Ephesians 6:5-9
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction: So the other day we were outside and we live in the country and people around us own cows and cows smell and the wind was in the right direction to inform us that indeed we do live next to a bunch of cows.
Down wind / the boys and I / Suz - nothing (Covid) / Always look on the bright side of life.
Today we are going to look at a passage of Scripture is that downwind of another Scripture.
And some of the application of this text might end up being pretty stinky for some of you, but it actually is the fertile ground from which our human relationship grows best.
We are downwind of a life giving teaching found in Eph. 5:21
21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
The only way you can obey this command is if Jesus is in the dead center of your universe. There is no way on God’s green earth that humans in their normal condition will do this consistently.
And Ephesians 5:21 is down wind of Eph. 5:18 which talks about being under the influence of the Spirit. So if you want to be Spirit filled and Spirit lead, then submit to one another. Being submitted to one another is tricky and nuanced…but we go about finding solutions to our disagreements while our knees are bent in humility and our arms are around each other in unity.
Be Spirit filled by practicing mutual submission in all of your varied relationships. Submit to one another in your relationships you those within the Body of Christ, in the husband wife relationship, in the parent and child relationship and today we will see how this Spirit filled, mutually submitted mentality should play out in the employee and employer relationship.
It doesn’t take much effort to see how sensitive this topic is these days…so let’s pray.
5 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,
7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, 8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.
9 Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.
Textual Idea: Do the will of God at your workplace.
Textual Idea: Do the will of God at your workplace.
There is more to say about this passage than times allows for us today. Just from a surface reading you can see how loaded this passage is with potential life altering application. I have had conversions with at least a dozen of our people over the last few weeks about mandates, and vaccines and all of them are emotionally, spiritually and mentally draining.
William Shakespeare once posed the question, “To be or not to be, that is the question.” Meaning: “To live or not to live.” That is what some people are proverbially and potentially actually facing depending on who you listen to or what your personal life experiences indicate. This is crazy heavy stuff. I have seen the tear filled eyes of grown men look at me as together we were trying to figure out what they were to do in order to honor God at their workplaces.
And on a lighter note, but no less frustrating and dishonoring to the Lord, I have had visibly frustrated employees explain to me, about how absurd their employers expectations have been. And on the other hand I have had employers justifiably explain to me how unproductive or ineffective their employees have been.
We must honor God within the context of these decisions that we must make and with the occupations that God has allowed us to participate in.
We must do the will of God at our various places of work. So there is a TON of stuff to cover and we will only skim the surface today. Sink or swim baby!
FIRST OF ALL LET’S TALK ABOUT THE FIRST WORD IN THE TEXT. {SLAVE OR BONDSERVANT?}
What is the deal the word (slave or bondservant) - which is it? Does that mean the bible condones slavery?
And here we see the difficulty of bible translation. (So we continue to pray for people like Joanna Jansma). We believe in the transmission of the text down through the ages. That means God has preserved His saving message to humanity down through the ages. So now in 2011 when ESV was translated and finished, or any given year after 1865 when slavery was abolished, what are translators to do with the Hebrew word “EBED” or the Greek word, “DOULOS?” These terms that we find in the bible, actually cover a wide range of relationships that require a range of renderings. They can mean either “slave,” “bondservant,” or “servant”—depending on the context, but these words do not have a one to one correlation in the modern world especially after the brutal and dehumanizing subjugation of Africans that was practiced in 19th Century in America.
The ancient practice of being a bondservant to someone does not directly correspond to our experience in the modern world…so what do we do with translation and application because to describe someone in the modern world as a “slave is appropriately unacceptable.
We must back up a bit and realize that in New Testament times, a doulos is often best described as a “bondservant.” Someone bound to serve his master for a specific (usually lengthy) period of time, but also as someone who might nevertheless own property, achieve social advancement, and even be released or able to purchase his freedom. This is a contractual relationship…that is why some have given a subtitle to this section as, “Masters and Servants.” And that is the way I am going to teach this and I believe I am doing it rightly and led by God’s heart.
We looked at that word specifically last week when we talked about our Marching Orders as a church from 2 Cor. 4:5
5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.
In this text Paul says that he is a servant to the Corinthians. He is a (doulos). Paul says he identifies himself as being in a perpetual state of being completely controlled by someone or something that exists outside of himself. He says here that he is —‘subservient to, controlled by the needs of Corinthians.
