The Gospel Changes Us
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Ephesians 6:5-9
Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.
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.
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.
[Message begins at the 20 minute mark]
It’s always good to come across a passage like this. For it reminds you of the gospel and really what the entire theme of the book of Ephesians is all about.
For the last couple of weeks I’ve been worried that we may lose sight of the gospel. We’ve been talking about kids and parenting and building a godly home. That’s all been wonderful. But you may have noticed it is has been a little light on the gospel and God’s grace. I’ve actually found myself saying, “How do I squeeze Jesus in here?”
Well, hopefully you know that the passages we have been looking at flow out of the gospel. You may remember that the first three chapters emphasize what God has done in Christ for us. Chapters 4-6 are how we respond to the gospel. If we have been saved by grace, what should our lives look like?
But it’s a passage like this one that really helps us see how the gospel ties into the second half of this epistle. We come this morning to a passage about slaves and masters. And maybe our first reaction is, “How in the world does this apply to me? I don’t have any slaves. or “I’m not a slave.” And we are tempted to think that this isn’t really relevant.
But it does have some wonderful application. It applies to all of us. And the reason it applies is because it shows us just how powerful the gospel is. It demonstrates how radically different your life will be when Jesus Christ comes into your life with his saving power.
Remember that when we say “gospel” we are just talking about the good news. That’s what the word “gospel” means. It’s the good news of Jesus Christ and how he saves us from sin. The bad news, of course, is that we are sinners who are damned. The good news is that we are saved from sin and death by Jesus.
And, as I mentioned a moment ago, it’s a passage like this that really helps us focus back in on that message. This passage reminds us of the gospel because it speaks so clearly about the changes that it produces. And as you read through these verses and see what it says to slaves and masters, you can’t help but see the impact that Christ makes.
You might just ask yourself, “How does the Gospel change us?” We can begin by saying that the gospel changes our relationships.
I. The Gospel Changes our Relationships
It really doesn’t take a lot of expert exegetical work to see this. You just look at our passage and you see that the Lord speaks to slaves and masters.
And right there you automatically understand that there were two radically different groups of people. And they were sitting together in the same room. They were worshiping together. They were singing the same songs, they were joined together in prayer. They were sitting under the ministry of the word together. They probably even ate together.
And it wasn’t like it would have been a megachurch where they could have sat on complete opposite sides of the room and never have known each other was there. At the most there would have been 20-30 people. Remember that these were house churches and house churches wouldn’t have been all that big. 30 people would have been a mega church at the time.
Now, that might not sound all that unreasonable until you grasp the some of the social dynamics. Let me describe some of what the master slave relationship would have been like. This first quote is from Wikipedia.
"‘Slaves stood powerless before their masters' or mistresses' whims and presumably remained in a perpetual state of unease, not necessarily able to anticipate when the next act of cruelty or degradation would come yet certain it would.’[511] Many if not most slaves could expect to be subjected to relentless labor; corporal punishment, or physical abuse in varying degrees of severity; sexual exploitation; or the caprices of owners in selling or threatening to sell them.”
Here’s another source which gives you some idea of the typical relationship between slaves and masters.
Often there were bonds of the deepest loyalty and affection between master and slave … But basically the life of the slave was grim and terrible. In law he was not a person but a thing. Aristotle [said] that there can never be friendship between master and slave, for they have nothing in common; ‘for a slave is a living tool, just as a tool is an inanimate slave.’
Gaius, the Roman lawyer, wrote: ‘We may note that it is universally accepted that the master possesses the power of life and death over the slave.’ If the slave ran away, at best he was branded on the forehead with the letter F for fugitivus, which means runaway, at worst he was killed. The terror of the slave was that he was absolutely at the caprice of his master. Augustus crucified a slave because he killed a pet quail…
Juvenal tells of a Roman matron who ordered a slave to be killed for no other reason than that she lost her temper with him…The slaves who were maids to their mistresses often had their hair torn out and their cheeks torn with their mistresses’ nails. Juvenal tells of the master ‘who delights in the sound of a cruel flogging thinking it sweeter than any siren’s song.’
As it mentioned, not all master-slave relationships were this gruesome and harsh. But you understand that things were not typically friendly. They certainly didn’t see eye to eye because they were not socially on the same level.
