Slavery in America
Perhaps the darkest blot on our nation’s history is the institution of slavery. For over two hundred years, millions of people were kidnapped from their homes in Africa, put on boats, and brought to the New World to be slaves. Our nation was built, in many ways, on the backs of slaves. Chattel slavery in antebellum America was horrific, cruel, dehumanizing, evil, and demonic. It created racial divisions and strife that still reverberate through our nation. Unfortunately, many Christians in the southern United States used the Bible to justify slavery. And unfortunately, many people today still think that the Bible supports slavery.
Slavery in the Bible
Christians must honestly admit that the Old Testament does make provisions for the Jews to have slaves. But several points must be made clear. Slavery was universally practiced in the ancient Near East, so the Bible didn’t seek to overhaul the system, but rather offer humanizing and legal measures to control and limit its practice. The Law of Moses says that masters didn’t have absolute rights over their slaves and addressed abuses of slavery. The Bible affirms the full personhood, dignity, and rights of slaves alongside their masters (Job 31:13-15). This was radically different from the surrounding cultures.
Slavery also existed in the Roman world of the New Testament. It’s estimated that 85-90 percent of the inhabitants of Italy in the first and second centuries A.D. were slaves or of slave origin. These percentages probably held true across the Empire. These slaves, unlike slaves in the American South, had rights and privileges. They could worship, marry, save money, and even purchase their freedom. Cicero said that slaves could expect freedom in seven years. Slavery in the Roman Empire wasn’t based on skin color. Slaves could become highly trained and educated. Many slaves were teachers, professors, and physicians in wealthy families.
Slavery in Paul’s day wasn’t like slavery in the American South. It wasn’t an ideal situation, but it wasn’t necessarily evil either. It all depended on the master, as the masters could essentially make up their own rules.
Why Not Abolition?
Because there were so many slaves in the Roman Empire, it shouldn’t be surprising that there were slaves and masters in the churches that Paul planted. If over 80 percent of people were slaves or of slave origin, then a majority of people in the churches of the New Testament likely had a background as a slave or were currently slaves.
Some might wonder why, if slavery was so prevalent, Paul didn’t advocate abolition? It’s true that Paul doesn’t disapprove of slavery. There are several reasons for this. One reason is that, just as Jesus didn’t speak out against the rule of Rome, so Paul didn’t speak out against slavery. For Jesus and Paul, social reform was always secondary to individual reform. Paul was always more concerned with the big picture, with people’s eternal destinies, not the various problems of this world. Another reason is that slavery was mostly a humane institution, void of the cruelty that we associate with it because of our cultural experience. Another reason is that Paul advocated submission to the government, and to propose abolishing slavery would defy the government (Rom. 13). Another possible reason is that Paul knew that if he promoted the abolition of slavery, there’d likely be many slaves become Christians for the wrong reasons. Though Paul doesn’t promote the abolition of slavery, he does tell Christians to not become slaves (1 Cor. 7:23) and he tells slaves who’re able to gain their freedom to do so (1 Cor. 7:21).
Slaves in the Church
In summary, slavery was a widespread institution of the Roman world. Paul pastored churches with countless slaves and masters. Yet he didn’t argue for the abolition of slavery. If he didn’t seek to abolish slavery, what did he do? What did Paul tell slaves and masters in his churches? Ephesians 6:5-9 tells us. The main point of this text is that God cares for how slaves and masters treat one another. In this passage Paul gives instructions to slaves (vv. 5-8) and instructions to masters (v. 9). These will be our two points this morning.
Instructions to Slaves
As we study these verses, think of slaves as employees and masters as employers. Because Roman slavery was not like American slavery, it’s fair to think of this text in terms of the employee/employer relationship.
In verses 5-8, Paul gives instructions to slaves, or employees. Paul gives slaves a command, four ways that they’re to obey the command, and then one reason why they should obey the command. The command is simple: “Slaves, obey your earthly masters.”
The fact that Paul even talks directly to slaves was radically counter-cultural. In his day, any discussions about household management focused on how masters should treat their slaves. The slaves weren’t given the time of day in contemporary discussions about work. But Paul gave them the time of day. He saw them as persons. He treated them as ethically responsible persons who were just as much members of the church as were their masters.
In the church of Jesus Christ, all social divisions are superseded by the union we have together in Christ. Paul says in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Our oneness in Christ is the most basic thing that defines members of the church. Not our ethnicity, our employment, or our gender. Whether we own the business or clean the toilets, we’re equal before God. We should therefore treat one another accordingly. There’s no place for the sin of favoritism in the church, and God takes it seriously (James 2:1-4, 8-9).
Perhaps a question will help you think through this in your life: why do you sit in the same place and talk to the same people every time the church gathers? When was the last time you sat next to someone older than you, younger than you, poorer than you, richer than you, of a different skin color than you? If we’re one with all those who’re in Christ, why do our habits suggest that we’re only one with some people who’re in Christ? Paul treated slaves equally because they were equal in the church of Jesus Christ.