So with that on our minds, I just want to talk through the text and then will attempt to some some practical pointers after “sermon has ended.” I am actually planning on coming moving away from the pulpit as I attempt to share my perspective on how you might decide to apply the message today.
Employees, do the will of God at your workplace. (Eph. 6:5-8)
Employees, do the will of God at your workplace. (Eph. 6:5-8)
Ephesians 6:5–8 (ESV)
5 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters...
We already defined “bondservant” as someone who is subservient to the authority of another. Many of us are employed and we “make a living” from the generosity of our “employers.” I just want to say, “make a living” is a bad phrase because of Jesus’ teaching in Luke 12:15 where he says:
15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
We all need possessions for our well being and for survival, but we have grown very dependent upon the “abundance” of our possessions. Jesus says, that is not what my followers are all about. But we must gather in summer and store for the winter. Go to the ant you sluggard!!!
Ephesians 6:5–8 (ESV)
5 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ,
Paul raises the stakes here with the next phrase. Engage in this relationship with “fear and trembling.” φόβος and τρόμος. There is a sense of appropriate internal reverence that you should have for those that employ you and there should be appropriate outward expression of that reverence…hence the word: “trembling.”
This is all done with “sincerity.” There is a purity about this type of internal reverence and outward expression. This is to the degree that Paul says we should respond to the initiatives of our employers the way we respond to “Christ.” Whoa! Told you it is heavy. So far there are no “stipulations” to this…it is just plain and simple… “obey” with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ.
Paul then adds more unconditional requirements for us.
Ephesians 6:5–8 (ESV)
5 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,
I think what we see here just pushes the idea further down the line that Paul already brought up about “sincerity.” Don’t just do the bidding of your employer or your boss when their eyes are on you or to win their favor by doing what as been asked of you, do your best even when their eyes aren’t on you. The reason why is because although you are a bondservant to your earthly master, ultimately you are a BONDSERVANT of Christ. Followers of Christ should be the most upstanding, honorable, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers and children, and employees that the boarder society has ever witnessed because we are “redeemed humans.” God has gone to great lengths to make us “new creations” so we should not only “act” like it, but we should actual “be” it…because we actually have been “born again.”
And then here is the kicker in the passage: Paul says that when we do the bidding of our employers we are “doing the will of God.”
There you go…that is loaded with some potential controversial application these days. (We will touch on this later after the message.)
But for right now…when you do the tasks that are clearly laid out in your job description by your employer and you do them, Paul says you are simultaneously doing the “will of God.”
Now…one quick side note…this is making the assumption that the work you are doing is in alignment with the morals that God has established in His Word. I don’t think you can excel at your job in what our modern society calls, “reproductive healthcare” which is a very very skewed way of talking about people who are assisting others in aborting their babies. You can’t do that unto God. You can’t be a crook unto God.
But here Paul blurs the line that we have made between the “sacred” and the “common.” Your vocation, given that it is civil and moral, and in line with God’s intentions for the flourishing of humanity, is “sacred.” So do it unto God and as you serve your boss or your clients, you are doing verse 7-8, which is what Paul gets to next.
Ephesians 6:5–8 (ESV)
5 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, 8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.
Paul says do your job description as to the Lord and you will not only get a paycheck, but you will “receive back from the Lord” some sort of eternal reward for your investment into His Kingdom. This teaching should light a fire under you and excite you to go to work tomorrow morning because the name plate on the door of your boss might be “Mr. Smith,” but Paul says, it is the Lord Christ you are serving.
There is more to say in these three verses, but we have covered the basics of the meaning of your employment, so now let’s look at the solitary and yet loaded with content verse that Paul writes to employers/masters.
9 Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.
Employers do the will of God at your workplace. (Eph. 6:9)
Employers do the will of God at your workplace. (Eph. 6:9)
Ephesians 6:9 (ESV)
9 Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.
Let’s just leave this on the screen and I will make a few comments on the highlighted words.
Masters, do the same to them - so once again we get this idea of “mutual submission.” All that applied to the employee as it relates too sincere, heartfelt, virtuous honorable efforts to do your job description, applies to masters/employers as well.
Including the idea that even though you are Master, you are also under authority, in fact the same authority as your employees. Both of you have the same Master who rules from heaven. He will reward your honorable efforts to be good employers! So employ well!
Employ well (ie. stop threatening) because God is no respecter of persons. The position that you have as being an employer has been given to you by God in the same way He has given those who work for you the positions of being your employees. There is no double standard here…no partiality…just different roles to be fulfilled by different positional players. So do you role to the glory of God!
