The Lordship of the Lord and the Service of His Slaves (Ephesians 6:5-9)
The Lordship of the Lord and the Service of His Slaves
Ephesians 6:5-9
The Problems with Texts about Slavery
Approaching the topic of slavery causes some degree of fear and trembling. On the one hand, there are voices who would turn the church into an organ of societal change. On the other hand, there are voices who distance themselves so far from societal relevance of Christianity that they functionally undermine the faith. This presents a great danger for exposition of portions of God’s word like this one.
Discussions on this text easily get pulled into fruitless back-and-forths regarding the nature of slavery in the Roman empire, comparisons to the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and the abolitionist movement during modern times. While these are, to a degree, helpful, we need to remember who we are. We are the church. And Paul writes to a local church—to Christians, wanting to know what the local church is and how the local church should act. As he writes to that local church, there are probably many slaves in that congregation, and probably at least a few slave-owners in that congregation. Paul wants to show them how they are to “look then to how you walk, not as unwise but as wise” (Eph 5:15).
Paul has spiritual purposes in mind, not societal ones. And those purposes are to be played out within the arena of the local church. These spiritual realities would inevitably have impact and effect in the Roman Empire. And there is good argument to be made that slavery is a twisting of God’s created design. Yet Paul’s purpose is not to undermine slavery but to shepherd the hearts of people who are slaves and masters into wise living within God’s church.
Add to that another layer of difficulty: none of us are slaves or slave owners. There is an unavoidable cultural distance between us and this text. And, in an understandable thirst for tangible, relevant application, we rush to the parallel of employers and employees. While I don’t want to discount the legitimate application to how to conduct yourself in the workplace, I also want to say that this is not the most relevant application of this text. There is no direct parallel between slavery in the Roman Empire and modern American capitalist employment contracts. There might be some principles that can apply to such things, but that is only one small subset of the point of this passage.
So, what is that point? I’d like to give that to you up front so you know where we’re going. I’ll state the main point in two parts.
1. The primary lesson here is that we are all slaves of Christ. Notice how slaves have an “earthly master” (v5) and they have a master “in heaven” (v9) who is the master of both the slave and his master. They are slaves of their earthly masters (v5) but they are also “slaves of Christ” (v6). Masters also have a master in heaven. This theological reality bears the greatest weight in this text. Every member of the church is a slave of Christ, ultimately speaking. So, the first question we have to answer is “What does it mean to be a slave of Christ?”
2. The secondary lesson is that each one of us has a certain station in life in which we are called to live as slaves of Christ. While both master and slave were slaves of Christ in the church, the slave was still a slave and the master still a master. Paul calls them to live within their station as slaves of Christ. The fact that every member of the church is a slave of Christ then informs how slaves are to obey masters and how masters are to treat their slaves. And so, if the first question is “What does it mean to be a slave of Christ?” the second question is, “How does being a slave of Christ work its way out in my current station in life?”
And I think that any station in life—any calling we are called to—can be placed in one of two categories. Either we are in a position where we are rendering service, or we are in a position where we are receiving service. And this is where application becomes a bit easier. For example:
· An employee renders service to his employer. As the employee renders service, even as he is compensated, he is a slave to Christ, and that informs how he ought to do his work. As the employer receives that service, even as he pays the employee, he is also a slave of Christ, and that again informs how he manages and treats his employee.
· A customer at a coffee shop receives the service of the barista. As he receives this service, he is to do so in a certain way which reflects that he is a slave of Christ. The barista, who renders this service, is to do so in a way that reflects the same.
· A church member renders service to the church by setting up all our gear. As that member renders service to the church, she is to do so as a slave of Christ and this informs how she serves. The rest of the church then receives that service as slaves on equal terms with her.
But, to understand how all this comes down to us, let’s look at something of what the Bible says about slavery.
A Concise Theology of Slavery
1. Certain forms of slavery were permitted under the Mosaic Covenant.
a. Leviticus 25:39 – an Israelite was permitted to sell himself into slavery to a fellow Israelite, and the one who bought him was obligated to treat him as an equal and pay him, even though he was his slave.
b. Exodus 21:5 – An Israelite who was a slave was permitted to permanently commit himself to slavery to his master out of love, and the master was allowed to receive him out of love as well.