“With Fear and Trembling”
The command is for slaves to “obey their earthly masters.” Then in verses 5-7, Paul gives four ways in which slaves are to obey this command. First, slaves should obey with “fear and trembling” (v. 5). When these words are used together, they usually refer to the fear humans should have in the presence of God. This is the godly fear of the believer before God, not the terror and dread of the unbeliever.
Paul is saying that slaves should obey their masters as ones who have reverence and awe in the presence of God. They should serve their boss with an eye toward the greatness of God. The glory and majesty and holiness of God should always be in view when they’re at work.
In Paul’s day, masters would seek to control their slaves through fear. But Paul flips this around. He says that slaves should work in the fear of the Lord, not the fear of their master. In other words, Christian workers have been set free from the bondage of human intimidation. Their boss may seek to intimidate them, but they don’t have to be shackled and paralyzed by a fear of their boss. They understand that their boss is just their “earthly master” and that they have a “heavenly master” who’s the boss of their “earthly master.”
“With a Sincere Heart”
The second way slaves are to obey their masters is “with a sincere heart” (v. 5). This phrase can also be translated “singleness of heart.” It means that a slave should obey their master with integrity. The “heart” is the center of our being, where attitudes and actions come from. The worker’s “heart” should be full of pure motives.
This is what verse 6 is referring to when it says, “doing the will of God from the heart.” It’s the believer’s responsibility to live out the will of God from their heart at work every day. It’s also what verse 7 is referring to. “Rendering service with a good will” means serving our boss with pure motives.
Employees should want to obey their managers because it’s the right thing to do and because they love doing what is right. Christian workers aren’t guided by impure motives at work. They do their work in an honest, genuine, and truthful way. Paul already said this back in 4:28. Christians do “honest work.” They “put away all falsehood” (4:25) and work with integrity. Does this describe how you work? What’s going on in your heart at work? Are you working with a heart full of bitterness, anger, discontentment, or pride?
“Not By the Way of Eye-Service, As People-Pleasers”
Thirdly, slaves are not to obey “by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers” (v. 6). The Christian Standard Bible says, “Don’t work only while being watched, as people-pleasers.” And the NIV, “Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you.” Slaves should serve their masters just as well when they’re not looking as when they are.
Paul’s talking about something that we all do. We work really well when our boss is around and slack off when they’re not. How many of us have quickly shut down Facebook or put our phones away when we saw our boss coming? How many of us work harder when our boss is walking around? How many of us stop working and start goofing around with coworkers, playing on our phones, go to sleep, take long breaks, maybe even leave work all together when our boss isn’t watching?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American works 8.8 hours every day. Yet a study of nearly 2,000 full-time office workers revealed that most people aren’t working for most of the time they’re at work. The average worker is only productive for 2 hours and 53 minutes. The most popular unproductive activities listed were: reading news websites (1 hour, 5 minutes), checking social media (44 minutes), discussing non-work-related things with co-workers (40 minutes), searching for new jobs (26 minutes), taking smoke breaks (23 minutes), making calls to partners or friends (18 minutes), making hot drinks (17 minutes), texting or instant messaging (14 minutes), eating snacks (8 minutes), making food (7 minutes).
All of these things are okay to a degree. But something is wrong if the average worker is only working productively three hours a day. Our boss isn’t going to sit by our side and make us be adults and do our work. Paul’s point is that they shouldn’t have to. He’s saying that we should work just as hard when they’re not around as when they are. He’s also saying that if we bust our tail when our boss is around and slack off when they’re not, then it’s obvious who we’re trying to please. We’re trying to please man, not Christ. We’re working as if the most important set of eyes watching us is our earthly master, not our heavenly Master.
“As Servants of Christ”
Lastly, slaves work as if they’re working for Christ. Verse 5, “obey your earthly masters…as you would Christ.” Verse 6, “as servants of Christ.” Verse 7, “as to the Lord and not to man.” This is the foundational motivation under all the ways that slaves are to obey their masters. Workers can only obey their bosses “with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart…not by the way of eye-service, as people pleasers” if they see themselves as working for Christ.
Paul is saying that the way we perform at work is directly related to our relationship with Christ. If Jesus is Lord of our lives and we’re seeking to live under his lordship, we’d obey our bosses just as we’d obey Christ. If we disrespect our boss, ignore or despise their authority over us, or outright disobey them, our problem is a spiritual problem.
As much as we’d like to blame our boss and talk about how difficult our work environment is and how hard our job is, the problem, at root, is that we forget who we’re working for. Paul says that we should work as “servants of Christ,” as if we’re working “for the Lord and not man.” No matter what we do, and no matter how much we enjoy or don’t enjoy doing it, we must remember who we’re doing it for.
In their book The Gospel at Work, Sebastian Traeger and Greg Gilbert summarize this truth well. They say, “The world will tell you that life finds its meaning in success at work, or that work is just a necessary evil on the path to leisure. All those ways of thinking are lies. You…work for someone beyond your boss. You work for Jesus. That fact is the most important thing you can know and remember about your work. It’s much more important than the job itself…No matter what you’re doing, you are doing it to glorify Jesus.” Work is just work. But when done for Jesus, it becomes worship.