So all of that is the teaching…now what? Well, now the sermon ends…and with our remaining time, I simply want to point you in the right direction, but you will need to decide where you place each step on the journey. This reminds me of Paul’s teaching in the previous chapter.
15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
So what I hope to do is to show you the the way of the Lord, but you must walk in it they way the indwelling Spirit tells you to walk.
Prayer
In almost every hike that my family and I have been on in the last 9 months, each path has multiple ways of navigating its course. there is no one size fits all. Each path is contextualize in how it is navigated based on the unique skills, tools and abilities that each member of my family has on them at any given time. On any given path, sometimes one family member uses a hiking pole, some crab walk down an embankment, some use a stick or reach out for a branch to help steady them. Some times…one says, “Dad carry me!” The point is, is that we are all on the same path but we all navigate it differently depending on how we are lead and what we feel most comfortable with. Some have long legs some have short legs some have tired legs and each person in my family needs to decide how to best go about arriving at the same destination on the same path in a different way. Does that make sense?
So I will show you the path, but you must decide how you will navigate it. The only rule is that no one can just give up and say their legs are tired and ask the the pastor to carry them! The following is kind of a choose your own adventure book…do you remember those. If you choose option A then turn to page 10 and see what fortune awaits you. If you choose option B turn the page 87 and get eaten by a dragon.
I don’t want any of this to be reckless advice so if any part of this seems unclear or off to you, please come talk with me. Do not consider anything I say from this point forward as a direct message from the Lord to you, I’m not speaking this with pastoral authority or with the “thus saith the Lord” authority. These are just personal pointers that I would like to direct you in.
Here are some Q. and R. - each word must be listened to very carefully from this point forward.
Q. I agree the teaching is clear, but what if one side is not doing what they are supposed to do?
Q. I agree the teaching is clear, but what if one side is not doing what they are supposed to do?
R. Would you expect anything different?
One partner not doing what they are supposed to is expected in this fallen world, that is why Paul was compelled to write this in the first place. Paul wrote this to instruct the Ephesians. The purpose of instruction is to help you along in something that you are not very good at. So, we should expect conflict and strife in these matters.
Q. What if my employer mandates that I get vaccinated even though it is not part of my “job description?”
Q. What if my employer mandates that I get vaccinated even though it is not part of my “job description?”
We talked earlier that when you do your job description that has been given to you by your employer, you are doing the “will of God,” but what if I required to do something that is not part of my “job description” that I may or may not consider ethical or moral like getting a vaccine?
R1. If you have diligently gathered information about the vaccines that are available and have prayerfully considered their use without leaning on your own understanding, but having acknowledged Him in all your ways and have come to the conclusion that their use is morally and ethically acceptable, then go for it.
R2. If you have diligently gathered information about the vaccines that are available and have prayerfully considered their use without leaning on your own understanding, but having acknowledged Him in all your ways and have come to the conclusion that their use is morally and ethically unacceptable, then use every means at your disposal that is God honoring to oppose what is being asked of you and be willing to accept the consequences of your decisions as you express tangible trust in God.
Q. What actions might be God honoring?
Q. What actions might be God honoring?
R1. Actions based in deception are not God honoring. Jesus said that Satan is the “Father of all lies.” So, if you are tempted to lie in order to gain an advantage don’t…you know where that is coming from. If you don’t have a “religious” reason for exemption for the use of masks or vaccines then don’t throw away you integrity in order to procure one. In Hebrews 10:34 the early Christians were said to have, “joyfully accept the plundering of their property because they new they had a better and abiding possession.” They maintained their integrity even in the midst of severe persecution. They didn’t throw away their confidence…because they recognized it had a great reward. The reward in Hebrews 10 was the new and living way that had been opened for them by Jesus allowing them access into the throne room of God even though they were not worthy on their own to be there because of their lawbreaking. But never-the-less they still had access because of the merits of the One who was sinless…so don’t throw that confidence away, by deliberately engaging in acts of deceit. So what can I do?
R2. Sign a petition asking your employer to relax a mandate.
R3. Join an informal or formal protest making your perspective heard.
R4. Maybe, apply for a religious exemption. But make sure it is honest.
R5. Make preparations now for yourself and for your dependents for your inevitable firing because of your God given convictions.
I believe that God’s will for your life is not a dot on a map…God can and will provide for you in whatever occupation you may decide to take up next. Now your lifestyle might change. For some of you that actually might be good. But I want to be very cautious with this counsel. This is not applicational for you if you fail to talk with your spouse or your relatives, or your elders who love and care for you and other brothers and sisters in Christ who might know you a lot better than I know you. So talk with them because Proverbs 11:14
14 Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.
