that there were Christians who owned slaves. And in fact some of these Christians you will find stories of educating and teaching their slaves to read and teaching them God's Word. And in fact when slaves were freed there were slaves that chose to continue to stay on their master's property because they were treated well. And so we see looking back oftentimes even those that we would respect in the faith and we say how could this person have owned a slave?

Jonathan Edwards being British but coming to America the first thing he did after he was married was he purchased a slave to help his wife. Now this was a man who spent 14 hours a day in a study and so he wasn't going to be of much help to his wife with things around the house so he purchased a slave. And so you see men like this make decisions that from our perspective how can this be? You know How could somebody who is a Christian purchase a slave? But we have to recognize that there was a different culture at that time, and oftentimes Men make decisions based upon the cultural surroundings.

And so when we look at the situation here, nowhere in this text do we find that Paul speaks against slavery or commends it. He just talks about those relationships. He was speaking to a community of believers that found themselves in a situation where one-third of the population were slaves. And within the same church, you had slaves and masters worshiping together as brothers in Christ. And so Paul is teaching a principle from God's word and how they must relate one to another.

The slavery is far from gone today. In fact, by the 2016 estimates, there are believed that there are 45.8 million slaves around the world in 2016. In fact, if you look and follow the history of slavery, you will see that in nations that became Christian nations, slavery ended. And it's only now in nations that either reject Christianity or Christianity is being persecuted that you see slavery rising up again. In many of the Muslim nations.

In fact, a lot of the Muslim nations will take Christians and make them slaves. And so it's not a problem that has been eradicated from this world today. And it's a growing problem even when you read of those that are being abducted and sold in the slave trade and then the sex trafficking that even those here in America oftentimes are kidnapped for this purpose. And so we recognize that there is still a form of slavery that takes place around us, and there are still different types of slavery. There are types of cultures in India where there are those that are enslaved in a sense by the status of their birth, being born in what's considered a lower state.

And so these principles have to be looked at and how they apply to our culture and our current situation and where we live. And we don't have slavery here So how do we look at this and examine this and see how this applies to us? And even though this does not directly to the deal with the slave master relationship it does have applications to the employee employer relationship And so I want to look at this today from that perspective. The points we'll be looking at will be your responsibility to obedience, your motivation for obedience, your attitude of obedience, your reward for obedience, and the final one, masters are not exempt. So your responsibility for obedience.

In verse 5 it says, Servants, be obedient to them, that are your masters, according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ. Masters, according to the flesh, first I want you to notice that We as Christians are dual citizens. Spiritually, we are citizens in the kingdom of Christ. And Christ has his kingdom upon this world, but we have to also recognize that when we're on this world, we also have in the flesh authorities that are over us. And this says, those who are masters according to the flesh.

And so we recognize that as believers in Christ Jesus, that we are slaves to Christ Jesus, we are servants of Christ, But yet we are still under authorities. And whether we live in the United States of America and we're under a republic and we are governed with a president or we live in a country with a king or we live under a tyrant, Wherever we find ourselves living, we are placed there. We are by God's ordained will. We are under authorities in the flesh. And we are given principles of how we are to submit to these authorities.

Earlier we looked at the relationship of children and parents, and husbands and wives. And in the same section on how we are to live in this household code of submitting to authorities, we're dealing with slaves and masters and for the purpose of our culture we're going to look at employees and employers. And so if you are living in this country you're under the authority of the government. Many of us have signed contracts and put ourselves under the authority of a financial institution. And for those who have jobs and work for somebody else, they're under the authority of their employer.

Now we know that there are other scriptures that teach the principle that there's no way we can exempt ourselves from this. In fact, on the working, we're told that if a man does not work, he should not eat. And so there's the principle there that a man is responsible to work in order to feed himself. And he shouldn't be a burden on somebody else. We also say in 1 Timothy it says, but if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.

