All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God’s name and our teaching may not be slandered.
Summary: Thinking about slavery may seem like an outdated concept, but there are modern applications for what Paul is teaching here.
Looking back in history, it is difficult for us to get our heads around the way things were done two thousand years ago.
Preparing food was labor-intensive. Meat was expensive and uncommon. Water did not usually come out of a tap. It would be carried in skins or jars. People rarely lived alone. The cost of daily survival was too high.
If you were born poor, options were limited. Education was reserved for the rich. You might be able to work in the fields (Matthew 20:1-16), but you might also choose to work as a servant (Exodus 21:1-6).
Being a slave was an economic reality, and sometimes an economic necessity. It wasn’t necessarily a life sentence, either. Slaves could acquire money, and under certain conditions could buy their freedom or be redeemed by a relative (Leviticus 25:47-55).
Even so, being a slave could be hard. But then, so can being an employee in a job you don’t like. We might call it by a different name these days, but the work of doing what someone else tells you to do is never fun.
Paul says that “All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect…” If doing a job you don’t like is hard, working for someone you don’t respect is even harder.
The interesting thing is that while we can’t change the work, we can change our attitude toward the boss. If we make up our minds to respect those who are over us, at least we don’t have to carry the burden that goes with disrespecting those we work for.
More importantly, by honoring our masters in this life, we honor our Master in heaven. Disrespect to others, even a hard master, is showing disrespect to the God whose Son redeemed us from a different kind of slavery — our slavery to sin (John 8:34–36).
Application: Remember who you really serve — Jesus.
Food for Thought: Why does it matter what people think of us if we are followers of Jesus?
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Why does it matter what people think of us if we are followers of Jesus?
It is important that people think of us as honorable, that they can see our faith in Jesus, and that our faith in Him is honorable. They can see that we honor Christ in our hearts, and we may then be able to share the reason for our hope in Him.
1 Peter 3:15
But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.
1 Peter 2:12
12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.