Do not make this decision on your own.
So let’s say you explore every option and every option proves to be fruitless. And let’s say you have truthful conversations with all the appropriate people and you collectively think you should not get cave in and your convictions inform you that you must make a decision that results in you getting fired.
It is helpful to realize that your job is a voluntary relationship, not an involuntary one. The difference in these relationship hinges on the ability of choice.
Look if your employers mandate that you get a vaccine or you will be fired…you have a choice as to whether or not you work for that employer anymore. It is no doubt a hard choice with many life altering ramifications, most of which will be frustrating and potentially detrimental to you and those under your care and responsibility, but never-the-less there is a choice.
An involuntary relationship is the one you have with your parents. Or when you are paired up with someone in your class to do a group project by your teacher who has authority over both of you. You didn’t choose this fate…it was chosen for you by someone that you am submitted to.
Q. What if I am an employer and I have been mandated to require masks or vaccines, or endless testing of my employees and I don’t want too?
Q. What if I am an employer and I have been mandated to require masks or vaccines, or endless testing of my employees and I don’t want too?
R1. This is a horrible situation to be in. You are in between a rock and a hard place. When the rock is a coercive mandate that is being laid on you, and the hard place is the implementation of that mandate that will certainly impact the livelihoods of those you employ, nobody wants to be you. If that is you, even though you might not have known it, I have been weeping for you this week as I have considered your situation. I am so, so sorry for the dilemma you are in.
Dilemma is a very carefully chosen word because in a sense you bear a higher ethical and moral responsibility with your actions. To him who has been given much, much is required. You are called to honor those in authority over you and you are responsible for those under your employ. You are in a dilemma.
A dilemma is a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives, especially equally undesirable ones. Some of you are saying, yup…that’s were I am!
So, let’s think about dilemmas for a moment.
Judas Iscariot was in a dilemma. He kissed the face of Jesus and He sold out and caved in and later on was overwhelmed with regret and took his own life.
Pilate was in a dilemma, he knew of Jesus’ innocent and found no fault in him. He was even warned by his wife and yet He washed his hands and handed Jesus over…and he was guilty of bloodshed.
So maybe the message you need to hear today is to make sure that you don’t do anything that you may regret or that may make you guilty of bloodshed.
I also want to remind you of another dilemma. It’s the one Jesus was in when He was stuck between a rock and a hard place. The Rock was the providential plans of His Father that would lead Him into the hard place called Golgotha.
He was damned if He did and we were damned if He didn’t. But He entrusted himself to the will of His Father and was lead like a lamb to the slaughter and actually was slaughtered for us.
Abrahams knife stopped short of Isaac, but God’s wrath was poured out in full on his beloved Son and by His wounds we are healed. His piercing for our transgressions, opened up a new a living way for us, which confirms the thoughts of the prophet Isaiah that not only CAN beauty rise from the ashes, but that it certainly WILL rise from the ashes.
If everything is vanity under the sun, then your job is to somehow set your heart and affection on something over the sun and then let that be your source of strength while you deliberate on what to do. And as you go through the painstaking process of attempting to discern what the Lord would have you do, tease this thought out in your mind.
The “coercive mandate,” ie. the rock mentioned at the beginning of this section, is indeed God’s providential rock. And the “hard place,” ie. the ramifications of the implementation of the providential rock is also God’s providential hard place…so rest assured you are in the middle of God’s providential plans…and that is very hard and yet a very good place to be as well because He has promised never to leave or forsake you…even if you walk through the valley of the shadow of death…you can fear no evil because He is with you and HIs providential rod and His providential staff can comfort you. So although you are in a dilemma, and no one wants to be you, there is not doubt in my mind that my theology tells me it is a God given dilemma. So go with the secure knowledge that one of the names of our Savior is Emmanuel, which means God with us and He certainly is.
R2. Remind yourself of the amazing gift that has been given to us, not by the constitute, but by God actually breathing into the nostrils of our first father Adam making him a free, moral agent that has the ability to choose. That has been passed on to you as well.