And so there we see the principle that one who is a believer, one who's a Christian, must provide for his family. And so the biblical mandate here is that you must work to eat and you must work to provide for your family and so the option of not working the option of not being an employee is not out there and so we are forced into these relationships of employee employer and even though we're not a prisoner and we're not in a situation where we are property of our business unless you join the military we still find ourselves in a relationship where we are required by God's Word to submit to the authority of our employer. Now it's interesting here, It says, with fear and trembling. It gives us, so how do we obey? With fear and trembling.

Now the word here is not a shaking in your boots fear, but this is a Christian reverence and respect for the authority of the position of the one that's over you. And so basically, there is no place in the Christian employees life for insubordination, contempt, or even mocking of their employer. And so this kind of talk that might go on behind the boss's back where they put down on the boss or talk about the boss being unable to manage properly, whatever, there's no place for that as a Christian worker. And the reason is, is it says that we do this as unto Christ. And so we recognize that in God's sovereignty And in His providence, He's placed us wherever we find ourselves.

And so if we find ourselves in a job that we don't like, but yet we recognize that it's the job that God has given us to provide for us, so that we can feed ourselves and feed our family, we work as unto Christ, recognizing that ultimately God has ordained this. God has placed us there and so our attitude is not affected by the job that we're doing but by the God that we serve. And so it's about changing the perspective. And so with these principles in place, you recognize that we live in a place to where you are not forced to stay at a job. And so we recognize that if you're in a job that you don't like, or maybe there's a job that has called asking you to do things that you think are unethical, which you're not forced to do things that are unethical, because there's other principles in God's Word that would allow you to not submit.

Just as wives do not submit to their husbands when they're told to sin, employees do not submit to their boss when he's asking them to break the law or to sin. And so those same principles are in place, But in the employee-employer relationship, you can look for another job. But one of the mistakes I oftentimes see, especially with younger Christians, is they speak of, well, there's just a bad influence at my workplace and I don't you know there's a I don't like the type of people I have to be around after and so they quit their job but they have no job to replace it with And this is violating the principle if a man doesn't work he doesn't eat. And so what should actually be in place there is this understanding that you are called to work. And you are called to provide.

And so before you leave a job you should have a job that you're going to or at least enough funds set aside to provide for you until you find that job. It oftentimes surprises me how many people find themselves in a bad situation financially because they quit a job because they didn't like their boss and didn't find a job and had no resources to back them up while they were looking for a job. Part of obedience is being responsible for the full counsel of God's Word. And so the fear and trembling here is that Christians' employees respect for the authority of his boss's position. It's recognizing that it's a person that's been placed over them, and Whether they like the person or not, they can still respect the position of authority in recognizing that they are where they're at because God has placed them there.

And it will allow them to overlook many faults and to not take these things personally and to oftentimes work through bad situations, but yet still successfully provide for themselves and their family. It also says, We're not acting as Christians and we're treating their slaves in a very poor way, persecuting them. They are to obey in singleness of heart as unto Christ. Now this word singleness of heart basically means to obey with sincerity. An undivided mind working as if your fiscal labor is unto Christ.

Now This means that you should approach your job, no matter the work, recognizing that God is providing for you. And whether you're a garbage collector or a doctor, you can recognize that God is providing for you. And you can have a singleness of mind, work with sincerity, because you recognize that it is as unto Christ but some might say you don't know my boss I mean no one can can respect him. So what is our motivation for this type of obedience? In verse 6 it says not with eye service as men pleasers.

Now what does this mean? If you've been in the workforce, this really doesn't have to be explained. This is talking about that person that whenever the boss walks in, boy, they're hard at work. But the minute the boss leaves, they're slacking off. They're talking.

They're on social media on their computers. They're not given 60 minutes of work for 60 minutes of pay. But yet when the boss is present, they are busy. And it's saying that you shouldn't be like this. That it shouldn't depend upon your boss being present to see you, or your desire to please men, even those that work, for what others might say about you that that should be unimportant to you that should not be your motivation But your motivation should be as servants of Christ.