2. Slavery under the Mosaic Covenant was regulated and oriented toward brotherly love, equal treatment, and human dignity.
a. Exodus 21:7-11 – when a daughter was sold as a slave for the purpose of being married, she was to be treated as an equal and was not allowed to be sold again.
b. Exodus 21:26-27 – Any kind of excessive punishment that caused severe physical harm (loss of limb).
c. Leviticus 25:43 – Prohibited ruling over slaves ruthlessly.
d. Exodus 21:2 – Every seven years all Hebrew slaves were to go free.
3. Selling someone into slavery was considered theft, tantamount to murder, and was always considered sin and punishable by death.
a. Deuteronomy 24:7 – a man who steals his brother to sell him into slavery is called a “thief” and the penalty is death, meaning it is tantamount to murder.
b. Exodus 21:16 – same law
c. The new testament confirms this in 1 Tim 1:10, where it says the law is laid down for “enslavers.”
4. The New Testament teaches that, in Christ, the spiritual status of slaves and freedmen are the same. The Lord makes no heavenly distinction between them.
a. Galatians 3:28 – “Neither Jew or Greek, slave nor free, no male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
b. 1 Corinthians 12:13 – baptized into one body by one Spirit—“Jews or Greeks, slaves or free.”
5. The New Testament never explicitly commands slave-owners to release their slaves, but it does imply that to do so would be consistent with the gospel they have come to believe.
a. Philemon – Paul consistently implies that, while he will not command Philemon to release Onesimus from slavery, that he does think it would be right and that it would refresh Paul’s soul.
6. Thus, the New Testament advocates the death of slavery “from within”—through the transformation of the hearts of slaves and masters, leading them to love one another as brothers, rather than to treat each other as property. Beyond that, it is curiously silent—a reality which points, I believe, to the fundamentally spiritual emphasis of the New Testament, as opposed to the societal orientation found in some voices and churches today.
Beautifully Repurposing an Ugly Reality
And yet there is still more to say. Slavery itself is part of the origins of God’s people. The Egyptians had enslaved Israel, and God raised up a deliverer, Moses, because he heard their groaning for rescue from slavery and remembered the covenant he made with the forefathers. But their rescue from slavery was not for freedom as we think of it—self-determining independence. It was from slavery to slavery—slavery to Egyptians unto slavery to Yahweh. Exodus 4:25, “Let my son [Israel] go that he may serve me [i.e., be my slave].” As Nehemiah would pray centuries later, “They are your slaves and your people whom you redeemed by your great power and your strong hand” (Neh 1:10).
While the Israelites were freed from slavery to the Egyptians, there was a more fundamental slavery they were never freed from: sin. Thus, they grumble about the manna. They quarrel with Moses about water. They melt their Egyptian plunder into a giant golden cow. They refuse to invade the promised land at Kadesh-Barnea and wander in the wilderness for 40 years where they continue the same pattern. The Lord does give them the land, but the same pattern continues. Judges tells the same thing—they did not obey the Lord and so they were “sold into slavery” to the nations. The kings are sinful. The priests are sinful. The prophets are sinful. The judges are sinful. It seems that everyone is still a slave. As Jesus would say to the same nation, “Truly, truly, I say to you everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34).
There was always a more fundamental slavery that needed liberation. And Jesus Christ has accomplished that. As he said just a few sentences later, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). Romans 6:17, “You who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness…for just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.” Jesus Christ frees us from slavery to sin in order to be slaves of God—to no longer be tyrannized by the slave-master named Sin, but to live in the glorious freedom of serving our heavenly Master.
Thus, we come back full circle. We are all slaves of Christ. We have all been set free from the tyranny of sin. We are all under the righteous mastery of Christ. He is our Lord. We are his servants. We do his will. And this changes everything about how we interact.
This is the reality on display in Ephesians 6:5-9. Every single person in that room was a slave to Jesus Christ, freed from sin, called to present their bodies as instruments of righteousness and love and service. And they were called to do that within whatever station in life they found themselves. Slaves were slaves of Christ, which had impact on how they were slaves of their earthly masters. Masters were slaves of Christ also, which changed how they were to treat their slaves.
And this then is the paradigm I would like to use for the rest of our time as we seek to benefit from these words. How do we serve Christ when we are rendering service to others—whatever the context might be, whether slave, employee, or service in the church? And then how do we serve Christ when we are receiving the service of another—whether master, employer, in marriage, in parenting, in church?
I. Serving Christ in the Position of Rendering Service (6:5-8)
How do we serve Christ in the position of rendering service to others?
