- Hello, everyone. This is lesson 22 through our inductive study through the Book of Ephesians. That's a lot of weeks and we're still excited to go through our last chapter, chapter 6. We are essentially then on the tail end of the study. There are so many practical applications and important truths for us to apply.

We're praying for a lot of fruitfulness, especially as it relates to our home lives and the relationships that we have. Before we jump in, let's pray and ask for the Lord's blessing on our time. Lord, we thank you, God, for your grace. Father, we pray that all the truths that we learn, we will take the step, the necessary step to examine our private lives through it.

Especially, Lord, and even the comforts of our own home in the daily experiences and the relationships that we have. In those contexts, Lord, help us to live out your truth. Particularly, Father God, with the empowerment and strength of your spirit, help us to know what it means to serve the needs of others, to submit ourselves to the good of those around us.

Ultimately, seeking, Father God, that people all around us will come to a saving knowledge of you. And we pray, Father God, that by us living in faith, you would magnify yourself. Lord, we thank you so much for your truth tonight, and pray, God, that again, you would use it in our lives in a mighty way.

We thank you in Christ's name, amen. Okay. Well, let's take a look at chapter 6, verses 1 through 9. And I'm reading out of the NASB, and it says here, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment, with a promise, so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth.

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, and the sincerity of your heart as to Christ, not by way of eye service as men pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.

With goodwill, render service as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free. And masters, do the same things to them and give up threatening, knowing that both their master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with him." Okay.

So, as we take a look at this passage, it does this categorical, you know, places in people's lives, and there's a theme, obviously, within the various commandments that he gives. So, if we recall back in chapter 5, verses 20 and through 21, Apostle Paul said, "Always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, to God, even the Father, and to be subject to one another in the fear of Christ." The reason why I included verse 20 is because there is a sentiment that everything you are doing, you're supposed to be doing it with thankfulness in your heart and in the name of the Lord, right?

In Christ is the realm in which you are supposed to be living your life. And that, he connects it to being subject to one another in the fear of Christ. So, in you living your life in the context of Christ, there should be an empowerment that now you're able to be subject to one another through your own relationship with Christ.

And so, as an application of that, we learn, starting from verse 22 of chapter 5, that wives ought to give submission to your husbands, just as you would give submission to Christ. And then the husbands, I phrased it this way, you're supposed to be submitting essentially to the example of Christ, just as he gave us that example, okay?

He gave us this example to love for the benefit in a sacrificial manner for his church. And likewise, then, for the husband is called to submit to that role. As a head of the home, as a head of the wife, he is to be seeking her good, her spiritual good.

And then here now, we have then categorical exhortations that that application of the submit to one another should also happen within the relationship between child and father, and then slave and master, okay? So, that's what we're studying tonight. And so, the first portion of it, starting from verse 1 through 3, we have here the scripture saying, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.

Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, so that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth." Okay. So, as we take a look at that, the commandments I've highlighted for you there in purple, and it is this idea that we ought to obey the parents and honor the father and mother, right?

So, essentially, when we think about children, I mean, it's no like news and something, I guess, novel and brand new to us to say that children should learn how to respect authority, okay? But sometimes, I think that a lot of people expect people to learn that or children to learn that when they play sports, when they get involved in organized activities, or at school.

But the idea here is they should be learning that initially through their relationship with their parents, right? So, as we think about this, I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time, but we do want to make mention of this fact that there should be in the relationship between child and parent a respect for authority and obedience, okay?

Now, one of the things that will be of good question, or at least something of an applicational question, for a lot of people will understand, okay, if you're an underage, right, under 18 years old, then of course, you're supposed to obey your parents. But I think for a lot of people, the question comes down to what about when you're an adult, okay?

Adult child, are you supposed to be obeying your parents in everything? What if you're married and you actually are now the man of your own household? Are you supposed to be obeying your parents? Doesn't the scripture say that husband and wife should leave and cleave? Essentially, for this reason, a man should leave his mother and father.

And essentially, the line of authority has changed. So, all that is true. What I'd like to say about that is, notice how it's not just simply that you should obey no matter what, without qualification, in everything, through the rest of your life, to your parents. But actually, the commandment has to do a lot with also the honor and the respect due to father and mother, okay?

