Spirit-Filled Labor Relations (6:5-9)

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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 eyeservice, 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 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. (6:5-9)

In this passage Paul gives his final illustration of the principle of Spirit-produced mutual submission, “and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ” (5:21), applying it to relations between slaves and masters—and, by extension, to all employer-employee relationships.

In our day the struggle between employers and employees has reached monumental levels. Conflicts rage constantly between workers and management, with each side accusing the other of selfishness and unreasonableness. Employees want smaller work loads, fewer hours, more vacation, and more pay and benefits. Employers want more productivity, more profits, and greater control of management policies and practices. Both sides want lower taxes for themselves while expecting greater government protection and sometimes even subsidy.

It is not hard to see that the heart of the problem on both sides is greed. The sin of greed is the primary fuel that feeds the inflationary spiral that has become a common part of modern life in most parts of the world. When everyone wants more, prices must rise to pay for higher wages and profits. And as prices rise and money therefore buys less, people want still higher pay or profits to make up the difference. When the government becomes heavily involved in various subsidies and supports, then taxes, the national debt, or both must be raised. If the government prints more money without backing, the value of all its money is decreased, and again people want more income to make up the difference.

Added to all of that is the principle that, as possessions increase so does greed, because greed is by nature insatiable. It is likely that modern Western society is the greediest in history. Everyone wants more for less, and the ascending spirals of inflation, debt, and taxation are unabated.

How are such seemingly irreconcilable problems to be resolved? Many people advocate some form of socialism, in which the government has total control of the economy. As greed increases and self-interest becomes more hardened, more government control may be required to prevent anarchy. Revelation 18 suggests that the final Antichrist will come into power through a great worldwide economic system in which virtually all power is centered in the hands of a few elite leaders.

But God did not design man’s freedom to work against man. He designed it to allow us to earn a living, provide for our families, and be of service to others. Yet, as in every other area of life, man’s depraved nature turns God’s provisions to selfish ends. As with problems in relations between husbands and wives and parents and children (Eph. 5:22—6:4), the solution to labor relations problems must begin with God’s solution—salvation through Jesus Christ and the empowerment of His Holy Spirit.

In every aspect of human life God’s plan is one of authority and submission, and those two pillars are the bedrock of biblical labor relations. To avoid chaos and anarchy, someone must lead, and others must follow. The mutual submission Paul teaches in relation to masters and servants, just as that between husbands and wives and parents and children, is in the context of the God-designated roles of authority—of husbands over wives, parents over children, and masters over servants. But that authority is not based on any inherent superiority of husbands, parents, or masters. They possess their authority as a stewardship from God, to be used for His purposes and according to His principles. Their authority is not total or unrestricted and is to be used only to serve God and to serve those over whom they have been given the authority. Submission, therefore, is not one-way but mutual.

Paul’s instructions to masters and slaves continues in the setting of the household. The vast majority of businesses in New Testament times were family operated, and therefore most servants were part of an extended household. In agrarian situations the servants, or slaves, worked in the fields or tended the flocks. If the master had a shop the servants worked as craftsmen or helpers. If he was a merchant they would do whatever chores were required to help in the business. In any case, the head of the household was also head of the business. He was usually the employer and the servants were his employees.

In this passage Paul continues to deal with the practical effects of the Spirit-filled life (5:18), without which none of God’s righteous standards can be met, including those which regulate working relationships. Verses 5-8 teach about the submission of slaves, or workers, and verse 9 teaches about the submission of masters, or employers.

THE SUBMISSION OF EMPLOYEES

Slaves translates the Greek douloi, and indicates subjection and usually bondage. In biblical times slavery was common and much abused. In both Greek and Roman cultures, most slaves had no legal rights and were treated as commercial commodities. Roman citizens came to look on work as beneath their dignity, and the entire empire gradually came to function largely by slave power. Slaves were bought, sold, traded, used, and discarded as heartlessly as if they were animals or tools. Considerate masters such as Pliny the Elder, who was deeply grieved over the death of some of his slaves, were exceptional.

