SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/28/2017
6:30 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “A Word
To Servants”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Colossians
3:22-25
Message of the
verses: “22 Slaves, in all things
obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those
who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23
Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, 24
knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It
is the Lord Christ whom you serve. 25 For he who does wrong will receive the
consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.”
We now want to look at Paul’s parallel passage in
Ephesians 6:5-9 “5 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; 6 not by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ,
doing the will of God from the heart. 7 With good will render service, as to
the Lord, and not to men, 8 knowing that whatever good thing each one does,
this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free. 9 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.”
I think that the main point that we can get from these
passages that talk about servants, or in our day workers who work for others is
that in reality we are not working for them in as much as we are working for
the Lord, and I actually believe that when we get to the judgment seat of
Christ we will be held accountable as to how we did our jobs as we worked for
others. I realize that in our day and
age that it is difficult to get our arms wrapped around being slaves, as this
surely is a new concept for me, but the thing that has helped me out the most
is that when I look at the life of Jesus Christ while He was here on earth,
that according to Paul’s writing in Philippians chapter two that He too was a
slave to God.
John MacArthur finishes up this section by writing “Paul
gives two reasons for slaves (or employees) to obey their masters. Positively, the Lord will repay them for
their faithfulness. They can endure
inequity not, ‘knowing that from the Lord’ they ‘will receive the reward of the
inheritance.’ The earthly master or boss
may not give the servant what he deserves, but the Lord will. He is the One who will assure the eternal
compensation is what it should be (cf. Rev. 20:12-13). [‘12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small,
standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened,
which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were
written in the books, according to their deeds. 13 And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and
they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds.’] Christian
slaves are also heirs of eternal reward.
As an employee on the job, or a servant in the home, ‘it is the Lord
Christ whom’ believers ‘serve.’ He will
pay them back with grace and generosity.
“Paul then gives a negative reason for obedience. The one ‘who does wrong will receive the
consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.’ The warning is that the Lord will discipline without
partiality in cases of disobedience (cf. Gal. 6:7). Paul acknowledged that the Christian slave
Onesimus was responsible to repay Philemon (Philem. 18). The Christian servant is not to presume on
his Christianity to justify disobedience.
Even if we are God’s children, we will reap what we sow, because God is
impartial (cf. Acts10:34). [‘Opening his mouth, Peter said: "I most
certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality.]’”
5/28/2017 6:53 PM
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