And this is the beauty of the gospel. Christ changed all that. These masters and slaves suddenly became brothers and sisters in the Lord. They had a completely different way of relating to one another.
Now, whenever you think it might be hard to get along with someone in the church, think about that. Christ came into this world to flip everything upside down. He breaks down barriers of separation, be they social barriers, racial barriers, or just your weird clique barriers.
And the only reason that can happen is because he broke down the biggest barrier of all. I’m talking about the hostility that exists between you and God. Christ gives you a relationship to God and it enables us to have a relationship with each other - no mater how screwed things up may have been previously.
So you see the power of the gospel. Christ changes things. But he not only changes our relationships, he also changes our work ethic.
II. The Gospel Changes our Work Ethic [5-7]
Look at verses 5-7. In these verses Paul is talking to the slaves and he basically tells them that they need to start being good servants, who are working hard and being productive. It says,
“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.”
Now, you can understand that slaves were not always the most efficient or industrious workers. They were just as selfish and lazy as any one of us. I’m sure you know what it’s like when you are at the office. When the boss isn’t looking, how diligent are you?
That’s what Paul is talking about when he says that service is not supposed to be “by way of eye service, as people pleasers.” When the boss is in the room, you are the model employee. You have your spreadsheet up and you are making phone calls. It’s your way of saying, “Hey boss, look at me. Aren’t I worthy of a raise?”
But what happens when your boss steps out of the room? Now that his eyes are not on you, you can relax a bit. You can go grab some coffee and hang out at the coffee pot and chat with the gang. Maybe you pull up that Youtube video that you’ve been dying to watch for the last 3 minutes.
And as soon as you hear the footsteps, one click of the mouse and that screen has been minimized. You’re back to work and just cranking it out.
When you become a Christian, that kind of work ethic isn’t tolerable anymore. That’s because it’s not consistent with who you are and what you’ve been called to be. You’ll notice that Paul isn’t sparing in that regard. He says three times that you have a different boss now.
In verse 5 he says that you need to obey your master with a sincere heart “as you would Christ.”
In verse 6 he calls you a bondservant of Christ.
In verse 7 he says that you are to render your service “with a good will as to the Lord and not to man.”
So again, Paul’s emphasizing the fact that these slaves were not the people that they once were. They used to work for their boss. Actually, they probably worked for themselves because they would sluff off when they had the opportunity and they would look diligent only so that they wouldn’t get a beating.
But they are no longer working for themselves or for their boss. Paul says that they have a new boss. They now work for Christ.
And that’s what really drives one to be efficient and productive in their work. You have the wonderful privilege of serving Jesus, the one who has served you in the most wonderful way. He served you with his life, with his death, and with his grace. He’s brought you into his household and given you the privilege of being his servant. And that makes all the difference in the world.
So, the gospel changes our relationships and our work ethic. And it also changes out outlook.
III. The Gospel Changes our Outlook [8]
Look at verse 8. It says that “whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.”
Now, what is that talking about? It’s talking about rewards. The Lord sees our good works and he (in a sense) compensates us for them. We receive some sort of blessing as a sort of remuneration for the good that we do.
Now, you can imagine the impact that these words may have for a slave. Slaves typically didn’t get any kind of remuneration for their work. You don’t tip your slaves. They just are supposed to do what they are told to do and they should be happy to get whatever they get from you.
Paul’s doesn’t define what they will get. The Bible is typically pretty vague when it comes to talking about rewards. But he does promise something.
And it’s true. This is God’s normal way of dealing with his people. The Lord blesses obedience. Those who are living in God’s grace and manifesting the fruits of his grace will be people who enjoy more of his grace and favor.
Now, that might sound a little funny to some of us. And that’s probably because you are not used to thinking about God in this way. A lot of people view God as the one with the clipboard who is watching everything we do in order to catch us in some sin so that he can punish us in some way. We view God more like a judge or a wicked nanny who is always ready to smack us with a ruler.
But this is the change that the gospel makes. God may look at his enemies that way, but that’s not the way he looks upon us. He relates to us always on the basis of his grace. That’s the gospel. Now that we are in Christ, God’s favor has been turned towards us. And he is constantly dealing with us in terms of his favor.