One Roman writer divided agricultural instruments into three classes—the articulate, who were slaves; the inarticulate, which were animals; and the mute, which were tools and vehicles. A slave’s only distinction above animals or tools was that he could speak! The Roman statesman Cato said, “Old slaves should be thrown on a dump, and when a slave is ill do not feed him anything. It is not worth your money. Take sick slaves and throw them away because they are nothing but inefficient tools.” Augustus crucified a slave who accidentally killed his pet quail, and a man named Pollio threw a slave into a pond of deadly lamprey eels for breaking a crystal goblet. Juvenal wrote of a slave owner whose greatest pleasure was “listening to the sweet song of his slaves being flogged.” (The previous material is cited in William Barclay, The Daily Bible Study Series: The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians [Philadelphia: Westminster, 1958], pp. 212-14.)

Although Scripture does not speak against slavery as such, it clearly speaks against the kidnapping of anyone for the purpose of making him or her a slave (Ex. 21:16). The European and American slave trade that lasted past the middle of the nineteenth century was therefore in clear violation of Scripture, despite the rationalizations of many Christians who were involved in it.

Certain types of nonabusive and beneficial slavery were permitted, or even advocated, in the Old Testament. For example, a thief who could not make restitution could be indentured until repayment was worked out—a plan far superior to the modern prison sentence which provides for no restitution of property or money to the victim or restoration of dignity for the thief. Israelites were allowed to buy slaves from the pagan nations around them (Lev. 25:44), but fellow Israelites could not be bought or sold, although they could voluntarily indenture themselves until the year of jubilee (vv. 39-40). During their time of service they were to be treated as hired workers, not as slaves (v. 40-41, 46). Even pagan slaves were not to be abused and were given their freedom if seriously injured by their master (Ex. 21:26-27). A slave who fled from an oppressive master was to be given asylum and protection (Deut. 23:15-16). A fellow Israelite could not be used as a slave for more than six years, at the end of which he was to be given liberal provisions as a form of severance pay (Ex. 21:2; Deut. 15:13-14). Every fiftieth year, the year of jubilee, all slaves were to be freed and returned to their families (Lev. 25:10). A slave who loved his master and preferred to remain with him could voluntarily indenture himself for life by having his ear pierced by his master (Ex. 21:5-6). The kind of slavery controlled by scriptural teaching was a blessing to both employer and employee and was a rewarding and fulfilling relation between them.

Although slavery is not uniformly condemned in either the Old or New Testaments, the sincere application of New Testament truths has repeatedly led to the elimination of its abusive tendencies. Where Christ’s love is lived in the power of His Spirit, unjust barriers and relationships are inevitably broken down. As the Roman empire disintegrated and eventually collapsed, the brutal, abused system of slavery collapsed with it—due in great measure to the influence of Christianity. In more recent times the back of the black slave trade was broken in Europe and America due largely to the powerful, Spirit-led preaching of such men as John Wesley and George Whitefield and the godly statesmanship of such men as William Wilberforce and William Pitt.

New Testament teaching does not focus on reforming and restructuring human systems, which are never the root cause of human problems. The issue is always the heart of man—which when wicked will corrupt the best of systems and when righteous will improve the worst. If men’s sinful hearts are not changed, they will find ways to oppress others regardless of whether or not there is actual slavery. On the other hand, Spirit-filled believers will have just and harmonious relationships with each other, no matter what system they live under. Man’s basic problems and needs are not political, social, or economic but spiritual, and that is the area on which Paul here concentrates.

Throughout history, including in our own day, working people have been oppressed and abused by economic intimidation that amounts to virtual slavery—regardless of the particular economic, social, or political system. Paul’s teaching therefore applies to every business owner and every worker.

Because the command of mutual submission is possible only to the Spirit-filled believer, Paul is addressing Christian slaves, just as he later addresses Christian masters (v. 9). He calls them to have the right behavior, the right perspective, the right attitude, and the right commitment that reflect their right relationship to God through Jesus Christ.

THE RIGHT BEHAVIOR

Slaves are commanded to be obedient to those who are [their] masters. Be obedient is in the present tense in the Greek, indicating uninterrupted obedience. Believers are not to obey simply when they desire to or when their employers are fair and reasonable. They are to obey in everything and at all times, the only exception being when they are instructed to do something immoral, idolatrous, blasphemous, or the like. Speaking of household workers, Peter said, “Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a man bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God” (1 Pet. 2:18-20).

In New Testament times many slaves became Christians and thereby became children of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, as Paul has already reminded his readers (1:5-14). Therefore the natural response of many Christian slaves was to look upon their bondage as completely incongruous with their new standing before God. They reasoned that God’s own children, who will reign with Him forever, should not be subservient to any human being, certainly not to a ruthless pagan. As spiritual nobility, they deserved more than common slavery.

