Christ Preeminent (Part Twenty-Six): Bought With a Price

Transcript

JRNT 48
February 25, 2024
Christ Preeminent (Part Twenty-Six): Bought with a Price
Colossians 3:22-4:1
Jesse Randolph


There are certain words, when we first encounter them in the Bible, they stand out, they grab our attention, they potentially even rattle us. That would include words like whoredom, a word used frequently in the Old Testament to describe Israel's spiritually wayward and adulterous ways. Or a word like drunkard, a word used in the New Testament in I Corinthians 6:10 to describe a category of individuals who will not one day inherit the kingdom of God. Then there is the word slave, doulos, a word which carries an exceptional amount of baggage in our post-1860s American context, but a word that is used over and over and over in the Scriptures to describe the follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now to our 21st century ears each of those words sounds so stark and so severe and, in a sense, they are in that they describe real life and real choices and real conditions. But what these words also convey are crystal clear insights into the mind of God as He has revealed Himself in His Word without any tainting or pollution or corruption by the hyper-psychologized, hyper-diagnosed, hypersensitive, hyper-woke powers that be of our day. Who would prefer that we call whoredom, night work or the world's oldest profession; who would prefer that we call drunkenness an addiction or hereditary; and who would prefer that we would just as soon eliminate that word slave entirely and replace it with something softer sounding like servant or employee or junior partner.

Well, our text for today is going to walk us right into a discussion of that last term I just mentioned, slave. We're not going to tiptoe around it, we're not going to apologize for it, we're not going to seek to adapt the Bible to fit us and to fit our needs so that the Word of God becomes more relatable or relevant to us today. Absolutely not. Rather, what we're going to do is let the eternal God of heaven and earth speak for Himself and to us through His Word on the subject of slaves and masters.

Turn with me in your Bible if you would to Colossians 3:22 and we're going to read all the way through verse 1 of chapter 4. God's Word reads, “Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done and that without partiality. Masters, grant to your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a master in heaven.” Today is going to mark the fourth and final installment in this little miniseries on the family that we've been in and in which we have explored how the Christian is to live in light of Christ's preeminence, not only in the halls of academia and not only in fending off false teachers and not only in body life in the local church but in the home. Back in Colossians 3:18 we saw the command Paul gave to Christian wives where he said, “Wives, be subject to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord.” Then in verse 19 he gave husbands this command, “Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them.” Then last week we saw the command to children, verse 20, “Children, be obedient to your parents in all things for this is well pleasing to the Lord.” Then we walked through that command to Christian fathers in verse 21, “Fathers, do not exasperate your children so that they will not lose heart.” To live in light of Christ's preeminence, then, means to live for Christ in your home, whether you live north of O Street or south of O Street, whether you live in the city or out in the country. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you are commanded by His Word to shine His light within your home.

Now up to this point I trust that we have all been tracking and able to follow along with what has been declared up here these past few weeks because we each have this inherent understanding of what each of those terms we've studied so far means. Wives, husbands, children, fathers. We're each able to pick up immediately on the relevance of those commands today to wives, to children, to husbands, to fathers because some of us fall into one of those categories or more than one of those categories and we can see inherently how timely and pertinent those commands are, even if they can be at times difficult to live out. But when we get to our text today a whole slew of questions begins to flood our minds. Slavery? How in the world can these verses be applicable to my life today? Didn't we have the emancipation Proclamation in this country in 1863? Didn't the territory of Nebraska outlaw slavery sometime around 1861? Should we be allowed to talk about slavery in church? Should that guy in the suit be talking about slaves and what in the world do slaves have to do with family matters or households? Well, we'll get there, we'll get to each of those questions and more as we work through the text this morning.

But right now, I want to mention that the title of this message is Bought with a Price, which admittedly I've lifted from an entirely different context in I Corinthians 6:20 where Paul, after telling the Corinthians that their bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, informed them that they were not their own but rather had been bought with a price. Of course, the purchase price that we've been bought with as believers, we were singing about it this morning, is the shed blood of Jesus Christ. He purchased us, He bought us with His own blood. But He didn't buy us and redeem us and rescue us from the slave market of sin so that we would go on living the way we once lived. He didn't pluck a few mud-covered hogs out of the pool of muck and filth that we were wallowing in just so that we would go right back to those pools of muck and filth. No, He bought us, and He freed us at the cost of His own blood so that we would walk in a new manner, in a new way, on a new path. Isn't that what we've seen throughout our study of the book of Colossians as a whole, this powerful little book? In fact, look back with me for a little survey of what we've seen so far and how the Christian life really is this transformed life, it really is one of a slave who has a new master. Look at Colossians 1:21 which says as Christians we “were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds.” But now, Colossians 1:22, we “are to be holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” You see the change there, the shift there. We have this call, going back to Colossians 1:10, to “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” As we “have received Christ Jesus the Lord,” Colossians 2:6, we are to “walk in Him,” and because, Colossians 3:1, we've “been raised up with Christ,” we are to “keep seeking the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Colossians 3:5 says we “consider the members of our earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and greed which amounts to idolatry.” We have put aside such things, Colossians 3:8, as “anger, wrath, malice, slander and abusive speech.” Instead, as “those who have been chosen of God,” Colossians 3:12, we are to be “holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another.” The “peace of Christ,” Colossians 3:15, is to “rule in our hearts;” the “word of Christ,” Colossians 3:16, “is to richly dwell in us.” Now in light of what He has already done for us, “whatever we do,” Colossians 3:17, “in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”