It says, not with eye service as men pleases, but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. We recognize that we have been bought with a price, that we belong to Christ Jesus, that we are told that we are no longer slaves to sin, but we are slaves to Christ. And that while on this earth, we are representatives of Christ. And so when we work for our employer, we are working as unto Christ. Not only as we are working for Christ, but we are all representatives of Christ.

It says, doing the will of God from the heart. Now one of the things that, you know, You get a lot of people that talk about, what is the will of God for my life? Even looking for work. And they really want to discern the will of God. And some people, they want to lay out some type of fleece.

They want God to give them a sign of which job to take. But see, in The freedom that we have given in the providence of God is we are told that he gods our steps and that we can make decisions, even decisions based upon our own desires as long as they're not sinful desires, knowing that God will direct our paths. And we don't have to worry ourselves about the will of God. But what we do have to recognize is that where we find ourselves is the will of God for us. And so we don't have a clergy laity distinctive here.

There is no position, you know, it's not like, okay, well, I'm a doctor or I'm a garbage collector, but really the will of God for me is sharing the gospel. Well, God calls us all to give a defense of our faith. But yet, your calling in life is whatever secular job God has placed you in. And it's no more important than somebody else's job. And being a minister is no more important than being a garbage collector or a doctor or a lawyer or a secretary or a homemaker.

Those are all very important jobs and they're all necessary for society. And they're all necessary to build God's kingdom. And if everyone was in the clergy, we wouldn't accomplish much. And so we have to recognize that part of our motivation for obedience is recognizing by being in the job that we're in and serving as unto Christ, we are actually a part of God's plan in building His kingdom. We also see an attitude of obedience here.

Verse 7 says, with goodwill, doing service, as to the Lord and not to men. With goodwill. Now this speaks of your attitude and how you work and how you approach work. You know, one of the best ways, and I don't know if all the stores are like this, but one of the best ways that this can be seen is go to the Chick-fil-A up here on 105. And they have all these young people in there, but they're so pleasant and happy.

And they're just there to serve you. And you would think, what are they paying these people in here, but they're just making them probably a little over minimum wage. But they're pleasant. And that's saying that's how we should be at our job. And I would hope it's because it's a Christian-owned company.

I don't know if that's just part of their training or not, but when I go in there, I feel like these young people actually like their work. And these young people recognize that there's a sense in which they are serving Christ by working at Chick-fil-A. And so I think all of our jobs, no matter if you are pumping septic tanks, or you are serving gourmet food, That there should be pride in what you're doing and the service that you give and there should be an attitude that you portray. As unto the Lord and not to men. You know there's a well-known sort of cultural proverb that talks about three workmen building a cathedral.

And when asked, the first man is asked what he's doing, he says, I'm chipping these stones. And then went over to a third worker and said, what are you doing? And he said, I am earning a wage. And then went to the third worker and asked him what he was doing. He says, I am building a great cathedral.

And so the idea here is you've got three men doing the same thing and they're shaping these stones to place into this wall. But they have three different perspectives. One can't get beyond the menial task that he's completing. One doesn't see beyond the fact that he's only there for the money, can't wait to clock out and get his paycheck, and has no interest in what he's really doing. But one sees a bigger picture of this great cathedral he's building.

And so for us as Christians, we recognize that no matter how menial the task seems, that God is using us for the building of his kingdom. And so our attitude should be an attitude of joyfulness that God is using us in whatever task he's placed us in. And we should serve as unto Christ with a joyful heart. Now what about the reward? Verse 8, Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, The same shall he receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free Now as we all know Oftentimes you never see the reward For some of the work that you put in at your job sometimes At your work In your family oftentimes we don't see those rewards right away.

Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't, but what we're told here is that all good work is rewarded knowing that whatsoever good thing that any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord. We are building up treasures in heaven. And when you work in such a way that you're responsible to obedience, that you're motivated by serving Christ, that you have a joyful attitude, there is a reward that comes. And even though we might not ever see it, and even though we might not ever make over barely existing financially in this world, we can know that we are building rewards in heaven when we work in such a way that we work as unto Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. We also know that it's not dependent upon our status here on this earth, whether bond or free.

He's saying that whether you're currently in bondage as a slave or whether you're currently working a job to where you're living paycheck to paycheck. Whether you're born a slave or whether you're born a king, it makes no difference that your good works are rewarded in heaven the same way. There is no change of those rewards based upon our position here on this earth. So we recognize that the employee and employer relationship is a relationship where there are authority structures, but yet they are brothers in Christ. And so not to leave employers out of this, Paul in verse 9 deals with masters.

Now this would have been a shocking statement at the time. You've got to remember in first century Rome, slaves were property. And even though there were some laws to protect them for the most part that master could do anything he wanted to with that slave it was his property. Verse 9, any masters do the same things unto them. Do the same things unto them.

This is a master respecting their slaves and to treat them with dignity. To not treat them as property, not treat them as a tool that could be discarded when it had no more usefulness, but to treat them with dignity. And he goes on to say, forbearing, threatening. This is stop threatening them. Now remember, he's speaking to Christians here, and he's telling Christian masters, stop controlling your slaves by threatening them.

Which meant that this was just part of the system. And so this is very radical and in a sense this is why Christianity, the principles of Christianity end slavery because it changes the relationship. And when your slave and your master become a believer it changes that relationship And they now are brothers in Christ. And he has to treat that slave differently. And he views them differently.

Now, we know in the workplace there are employers that also lead in such a way with threatening, cursing. They find some type of leverage over their employees and they use it against them and it's saying that Christian employees should not control or their employees this way that there is a different way to lead, it's the servant leadership of Christ. It's recognizing that in an employee-employee relationship that your employees will work harder for you when they know you respect them and when they know that you treat them with dignity and you wouldn't ask them to do something that you wouldn't be willing to do yourself. There's a different relationship that takes place there and what you see is you see men who work harder and serve to a greater capacity because of the respect that they have for the employer. Now this isn't, as I'm thinking about this, I'm thinking about reading Civil War history and some of the different officers and how they led their men.

And what was distinctly different about Stonewall Jackson was the respect that his men had for him. Because he did not ask his soldiers to do anything he was not willing to do himself. And he trusted in the sovereignty of God as he sat upon his horse with bullets flying by, knowing that he was asking his men to run out against oftentimes certain death. And these men were willing to do that because of the respect that he had for them. Because he had a different type of leadership.

He led according to the principles that we find here in God's Word. And he had men that he could have put in prison for insubordination. But yet, he had men that went beyond what some thought was even humanly possible because of the respect that they had for this man. And so the way that you choose to exercise authority makes a difference. It makes a difference in your employees.

It makes a difference in your company. It makes a difference in the world. People notice that there's something different about the way a man leads when he leads according to God's principles. And so what we see here is the importance and our relationships between husbands and wives and relationships between parents and children and a relationships between master and slave, employee, employer, that the way we live as Christians, that there is a code by which we live, which is God's Word, principles that we apply. And when we apply those principles, We are building the Kingdom of Christ.

And whatever spirit of authority He places us or whatever spirit of authority He places us under, it's recognizing that the authorities are there because God has ordained it. He's placed them there. And the way that we interact with one another is a reflection upon our relationship with Christ Jesus. Do all things as unto Christ. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Father we come before you and we thank you that you've given us this word and you've given us this wisdom Father to follow how we might better serve you through serving one another, and how we might better serve you by being obedient to the authorities that you placed over us. And Father, I pray that you would help us as the body of Christ to love one another, to respect the authorities that have been placed over us and to be clearly used for the building of your kingdom. We pray in the precious name of our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus. Amen.