Yet Paul tells them plainly and simply to be obedient. The first obligation of a Christian is to please his Lord and to be a faithful testimony to Him. One way to do this, the apostle says, is to give willing obedience to those under whom you work, regardless of who they are or what their character is like. Being a Christian should always make a person a better, more productive, and more agreeable worker. People will not be inclined to listen to the testimony of a Christian who does shoddy, careless work or who is constantly complaining. If a Christian finds an employment situation to be intolerable, he should quit and look for something else. But as long as he is employed he should do the work to the best of his ability.

Some Christians might reason that, if they work for a fellow believer, they need not be cautious and responsible in the manner of their spiritual life because their testimony before him does not matter since he already believes. Others might feel that their employers are obligated to give them preferential treatment since they are fellow Christians. But that sort of thinking is presumptuous, carnal, and unscriptural. Paul wrote, “Let those who have believers as their masters not be disrespectful to them because they are brethren, but let them serve them all the more, because those who partake of the benefit are believers and beloved” (1 Tim. 6:1-2). If we are to be respectful and obedient to unbelieving masters, how much more so should we be to our brothers in Christ?

An employer is an employer, no matter who he is, and he deserves the best effort in whatever work one does for him. Saints are to submit to the authority of anyone to whom they report. Pastors and other Christian workers are not exempt from that principle. They are responsible to submit to a church, a board, another staff member, or to whomever else has supervision over them.

When a believer sits beside his boss in a worship service or works beside him in Christian service, he does so as a completely equal brother in Christ. But on the job he is to submit to the authority of his boss, because that witnesses his submission to the higher authority of God’s Word.

So whether his boss is kind or cruel, believing or pagan, a Christian is obedient to him because that is God’s will. “Bondslaves,” Paul said to Titus, are “to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect” (Titus 2:9-10). How a believer works in his job reflects on His Lord, regardless of who his human master or employer may be.

THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVE

A Christian worker’s submission to his employer is done under the employer’s authority according to the flesh. The intent of that prepositional phrase is to emphasize that, while the authority-submission relationship is important and is to be respected, it is only temporal. It lasts only in this life and does not apply to moral and spiritual concerns at any time or under any circumstances.

THE RIGHT ATTITUDE

The believer’s attitude in obeying his employer is to be one of fear and trembling. The idea is not that of cowering fright but of the honor and respect that make a person anxious to please. If he cannot honor and respect his employer for the employer’s own sake, he respects him for the Lord’s sake as one under whom he is to submit. Although men terribly abuse it, the principle of authority and submission is God-given and is always to be honored. God has allowed bosses to be where they are and subordinates to be where they are, and the faithful believer willingly and graciously submits to those under whose authority God has placed him.

The place where a believer works is part of his field of service for the Lord, and it is often a mission field. When he does his work carefully and respectfully it is a testimony to unbelievers, an encouragement to believers, and an act of service to God.

THE RIGHT COMMITMENT

The fourth qualification for proper submission to masters, or employers, is that of sincerity of heart. It is not hypocritical and superficial but genuine and thorough.

Paul told the Thessalonian believers to “excel still more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you; so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need” (1 Thess. 4:10-12). The idea is to do well the work we are assigned to do, without complaining, bragging, criticizing the work of others, or in any other way being disruptive.

THE RIGHT MOTIVE

A Christian’s primary concern about his job should be simply to do it well to the glory of God, as to Christ. Being filled with the Spirit brings practical results, including those of being a reliable, productive, and cooperative worker. And whenever a Christian is submissive to the Holy Spirit his accomplishments are as to Christ, because Christ is both the origin and the goal of his obedience. He does everything out of love for Christ, by the power of Christ, and to the glory of Christ. “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do,” Paul says, “do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).

It is not God’s plan to call every believer into preaching, Christian education, missionary service, or other such church-related ministries. Those ministries are no more spiritual than any other into which God may call a believer. But because those ministries more directly and obviously represent the Lord’s work, He will not call a person into them who has not been faithful in whatever other work he has been doing. A person who has not been faithful to the Lord as a salesman, secretary, clerk, or carpenter cannot expect God to give a call to a more influential ministry. The Lord only appoints those over much who have been faithful over little (Matt. 25:21).

THE RIGHT DILIGENCE

When Spirit-filled Christians are sincerely obedient to their employers as to Christ, they will not work by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.

