Servants & Masters

"Servants, be obedient to your masters, according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in simplicity of heart, as unto Christ; not with service to the eye (as man-pleasers) but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart with good will, serving the Lord and not man. And know that whatever good thing anyone does, that same shall he receive from the Lord, whether slave or free. And masters, do the same things to them, giving up threatening and knowing that your master also is in Heaven. And there is no partiality with Him.”                Ephesians 6:5-9 RGT

In biblical times as well as in earlier times of our country, enslaved people were owned by masters (or property owners) who used them to run or manage their properties. Due to the Emancipation Proclamation, indentured servitude no longer legally exists in our country. The best example of this in our age is the employee-employer relationship. We, as employees, can be seen as servants to our masters, who are our employers. However, in contrast to the past, we are now compensated for our labor.

Paul examines the relationship between a servant and his master, a relationship founded on obedience. Much like our relationship with Jesus, Paul often identifies himself as a slave or servant of Christ in his writings. He points out that we all serve something or someone. In our unregenerate state, we were slaves to sin, but we discovered freedom in Christ. However, this newfound freedom doesn't leave us without a master; Jesus Christ becomes our new master, a master who not only loves us but also yearns for us to be His family. This new master blesses us with eternal benefits, a testament to His infinite grace and mercy.

The passage above deals with a heart matter, not just physical obedience. We serve our masters as unto the Lord in simplicity of heart; the same could be said of our employers. We keep our service or our labor not just to prove we are good workers or that what we do looks good on a surface level, but rather by doing God’s will from the heart with sincerity, being kind, loyal, and helpful, a benefit to our employer. By doing so, we also serve the Lord with our integrity.

I do recognize that slavery in the early days of our country was a brutal venture, and many were abused or killed by their masters because slaves were considered property and not actual human beings with rights. Having said that, it was often misquoted by early Christians whose belief helped cement that stereotype into the culture that the ‘negro’ was somehow less than human. That was not the teaching of Paul; his teaching said that what the slaves had done for their masters was done unto the Lord, which meant that each and every slave was a child of God and was valued in God’s economy.

In a similar vein, many impoverished Irish immigrants who came to this country were indentured servants for wealthy landholders and worked as maids, cooks, or nannies. The same can be said for many impoverished Chinese immigrants. Thus, slavery was widespread in the development of our country, and each ethnic group worked hard to obtain their freedom, with some groups faring better than others over time. The key point here is that each of us, regardless of our background, is enslaved to something, whether it is a tendency to sin, which is of the flesh and death, or we are enslaved to righteousness, which leads to life.

Paul took a hard line when it came to his position in Christ; he believed that he was the least of all the saints because of his consent to the murder of many early Christians before he met Jesus. We, too, have a past that is speckled with sin and death if we take a hard look at it.  And we are slaves if we have committed our lives to Jesus, we have died to ourselves, and Jesus has taken our empty lives and filled them with Himself so that He could get glory out of our lives.

Paul, apologetically, takes the concept taught by Jesus in Matthew 7:12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”  He then rephrases it, making it more relatable to his audience in Ephesus, where many kept slaves. His message is universal and applicable to all, regardless of their social status: “Know that whatever good thing anyone does, that same shall he receive from the Lord, whether slave or free.” This new perspective reminds us that we all serve a higher master than ourselves, and the heavenly master will recompense any good thing that anyone does.

Paul's use of the 'chain of command' motif underscores the authority of a master in heaven over any earthly master or slaveholder. Emphasizing that the heavenly master observes the actions of the slaveholder towards the slave, Paul asserts that any mistreatment will be met with accountability. This is because the heavenly master discerns no disparity between the slave and the slaveholder; impartiality prevails as they are all considered His children.

To sum up, we respond to our masters (employers) out of the flesh because they require the goods or services we can provide. Paul turns it around as being more than just labor; it's about maintaining an attitude of gratitude towards the Lord in all our actions. Therefore, as we serve our masters (employers), we can also see it as serving the Lord by expressing praise and thankfulness in everything we do.

It is a matter of perspective how we see ourselves as partakers of the heavenly gift to which we are all called: Christ in us, the hope of Glory.

Stephen Barnett