So, one of the things that I would like to highlight is that within the context of child and parent, there should nevertheless be what I like to call the open ear, okay? The open ear. Because let's take a moment to acknowledge the fact that since we were children, to our parents, we were disobedient.

And when we are children, a lot of times, what we give them is the closed ear. What I mean is, when we're little kids, we have to almost be forced to open our ears, right? When our parents call our name, we push the envelope and we try to test the waters on how many times we can ignore them before they get upset.

When we're teenagers, how many times were we just simply upset, not because they told us to do something horrendous. They didn't ask us necessarily to sin. They didn't try to harm us, but we just didn't like them telling us what to do. Because why? Because we're an adult now, right?

Respect me, right? We just don't like people telling us what to do. And what's really interesting about all this is there's a passage I would like to read for you in 2 Corinthians 3, verses 1 through 6. Okay, 2 Corinthians 3, verses 1 through 6. I don't have this on the PowerPoint, but you can take a moment to look at that.

And it says, "Understand this, that in the last day, there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.

Avoid such people." Okay. When you think about this, the general sentiment and tide of the day is going to be an absolute callous and closed heart. They'll be so set in their own way, in their own arrogance, and so stubborn, they're not going to open their ears. And so, in that kind of discussion, I want to say, for us, the contrary, or at least in Christ, how we would look different is that, yes, even if, let's say, you grew up with pretty horrible parents.

Let's say your parents aren't godly, like their character isn't respectable. But nevertheless, would you still give them an open ear to hear them out, to try your best to at least learn? Let's say they give you nothing but earthly wisdom. Would you still learn that earthly wisdom from them?

Or would you just say, "I'm the man now, I'm older, and you need to listen to me." Because I don't think we necessarily need to win that battle. Now, clearly, there are parameters. Clearly, there are exceptions to when you wouldn't be listening to your parents, because that earthly wisdom is completely in contrast, in conflict with biblical wisdom.

But nevertheless, are you showing them honor and respect, even as an adult? Because that should be the case. Here's another important just inductive study kind of question, is notice how it says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord." And I want to pose to you several questions here. What does this "in the Lord" mean?

You know, what's really interesting is I was reading kind of commentaries. And one commentary tried to just give all the options, like possible options, the way that you can interpret it. And I thought that was kind of interesting. So I copied some of those things down here. Does the "in the Lord" just mean parameters?

Like so long as the instruction is biblical, then you can obey. Does it actually more so mean the source of your power? Like obey your parents, because I know it's hard, but do it in the Lord, because He's going to empower you. Okay? Or does it simply mean the character of the parents?

Like obey your parents who are in the Lord. Obey your parents who are a Christian. Or does this generally mean the context of your life? That in the power of Christ, in your living for His glory in the Lord, you're obeying your parents. And that's the way that I would like to think of it.

Because the idea is as you live your life in the Lord, a practical ramification of you living your life in the Lord is going to be an ability, a motivation to give respect, honor, and obedience because of the way God has made things. Because of your ability to submit and obey Christ, and that kind of obedient heart is in you, and you're living in the power of Christ and for His glory, you're going to be able to do that.

Okay. Now, what's really interesting as we keep looking at this portion of the text is that this "in the Lord," obeying your parents in the Lord and honoring your father and mother has a rationale to it. Okay. For example, I put some brackets for you there. It says, "For this is right." And what's more, this commandment is the first with a promise.

Verse three, "So that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth." Okay. Now, when you take a look at this passage, then the rationales can be summarized into two statements, which is essentially number one, the standard of God says this is right.

It's a standard and expectation of the way God has created things. God has created a relationship with Father and Son. And I believe everything in this life, the physical world that God has created, He uses to show us the spiritual realities. This world, those shadows, the examples are either tainted, lacking, and sometimes perverted.

But nevertheless, in its original intent, God has desired that to show His glory and the realities of the spiritual life, which is our relationship with the Father. What's more, He talks about how this is for your good. So right here, Apostle Paul applies the good inductive study methods, which is to observe, "Hey, did you observe that this is one of the first commandments with a promise to you among the 10 commandments in the list of 10?" Remember how the first section goes up to the Lord and your dealings with God and the second has your dealings horizontally.