Those are some of the general concepts by way of reminder to help each of us recall that if you are a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are already a slave. You have been bought with a price, and in light of that steep purchase price paid by God the Father through the blood of God the Son you now have a real purpose in life which is to live faithfully for Him and living in light of Christ's preeminence. That's true whether you are a husband, a wife, a child, a father, and as we're going to see in our text for today, a slave or a master.

Speaking of slavery, let's go ahead and address it now. Take a look at the bookends of the text that we'll be in this morning, both Colossians 3:22 and Colossians 4:1. Look at 3:22, it says, “Slaves, in all things obey those who are your master on earth.” and then verse 1 of chapter 4 says, “Masters, grant to your slaves justice and fairness.” Do your Bibles have those terms in them? Slaves? Masters? That's what mine says, slaves and masters, meaning right there in this gathering in Colossae in Paul's day, the very gathering of believers that Paul was giving thanks for in Colossians 1:3, the very gathering of believers that Paul was praying for in Colossians 1:9, were slaves. Now we don't like that word, do we. We don't like that word, slaves. As students of American history, living on this side of the battle of Antietam and the Gettysburg Address and the 13th Amendment, no we don't; meaning what we're going to be going through this morning is going to be a helpful exercise as to what it means to be a faithful reader and interpreter of Scripture. Each of us is going to face the temptation at some point, especially when we come upon a passage like this one, to read our Bibles through American eyes, to place a stars and stripes filter over our reading of Scripture. When we see that word slave we recoil as though it is a misprint or as though it is an error, which is why you'll find many pastors who will not preach on this passage. Or they'll trip all over themselves to apologize for this passage, or they'll try to redefine this passage as to make it all about employees or employers as though Paul had W-2s and paychecks in mind here. Well, we need to take our red, white and blue goggles off as we come to this text and in doing so, we need to recognize that while in the United States slavery was in many cases undergirded with racial prejudice and discrimination, that wasn't the case in the Colossae of Paul's day. Rather, in the Roman Empire at this time slavery was not racially motivated, it was economically motivated as individuals of various colors and ethnicities and nationalities were captured as prisoners of war or who had experienced some sort of crushing financial loss or who couldn't pay off a debt and either they became enslaved or enslaved themselves. As they did so they became part of that household to which they were now attached. But note that though the slaves of Paul's day were considered to be part of their household, hence their inclusion in this part of this letter, they weren't free. They weren't even considered in many cases to be fully functional moral agents. Instead, they were deemed property, or the legal term is chattels, meaning they could be readily bought or sold. They weren't considered to be someone, rather they were considered something economic means of production like a horse or an ox or a rake or a shovel. Now these realities about the nature of slavery in Paul's day make it all the more striking and all the more unusual that in his letter here to the Colossians he would devote as much time as he does to slaves. Recall, there is one verse to wives, there is one verse to husbands, there is one verse to children, there is one verse to fathers, and then he gives five verses to the master/slave relationship. That should be a helpful reminder to each one of us here that the grace of God reaches down to which men? All men. Titus 2:11 says, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,” no matter how low or menial their earthly state might be.

Getting back to it here in the final few verses of Colossians 3 and the first verse of Colossians 4, we're going to see that the slave, notwithstanding his obvious limitations and obvious restrictions, was now free to live out his role faithfully. In like manner the master, notwithstanding his obvious privileges and his obvious advantages was now free to do the same. Both had been bought, both had been bought with a price, remember we're in the context of Christian relationships here, and having been bought they were each now freed to live out their respective roles. We have two points here this morning. First, we're going to explore The Freedom that Christ Bought for Slaves and the simple second point is we're going to look at The Freedom Christ Bought for Masters.

