… to try to please them …
Summary: Life is full of difficult situations. People are people and without God’s love in their heart they are often unpleasant to be around and serve. Yet it is God’s will that we try to please them.
The master/slave relationship is the antithesis of equality. It is the complete domination of one person over another. In such a relationship, there is no room for personal pride on the part of the slave. Whatever seems right to the master is right by virtue of ownership. The slave has no say in his own life. His body is the property of someone else.
Imagine telling someone in this position that they should “try to please” their master. Can you think of anything that would be more difficult?
How about trying to please a domineering boss at work?
What about trying to please an overbearing husband?
Would this apply to a prisoner who suffers under an abusive guard?
Each of these examples represents only a tiny sampling of the relationships that exist in life. They are everywhere. Being owned by someone else may sound archaic, but the situation is replicated in many ways even today.
The night before his crucifixion, there would be no pleasing Jesus’ captors. They had long been plotting to kill him. Yet Jesus did not resist. If it pleased the Pharisees to kill him, he would allow them to do that. In this way, Jesus did try to please them. At the same time, he was pleasing his Father in heaven.
There is no situation that is worse than this. The Son of God is the rightful heir to David’s throne. He is literally the King of the Jews. And yet he was taken prisoner, mocked and beaten, and then his life was taken from him. A slave at least lives to see the next day. Jesus was not allowed to see the sunrise.
How could he do this? Because Jesus knew something that nobody else at the time could fathom. He knew the difference between physical life and spiritual life. He said:
“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)
Who are we afraid of? Do we tend to be afraid of those who can hurt the body? Yes, we do. For good reason. Yet there is a more pressing threat, and that is the threat of eternal separation from God.
“Try to please them” is not something Paul just made up. It is God’s will. Jesus himself affirms this in John 5:30 when he says, “… for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.”
Jesus did not seek to please those trying to kill him by pandering to them. He always put his Father’s will first. There is an important principle here. Pleasing our masters, whether a boss or a judge, or anyone else, is an exercise in faithfulness to God.
Application: Pleasing the authorities in our life is pleasing to God as long as we remember that God is the greater authority.
Food for Thought: What does it say to God if we work to please someone we find repulsive because God asked us to?
Thank you for another excellent devotion. Well done again.
If we serve someone who is not being easy to serve out of love for God, then we are really serving God above all else. It is good to remember that ultimately we are not serving people, but the Lord. He is our true Master.
Of course, God also has some things to say to authority who are regularly abusive to those under them. They, like all of us, will answer to One Master. Ephesians 6: 9.
Rich,
Thank you! Great reference verse, too:
“And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.”
— Ephesians 6:9
What does it say to God if we work to please someone we find repulsive because God asked us to?
Look at Joseph, sold into slavery, where the wife of his master wanted to sleep with him, but Joseph said, “No.” “How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?”
His immediate reward was he went to prison for obeying God. The Lord gave him favor in the eyes of the warden he served, who put him in charge of all the prisoners. In time he was interpreting dreams for Pharaoh who considered himself god. Pharaoh was used by God to give Joseph the power to govern all Egypt, riches and a wife.
Joseph prospered as he served God while a slave, prisoner and dream interpreter in a country, and to the person everyone in Egypt considered to be their god.
Genesis 39:1-9, 21-23, 40-44
Ron,
What a great example! It is also an example of patience. Joseph had to wait many years in that prison.
Another example that comes to mind is Daniel and his friends. Their people had been taken captive and their capital city and the Temple of God destroyed, yet they remained faithful and served well.
Godly men, God closed the mouths of the lions, and walked in the furnace with the other three.
Lost our power 0 Dark Thirty sat AM, got it back today. Love having shower and heat.
Blessings Jeff!
I am glad you are warm again, my friend. I was wondering what had happened to you. “Brrrrrrr”
I believe one thing it shows God is that we are not only listening to Him but following through,..
When I was a deacon at a church I used to attend,..we started a food room, clothes closet and a third Saturday breakfast for the community,..the word repulisve is the fruit this brought in,..the church started dwindling and the building was being abused,..one time I found an earaser shoved down the toilet so far the toilet needed to be removed to pull the earaser out and unpug the thing,. God was receiving some glory through this,..one day a guy that came in for the service regularly before the food room opened up,..he had a bad foot,..nasty,..he asked if I could change his dressing and sock,..wow,..not as bad as giving a dead man CPR but it was repulsive,..I did it to serve God,..as with before the door to the food room was opened,..we would say a prayer and from time to time I would ask if anyone wanted to confess their sins and give their life to Jesus,..one day there were 15 people that followed me into the sanctuary to ask God for the forgiveness of thier sin and to cleanse them and follow Jesus,..
Sometimes there are things that seem repulsive,..but I feel it is as if God is seeing just how far we will go for Him,..all that it takes is a look at the cross and He shows us repulsive,..as well as redemption,..
It’s not hard to find repulsiveness these days that’s for sure,..but to do something for someone who is repulsive to please God,..even some of us have a hard time with that,..especially if it’s giving CPR to a dead man,..nasty for sure,..worst breath of air God has ever given me,..not sure if God asked me to do this,..but this was my wife’s brother,..so ahhh,…yeah,..I feel it was for God,..because she was on the phone to 911 telling me to give him CPR,..even though I knew he had already passed,..but she was screaming,..DO IT! So,..I did it,..since then I have prayed and asked God that He would never have me breathe the breath of death ever again until He gives me life with Him in heaven,..
John,
Once again I am indebted to you for sharing your story with us. You have given me a different perspective on this from anything I had imagined when I wrote the question. Thank you, brother, for gifting us with your experience in serving our Lord.
👍🏻
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