And of the first, it says, "You need to obey your parents because this is going to be well for you." So essentially, this is not only the standard of God, but this is for your own blessing. Okay? This is to your own blessing. And this to me, again, points to the gracious, provisional nature of God.

Like God is ultimate Father who has laid down provisions for His people that as children are raised up, they're under the protection of the parents in their realm. And as they abide in that, that is to them their blessing. And so again, in the original intent of God and how He has structured things, that is to our good.

And the people who want to say, "You know what, Freak? I don't like people telling me what to do. I'm my own man. I don't need parents. I don't need this." I mean, in the end, again, we read 2 Timothy 3 when it started talking about this day and age, that kind of radical independence, that kind of arrogant thinking is contrary to the creative order of God.

Okay? All right. So there's a lot for you guys to think through there. I didn't answer necessarily everything, but at least we started looking through the command. Okay? And then we started looking through the parameters or at least in Christ. And then we looked at the rationale. And what we're going to see is that that pattern repeats itself multiple times throughout this section.

Next, going to the fathers. Okay? Going to the fathers. It says here, to the fathers, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." Okay? So here, it particularly speaks to fathers, but obviously, it's not saying like, "You know, moms, just do whatever you want.

Anger them and then provoke them as much as you want." All parenting includes in this. And one of the things I just want to mention is I really like the author, Paul Tripp, when it comes to parenting. And he has a lot of great books, like multiple books when it comes to that.

Now, here, in our observation of this text, what's really interesting to me is he kind of highlights, Apostle Paul highlights, you know, the scriptures highlight here one perhaps tendency that has happened a lot. Okay? And so there's a negative command that says, "Do not provoke your children to anger." Okay?

And so when we look at that, we realize, "Hey, there is a pattern where parents, perhaps in their use of the authority that God has vested into them above their children, this can also go sour to the irritation, frustration, and anger of the children." Okay? And so we'd have to start kind of thinking, "What are some of the things, what are some of our habits that anger children?

What are some of those things that we're doing? What are ways that parents really set people off?" And you could even just kind of imagine your own upbringing, you know? Again, not to like dig up old wounds, but you can just start thinking about your own past, like, "Huh, what were things that caused anger?" And the reason why, even if you're single, even if you don't have kids yet, all that kind of stuff, you should be thinking about this is because you realize that when you are placed in a scenario where you now have vested authority and you have a lot of authority, I mean, think about how much authority is vested and entrusted to the parent by God.

It's a lot. The whole realm of care, instruction, raising up and discipling, it's in the authority and responsibility of the parent. And so as you think about that, we as sinners, when we are given that amount of authority, we have a tendency to go astray with it. We have a tendency to pervert it.

So when I think about it, some of the top things that come to mind typically is that the mom is absolutely over-controlling and that the dad is absent. This has been kind of like the tendency throughout history, right? The father is at work, a bit absent and out of the lives of the children.

The mother, in her desire to nurture and care, now all of a sudden becomes smothering, over-controlling, has incredible unrealistic expectations for the children. And so as a challenge to every single one of us, I mean, to which tendency do you let? When you're given a certain authority, do you smother?

Do you become overly restrictive? Don't do this, don't do that. I mean, you think about sometimes, you know, these terminologies like tiger moms and helicopter moms and da-da-da-da-da, right? These stereotypes exist because these are common experiences that a lot of people can attest to. But the fact of the matter is we all can do this.

I mean, the other day I was just laughing at myself because I was like telling my sons like eat this, eat that, like something fell off their plate, just eat it. And then, I mean, I just kind of stopped myself because am I going to be that guy, that parent that has to point to what you specifically eat on your plate in that moment?

I mean, I just kind of stopped myself. And sometimes, yeah, that could be necessary, but I have to at least kind of like check myself, right? But on the other flip side, do I have a temptation to be non-involved because I'm tired, because I have enough to care for on my own, because we're busy?

Oh, yeah. Because sometimes trying to engage another person and try to like pull conversation out of them is even harder mental work than just going and mowing the lawn or something like that, right? Do we have the temptation to neglect important people in our lives? And the answer is absolutely yes.

But there's more. And again, I'm not going to spend a crazy amount of time, but there are a lot of things that we can do. Through the Bible, there are things that are shown to us. People have always used manipulation strategies to get what they want. Sometimes parents do it.