Let's start with The Freedom Christ Bought for Slaves. We're going to spend more time here because we have more territory to cover, four verses on slaves, one on masters. Let's start again in verse 22 where it says, “Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done and that without partiality.” Now this is not the only time that we see Paul addressing slaves in a context of Christian believers. In fact, go with me over to Ephesians 6 which is our companion passage to the text today. Ephesians 6, we're going to see some very, very similar language. Look at Ephesians 6:5 which says, “Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in the sincerity of your heart as to Christ. Not by way of eyeservice as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. With good will render service as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord whether slave or free. And masters, do the same things to them and give up threatening, knowing that both their master and yours is in heaven and there is no partiality with Him.” He goes on, Paul does, to say similar words to slaves and masters in I Timothy 6. Why don't you go over there to I Timothy 6 with me where we are going to see more words addressed to Christian slaves in this time in history. I Timothy 6:1-2, it says, “All who are under the yoke as slaves are to regard their own masters as worthy of all honor so that the name of God and our doctrine will not be spoken against. Those who have believers as their masters must not be disrespectful to them because they are brethren, but must serve them all the more because those who partake of the benefit are believers and beloved. Teach and preach these principles.” One more, over in the book of Titus, Titus 2:9. Paul here says to Titus, “Urge bond-slaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing. Not argumentative, not pilfering but showing all good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect.”

Now it's worth noting, we can go back to Colossians now, that Paul especially in the Ephesians passage and the Colossians passage chooses to address slaves directly in the first place. It is astounding that he is addressing slaves because again in the Roman world of Paul's day a slave was thought of as having as much moral significance and capability as a plow or a cart that was being hauled behind an ox. But not to Paul. The apostle here, the Apostle Paul saw slaves in the Colossian household for what they were, morally responsible, divinely accountable image bearers. Not animals, not machinery, not tools, but rational, moral human beings with a conscience, a spirit, and the ability to develop and cultivate relationships not only with their earthly masters, but if they were Christians, with their ultimate master, the Lord Himself. The liberals will hate it when guys like me say this, but simply by virtue of the fact that he was addressing these slaves directly like he was in the first place shows that Paul was actually imparting to the slaves of his day a measure of respect and dignity that nobody else was giving them. Nobody else was writing to their toasters or to their ox carts back in those days. That's how slaves were viewed. But Paul here addresses them personally, making a direct appeal to them, knowing who they are.

Not only did Paul address these slaves in Colossae as divinely created image bearers who had intrinsic worth and dignity, as we're going to see as we work through these final verses of Colossians 3; he viewed them, he addressed them as free men. Though it didn't look this way to the watching world, these slaves there in Colossae were actually now free. They were free from the penalty of their sin, they were free from the power and the shackles of their sin, they were free to live out their roles as slaves faithfully for their ultimate master, the Lord Jesus Christ. I have marked out from our text here seven ways the slaves in Colossae, having been bought with a price, were now free. We'll work through these one by one as we make our way through the text.

First, these slaves had been Freed from the shackles of sin. As we've seen in our last few messages which have centered on the home and the family, as Paul addressed each member of the family here in Colossians, he is writing from the standpoint with the assumption that these families are made up of Christians. His commands to wives were to Christian wives. As he wrote to husbands, he is assuming he is writing to Christian husbands. Last week we saw when he is addressing those children, he is thinking he is addressing Christian children. As he wrote to fathers, he had in mind Christian fathers. The same is true in our text, as he writes to slaves, he has Christian slaves in mind. What was and what is the first and chief trait of any follower of the Lord Jesus Christ? They are His slaves, His douloi. Paul himself called himself a slave of Christ. He did so in his introduction, for instance, to Philippians 1:1, and Titus 1:1. Paul referred to Epaphras, the Colossian pastor who was there to visit Paul in Rome as slave. In Colossians 4:12, just down the page, he says, “Epaphras who is one of your number, a bond-slave of Jesus Christ sends you, his greetings.” That word for bond-slave there is doulos, slave. Jesus Christ Himself took the form of a slave in His incarnation, an event in which He did not in any way divest Himself of His deity but rather robed Himself with humanity. Philippians 2:5-7 says, “Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who although He existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant.” That word is doulos, slave. So for the human slaves here at Colossae, the one who was writing them, Paul, referred to himself as a slave; the Colossian pastor who was visiting Paul on their behalf, Epaphras, was called a slave; and the very One in whom they had put their hope and trust, the Lord Jesus Christ, modeled the humble servitude of a slave when He put on humanity when He came to this earth the first time. Because of their trust in Christ, their ultimate master, the slaves in Colossae to whom Paul was writing here, though they once in a previous life had been enslaved to sin, they were now slaves of righteousness.

In fact, why don't you go over with me to Romans 6 where we will see this principle of trading masters, once being slaves to sin but now being slaves to righteousness. Romans 6:17, it says, “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin you became slaves of righteousness. I'm speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness,” that's the old man, “so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.” So, though these Colossian slaves had not been delivered from human bondage, hence Paul addressing them here as slaves, they had been delivered from the bondage of their sin. Physically they had limited freedom, maybe no freedom at all, but spiritually they had already been freed, freed from the shackles of sin, freed to pursue righteousness, freed to live under Christ's gentle yoke, freed to serve Him, freed to live out Colossians 3:17 in the context of their earthly master/slave relationship, freed to live out this command to do in word or deed all in the name of the Lord Jesus, freed to echo the words of Romans 14:8: “For if we live we live for the Lord, or if we die we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.” So, the slaves Paul is addressing here in verse 22 have been freed from sin. That's our first one.