The faithful believer does not simply do the minimum his job requires, much less work only when his supervisor or other workers are watching, that is, by way of eyeservice. He does not need to be checked up on, because he always does his work to the best of his ability, whether or not anyone else is around. And he works just as hard when he is passed over for a raise or promotion as when he is being considered for them. He does not do a good job to make a good impression on other people (as do men-pleasers) or to promote his own welfare. If he gains those things, they are incidental to his primary motive and intention. He works diligently because to do so is the will of God and is the sincere desire of his own heart.

With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men repeats and reinforces what Paul has just said. With good will expresses the attitude of the worker who does not need prompting or compelling. When a Christian is where God wants him to be and is obedient to render service, as to the Lord, that is the most challenging, productive, and rewarding place to be.

Every day should be a day of service to the Lord. “Whatever your hand finds to do,” Solomon tells us, “do it with all your might” (Eccles. 9:10). In his letter to Rome, Paul tells us not to lag behind in diligence but to be “fervent in spirit, serving the Lord” (12:11), and in Colossians, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men” (3:23). That is the work attitude of the Spirit-filled Christian.

A believer does his work diligently for the Lord’s sake in the assurance that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free. God’s credits and rewards are always dependable and always appropriate. An employer may not appreciate or even be aware of the good work done, perhaps because he is indifferent or because someone else takes credit for what is done. But God knows and God rewards. No good thing done in His name and for His glory can pass His notice or fail to receive His blessing.

The story is told of an elderly missionary couple who were returning home on a ship after many years of sacrificial service in Africa. On the same ship was Theodore Roosevelt, who had just completed a highly successful big game hunt. As the ship docked in New York harbor, thousands of well-wishers and dozens of reporters lined the pier to welcome Roosevelt home. But not a single person was there to welcome the missionaries. As the couple rode to a hotel in a taxi, the man complained to his wife, “It just doesn’t seem right. We give forty years of our lives to Jesus Christ to win souls in Africa, and nobody knows or cares when we return. Yet the president goes over there for a few weeks to kill some animals and the whole world takes notice.” But as they prayed together that night before retiring, the Lord seemed to say to them, “Do you know why you haven’t received your reward yet, My children? It is because you are not home yet.”

THE SUBMISSION OF EMPLOYERS

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. (6:9)

Paul’s closing remarks about the mutual submission of Spirit-filled believers are addressed to masters, and, by extension, to Christian employers of every sort. Their attitude toward their workers is to be basically the same as that which the workers should have for them: do the same things to them.

The antecedent of the same things most likely is the command at the end of verse 6, “doing the will of God from the heart,” on which verses 7-8 are a commentary. A Christian employer’s relationship to his employees should have the same motivation and goal as a Christian worker’s relationship to his employer: the desire to obey and please the Lord. An employer is to use his authority “as to the Lord,” just as workers are to submit to authority “as to the Lord.” That is an expression of their mutual submission in being “subject to one another in the fear of Christ” (5:21).

A Christian employer’s first work, just as a Christian employee’s first work, is to do God’s will and to manifest Christlikeness in all that he does. He makes business decisions first of all on the basis of God’s standards of righteousness, truth, and honesty—seeking to manifest the nature and will of his heavenly Father in everything he does. He deals with his employees on the basis of their own welfare and best interests as well as of those of business. He deals with them fairly because that is His Lord’s will. He treats them with respect because to do so is to respect and honor the Lord.

The Spirit-filled employer is careful to give up threatening. The term used suggests the idea of loosening up, or releasing. He uses his authority and power as little as possible and does not throw his weight around or lord it over those under him. He is never abusive or inconsiderate. He realizes that his own authority, though God-given, is strictly functional and temporary. He knows that he and his workers alike are under the supreme authority of God, that their Master and his is not on earth but in heaven. The faithful Christian employer knows that he is a fellow servant of Jesus Christ with his employees, and is accountable to the same Master.

He also knows that before God he is no more important or worthy in himself than the least of his employees, because there is no partiality with Him (cf. Acts 10:34; Rom. 2:11; James 2:9). And he plays no favorites because God plays no favorites.

God’s impartiality is the closing truth in Paul’s discourse on being “subject to one another in the fear of Christ” (5:21). Spirit-filled believers—whether husbands or wives, parents or children, employers or employees—are to be mutually submissive because they are equally loved, equally cared for, and equally subservient to a common Master, their Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.