Threats. I'm about to get angry. Don't make Appa angry, right? Sometimes we say, "You know what you always do? You always push my buttons, right? You can do immature things to our children sometimes. Sometimes we use strange consequences and reward systems. Parents, please do not bargain with your children, right?

You need to set a kind of like, "This is what the Lord expects from you. God has placed me as responsible over you." Those are things that you need to communicate. Scripture has shown us that playing favorites is the worst, whether it be Jacob and Esau, whether it be this person and that person with King David.

You have a lot of different things. Sometimes what frustrates children the most is that kind of comparing of one child to another. Parents who play this favoritism generally lead the children to fight, compete, and it just exacerbates the situation. Do we abuse the authority that we've been given? Again, I don't want to necessarily spend too much time on that, but you guys don't know what I'm talking about is when we sometimes have that responsibility, we can end up doing all sorts of things to try to exercise authority.

Sometimes rather than actually exercising the authority that God has given us, we turn to human wisdom and the challenge for us to make sure that we don't do the opposite of what we're trying to do, which is essentially just enrage somebody rather than following us. The positive portion of this, Scripture says, is that we need to be bringing them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Here's a passage from 2 Timothy 3:10-17. Now just by way of context, remember 2 Timothy 3:1 started off by saying, "In the latter's days it's going to be horrible. We're going to find all kinds of rebellion, disobedience, thanklessness, hard hearts, arrogance, and all kinds of vile things. What are we going to do?" You know sometimes when I talk to other parents, it's like, "Oh my goodness, I feel sorry for the next generation.

I am so worried and so concerned for the next generation. What kind of world are our children going to grow up in?" In one sense, that is a legitimate concern because Scripture says things will go from bad to worse. Well here essentially is part answer to that. What's interesting is starting from verse 10, Paul says to Timothy, "Now you followed my teaching, conduct, as example, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, and sufferings such as happened to me at Antioch, and Iconium, and at Lystra.

What persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. You however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching. Parents, your job is to teach. For reproof, parents, your job is to reprove. For correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, sorry, adequate, equipped for every good work." Think about this passage. The Word of God is sufficient for every generation.

God's been for 2,000 years and more, many thousand years, will be for years to come. For our children, I try to make sure that I'm trying to connect them. When I want them to correct their behavior, I try to always instill with them, this is what God expects of you.

I want God to bother their conscience. Even if it's they're just fighting for some toy, I don't sit there and say, "What are you doing?" Right? "You're making me mad. Just knock it off. You're making me mad." Right? I say, "Hey, you think God's proud of you? So you got all the Legos in your bucket.

You think God's just saying, 'Wow, good job.'" No, no, God expects of you to take care of your brother to a degree and to feel what it feels like to know that to give is better than to receive. You care for your brother so much, you're willing to say, "You know what?

I've got this thing. Do you want to play with it?" This is a small little example, but we need to be regularly impressing upon the children the expectations of God and what is pleasing to Him and not pleasing to Him. Because we have to bear upon the children the wisdom of God.

You know what's really interesting? This passage, when it tells us that we have to be disciplining and instructing the children, the idea for instruction is a word, "nuthesia," where essentially it's the idea of putting into someone's mind. It's a correction of their thinking. And one of the things that I've heard, which was so helpful to me, is whenever you're trying to show someone how to make a decision, you have to show them the wisdom behind that.

You have to show them how they got to that decision. And that to me has been really, really valuable in terms of how I'm trying to instruct and guide our children. Okay. Moving forward. Number three. To the slaves. It says here, "Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart as to Christ, not by way of eye service as men pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.

With good will, render service as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatever good things each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free." Now, this is kind of difficult, right? Given the current day sentiment, any talk of slavery might be just like, "That was the most heinous thing.

That's an unspeakable topic." And this passage perhaps for a lot of people, they might feel like, "Let's pass on this one," right? Because essentially it is calling slaves to be more obedient than they are. Right? It doesn't say, "Put your foot down and rebel." It says, "Be even more obedient from the heart." That's a pretty incredible command.

And I believe that this is important for us to think through. How can Apostle Paul write this to slaves? The fact of the matter is, it comes with the authority of God. As we think about this, we ask the question, I just highlighted slaves there. And yes, when we ask the question, "Who are these slaves?" And is there any kind of corollary today and application to us?