Next, we're going to see that these slaves, here is our second one, were now Free to obey. Look at the next part of verse 22. After addressing them as slaves we see this command. “In all things obey those who are your masters on earth.” Now the command there is obey. That's another one of these present active imperative verbs which again is not merely a command to be followed, but a command to be continually followed, a command to be regularly followed. Colossian slaves as Christian slaves were to be in this posture of obedience not only because this is what was expected of them by their earthly masters but more importantly it's what their heavenly master, the Lord Jesus, expected of them. Just like a child, up the page in verse 20, was to be obedient to their parents in all things, slaves were given this virtually identical command: “in all things obey those who are your masters on earth.” Now that phrase “masters on earth” is an interesting one because the literal translation is masters according to the flesh, meaning a slave's master was his master only in human terms, his master here on earth only. The slave's master was not the master of his soul or the master of his eternity. Only his ultimate master, Jesus Himself, could claim that title. In fact, our Lord used words just like that in Matthew 10:28 where He says, “Do not fear those who can kill the body but are unable to kill the soul.” That would be an apt description for an earthly master. But then the Lord goes on to say, “rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell,” which would be an appropriate summary of the power and the ability of the Lord Himself. In other words when Paul here said in verse 22, “obey those who are your masters on earth,” he is actually taking a subtle swipe at the limited power of earthly masters because built into this language was this reminder to these Colossian slaves that they had another master who was above all to whom not only they but their earthly masters would one day give an account. Note now the scope of this command given to slaves. Again, just like children who are to be obedient to their parents in all things, in a similar way, verse 22, slaves were to “in all things obey those who are your masters on earth.” Meaning whether the task assigned was pleasant or unpleasant, whether the master who gave the command was saved or unsaved, whether the master who gave the command was reasonable or unreasonable the slaves were to obey. It's exactly, by the way, what I Peter 2:18 says. It says, “Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle but also to those who are unreasonable.” The point is the Christian slave was to obey. He was not at liberty, because he had no liberty to choose when and to whom he would be obedient. As with the other members of the Colossian household, surely there were exceptions to this blanket rule, situations in which a master was coaxing or compelling a slave to sin. Surely those would all have to be worked out on an individual basis. But here Paul is no more interested in exploring the limitations of a slave's obedience than he was in exploring possible exceptions to a child's obedience to their parents or a wife's obligation, frankly, to submit to her husband. Paul's focus here, rather, was on portraying the slave's obligation to obey in this entirely different light, as they came to realize that their earthly lords, their masters in the flesh were just that and only that and that the ultimate Lord, our Lord, the true Lord was Jesus Christ Himself.

As we move on in the passage, after giving the slaves at Colossae this ultimate command to obey, he next inserts this important qualifier as to what obedience was to look like. This will be our third mark of the slave's freedom. They were now Free to abandon less than faithful forms of service and obedience. That's like the longest point ever. They were free to abandon less than faithful forms of service and obedience. Look at the next part of verse 22. After telling the slaves to obey their masters on earth, he then says, “not with external service as those who merely please men.” We'll take those one at a time. First, slaves were not to serve their masters, it says, with external service. The word there is ophthalmodoulia. Ophthalmo, hear that part, sounds like ophthalmologist who service and work on which part of the human body? The eye. The Christian slave was not to give mere external service, literally eye-service. The Christian slave was to do more than mere eye-service, meaning he wasn't to play this game of only to be appearing to be working hard and diligently when his master's eyes were upon him. He wasn't merely trying to be seen to be serving, appearing to be obedient, slacking off when the master's eyes were turned in a different direction. No, the quality of his obedience wasn't conditioned on whether or not he was being watched, under the watchful eye of his master. The slave was faithful in performing his duties in all things all the time.

Not only was the slave not to be an eye-servant, he was not to be, it says, a man-pleaser, “as those who merely please men.” The follower of Christ, no matter if he is a slave or a free man, a Jew or a Greek, a male or a female, is not to be a man-pleaser but instead is to be a Christ-pleaser. In the context of the slaves here in Colossae that means they weren’t to work with ulterior motives, they weren't to go through the motions of service in a calculated fashion, they weren't to fawn before their earthly masters in order to gain favor, they weren't ultimately even to seek approval from their masters in the ultimate sense. Rather in serving their masters they were always to consider that the service they were performing was for the ultimate master, the Lord Himself. They were to live out Galatians 1:10 in their practices. Galatians 1:10 says, “For am I now seeking the favor of men or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still striving to please men I would not be,” here's our word, “a bondservant,” a doulos, a slave, “of Christ.”