So in his grace he overlooks your sins and pardons them. And instead of looking for the ways we mess up, he’s looking for opportunities to bless us. He has a favorable attitude towards us; And so, the more good we do the more graces he bestows.
So that’s why I say the gospel changes our outlook. We should be on the lookout for ways we can do good and we should be looking forward to the blessings that God will bestow as a result.
Well, there’s one more thing that I think we can mention. As you look at this passage, I think we also have the reminder that the gospel changes our futures.
IV. The Gospel Changes our Future [9]
There’s a sense in which verse 8 might allude to this when it talks about the whole idea of rewards. The rewards may come in this life, or they may come after we enter into eternity.
But verse 9 might be a little more clear. Paul says that masters need to stop their threatening, knowing that “he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with him.”
Paul’s saying that you masters also have a Master. And some day you will come to stand before that master. And we shouldn’t think that he is going to be favorable to us just because we had some sort of social standing in this world.
That’s the temptation that the master has: “I’m better than a slave. So God’s obviously going to bless me more than that lowly guy.” Actually, that’s not how it works. The Lord isn’t a respecter of persons in that way. All his dealings are fair. So if you want to gain rewards and receive more blessings in the afterlife, then you have to be a man who is filled with grace.
But it’s not the rewards that I think is the real emphasis here. Paul is also pointing out the reality of the afterlife and the blessing of getting to be in heaven.
Paul says that God is in heaven and you get to be there with him. The rewards are just the icing on the cake. The beautiful thing is that you have a Master in heaven, and you are blessed to even be there with him.
Basically Paul is saying, “You masters may think you are something, but you need to recognize that you are nothing more than measly slaves yourselves. You really have no standing with God. You are only getting to enjoy eternal life because God has been a gracious master. And he has not dealt with you as your sins deserve. He’s given you life rather than death. He should have made your experience in the afterlife miserable, but he’s made it glorious.”
And that’s the greatest change that gospel produces. We now have a future. Instead of being consigned to a miserable life of pain and turmoil in hell, we who are in Christ have peace with God. And we will be with him in glory, forever.
Conclusion:
Well, hopefully you can see that this passage is quite applicable. Hopefully you can see how it exalts Christ and shows us just how powerful of the gospel is.
For the last couple of weeks I’ve been worried that we may lose sight of the gospel. We’ve been talking about kids and parenting and building a godly home. That’s all been wonderful. But you may have noticed it is has been a little light on the gospel and God’s grace. I’ve actually found myself saying, “How do I squeeze Jesus in here?”
Well, hopefully you know that the passages we have been looking at flow out of the gospel. You may remember that the first three chapters emphasize what God has done in Christ for us. Chapters 4-6 are how we respond to the gospel. If we have been saved by grace, what should our lives look like?
But it’s a passage like this one that really helps us see how the gospel ties into the second half of this epistle. We come this morning to a passage about slaves and masters. And maybe our first reaction is, “How in the world does this apply to me? I don’t have any slaves. or “I’m not a slave.” And we are tempted to think that this isn’t really relevant.
But it does have some wonderful application. It applies to all of us. And the reason it applies is because it shows us just how powerful the gospel is. It demonstrates how radically different your life will be when Jesus Christ comes into your life with his saving power.
Remember that when we say “gospel” we are just talking about the good news. That’s what the word “gospel” means. It’s the good news of Jesus Christ and how he saves us from sin. The bad news, of course, is that we are sinners who are damned. The good news is that we are saved from sin and death by Jesus.
And, as I mentioned a moment ago, it’s a passage like this that really helps us focus back in on that message. This passage reminds us of the gospel because it speaks so clearly about the changes that it produces. And as you read through these verses and see what it says to slaves and masters, you can’t help but see the impact that Christ makes.
You might just ask yourself, “How does the Gospel change us?” We can begin by saying that the gospel changes our relationships.
I. The Gospel Changes our Relationships
It really doesn’t take a lot of expert exegetical work to see this. You just look at our passage and you see that the Lord speaks to slaves and masters.
And right there you automatically understand that there were two radically different groups of people. And they were sitting together in the same room. They were worshiping together. They were singing the same songs, they were joined together in prayer. They were sitting under the ministry of the word together. They probably even ate together.