First, we serve in fear and trembling. Colossians 3:22 makes this more specific by saying “fearing the Lord.” Fear and trembling is always used to communicate seriousness in obedience. It is what happens to the woman with the issue of blood when Jesus finds her out. It is what happened to the Corinthians when they received Titus and Paul’s “severe letter.” It is the posture we are to have in our pursuit of sanctification Phil 2:12. Thus, service in fear and trembling is service done knowing that the Lord sees and scrutinizes all our motives.
1 Peter 1:14-17 is an excellent cross-reference for this.
When we serve the Lord by serving others, we ought to do so in the full knowledge that God judges impartially, that he sees our hearts, divides between joints and marrow, peers into the recesses of the heart and the darker corners of our motives and sees why we are really serving. And that should cause fear and trembling. Service is serious business! And how good it is to know that we have a sufficient Savior, for which one of us has ever served with perfect motives?
Second, we serve in sincerity of heart. That is to say, with pure motives. It literally is “waxless.” If you were to go into the market in those days and buy a vase, you could hold it up and see as you turn it in the light whether it was held together by wax or whether it was all clay. If it was genuine, it was sincere—without wax. Thus, genuineness, sincerity, integrity, without dissimulation—an old word that means “concealment of one’s thoughts, feelings, or character; pretense.”
It is easy to serve out of pretense. We want people to praise us. “Wow, look at how she serves. He sure is good with numbers. Can’t he teach!” All the while, we do so not with the waxless desire of serving the Lord, but with the insincerity of a liar who desires the praise himself.
How do I know if I’m serving sincerely? 1. Do you confess sin to the Lord as he reveals it to you? Are you, like Paul, “Not aware of anything against you”? 2. Are you still happy to serve when you don’t get the return you hoped for? Would you be happy to teach children if none of them ever came to Christ? Would you be content to set up gear if nobody ever said, “Thank you”? 3. Are you willing to serve even when it costs you something? The true test of sincerity is generosity. In fact, the same word for sincerity is translated “generosity” in many other places. The purity of our motives are tried in the fires of generosity. Wax melts when heated. But clay hardens and becomes useful.
Third, we serve as if we were serving Christ. You can imagine how a slave’s service to his master would change if he suddenly saw everything he did as if he were serving Jesus Christ directly. And how much it would change our service. If you knew that Jesus was coming to our church, would you be here that Sunday? Or if he was coming to your house for dinner, how would you clean your house? Or what would you expect of your children?
Everything we do is in reference to the Lord. Wives submit “as to the Lord” (5:22). Husbands love “as Christ loved” (5:25). Children obey “in the Lord” (6:1). Parents nourish in the training and admonition “of the Lord” (6:4) and so now slaves serve “as to Christ” (6:5). Christ is the true object of our service. We serve him, no matter what human being we serve. And this is a powerful motive to serve—for how we love Christ! How we want to serve him! What does it matter if we serve him this way or that, in this station or that, under this boss or that one?
Fourth, we serve not seeking to please people or make impressions. “Eye-service” is literally, “eye-slavery,” only serving when your master is looking. It has a ring of irony to it. We can be slaves to Christ, or we can slaves to the eyes of others—their evaluations, opinions, thoughts, impressions, and approval. People who render eye-service are those who only serve when people are looking, or who serve differently when people are looking than when they aren’t.
And “people pleasers” refers to a person who does what they do in order to cater favor or to make a good impression, not because it is right. The Pharisees were people-pleasers. They gave long prayers in the public places, blew a trumpet when they gave money to the poor, and made a pretense of dressing poorly when they fasted. Why? In order to say, “Look at me! I’m a good person! I’ve got it all together!” But Jesus says, “When you pray, go into your closet. When you give, don’t let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. When you fast, take a shower and smile.” Why? Because your Father who sees in secret will reward you. People pleasers are never satisfied with secret obedience.
So, are you content with menial tasks? Are you happy to continue doing those tasks for a long time without anyone noticing, because you are content that your father sees in secret and rewards you? Do you give God the secret obedience of prayer? Or do you really only pray on Sundays and once a month during Adult Bible Class? Most importantly, why do you serve in the church? You can do a good thing by setting up gear or doing sound or teaching children or preaching, all the while only hoping that people will notice.
Fifth, we serve by willingly obeying God’s will. In the context, Paul means obeying your masters from the heart. But he speaks about it in terms of obedience to God. True service to others is done out of a desire to obey God. God has a will. He has told us what that will is in the Bible. And we can do that will begrudgingly or we can do that will from the heart—willingly.