All right as we continue to march on through verse 22, we see yet another way that Christian slaves in Colossae, having been bought with a price were now free to serve Christ in an upright and godly manner. Here is our fourth one, they were Free to work for their masters with pure and reverent hearts. Look at the last few words of verse 22. After cautioning against external service and cautioning against man-pleasing, he says we are to serve, slaves were to serve “with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.” Now while the average slave in Colossae might have been tempted to obey in fewer than all things or might have been tempted to focus only on their masters on earth either by way of external service or man-pleasing, they were instead commanded here to obey. To do so, you see it there, “with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.” Now that first one, sincerity of heart, that means very simply singularity of heart, a singular purpose of the heart, singleness of heart. The idea essentially is that the slave's allegiance is not pulling him in one direction toward the Lord Jesus Christ and then pulling him in a different direction toward his earthly master. Rather, all that he does is with this singularly devoted heart and mind which seeks to please only and exclusively the Lord. We see that idea picked up in II Corinthians 5:9 which says, “Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him,” to the Lord. Or II Corinthians 11:3 says, we are to “have a simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.” That's describing a singleness of mind, a sincerity of heart. Here's how John Newton, a man by the way who was not uninformed about slavery, having himself been a slave trader in a previous life, summarized this idea of serving with sincerity of heart. He wrote this very poetically.


He said:
Now Lord I would be Thine alone.
Come take possession of Thine own.
For Thou hast set me free,
Released from Satan’s hard command.
See all my powers waiting stand,
To be employed by Thee.

Now sifting through the thees and the thous, that first line, Now Lord I would be Thine alone, that really drives the point home here of Colossians 3:22 when Paul says that slaves were to serve with sincerity of heart. Then at the end of verse 22 Paul gives these final words that the slaves were to be serving while fearing the Lord. They were to be performing for their masters, serving their masters, obeying their masters with sincerity of heart as they feared the Lord, meaning mere obedience was not enough. The manner of obedience was also important. Their obedience was to be born of this right and reverent fear of the Lord. Not a fear of judgment, these are Christian slaves remember, and we know from I John 4:18 that “perfect love casts out all fear,” but godly fear rooted in the knowledge and the nature of God's character, rooted in this appropriate awe brought about by knowing who God is, which naturally brings about this deeper love for Him and trust in Him and more faithful submission to His will and that way more consecrated service for Him.

In fact, we see this type of godly fear of the Lord and how it is linked to faithful service to the Lord both in the Old and the New Testaments. In the Old Testament Deuteronomy 10:12 would be a reference. Deuteronomy 10:12 says, “Now Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” Joshua 24:14 says, “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth.” I Samuel 12:24 says, “Only fear the Lord and serve Him in truth with all your heart for consider what great things He has done for you.” You hear that link between the fear of the Lord and service to the Lord. That carries over to the New Testament as well. We see in the New Testament II Corinthians 7:1. It says, “Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” Or I Peter 2:17 says. “Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.” For many slaves in Paul's day, including those he is addressing here in Colossae, fear was a daily reality, it was a part of their life; and that's because many masters during this time ruled over their slaves with fear and intimidation, with that proverbial iron fist. But what Paul is impressing on these slaves in this city at this time is that they were called to an even higher fear, not one that is ascribed to human masters but rather to the ultimate master, their master, the Lord.

As we move into verse 23, we're still on this subject of slaves and here we see Paul giving the slaves in this city another command, one which showcases this fifth freedom they now have. Having been bought with a price they were now Free from halfway obedience and halfway compliance. Look at verse 23. It says, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men.” Now this is one of those verses that has appeared on countless bumper stickers and Stanley mugs and whiteboards at work and post-its and T-shirts and Facebook walls as countless Christians have sought to remind themselves and those around them that we as believers are to be working heartily as for the Lord. But we can't lose sight of the context here. The hard work that Paul had in view here in his original context was the hard work that was to be performed by slaves as they performed the various tasks and duties that their masters assigned to them. Paul didn't give these words to the Colossians with the aim of them having them end up one day on an inspirational page-a-day calendar. No, he was writing to slaves, real slaves who had made a profession of faith in Christ. As a way to encourage them and to spur them on in their slavery he challenges them here by saying, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily,” you could almost add the word slave, “as for the Lord rather than for men.” Now do these words have potentially broader application to us today? Can the high school junior use this passage for inspiration as they study for their chemistry test this week? Can you moms use this passage for motivation to tend well your homes this week? Can the Christian husbands and dads and single guys in the room here use this as motivation for swinging that hammer faithfully this week and showing up to the office this week? Sure. One of the reasons you can legitimately lean upon this passage, even though in its original context it is directed to slaves, is that this verse is ultimately built on what we saw just a few verses above in Colossians 3:17. “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” In other words, we are all called as Christians, not just slaves but all believers, to do all that we do for the Lord and in the name of the Lord.

