God has given us specific instructions as to how we are to interact with those around us. This daily devotional looks at how that looks in two cases: servants and masters.
Nuggets
- God rewards us or punishes us based on our actions.
- Masters are to treat their servants according to God’s laws and commandments.
Devotions in the Joy in the Gospel series
Paul had been talking to us about how wives, husbands, and children should view their relationships. Now, Paul turns to the relationship between slaves and masters.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Justice for the Wrongdoers
“For the wrongdoer will be paid back for whatever wrong he has done, and there is no favoritism” (Col. 3: 25 CSB)
God rewards us or punishes us based on our actions.
Don’t we love verses like this? “Tom really messed up, and boy howdy, is he going to get his just deserts!”
We know that God is just. That is one of the attributes we looked at in the Finding Our Center series.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
We know Scriptures say, “… ‘You reward everyone according to what they have done’” (Ps. 62: 12 NIV). That takes care of those who do God’s Will.
What Paul was talking about here was justice. The definition we’ve been using for justice is conformity to God’s standard, causing order in creation.
Swinnock had a different definition. He wrote, “Justice in general is the giving every one their due.”
Resource
Looking at both of those verses combines the reward for the right and the punishment for the wrong.
It comes, in part, from what David wrote. “The Lord examines the righteous, but he hates the wicked and those who love violence” (Ps. 11: 5 CSB).
Non-believers are identified in Scriptures by the terms wicked, dead, cursed, and evil.
But how does God feel toward those types of people? “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved — and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2: 4-7 ESV emphasis added). God loved us enough to send His Son while we were still sinners to be the sacrifice to pay for our sins.
Grace is a free and unmerited gift of love from the Heavenly Father, given through His Son, Jesus Christ, that enables salvation and spiritual healing to believers by the work of the Holy Spirit.
Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart. Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Glossary
God hates and is not going to put up with us continuing to sin. I know, from the state of the world today, many people think it looks like He is not doing anything about sin.
But that will not always be the case. Someday, God is going to shut this world down, and eternity will start.
Then, judgement will be meted out by what we have done — have we ABCDed or not.
This shows how God can be a loving and vengeful God.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Justice from the Masters
“Masters, deal with your slaves justly and fairly, since you know that you too have a Master in heaven” (Col. 4: 1 CSB)
Masters are to treat their servants according to God’s laws and commandments.
Contrary to popular belief — in the first century and in our century — Christ didn’t come to fix all the ills of this earth. He didn’t come to overthrow the government or topple the social structure.
Masters were still going to be masters. Servants/slaves were still going to be servants/slaves.
Maclaren put it this way. He wrote, “Christ and His apostles did not war against it nor against any existing institutions — ‘First make the tree good’ etc. Mould men, and the men will mould institutions.”
Resource
That meant masters would still have authority.
Masters were expected to treat their servants fairly. Byfield gave us several examples of how that could play out.
If the master required unequal things when they could be performing equally, they would not be treating them fairly. The big caveat there is if they cannot perform equally, it is not unfair to ask them to perform the same function different ways.
It is unfair for the master to ask them to perform their responsibilities if it is beyond their capabilities. This includes if it is beyond their strength or if they are sick.
Masters must make sure the servants are compensated fairly. This includes provision for their release from their commitment.
But what about when masters became disciples? What happened then?
Davenport explained what he thought was the implications behind Colossians 4: 1. He wrote, “If masters embraced Christianity with their slaves it seemed unjust to hold them in bondage; and if masters still adhered to paganism, what right had they, the servants of Satan, over those who were now Christ’s free men?”
Resource
Masters who became disciples should be governed by God’s laws in their interactions with the servants/slaves. Having a worldview master did not exempt the disciples who were servants/slaves from working. “Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust” (II Pet. 2: 18 ESV).
I get that, especially the last part. “Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Mt. 10: 28 CSB).
We have to keep obeying God in our dealings with others, regardless of their actions.
Maclaren also pointed out Paul’s choice of words. He didn’t use kind or patronizing. He doesn’t say just come in and fix all the social ills.
But then Paul didn’t tell us exactly what he meant by just and fair.
Making the Connections
What these verses are telling us is that, though God is a just God, He will not let us get away from the consequences and results of sin. Mankind will have to pay the penalty for sin.
At least, until we ask Jesus to be our Lord and Savior. Then God treats us with grace and mercy.
How Do We Apply This?
- Respect others, whether they are our subordinate or have authority over us.
- .We must allow others to be their own persons.
Resource
God wants us to live in unity, where we treat each other fairly. We need to have His character to do that.
Father God. You did not make us with the same gifts in the same measure. You have given us differing abilities at different points in out lives. Help us to look to You. Amen.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
What do you think?
Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.
If you don’t understand something and would like further clarification, please contact me.
If you have not signed up for the email daily or weekly providing the link to the devotions and the newsletter, do so below.
If God has used this devotion to speak with you, consider sharing it on social media.