And it wasn’t like it would have been a megachurch where they could have sat on complete opposite sides of the room and never have known each other was there. At the most there would have been 20-30 people. Remember that these were house churches and house churches wouldn’t have been all that big. 30 people would have been a mega church at the time.
Now, that might not sound all that unreasonable until you grasp the some of the social dynamics. Let me describe some of what the master slave relationship would have been like. This first quote is from Wikipedia.
"‘Slaves stood powerless before their masters' or mistresses' whims and presumably remained in a perpetual state of unease, not necessarily able to anticipate when the next act of cruelty or degradation would come yet certain it would.’[511] Many if not most slaves could expect to be subjected to relentless labor; corporal punishment, or physical abuse in varying degrees of severity; sexual exploitation; or the caprices of owners in selling or threatening to sell them.”
Here’s another source which gives you some idea of the typical relationship between slaves and masters.
Often there were bonds of the deepest loyalty and affection between master and slave … But basically the life of the slave was grim and terrible. In law he was not a person but a thing. Aristotle [said] that there can never be friendship between master and slave, for they have nothing in common; ‘for a slave is a living tool, just as a tool is an inanimate slave.’
Gaius, the Roman lawyer, wrote: ‘We may note that it is universally accepted that the master possesses the power of life and death over the slave.’ If the slave ran away, at best he was branded on the forehead with the letter F for fugitivus, which means runaway, at worst he was killed. The terror of the slave was that he was absolutely at the caprice of his master. Augustus crucified a slave because he killed a pet quail…
Juvenal tells of a Roman matron who ordered a slave to be killed for no other reason than that she lost her temper with him…The slaves who were maids to their mistresses often had their hair torn out and their cheeks torn with their mistresses’ nails. Juvenal tells of the master ‘who delights in the sound of a cruel flogging thinking it sweeter than any siren’s song.’
As it mentioned, not all master-slave relationships were this gruesome and harsh. But you understand that things were not typically friendly. They certainly didn’t see eye to eye because they were not socially on the same level.
And this is the beauty of the gospel. Christ changed all that. These masters and slaves suddenly became brothers and sisters in the Lord. They had a completely different way of relating to one another.
Now, whenever you think it might be hard to get along with someone in the church, think about that. Christ came into this world to flip everything upside down. He breaks down barriers of separation, be they social barriers, racial barriers, or just your weird clique barriers.
And the only reason that can happen is because he broke down the biggest barrier of all. I’m talking about the hostility that exists between you and God. Christ gives you a relationship to God and it enables us to have a relationship with each other - no mater how screwed things up may have been previously.
So you see the power of the gospel. Christ changes things. But he not only changes our relationships, he also changes our work ethic.
II. The Gospel Changes our Work Ethic [5-7]
Look at verses 5-7. In these verses Paul is talking to the slaves and he basically tells them that they need to start being good servants, who are working hard and being productive. It says,
“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.”
Now, you can understand that slaves were not always the most efficient or industrious workers. They were just as selfish and lazy as any one of us. I’m sure you know what it’s like when you are at the office. When the boss isn’t looking, how diligent are you?
That’s what Paul is talking about when he says that service is not supposed to be “by way of eye service, as people pleasers.” When the boss is in the room, you are the model employee. You have your spreadsheet up and you are making phone calls. It’s your way of saying, “Hey boss, look at me. Aren’t I worthy of a raise?”
But what happens when your boss steps out of the room? Now that his eyes are not on you, you can relax a bit. You can go grab some coffee and hang out at the coffee pot and chat with the gang. Maybe you pull up that Youtube video that you’ve been dying to watch for the last 3 minutes.
And as soon as you hear the footsteps, one click of the mouse and that screen has been minimized. You’re back to work and just cranking it out.
When you become a Christian, that kind of work ethic isn’t tolerable anymore. That’s because it’s not consistent with who you are and what you’ve been called to be. You’ll notice that Paul isn’t sparing in that regard. He says three times that you have a different boss now.
In verse 5 he says that you need to obey your master with a sincere heart “as you would Christ.”
In verse 6 he calls you a bondservant of Christ.
In verse 7 he says that you are to render your service “with a good will as to the Lord and not to man.”