But back to verse 23. It says, “Whatever you do.” Again, that's an intentionally sweeping, comprehensive term and then look at what comes next. He says, “Do your work heartily.” Now that word heartily, the Greek phrase is ek psuche, meaning from the soul. From the soul is the literal text here, so what Paul is saying is whatever you do, slaves, do it from your soul, from deep down with your purest, most heartfelt motivations and affections. No matter how obnoxious or tedious or laborious you may find the work to be, do it. Do it heartily, do it from your soul. No more mechanical obedience, no more half-hearted labor. Instead, the slave was to be dedicated and give wholehearted service, and to do so from their soul. As we move on to verse 23, we see the reason as to why the slave's labor was to be performed in such a heartfelt, soul-stirring manner. The reason is its work done for the Lord rather than for men. “Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men.” All of the slave's work no matter how menial or taxing it might have been, no matter how arduous or light it might have been, no matter how distasteful or pleasant it might have been, it was given this dimension of dignity because it is being performed for the Lord Jesus Christ. The slave's labors, in other words, were sacred work, all of it. It was all sacred work because it was being done for the Savior.

Harry Ironside was the pastor of Moody Memorial Church in Chicago in the 1930s and '40s. He had many other roles and wrote commentaries and books as well, but he was a pastor at Moody in Chicago in the '30s and '40s and Ironside once infamously told a story of the housekeeper, a Christian housekeeper who was asked, how did she know that she truly had become a Christian. How did she know that she truly was saved. Her answer was, now I sweep under the rugs. Not I sweep under the rug, but I get under the rugs, and I sweep what is under the rugs. That's a picture of someone working heartily as for the Lord rather than for men. Not engaging in eyeservice, not engaging in people-pleasing but instead working out her own salvation in fear and in trembling in the nooks and the crannies, under the rugs of her life, knowing it is only the Lord who will see what she is doing. That's the idea here.

Moving on to verse 24 we move on to another mark, a sixth mark of the slave who has been bought with a price and the newfound freedom they have. As we are about to see, they are Free to pursue eternal rewards. Look at verse 24, “Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance.” Now those words are profound because remember we are talking about slaves here, and those slaves were considered a part of one's household. At the same time, we've already seen, they were considered property. They didn't own anything, they didn't legally possess anything, they weren't paid anything, and they certainly weren't entitled to receive any sort of earthly inheritance. In fact, elsewhere in the New Testament this clear distinction is drawn between sons and slaves in the spiritual sense, like Romans 8:15 which says, “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons, by which we cry out Abba Father.” So, there is already this distinction written out throughout God's Word of this distinction between sons and slaves. The way it worked was that only the son, not the slave, was entitled to any sort of inheritance, which is why Paul would say elsewhere in Galatians 4:17, “Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son.” See the distinction, they are different. “And if a son then an heir through God.” Well, here in Colossians 3:24 Paul says it doesn't matter. A reward was coming for the slave, not an earthly reward but a heavenly one, the “reward of the inheritance,” it says. It's going to come from the Lord. That's referring to that eternal inheritance which every believer has, that inheritance which I Peter 1:4 calls “that imperishable inheritance, that undefiled inheritance that will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.” This is the hope laid up in heaven that Paul spoke of earlier in Colossians 1:5. This is that inheritance of the saints in light which Paul spoke of in Colossians 1:12. In other words the Christian slaves there in Colossae, though they had no earthly inheritance to look forward to, they had a far more valuable and heavenly inheritance awaiting them, one that would come with rewards. II Corinthians 5 speaks of the judgment seat of Christ and those Christians being recompensed for the deeds done within the body. That's the idea here, they would be recompensed, they would be rewarded for faithful service. The slaves here, their ultimate reward would not come from their earthly master but rather from their heavenly master, the Lord Himself, who we see at the end of verse 24 is the One they were serving. Look at Colossians 3:24, the last sentence there, “It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.” See the Colossian slaves, they weren't serving two masters. In fact, were they to try to do so, they would be running afoul of what Jesus Himself said in the Sermon on the Mount on a different topic in Matthew 6:24 where He says, “No one can serve two masters.” No, the slaves Paul is addressing here, they were serving one Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ who as their heavenly master would take note of His slave's faithfulness and reward him.

