Wednesday, April 17 | Ephesians 6:1-9 | Stephen Fryrear
This is a tough passage! When Paul writes, “Slaves obey your earthly masters,” does that mean that Paul (and the Bible) are condoning slavery? By no means! Unfortunately, because we live in a fallen world, people get horribly taken advantage of and the practice of slavery has existed throughout history. The age of the early church was no different, but the New Testament did have regulations for what were societal norms of the time. That’s what we see here in this passage, Paul is giving practical advice to those who find themselves in these societal situations of being a “bondservant,” or slave.
It’s important to note that, just in the previous chapter, Paul called believers to “be imitators of God.” (Ephesians 5:1) I think he might be continuing examples of how to live like Christ. But this is radical! What if, like in marriage, this could be a way to point the world to the love of Christ: “Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men”? (Ephesians 6:7).
Is there an example of when Jesus was obedient even when given a terrible task? Look at Philippians 2:8: “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
The truth is we were all slaves. Jesus’ obedience to die in our place on the cross broke our chains of slavery to sin! No longer are we slaves to sin but “slaves of righteousness.” (Romans 6:18) And our Master’s yoke is easy and burden is light! God, would you give us obedience to daily battle sin in our lives, and to proclaim that it is not our master anymore? We are Yours!
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