Honoring Masters

The teaching elder of my Church is preaching through 1 Timothy, and this last Lord’s Day, he took on chapter 6:1-2 – Honoring Masters. The mp3 of the sermon is available here.

First, it should be noted that Paul uses the word “honor” here, rather than merely “obey”, the command running parallel to the Fifth Commandment. He uses the same word in 1 Timothy 5:17 in an exhortation to honor elders, who are the fathers of the Church. So, masters are like fathers. More on this in a bit.

Second, I was pleased with my TE’s overall approach to the text, which is consistent with his overall approach to scripture in general, which is to affirm it as God’s Word and not be ashamed in the least when it rubs against the grain of popular thought. This is of utmost importance because the Bible is often attacked on the basis that it supports slavery. “Everybody knows slavery is evil,” the argument goes, “so the Bible endorses evil.” The topic of slavery is packed with all sorts of baggage, and the typical approach to the scriptures’ endorsement of slavery is to just chalk it all up to cultural differences. In contrast to this, my TE analogized the biblical relationship of slave and master to the modern relationship of employee and employer, and he produced solid historical data to support the comparison. I appreciate his commitment to never blush at the scriptures.

An analogy that I would like to make to biblical slavery must be prefaced (as my TE did) with the reminder that pre-“2nd War for Independence” slavery in America often differed with biblical slavery. There are merciful regulations in God’s Law pertaining to the treatment of slaves (eg. Deuteronomy 15:12-15), and there are merciless penalties for “enslavers” who kidnap and enslave free men (eg. Exodus 21:16). So whatever went on in America that runs contrary to the biblical treatment of slaves does not belong in this analogy.

Adoption. Taking in a slave can be biblically seen as adoption. I say this as I have adopted three sons and one daughter. If that rubs you the wrong way, you have an unbiblical view of slavery. Look at the biblical parallels. As noted above, slaves are to honor their masters as fathers. God takes from us the yoke of sin and places His yoke upon us. We were slaves of sin, now slaves of righteousness. God takes us into His household and gives us privileges and obligations as sons, but as Galatians 4:1 informs, while sons are children, they are no different than slaves. My adopted children (I call them my recruits), like my home-made children, are not permitted to leave the authority of my house until I free them which will be on their wedding day. This is analogous to the exhortation in Deuteronomy quoted above. While they are here, they have to work, learn, and grow, all in preparation for their future freedom.