Now last on the subject of slaves we turn to verse 25 where we see the other side of the coin of verse 24 and this seventh mark of the slave's freedom which is this: just as the slave is free to pursue eternal rewards, he is also Free to recognize that unfaithful service will be dealt with by the Lord. Unfaithful service will be dealt with by the Lord. Look at verse 25 where it says, “For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.” Now that's quite the sharp left turn because Paul has gone immediately from verse 24 where he is talking about rewards to now seemingly talking about consequences in verse 25. What is going on here? Why this sudden shift? Well, we get a clue a little bit later in Colossians. Just look down the page at Colossians 4:7, we'll be here in a couple weeks, where it says, “As to all my affairs Tychicus our beloved brother and faithful servant and fellow bondservant in the Lord will bring you information. For I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts. And with him Onesimus our faithful and beloved brother who is one of your numbers. They will inform you about the whole situation here.” So Onesimus, that name ought to sound familiar. Who was Onesimus? Why don't you turn with me to the book of Philemon, which will tell us more about Onesimus. The book of Philemon tells us that Onesimus was a runaway slave. Philemon was his master and Onesimus had escaped and run away to Rome, and while in Rome Onesimus had somehow ended up with Paul who was imprisoned there in Rome at the very time, he is writing the book of Colossians. Apparently, it is through Paul's ministry to him that Onesimus gets saved. Paul then writes this letter to Philemon, the Christian slave-owner, the one who owned Onesimus, making an appeal to Philemon to bring back Onesimus, to receive back his runaway but now converted slave and we see Paul's words of appeal in verse 10 of Philemon. He says, “I appeal to you for my child Onesimus whom I have begotten in my imprisonment.” It is obvious that Paul cared for Onesimus since he says in verse 12, I have sent him back to you in person, that is, sending my very heart.” It is also obvious that Paul viewed Onesimus as a new creature in Christ, as a brother in the Lord. Look at verse 16, where he calls him, refers to Onesimus as “no longer a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother.” So that's some of the context. Now we go back over to Colossians 4 where Paul there says that he is sending Tychicus back to Colossae to deliver this letter, the letter we are working through, Colossians, and with Tychicus would be “Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother who is one of your number.” Now the practice in these days was that a letter like this, the letter to the Colossians, would be read to the entire assembly of believers in the city. What this means is that when this letter to the Colossians was delivered to the church at Colossae, sitting there, hearing it read would have been Onesimus, this former runaway slave, this now new convert who was about to be reunited with his earthly master, Philemon. He would have heard read out loud for all to hear verse 25, “For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done and that without partiality.” Have you ever thought to yourself, it sure seems like the pastor is preaching at me this morning. Onesimus would have had that thought in this context as this verse was read out loud in Colossae. He had done wrong, Onesimus had, by running away from Philemon in the first place. He clearly was not obeying his earthly master when as an unbeliever he ran off to Rome; and now about to be reunited with his master he would receive, verse 25, the consequences of the wrong which he had done. Whatever that looked like in terms of discipline in Philemon's home. Not only that but going forward he and any other slaves who claimed to be followers of Jesus Christ would receive the consequences of losing out on eternal rewards for any further acts of disobedience they committed as slaves. That loss that they would receive, we see at the end of verse 25, would be without partiality, meaning God would not favor or show partiality to a disobedient slave just because he was lowly or of a lowly earthly state. No, disobedience is disobedience, and the Lord is going to deal with it and mete out consequences at the appropriate time.

All right, we've worked through seven aspects through which freedom was purchased for slaves and how they were now able to function in the manner in which they were called. Now as we turn to Colossians 4, we come to this single and straightforward command given to masters. Again, here is our preaching point if you are taking notes, this would be the Freedom Christ Bought for Masters. Look at Colossians 4:1, “Masters, grant to your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you, too, have a master in heaven.” Once again Paul doesn't mince words. We have this very clear, very straightforward command of this final group of the members of the Colossian household, masters. “Masters,” it says, were to grant, to give, to show, you see it there, “justice and fairness.” Now both of those terms are libel to being greatly abused in our day, are they not? I mean, justice is demanded by just about every spiritually dead rebel who is looking for a cause today, whether it be justice for George Floyd or justice for endangered rhinos, or justice for trans youth, or justice for Hollywood actors, and fairness. Fairness is being demanded by every employee who thinks they deserve a raise and every homeowner who has paid taxes or every citizen who has paid taxes or every sibling who thinks that they are not getting a fair shake from mom or dad. Because these terms are so frequently abused and misunderstood, we really need to get our terms straight here. What did Paul mean in his context when he says that masters were to grant their slaves justice and fairness? Well, for a master to grant his slaves justice meant that his actions toward his slaves were to correlate with the righteous, upright and just character of God Himself. He wasn't to abuse his slaves; he is the Christian master here. He wasn't to place his slaves under undue duress or fear, he wasn't to uncharitably threaten his slaves. In fact, that last one is covered by Ephesians 6:7 which we read through earlier which says that masters were to give up threatening. Rather, the master was to model godly character, godly conduct to his slaves. The masters that Paul is writing to here are Christian masters and so they are to reflect in their conduct toward their slaves in this time that they had truly been made new creatures in Jesus Christ. What about fairness? How was a master in these days to demonstrate fairness toward his slaves? Of course, many in the liberation theology camp will say, well, to be truly fair to the slaves he should have emancipated them, he should have freed them. But that's not what Paul has in view here. Paul was a gospel preacher; Paul wasn't a social justice warrior. Rather, what he appeared to have in mind here was something like equity, meaning providing similar treatment and similar rewards for similar work performed. Not showing favoritism for one slave over another equally situated slave, which again is modeling the character of God Himself. Romans 2:11 says, “God shows no partiality.”