There is. First and foremost, slaves are in fact what we're thinking in terms of people who are deemed as property. Throughout mankind's history, I mean, think about this. Early on, even in the book of Genesis, famous characters like Joseph, what was he sold as? A slave. Slavery existed for so long because there was absolute perversion in the heart of man.

And the crazy part of it is, throughout mankind's history, human beings were sold, traded, and sometimes thrown away. Does this passage condone what we're thinking then of slavery? And the answer is no. The answer is no. See, scripture in the Old Testament has many, many laws related to how to deal with those who are outsiders, prisoners of war, slaves and servants.

And what's very incredible is the scriptures, when we think about sometimes the Old Testament, some people think like, "Yeah, the word of God is in the Old Testament is like wrath." Actually, the word of God and the laws of God were merciful. It included things like years of jubilee.

It included things like periodic rest. It included things like when you harvest, consider the lowly. And it's particularly for slaves, did you know that in the Old Testament law, Israelites could not sell off one of their own. You cannot kidnap somebody. There were laws that talked about how an individual who is willing to subject themselves to another, let's say someone who's more powerful, there is an essentially kind of like an indentured servanthood.

There are rules for periodic times when you allow slaves to be freed. There are rules concerning the marriages of slaves. There are rules concerning protection and asylum for slaves who ran away. There are rules related to slaves who loved their master and voluntarily committed himself. There were lots of rules that did what?

Protect them. The word of God protected them. Essentially even here you can see, yes, the word of God tells a slave to be obedient, but what comes next is telling masters, masters to regard the slaves with honor. So what's very interesting is that in the spectrum of God, there is this incredible power in the gospel, incredible power in the realities of the relationship that God can produce where a slave can be obedient and render service even to a greater degree.

Now I want to ask you this really interesting question, which is this, can a godly master and slave relationship actually exist? And what's incredible about that is the obvious answer is yes, it can. You see, what man perverts, what man continues to cause to become sour through his greed in the heart and turn into oppression, turn into abuse, turn into taking advantage of, turn into harm.

God is able to redeem even that relationship. So let's take a look at the commands here. Scripture here commands a slave to be obedient to those who are your earthly masters according to the flesh. And verse seven it says, "With good will, render service as to the Lord." So what's really incredible here is Apostle Paul commands that the attitude behind the individual who is subservient would be obedient and with an intentional heart attitude desiring to serve.

And so one of the things that we want to notice here is that the whole passage here related to slaves has so much to do with attitude of the heart. What I did was all I did was just list out from those two commands, the various portions that describe the condition of the heart behind obedience and service.

And what he says is, let's take a moment just to filter through some of these things. He says that the slave should be obedient with fear and trembling. Now by way of corollary to us, still to this day we have employer-employee relationships. We have relationships where somebody is dictating to you what you need to do with your time and your resources, your intellect and your skill at this moment and you're going to get paid for it.

Basically they are giving you their agenda for you to accomplish. They have authority. And within this he says, show fear and trembling. So my question is even for us, again, drawing that line and relating to this, are you showing respect and honor to your employers in your office? So many times we are tempted to see the deficiencies of our bosses and call them like, "Oh, that incompetent, that naive, that idiot, I should be in that position," whatever it may be.

And one of the toughest things that's going to happen is with humility and respect to somebody who doesn't necessarily deserve that kind of honor, we give it. We give the respect. Why? Because Christ in his mastery over us, he deserves our respectful character. What's more he says, in the sincerity of your heart.

So one, if we can summarize, the attitude of the heart that Christ desires from us is a respect, but also the attitude of the heart that Christ desires is sincerity, meaning there should be pure intentions. When we're talking about sincerity, how are you to be sincere? It's like, "Oh, I really mean it." Like is that sincerity?

Or is it more so talking about you sincerely desire the good? You sincerely want what's best for them. You sincerely want what's best for the company. And that is something that Christians can shine in. When you care for your boss and you want your boss to do well, that kind of sincere intentionality for your boss will shine.

Because why? Because the wisdom of the world says, "I'm number one. I care whether I'm going to succeed, or I'm going to get credit for the work I put in, where I'm going to be respected, where I'm not going to be taken advantage of." But no, our heart and care for them says, "I'm going to make sure I think about that even for you." And therefore, you show the sincerity of your heart.