Jesus is your boss at work. When you change jobs, he’s still your boss. When I worked at McDonalds, Wal-Mart, hauling hay, cleaning out horse stables, doing erosion control, as a resident assistant, a youth pastor, mowing yards, parking cars, or serving as a pastor, I’ve always had the same boss. So have you. Our motivations for working should therefore remain consistent even when our job changes.
If you’re a Christian, you work for King Jesus. In fact, being a Christian means submitting to Jesus as King. Being a Christian means admitting that you’ve sinned against the holy God who made you, confessing that you’ve tried to rule your own life and be your own boss. It means coming to Jesus, as God’s perfect Son, trusting in his death on the cross as your substitute, and repenting of your sins. It means confessing that Jesus is Lord of every aspect of your life.
Good Will Be Rewarded
Paul concludes his instructions to slaves by giving them one reason why they should obey their masters (v. 8). Paul says that slaves should obey their masters because God will reward them for the good that they do. At the final judgment, every Christian employee will be rewarded for the good that they did at work. Paul says elsewhere that “each one will receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Cor. 5:10). This is especially sobering when we realize that we’ll spend the vast majority of our waking hours at work. Most of the things we do “in the body” are done at work. How we work will therefore have a massive bearing on how God rewards us, or not, on judgment day.
This promise is meant to encourage workers who do good things at work that go unnoticed. We all fail to be properly acknowledged for the good that we do at work. But Paul is saying that nothing goes unnoticed and that nothing will be left unacknowledged. No matter how your master treats you, no matter what he sees or doesn’t see, the Christian worker can rest assured that they have a heavenly Master who can be trusted to reward them for the good that they did.
Notice that rewards will be given “whether slave or free.” There will be no special treatment or favoritism. Everyone will be judged equally. Good works will be rewarded, whether it’s the good work of a wealthy business man paying his employees generously, or the good work of a janitor cleaning things he wasn’t asked to clean.
Oh how this should change how we work! God sees everything we do at work. He sees every act of kindness, every act of selfishness. He sees us working hard when no one else does. He sees our laziness when no one else does. He sees us serving our boss well by promptly and politely responding to his emails. He sees us not serving them well by slandering them behind their back and doing the absolute bare minimum that they expect from us. He sees those who go out of their way to make other people’s job easier, and those who didn’t care who they stepped on on their way up the ladder. God will reward “whatever good anyone does.” God will give every worker what they deserve.
Instructions to Masters
In verse 9, Paul gives a few brief instructions to masters. This was a shocking word to masters in the first century: “Masters, do the same to them.” Or, “treat them the same way.” Paul doesn’t mean that masters are to be slaves. And he doesn’t mean that masters shouldn’t discipline their slaves if they did something wrong. What he means is that masters should treat their slaves with the same kindness and fairness that the slaves treat them with. He means that masters should serve their servants in ways that are pleasing to God.
Paul says that this primarily means that masters should “stop (their) threatening.” Masters were known to threaten their slaves with beatings. Some even threatened to sell their children away. Paul says that this kind of threatening must stop. They must stop terrifying their slaves with threats. They should rather treat them with respect, sincerity of heart, and goodwill.
This applies to anyone who has authority over employees. If you have people under you at work, you’re called to treat them with the same dignity and respect that they’re called to treat you with. How do you typically motivate your employees? Do you threaten their pay or job security? Do you block them from promotions? Do you yell and scream at them when they make a mistake? Do you talk down to them like they’re children? Do you assume that you’re better than them just because you’re the boss and they’re not?
If so, Paul says that you need to remember that you and your employees have the same boss. “He who is both their Master and yours is in heaven.” In other words, you’re not actually the boss, God is. And he lives in heaven so he sees how you’re treating your employees.
Just as there will be reward for “whatever good” workers do, so there will also be judgment for whatever wrong bosses do. And the Judge is impartial. There’s no bias with him. He’s not impressed by appearances or by how many people you supervised. There’ll be no special deals made. Masters, therefore, need to remember that, before God, they’re equal to their slaves. There’s only one Lord, one Master, one Boss of the universe, and it isn’t you or me.
Slaves of Jesus Are Truly Free
God cares for how slaves and masters treat one another. Slaves should obey their masters, and they should do so out of fear for God, with pure motives, not just to please them, but to serve and please Christ, remembering that they’ll be rewarded for “whatever good” they do. Masters should treat their slaves with respect, stop scaring them with threats, and remember that God is their boss and will judge them impartially.
Christian slaves and Christian masters are both slaves of Jesus. Being a slave of Jesus, no matter what your job is, means that you’re truly free. Free from sin, free from the fear of death, free from Satan, free to live joyfully at work because you know the King who worked joyfully for you, free to worship Jesus through your work, and free to take the posture of a servant no matter what job you have because Jesus gladly took the posture of servant for you.
Employees and employers who belong to Jesus will work for Jesus.