Why? Why should the Christian master show Christian slaves that type of treatment? Why should he show his slaves justice and fairness? The answer is given at the end of verse 1, “knowing that you too have a master in heaven.” That master of course is Jesus Christ Himself, the One who Colossians 3:1 says, “sits at the right hand of God;” the One who we are to keep seeking,” Colossians 3:2, as we “set our mind on things that are above.” In other words, Christian masters there in Colossae, they answered to a higher master, Christ Himself, meaning that Christian masters were themselves slaves. They were slaves. So much for pride, so much for posturing, so much for wielding authority and waving the big stick around. Even masters who in many ways had the upper hand and from an earthly vantage point definitely had the upper hand as they had power over their slaves, they were still to ultimately recognize that they were, like their slaves, subject to the lordship of Jesus Christ and needed to conduct themselves accordingly.

We're about to land the plane on this sermon on slaves and masters. I can't wait to hear how you all talked about what you heard in church this morning. I want to know about slaves. Well as you have likely picked up on by now, I've gone through great pains in working through the text this morning to keep our feet planted in the original context of our text. This text is about real first century slaves in Colossae and real masters in that same city. I've resisted the urge to go down that path as many preachers will throw out the original context of the master/slave relationship we see described here and make it about employers and employees and W-2s and all that sort of thing. This passage isn't about employers and employees, it's about masters and slaves. Now with that being said, and because I'm comfortable that we've labored to lay out the original context and the setting here, there is no doubt that there are certain timeless and transcendent truths that we can bottle up from this passage and pour out into our lives. For instance, do we today need to be reminded, each one of us here, that we as followers of Jesus Christ are slaves. No longer slaves of sin but as we saw from Romans 6, slaves of righteousness? Do we today need to be reminded that we are to obey those authorities that the Lord has placed over us, whether that be church leaders or government leaders or parents? Do we need to be reminded today that we are to be pursuing the right heart motivations when we obey? Not obeying by way of eyeservice, not obeying by way of man-pleasing or people-pleasing, but instead with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Do we need to be reminded that in all we do, that whatever we do, whether we're working on a term paper or an estimate or a sermon or on those never-ending piles of laundry that we are to be working heartily? Literally from the soul as for the Lord rather than for man. Do we need to be reminded even today that there will be ultimate rewards for our faithful service to Christ, which will not come in this life but will come in the life to come? Do we need to be reminded even today that there will not only be eternal rewards for obedience but eternal consequences, loss of rewards, for disobedience? Today do we need to be reminded that in all of our life it is the Lord Christ whom we serve? What do you think? Do we need to be reminded of those truths? Are those truths that minister to us today? They minister to me; I need those reminders. I think we all do.

This passage that we've been working through this morning reminds us of the truth of II Timothy 3:16-17 that all Scripture, even Scripture about slaves and masters and 1st century Colossae, “all Scripture is inspired by God, profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that the man of God might be equipped, ready for every good work.” Take the truths that we have worked through this morning and go out from here today as good and faithful slaves, slaves of Jesus Christ, remembering that you have been bought with a price and so now you have this task, this lifelong task of glorifying God in your body and indeed with your entire life.

Let's pray. God, I thank You for the timelessness and the richness of Your Word, that we can come into a church gathering like this, learn from a text like this one that seems to have such a unique, distinct context, 1st century slavery existing in an entirely different culture and different part of the world so many years ago. But there is still profit, truth that needs to be worked through us and worked through our lives as we consider how we serve You as Your slaves, God. God, I thank You for the privilege that we who have believed in Christ can call ourselves not only sons but acknowledge that we are slaves. Everyone on this planet is a slave. They are either a slave to sin that shackles them and restrains them and compels them, or they are going to be a slave of righteousness, having been made first a slave of Christ. So God, I pray that we who believe, we who have trusted, that we would revel in the fact that we are slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ, cast aside any cultural baggage that goes along with that claim and that title and wear it proudly, to know that we have a faithful Master, a good Master, One whose yoke is easy and His burden is light. God, I pray for anyone here this morning who does not know You, that though they think they are free, though they think they are going to get off, though they think that they will not one day face You the ultimate judge and master of all, help them to see that they are enslaved, they are enslaved to their sin and their sin deserves and requires and one day will face punishment. God, I pray that they would see the glory of the cross of Jesus Christ, that they would throw all of their sin on that cross, that they would subject themselves to Your lordship. That they would turn from their sin and believe upon the name of Jesus and be rescued, their sin put upon the cross, their sin put upon His shoulders so that they can live from this day forward faithfully as slaves; with the hope of eternal life secured and the ability now to live for You. God, thank You for the privilege of gathering, thank You for the privilege of studying. May this be information that we don't just store up and let it just stay there stagnant, but this be information that we live out faithfully in service to You. In Jesus' name, amen.