I contemplate it a excessive privilege to face earlier than you to talk the phrase of God. I don’t take it frivolously. The act of preaching to me is sacred, critical, and really treasured. What shall I say? Your leaders gave me the choice: select your personal textual content within the Bible or proceed with our Colossians collection. So I requested, “Which textual content in Colossians?” and the reply was Colossians 3:22–4:1, the passage about slavery. And I mentioned I’d like to try this one. As a result of the difficulty of slavery within the Bible, in our personal American historical past, and on the planet at this time is big. And this textual content, together with the remainder of the New Testomony, is extra radical than many notice.
Slaves, obey in every little thing those that are your earthly masters, not by means of eye-service, as people-pleasers, however with sincerity of coronary heart, fearing the Lord. No matter you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and never for males, figuring out that from the Lord you’ll obtain the inheritance as your reward. You might be serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer shall be paid again for the unsuitable he has carried out, and there’s no partiality. Masters, deal with your slaves justly and pretty, figuring out that you just even have a Grasp in heaven. (Colossians 3:22–4:1)
I consider the principle level of this passage may be said like this: the calling of all Christians is to enlarge the supreme lordship of Christ by the way in which we serve in subordinate lordships. Or to say it one other method, we exist to make a lot of the greatness of Christ by the way in which we undergo the fading buildings of this world. They usually’re all fading. Authorities, as we all know it, and democracy shall be no extra when King Jesus involves reign within the flesh. Marriage shall be no extra as a result of, within the resurrection, Jesus mentioned they “neither marry nor are given in marriage” (Luke 20:35). All the kids shall be grown up within the last kingdom, and household, as we all know it, will change endlessly. And slavery shall be no extra. We’ll come again to attempt to present this from the textual content.
4 Clarifications
However earlier than we take a look at the main points of this textual content and the way Paul handled the difficulty of slavery in his day, I feel it is going to be useful to make clear 4 issues. First, let’s see from Colossians who Jesus Christ is. Second, let’s see who these slaves and masters are. Third, let’s ask what their aim in dwelling needs to be. And fourth, let’s take a look at Paul’s wider instructing regarding slavery in order that we don’t miss what he’s getting at on this textual content.
1. Who Is Christ?
First, what has Paul mentioned in Colossians about Christ?
Colossians 2:9 says, “In him the entire fullness of deity dwells bodily.” That’s a bombshell — on Dallas and on the world. Jesus Christ is God. Colossians 1:16–17:
By him all issues had been created, in heaven and on earth, seen and invisible, whether or not thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all issues had been created via him and for him. And he’s earlier than all issues, and in him all issues maintain collectively.
Jesus is God. He made all that’s. He holds all of it in being second by second. And all of it exists, together with you, for him — for his glory, to enlarge his greatness, his magnificence, and his value.
And this God-man, Jesus, is sovereign. Colossians 2:10: “He’s the top of all rule and authority.” He’s completely in cost. He guidelines Israel at this time, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Russia, Ukraine, and the election processes in America. He’s completely supreme, unequalled, and serene. And he’s infinitely clever and wealthy. Colossians 2:3: “In [him] are hidden all of the treasures of knowledge and data.” And he died for us. Colossians 2:13–14: “[He canceled] the file of debt that stood in opposition to us with its authorized calls for. This he put aside, nailing it to the cross.” This God, this Creator of all, this Sovereign over all, this infinitely clever and wealthy Individual, paid for all our sin by dying in our place.
That’s the Lord of our textual content in Colossians 3:22–4:1.
2. Who Are Christians?
And who’re we? Who’re these Christian slaves and slave masters? Colossians 1:4, “We heard of your religion in Christ Jesus and of the love that you’ve for all of the saints.” They’re believers. They belief Christ and present it by their love. They usually had been united to Christ by religion, and so they died — they died with Christ, and so they reside. Colossians 3:3, “You could have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who’s your life seems, then you definately additionally will seem with him in glory.”
“We exist to make a lot of the greatness of Christ by the way in which we undergo the fading buildings of this world.”
And what about now? Colossians 1:13, “He has delivered us from the area of darkness and transferred us to the dominion of his beloved Son.” These Christians, you Christians, are already there — within the kingdom of Christ. The decisive switch of allegiance, of kingship, is over. You reside now underneath Christ’s supreme lordship. You at the moment are sojourners and exiles right here in Dallas, in America. And on this new kingdom, this new allegiance, this new lordship, Colossians 3:11 says, “Right here there may be not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; however Christ is all, and in all.”