So within this, he says, "So not by way of eye service and as pleasers of men." So asking you, do you fake like you're being really productive at work? Like 50% of the time you're on Facebook and watching YouTube, and then whenever the boss walks by, it's like, "Oh, tab over." Are those the kind of things that we're doing?

Or are we actually desiring to be intentionally serving well? The passage tells us that as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, that there is this motivation. There is this internal desire and intent to do good and render service. So that's what I mean, those two categories of respect and pure intentions for you.

Are you exhibiting that in your work? The next part of it, he gives us this rationale. It says, "Knowing that whatever good things each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free." When we read verse eight, we ask the question in meditate, what is the rationale?

When it says that you're supposed to keep this in mind when you go to work, what are you supposed to keep in mind? You're supposed to know, and you should have inside your head that, "Yes, I am getting paid a wage, a salary, or maybe whatever it may be, the benefits I receive." But you should have in mind, "Ultimately, I get my reward from my master." That every good thing I do in this workplace and every good thing I do within my day, none of that is in vain, even if I don't get a single applause or a single credit for it.

Why? Because by faith I know Christ is my master. Because by faith I can look up and say, "I'm serving you." That should be in the back of our minds. And so when that happens, I believe Christians should be some of the most motivated workers. We should be the one.

I mean, every job description says, "We want to look for a self-starter." You should be the self-starter. Why? Because you have internally a master and a Lord and already a reward set for you. You've been paid. You should have this productiveness built into your system. And when you think about the, you know, just, again, sometimes we drag our, again, we're tired.

Sometimes things aren't going well. Sometimes things aren't efficient at work. But when we show up, we should have this mentality of like, "I want to serve my Lord. I want to do the best that I can." Why? Because He's both watching, but this is for His glory. And so when it comes to this mentality, we have to really make sure that we are shining in that fashion.

Now, one of the things I want to highlight for you is in relation to all of this, I think this passage to me was kind of like a, "Wow, like I still want to meditate on it," is a passage in 1 Corinthians 7, verse 21 through 23. Okay? So take a moment to turn there, 1 Corinthians 7, 21 through 23.

And the passage says, "Were you called while a slave? Don't worry about it. But if you are able also to become free, rather do that. For he who was called in the Lord while slave is the Lord's freed man. Likewise, he who was called while free is Christ's slave.

You were bought with a price. Do not become slaves of men." I kind of think about that and meditate. You know, like we're right now talking about sincerity of heart, motivation, the drive. And I'm kind of thinking like, "Yeah, but at the same time," like immediately my head goes to, "Yeah, but at the same time, you don't want to be a fool.

You don't want to be just run over and taken advantage of at work." And that's actually all true. You have to be really wise in the way that you carry yourself because some things are just not just. Okay? Some things are just truly not fair. Like it's not right.

And you should be speaking truth and love. Okay? But at the same time, you think about this passage where it's like to the slave, he says, "Were you a slave? Don't let it trouble you." Right? Whoa. Okay? The slave is not getting any income. The slave is not getting anything except you get to live in this house.

That's it. You may not even be living in the main house. Okay? So when you think about that, it's like the contrast. God gave the slave a command that you need to still be godly in your circumstance. Why? Because in the gospel of Christ, you have been free to the degree that in Christ, though you're a slave, you're a freed man.

So don't subject yourself like, "No, no, no. I still need to be paid by that guy." Why are you putting yourself underneath that man? You're a freed man in Christ. I mean, if you take a moment just to meditate on that, like the gospel frees us from any contractual, like any dependency that I have, any desire for myself to want to be in this like contractual, I need the benefit from the people that I'm interacting with.

I'm freed from all that. Why? Because the gospel frees us not just from oppression, not just from injustices. The gospel frees us from this entire world, this fallen, broken, decaying world. Okay. So in the next part of it, the last portion, here it says to the masters, "Do the same things to them and give up threatening, knowing that both their master and yours is in heaven and there is no partiality with him." Notice how the passage says, "Do the same thing." And you should be asking like, "Whoa, that's crazy." Because he just told the slave to obey and then to render service.

