Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
What kind of an employee are you?
We usually approach that question from the eyes of an employer or potential employer.
We want to gauge their work ethic and work habits.
Are you reliable?
Are you trustworthy?
Do you do a day’s work for a day’s pay?
Today’s lesson asks the same question but from a different perspective.
Many times we separate lives into secular and sacred, work and worship.
But those are artificial lines drawn in the sand.
For God, he sees it differently.
In this last lesson of a triad, Paul has emphasized the idea that you see faith well through the relationships we have, whether parents and children or husbands and wives.
Today, he reminds us that faith puts on work clothes as well.
It knows how to get greasy and sweaty.
And how we work says more about our faith in Christ than our ability to make a living.
At work, we find out what is the center of our lives.
So, let’s go to work to find our faith.
Discussion
The Problem of Slavery
We come to this passage, and many issues swirl around muddying the waters.
I remember as a boy seeing an old black-and-white movie that was a silent picture of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the book by Harriett Beecher Stowe.
To this day, I can remember the scene in which the master Simon Legree whipped Tom until he collapsed in a bloody pool.
In the 1970s, America was riveted to a new form of television in the mini-series initiated by Alex Haley’s story of his family Roots.
I have to admit, at times, it was hard to watch.
Today, we do not have slavery.
In fact, it is a revolting concept that someone could own another human being and use them as an animal.
It is a dark chapter in American and human history.
Therefore, we tend to dismiss this kind of lesson altogether as a relic of a lost culture blind to reality.
But to do so is to ignore many issues we need to discuss.
First is what it was in the Roman world.
In the first century world of the Mediterranean basin, it is estimated that there were 60 million slaves.
Just to put that into perspective, that is twice the population of Texas in 2022, with some added in.
Imagine if every citizen in Texas was owned by someone else!
We think of slaves as poor and uneducated.
They might have been.
But many from various social classes were slaves, including doctors.
A man became a slave either because he was born into it or was driven into it by economic distress.
A man could buy his way out of slavery or serve in the Roman army, giving him his freedom.
But for most, they were caught in the system.
Laws concerning slavery allowed for complete control over the life and death of a slave.
The slave owner was the “father of the family.”
He could punish by whipping or by confinement in prison by that position.
He even held the right of execution.
With his great learning, even the esteemed philosopher Aristotle would say, ‘A slave is a living tool, just as a tool is an inanimate slave.’
While it seemed to be accepted by Roman, it presented a challenge for the church.
In churches, you found masters who had become Christians sitting in the same area as slaves they owned who were also converted to Christ.
The small New Testament postcard of Philemon details the tension in Ephesus’ sister church of Colossae.
Philemon, who may have been the one in whose house the church met, owned a slave named Onesimus.
Onesimus is worthless and runs away and ends up in prison.
There he meets Paul, who knows Philemon.
Paul converts him to Christ.
But what do you do?
Philemon has the legal right to punish Onesimus.
Should Paul send him back as he is obligated to do?
Paul asks Philemon to welcome him back as a brother in Christ and then send him back to me for now.
With his conversion, he lives up to the meaning of his name, “useful.”
It was a strain.
The church had to address three different situations.
How does a Christian slave relate to a non-Christian master?
How does a Christian master relate to non-Christian slaves?
How does a Christian slave related to the Christian master?
For Paul, this lesson and the parallel passage in Colossians provide the essential principles to guide Christian slaves and Christian masters.
The second issue that must be faced is “why didn’t Christianity try to abolish slavery?”
In fact, some critics dismiss Christianity in general because it did not advocate for the immediate abolition of slavery.
However, we need a little perspective.
Just because the Bible acknowledges the existence of something does not mean giving its approval to that behavior.
The Bible describes vices such as arrogance and pride without directly in those passages dismissing them.
A description is not an approval.
In fact, it shows that Christianity has infected all forms of situations to change them.
Think about what abolition would do.
If the church advocated overthrowing a social structure so engrained, it would have meant sure destruction of the church.
God uses time differently than man does.
He may be working on a problem without us seeing it directly.
And that is what happened to slavery.
One way to abolish slavery is to change the minds and hearts of people concerning the problem.
Over time, more and more slaves and masters found themselves brothers and sisters in Christ.
This change of spiritual relationship loosed the grip on the need for slaves.
Within a few centuries, slavery was being pushed out.
It is true of most of the social problems of our society.
When Christians present the good news of Jesus and hearts are won, and lives are changed, significant societal issues begin to vanish.
If they remain, Christians have not won people’s hearts to Christ.
This is true because the entire premise of this lesson makes slavery difficult.
Our relationship with Christ governs all that we do.
And when fully grasped, the faith frees all.
So, Paul begins with those who feel the yoke of bondage.
The Work of the Slave
As Paul begins teaching slaves and their masters, he continues a principle that guides this entire section on relationships.
“submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”
(Ephesians 5:21, ESV)
This mutual submission based on their faith in Christ is to guide them.
Their concern for another and not for themselves will help them sort out the nitty-gritty details of life.
If you can remember that we are serving each other, it makes all of life easier to understand and live.
So, specifically, how are slaves to live out this “submissive” attitude?
“Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ,” (Ephesians 6:5, ESV)
He calls them bondservants, the word for the ordinary slave.
And as he has told children, “obey” or heed your earthly master.
But Paul’s use of obedience, coupled with the mutual submission principle, loosens clenched fists and releases tense jaws.
It is easy in our work even to work because I “have to.”
We feel compelled.
It is best summed up by the sign on desks that reads, “You can’t fire me, slaves have to be sold.”
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