3. What Is Our Objective?
What then is the aim of the Christian life? Colossians 1:18: “[Christ] is the start, the firstborn from the useless, that in every little thing he is perhaps preeminent.” Our function is to affix him in his function — that in every little thing he is perhaps preeminent.
Or to return to the place we began, the calling of all Christians is to enlarge the supreme lordship of Christ by the way in which we serve in subordinate lordships. Or to say it one other method, to make a lot of the greatness of Christ by the way in which we undergo the fading buildings of this world.
4. What Did Paul Say About Slavery?
There’s another step of preparation. Step one was, Who’s Christ? Second, who’re Christians? And third, what’s our function in life? The fourth preliminary clarification is that this: What does the broader lens reveal about Paul’s instructing on slavery to assist us get our bearings in Colossians 3:22?
First Timothy 1:9–10 says,
Perceive this, that the legislation isn’t laid down for the simply however for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners . . . the sexually immoral, males who observe homosexuality, enslavers [literally “man-stealers,” kidnappers for the sake of sale].
Nearly the complete basis of slavery in our personal nation was forbidden on this textual content: stealing individuals to promote them.
Galatians 3:28–29 says,
There’s neither Jew nor Greek, there may be neither slave nor free, there is no such thing as a female and male, for you might be all one in Christ Jesus. And in case you are Christ’s, then you might be Abraham’s offspring, heirs in response to promise.
Slave and free are united in Christ earlier than God and equal as fellow heirs of everlasting life.
First Corinthians 7:21–23:
Had been you a slave when referred to as? Don’t be concerned about it. (However should you can achieve your freedom, avail your self of the chance.) For he who was referred to as within the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when referred to as is a slave of Christ. You had been purchased with a value; don’t develop into slaves of males.
Superb! Each Christian slave is free. Each Christian freedman (together with slave masters) is a slave. No matter bondage you had been in — whoever owned you — Christ purchased you with blood. You could have one supreme Grasp and Lord: Christ.
I want I had time to take these and plenty of different texts and present how they collectively intestine the system of slavery whereas leaving in place in the intervening time the shell, the outward buildings, of slavery, in order that Paul nonetheless used the time period “slave” and “grasp.” However we don’t have time for that. So, I’ll sum it up in just a few sentences.
The New Testomony ordered human relationships in Christ in such a method as to rework the master-slave relationship into one thing so completely different from “proprietor” and “property” that what remained was now not recognizable as slavery within the conventional sense. To say it one other method, when the New Testomony directions to masters and slaves had been obeyed, what was left of the master-slave relationship was not a relationship of owner-property. The grasp is reworked from proprietor to at least one who’s owned by Christ alongside along with his slave. The slave is reworked from property to co-heir of Christ with the grasp.
That transformation would make slavery unrecognizable as slavery.
Lord Above All Lords
Now we’re prepared for our textual content in Colossians 3:22-4:1 — to see if my abstract of the principle level is de facto there: the calling of all Christians is to enlarge the supreme lordship of Christ by the way in which we serve in subordinate lordships.
The overarching factor right here that must be clarified — and impacts the way in which the complete paragraph sounds — is that the phrase for “grasp” and the phrase for “Lord” is identical phrase: kurios. So, let’s learn it that method, and I feel you’ll get the purpose.
Slaves, obey in every little thing those that are your earthly lords, not by means of eye-service, as people-pleasers, however with sincerity of coronary heart, fearing the Lord. No matter you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and never for males, figuring out that from the Lord you’ll obtain the inheritance as your reward. You might be serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer shall be paid again for the unsuitable he has carried out, and there’s no partiality. Lords, deal with your slaves justly and pretty, figuring out that you just even have a Lord in heaven. (Colossians 3:22–4:1)
What’s the purpose? The purpose is that earthly lords and earthly slaves, in Christ, are presupposed to form their lives decisively — their attitudes, their behaviors — by the supreme lordship of Jesus over each of them. The subordinate lordship isn’t decisive. And the not is de facto vital. Have a look at Colossians 3:23: “No matter you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not [not!] for males.” Work not on your earthly lord. It’s virtually as if the earthly lord doesn’t exist. So, the earthly lord says, “Go to the river and produce again water for tonight’s cooking.” And this earthly slave — from hearty sincerity, not man-pleasing — gladly runs off for the water. And Paul says he’s doing this not for the earthly lord.