E.g., 5:20, “Give thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” That’s God’s will. The mark of a true slave of Christ is saying, “Yes, Lord, I willingly do that from the heart, even if I struggle to do that.” And then it throws itself into obedience. But how often do we harumph about it and eek out a half-hearted, mumbled “thanks”?
Sixth, we serve with a good attitude. This is largely what we just said, but the added nuance is that “good will” is literally “good mind.” How do you think when you serve? That determines your attitude. And it creates a very different kind of service. “I really wish I didn’t have to do this. But, you know, someone has to do it. And since nobody else wants to do it, I guess it falls to me. Again. Probably forever. Oh well. Como sera sera.” Instead, strive for this, “Lord, I love you. You gave your life for me, and you own my soul. You’ve called me to serve this person, and thank you for allowing me to serve you in this way. Let me be satisfied that you see me and not seek the approval that comes from man.”
Seventh, we serve with hope. That is, we serve in the expectation of gracious remuneration. Not repayment, as though we are owed something, but gracious reward for service done in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that reward does not depend on your current status. There are many average church members who will receive more reward in heaven for their faithful, quiet service than many pastors will receive for their multiplication of sermons.
And this helps us to sacrifice for Christ. If we know we are going to get it all back, it frees us to let it go in the first place.
II. Serving Christ in the Position of Receiving Service (6:9)
How do we serve Christ in the position of receiving service?
Here’s the amazing thing about what Paul says, “Masters, do the same to them!” Do you see how Christ levels the playing field when it comes to service? Does that mean that Paul immediately abolishes the convention of slavery? No. But does it mean that the master treats the slave as a brother rather than property? Yes. And that leads to the undoing of slavery itself, like we see in Philemon.
Paul says it a different way in Colossians 4:1, “Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.” Power tends to corruption, and corruption over slaves was expressed in treating them unjustly and unfairly, even in the church. Think about it like this: as soon as the slave and master who have trusted Christ stepped into the church, you were looking at equals. Paul says, you must treat your slaves the same way that you would want your slaves to treat you.
That at least means that all the above also applies to masters. They are to live under the searching knowledge of God. They are to have sincerity of heart. They are to serve as if serving Christ himself. They are to willingly obey God’s will. They are to obey God with a good attitude, and they are to look to the reward they will receive from Christ for the good they do. And so we are to receive the service of others.
But there are three additional instructions Paul would give us:
First, we receive the service of others without threatening. Threatening, for a master, would be coercing obedience through promise of punishment. “If you don’t do this, I will do this to you.” It is the sword of the powerful over the powerless. But Paul says, stop that. Do not threaten. Rather, lead with kindness, generosity, care, fairness, and justice.
It is one thing to lead by threat. It is another to lead by example and by incentive. This is how we (try to) lead you all! We never threaten you (unless God does in his word). Rather, we try to hold out the rewards for obedience to Christ. This is also helpful with parenting. Incentivize obedience rather than threatening punishment—particularly incentivizing a relationship with you. If you make a sound, whole, healthy relationship with you look amazing, then a child will be very slow to want to give that up. And so with employers/managers—what are you doing to serve those who render you service? Do you lead them by threat of punishment or by incentive and generosity?
Second, we receive service knowing that we and the ones serving us have a master in heaven. That is to say, behind every boss stands a bigger boss. “There’s always a bigger fish.” But Jesus is the biggest fish. So, how we then receive the service of a barista making us a cup of coffee, or the employee at work, or the one who serves us at church must be done in the knowledge that we answer to a greater master ourselves. How I respond when that service is shoddy, inappropriate, or half-hearted must be conditioned by the knowledge that Jesus is my master as well. And how does he receive my shoddy, inappropriate, half-hearted service?
Thirdly, we receive service knowing that Jesus does not show us any special favor because of who we are. Being in the position of receiving the service of others constantly tends to get in our head. I can often tell if someone has ever worked in customer service by how they talk to waiters. We can start to think that we’re something special if we’re constantly the center of attention, have so many people working under our supervision, or are compensated above the hoi poloi.
Jesus does not see you that way. He is impartial. Literally, “favoritism is not with him.” It is an emphatic way of saying there is not even a shred of playing favorites with Jesus. Jesus does not care who you are, whether or not you are the boss, how much you get paid, how many people are under you, or any of that. He cares about your heart. Does he have it? Or does your position have it?
Conclusion
We are all slaves of Christ. And we are all called to live as slaves of Christ wherever we are. Whether we are serving others, or we are being served by others, we are called to be a slave of our Lord. For this is the example that he set for us. “Even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
Deuteronomy 10:12, “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”