Q. If I get fired, how will I provide for my family?
Q. If I get fired, how will I provide for my family?
R1. You won’t, that is God’s responsibility. Phil. 4:19
19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
God can be very creative for how He provides His people with food. Ask Peter after he fished all night and caught nothing. Ask the over 5000 men who were gathered and were hungry. If you don’t believe them ask the 4000 that gathered at a later date. If you don’t believe any of them maybe ask the ancient Israelites that saw daily provision of bread for 40 years when they wandered in the wilderness. God even made water pour out of a rock when Moses spoke to it! Or ask the disciples who plucked heads of grain on the Sabbath at the urging of Jesus and to the dismay of the Pharisees. Or, ask David when he ate the showbread. Or ask Elijah when the ravens pretended to be waitstaff at an up and coming restaurant named the Kerith Ravine. God creatively supplying your needs isn’t out of the realm of His possibilities. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. God is bound to His very own words and in Psalm 81:10 through the pen of Asaph, God confidently declares,
10 I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
If you still are not convinced, ask Jesus who said John 6:35
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
All this to say…if your hungry don’t grab a snickers. Cling to the Christ and see how he creatively provides.
Q. Why should I get fired from the job I love, went to school for, am good at and have worked hard to advance in?
Q. Why should I get fired from the job I love, went to school for, am good at and have worked hard to advance in?
R1. You don’t have to, you have a choice.
R2. Doing what you love and loving what you do is more of a mindset than anything. Ultimately we are to set our minds on things above and not on things of this earth. Some of us may need to repent and ask the Lord, in whom we live and move and have our being, to wean us off the nourishment that we have received that hasn’t been him all along: things like our creature comforts, our constitutional freedoms, our jobs, our comfortable life style… etc.? Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we must ultimately trust in the name of the Lord our God because our citizenship is in heaven first. And that is really good news because the whole argument of the book of Hebrews is how Jesus is much superior than everything else in the created universe. He is better than all that is seen and unseen.
So, if we love him ultimately, we can do what you love and love what you do. Appreciate your job for what it is, it is a job not your life. It is not what we are to find our identity in. It might be the way you provide for you people, but it is not your wellspring of life. Your provision comes from the Lord who has allowed you to work.
It is work. If it seems like toil it is because it is!!! Every time we groan at work because of a task being accompanied with difficulty we should here the clear call of Genesis 3 that tells us that God is indeed a truth teller. Thorns and thistles were promised and they are real. So don’t be surprised when you prick your finger. When you prick your finger, acknowledge the hurt, but also acknowledge the truth that this is the way God said it would unfold… that is until Isaiah 65 becomes our reality when the prophet foretold of a time when in the coming Kingdom “our labors won’t be in vain” and there is even talk of lions laying with lambs.
And now one final question, but instead of me offering a response, I want to step back into the pulpit so I can offer not a response but a rock solid answer with all the pastoral authority God has granted me.
Q. Can I really trust God with all of this?
Q. Can I really trust God with all of this?
A. Yes.
In fact that is all we can do. We have to trust God. We make the best decision that we know how to make and then leave the outcome to God.
Hopefully you have not heard my voice, but somehow discerned the voice of the Lord. If you haven’t there is still time especially as it relates to the most important truth of your life as we take in our hands elements that were given to us by Jesus Himself to remind us of what He has done for us when we where were in a dilemma with God because of our sin. Jesus is the true bread that came down from heaven and we can feed on Him while we are in our wilderness until we can eat and drink with Him when His kingdom comes in its fullness. He can even rescue us from our grumbling as He takes the dilemma out of our hands and proverbially places His body and blood in our hands today and says to us,
“This is my body and this is my blood. Eat and drink and do this in remembrance of me.” For I will not eat of it “until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.” And we say, Amen…come Lord Jesus.
Let’s pray
Strife and difficulties are expected in the employee/employer relationship. Has that been your experience?
What common struggles do you think employers have with their employees?
What common struggles do you think employees have with their employers?
Paul says to the degree that we respond to Christ as His followers, is the degree to which we are to respond our employers. Tease this thought out a bit. (Eph. 6:5)
Have you ever been tempted to cut corners when you boss isn’t looking?
Eph. 6:6 indicates that when you do your “job description” supplied by your employer, you are doing the “will of God.” Tease this thought out a bit.
Eph. 6:7 indicates that that name plate on your bosses door might say, “Mr. Smith,” but it really is the Lord Jesus Christ you are serving. How can this truth change your efforts in your workplace?
Eph. 6:9 indicates that God is impartial. There is no double standard with God…so employers should do their role unto God, while employees do their role unto God. What happens when one isn’t doing their respective roles well? That is a good question…talk it out with some trusted friends, elders, pastors…and plead with God for His direction.