So again, Paul’s emphasizing the fact that these slaves were not the people that they once were. They used to work for their boss. Actually, they probably worked for themselves because they would sluff off when they had the opportunity and they would look diligent only so that they wouldn’t get a beating.
But they are no longer working for themselves or for their boss. Paul says that they have a new boss. They now work for Christ.
And that’s what really drives one to be efficient and productive in their work. You have the wonderful privilege of serving Jesus, the one who has served you in the most wonderful way. He served you with his life, with his death, and with his grace. He’s brought you into his household and given you the privilege of being his servant. And that makes all the difference in the world.
So, the gospel changes our relationships and our work ethic. And it also changes out outlook.
III. The Gospel Changes our Outlook [8]
Look at verse 8. It says that “whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.”
Now, what is that talking about? It’s talking about rewards. The Lord sees our good works and he (in a sense) compensates us for them. We receive some sort of blessing as a sort of remuneration for the good that we do.
Now, you can imagine the impact that these words may have for a slave. Slaves typically didn’t get any kind of remuneration for their work. You don’t tip your slaves. They just are supposed to do what they are told to do and they should be happy to get whatever they get from you.
Paul’s doesn’t define what they will get. The Bible is typically pretty vague when it comes to talking about rewards. But he does promise something.
And it’s true. This is God’s normal way of dealing with his people. The Lord blesses obedience. Those who are living in God’s grace and manifesting the fruits of his grace will be people who enjoy more of his grace and favor.
Now, that might sound a little funny to some of us. And that’s probably because you are not used to thinking about God in this way. A lot of people view God as the one with the clipboard who is watching everything we do in order to catch us in some sin so that he can punish us in some way. We view God more like a judge or a wicked nanny who is always ready to smack us with a ruler.
But this is the change that the gospel makes. God may look at his enemies that way, but that’s not the way he looks upon us. He relates to us always on the basis of his grace. That’s the gospel. Now that we are in Christ, God’s favor has been turned towards us. And he is constantly dealing with us in terms of his favor.
So in his grace he overlooks your sins and pardons them. And instead of looking for the ways we mess up, he’s looking for opportunities to bless us. He has a favorable attitude towards us; And so, the more good we do the more graces he bestows.
So that’s why I say the gospel changes our outlook. We should be on the lookout for ways we can do good and we should be looking forward to the blessings that God will bestow as a result.
Well, there’s one more thing that I think we can mention. As you look at this passage, I think we also have the reminder that the gospel changes our futures.
IV. The Gospel Changes our Future [9]
There’s a sense in which verse 8 might allude to this when it talks about the whole idea of rewards. The rewards may come in this life, or they may come after we enter into eternity.
But verse 9 might be a little more clear. Paul says that masters need to stop their threatening, knowing that “he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with him.”
Paul’s saying that you masters also have a Master. And some day you will come to stand before that master. And we shouldn’t think that he is going to be favorable to us just because we had some sort of social standing in this world.
That’s the temptation that the master has: “I’m better than a slave. So God’s obviously going to bless me more than that lowly guy.” Actually, that’s not how it works. The Lord isn’t a respecter of persons in that way. All his dealings are fair. So if you want to gain rewards and receive more blessings in the afterlife, then you have to be a man who is filled with grace.
But it’s not the rewards that I think is the real emphasis here. Paul is also pointing out the reality of the afterlife and the blessing of getting to be in heaven.
Paul says that God is in heaven and you get to be there with him. The rewards are just the icing on the cake. The beautiful thing is that you have a Master in heaven, and you are blessed to even be there with him.
Basically Paul is saying, “You masters may think you are something, but you need to recognize that you are nothing more than measly slaves yourselves. You really have no standing with God. You are only getting to enjoy eternal life because God has been a gracious master. And he has not dealt with you as your sins deserve. He’s given you life rather than death. He should have made your experience in the afterlife miserable, but he’s made it glorious.”
And that’s the greatest change that gospel produces. We now have a future. Instead of being consigned to a miserable life of pain and turmoil in hell, we who are in Christ have peace with God. And we will be with him in glory, forever.
Conclusion:
Well, hopefully you can see that this passage is quite applicable. Hopefully you can see how it exalts Christ and shows us just how powerful of the gospel is.