What does that imply? It means that he’s so profoundly formed and ruled in his life by the superior lordship of Christ over all the main points of his life that his compliance with subordinate lordships is as if it had been compliance with Jesus and not to man. This can be a description of all of you Christians. You all reside in authority buildings — subordinate, earthly lordship buildings. It could possibly be child-parent, wife-husband, citizen-government, student-teacher, employee-employer, player-coach, church member–elders, choir member–choir director, corporal-sergeant, and so forth.
And this textual content is summoning us all to enlarge the supreme lordship of Christ by the way in which we serve in subordinate lordships. And meaning, in response to Colossians 3:23, “Work heartily, as for the Lord and never for males.” It’s a radically Christ-saturated life. It takes severely all relationships ordained by God and ascribes ultimacy and decisiveness to none of them. We adjust to all non-sinful directions from correct authorities with such a radical orientation on Jesus — above and behind that authority — that it’s as if our obedience had been to not any man however solely Christ. I’ll learn it once more: “Work heartily, as for the Lord and not for males.”
That’s superb freedom. “You suppose, earthly lord, that I’m obeying you. But it surely’s not what you suppose. You don’t have any last authority over me. I don’t do something you say merely since you say it. I’ve a Lord who’s infinitely stronger, infinitely wiser, infinitely extra satisfying, infinitely extra authoritative in my life than you. What I do, I do for his sake. You don’t have any final declare on me. I march to the beat of one other drummer. Should you inform me to do something that contradicts his will, it’s not going to occur. I’m in your service at his bidding. And I serve you the way in which I do as a result of he’s an infinitely larger Lord than you might be.” That’s radical Christian freedom inside submission to subordinate lordships (the place all of us reside).
Incentives for Our Service
Let’s pose one last query: What highly effective incentives does Paul give the slave (or all of us) to be that decisively certain to the superior lordship of Christ that we are able to serve in subordinate lordships with such radical exactness and freedom? What incentives have set this slave free from resentment and anger, and within the place of all that resentment put a want to be a glad and trustworthy servant? The place did that come from?
“Each Christian slave is free. Each Christian freedman (together with slave masters) is a slave.”
We all know from Colossians 2:14 that ringing within the ears of this earthly slave and this earthly lord — as they sit in church and take heed to this letter being learn — is the staggering actuality that Christ by his blood canceled all their money owed. They usually know that this unspeakable, undeserved kindness shapes every little thing they do, and the way they deal with different individuals — slave and lord. However that’s not what Paul mentions right here. He mentions two issues which can be constructed on that.
He mentions the concern of the Lord’s displeasure and hope for the Lord’s inheritance. Colossians 3:22: “Obey . . . your earthly [lords], not with eye-service, as individuals pleasers, however with sincerity of coronary heart, fearing the Lord.” And Colossians 3:23–24 says, “Work heartily, as for the Lord and never for males, figuring out that from the Lord you’ll obtain the inheritance as your reward.” Concern of the Lord’s displeasure. Hope for the Lord’s inheritance.
Does the concern of the Lord perform in your life this fashion — to extend your hope and make you free? When my oldest son was about eight years outdated, we went to go to a household who had an enormous German shepherd. It was virtually as tall as my son. Simply earlier than we walked within the entrance door, I requested my son to run to the automobile and get one thing I forgot. As he ran, this big canine loped up behind him with a low growl. He and I had been afraid. And my buddy Dick referred to as out to my son, “Oh, Karsten, you would possibly wish to simply stroll. He doesn’t prefer it when individuals run away from him. Simply put your arm round his neck and he’ll be high quality.”
I do consider that’s the way in which the concern of the Lord capabilities within the Christian’s life. God goals for us to place our arm round his neck. And he doesn’t prefer it after we run away to different guides, different helpers, different treasures. He growls to frighten us and wake us as much as the privilege and pleasure we’ve to stroll with God with our arm round his neck.
And when the concern of the Lord brings us again to God in Christ, what do we discover? Colossians 3:24: “From the Lord you’ll obtain the inheritance as your reward.” As you come house out of your silly wandering, he seems to be you within the eye and says, “You’re not my slave. You’re my son, and every little thing I personal, every little thing I’ve, is yours.” And with that all-satisfying assurance, we transfer into the fading buildings of this world and enlarge the supreme lordship of Christ by the way in which we gladly serve in these subordinate lordships.