Those are the two commands. Now is it the same way to the masters then? I think what he's talking about is when we become saved in Christ, our desire now becomes to honor all that is vested in through God. People are made in the image of God. And so in the book of James, it says, "Don't you dare use your words to curse, to curse those who are made in the image of God." The individual being made by God vests value in that person.

And that person's identity then is held by God's creation. And therefore, we give respect. And so even masters who have the authority, even masters who have greater power and strength are to show respect even to the slave. And what's more, there should be a sincerity of heart. There should be good intention, goodwill.

And so just as a challenge for those of you guys who are employers, those of you guys who are in management positions, are you showing respect to your subordinates? Are you giving honor where honor is due? What's more, the passage says, "Give up threatening." Are you throwing your weight around?

Are you doing the, "I'm older than you." Do you do that kind of stuff? When people don't listen, do you get angry with force? Do you demand, "You better listen to me." Is that our attitude? Or rather, are we doing what this passage is essentially challenging the masters and do the same, is to show that kind of same respect mutually.

And what's interesting here is that the rationale for all this is that the great equalizer is Christ our Lord. You see, for any one of us who has been given authority, whether parent, manager, employer, boss, whatever you may be, our authority is so temporary. We have been given a very temporary stewardship of responsibility.

And God has given us sufficient authority, not all-inclusive authority, but sufficient authority that we would hold those responsibilities well to care for the people underneath our management. And that's the way we need to think of it. And to me, this is kind of wild because when we think about the future, what's going to happen is whether we are slave or master, whether we're employer or employee, we are all going to kneel before Christ in the same way, giving account for our lives in the same way to the Lord.

But we don't even have to think about the future. Why? Because think about the church. When slavery existed, when people come to church and worship God, they sit in the pews the same. And underneath God's perspective, the front row was not reserved for the mighty. The front row were not reserved for those who were educated.

The front row were not reserved for the elite. He said, "No, you know what you should do? You should just go to the back." And he rebuked those individuals who wanted any kind of jockeying for position within the church. But think about that scenery, where individuals who owned slaves, perhaps they were trading people, now be redeemed by Christ, they're convicted of their sins.

And they realize they need to now look at the slave that they used to own, and in the church call him brother. Sit next to the other person, raise their hands in worship, kneel in prayer, because Christ Almighty is our great equalizer. Before God, we're the same. Before God, we're God the Father, we're his children, brothers and sisters.

Before Christ, we're his servants and bond slaves all together. That is a pretty incredible thing. There is nothing that is going to have that kind of power to unify those kinds of people, to expect for the flesh to now turn. I mean, imagine from the slave's perspective, to be asked to sit next to a former slave owner and to pray and worship together in the flesh, impossible.

Thanks be to God that in the gospel and the power of Christ, what is impossible with man is absolutely possible. The gospel of God is so powerful, amen. Let's take a moment to pray. Lord, we think about what you have accomplished in our lives, and you have changed us from foolish, arrogant people who falsely thought that we could make our own way, who falsely thought that we could make our world better to preserve it, and then we ourselves become the master of our own domains.

Thank you, Lord, for saving us from that kind of folly, for showing us, Lord God, that this world is under condemnation, and we need to be saved from this perverse generation of which we are a part of. Thank you, God, that you are showing us that to us, what is our great glory is to be found in Christ, to be changed.

And Lord, what's more, thank you, God, that you have called us in to your household, to be your children, obedient to the Father. I pray, Lord, that you would continue to teach us what it means to humble our hearts and to obey you as our loving Heavenly Father. God, we recognize that in so many different facets of our lives, we still try so hard to grip and maintain our own control, but I pray, God, that you'd grant to us humility.

Lord, you'd grant to us submission of heart in trust, in trust of your goodness, and in trust of your sovereignty. Lord, within this generation and this time now, there is so much conflict. There is so much angst and indignation, but I pray, Father God, that we would have so much more confidence to turn to the gospel, to reconcile any of the woes, any of the sins that we see in our own hearts and in the world, to realize, Father God, that in the flesh, we are completely incapable.

And what's more, not only that, but even good laws and good intentions are not enough. And therefore, what the law cannot accomplish, only Christ can do. Father, we want to thank you again. It's in Christ. Let me pray. Amen.