Well as the Lord may be gracious
to us, once again we'll turn to the epistle of Paul to the
Ephesians and consider a few verses in chapter 6. So the epistle
of Paul to the Ephesians, chapter 6, and we'll read from verses
5 to verse 9. Ephesians 6 reading from verse
5 to 9 Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters
according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness
of your heart, as unto Christ. Not with eye service, as men
pleases, but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God
from the heart, with good will, doing service as to the Lord,
and not to men, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man
doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond
or free. The G Masters do the same things
unto them, forbearing threatening, knowing that your Master also
is in heaven. Neither is there respect for
persons with him." Well in these first nine verses
to the epistle of the Ephesians we really pick up what we term
practical Christianity. And last Friday We took the first
four verses which spoke about children and also about fathers
and the relationship of the two and the reason why children should
indeed obey their parents and how a father should not provoke
their children to anger but should bring them up in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord. So this evening we'll move from
children and fathers to servants. and masters. And you may of course
think, well, this is not very spiritual, but it's all part
of the Word of God and we should not therefore ignore such truths
as this. Quite clearly the Lord, in His
grace and mercy, ordered the Apostle Paul to write these words
and therefore we should read them and we should meditate upon
them and take them to our heart. And as the Apostle addresses
servants here, in actual fact in the time when this was written,
they really referred more to slaves than to what we understand
today as servants. And if we think of it perhaps
as slaves, it gives us really a better and a deeper understanding
of what these words truly mean, because we tend to think that
slaves hate their masters they hate the position that they're
in and of course historically that's been very true and very
sadly true and of course even today in our nation as we see
in reading the press there are those people who are still operating
as slaves very sadly but here we have this statement from the
apostle and he says servants be obedient to them that are
your masters according to the flesh." So therefore whatever
position, whether we are a slave or whether we are a servant or
a combination of both, we are to be obedient to them that are
our masters according to the flesh. We are to do what they
desire us to do, if it's right and in accordance with the Word
of God. Clearly, if it is something which
is illegal, something immoral, then we should not follow that
position. But if it is right, in accordance
with the Word of God, indeed, as the Apostle says, as unto
Christ, then we should be concerned to follow such a pattern. Servants, be obedient to them
that are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling,
in singleness of your heart as unto Christ. That means that
we should have a right motive. We shouldn't have a disobedient
spirit. We should have and pray for a
spirit to be willing to be a servant and to obedient to our masters. Then we should carry out our
actions fearfully and with trembling in singleness of our heart. not
to be double-hearted, not to pretend in one way what we might
think is right and then operate in a completely different way. But we are to operate with fear
and trembling in singleness of your heart as unto Christ. And that surely sets the standard. as unto Christ. I'm sure if we
are a true believer we should desire to do everything as the
Word of God instructs us, as unto Christ, as the wonderful
and blessed example He sets before us in His Word, when we are clearly
told He did His Father's will, it was His joy, it was His pleasure
to obey his father to obey his heavenly master. And so the apostle
goes on and says, not with eye service. So what that really
means is, if someone's looking at us, if our master is watching
us, then perhaps we're more careful what we do. But it says here,
not with eye service. So therefore we are to carry
out the instructions which we are placed upon us to do, and
to not check and think, well, is our master watching us? Because
if he is, we've got to do it very carefully and very rightly.
If the master is not watching us, if we do not have the eye
service, we are still to do it very honestly and very rightly. And as he says, not with eye
service as men please us. Not doing it just to please men. but to do it as unto the Lord,
as the servant of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. What a difference it is between
the mind and the heart. What a blessing it is when God
enables us to believe with our heart. What a blessing it is
when we are able to do things willingly in accordance with
the will of God from our heart. and not grudgingly, but with
a true, right, honest desire to please our masters. And so,
not with eye service, as men pleases, but as a servant of
Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. And this is,
of course, the will of God, to do that which we are instructed
to do, if it's right, and not to please ourselves. The Blessed Lord, as we are told,
he pleased not himself. It's very easy to please ourselves. It's very easy to do those things
which we think are right and we want to do. But the Word of
God instructs us very carefully, not with our service as men-pleasers,
but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God with our
hearts. really expands this a bit, he
says, with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men. With good will, that means a
good grace upon our spirit and not to do it grudgingly and not
to do it half-heartedly but to do it as unto the Lord, as the
servants of Christ. Of course this refers naturally
to our on natural life, but it also must have a reference to
those who preach the Gospel. And it's a good instruction for
us to realise we are to do this with a good will and to count
it a privilege and a blessing to do this service and to do
it as unto the Lord, as servants of Christ with good will doing
service as to the Lord and not to men. You will see the Apostle
again and again directs us to doing it in accordance with the
will of God and as the Lord instructs us and the Lord directs us and
not unto men. With good will doing service
as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatsoever good
thing any man doeth the same shall he receive of the Lord,
whether he be bond or free. So whether we are a slave or
whether we are a free person, it makes no difference. We are
to do it in the same way. You may remember that Peter,
when he was being instructed by the Lord, in reading the Acts
of the Apostles, Peter opened his mouth and said, Of a truth
I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. The Lord doesn't
look on the outside, He looks at our heart. And what a blessing
it is therefore, if our heart is right with God. And therefore
this word is true, knowing that whatsoever, whatever it may be,
good thing, and that means anything which is right, good thing, any
man doeth, same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond
or free. We shall receive the answer of
a good conscience. We won't have a nagging conscience,
as we perhaps are pretending to be willing to do these things. In actual fact our innermost
thoughts are against such actions. So with knowing that whatsoever
good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the
Lord, whether he be bond or free. And then it changes from servants
to masters. How masters should act. And again
it's good to realise the truth of these words. and ye masters
do the same things unto them. We are to treat slaves or servants
rightly and properly. We are to do it to them as we
expect them to do it to us. We're not to think we are high
and mighty and there's different rules for us than there are for
servants or slaves. No, says the Lord through the
Apostle And ye masters do the same things unto them, forbearing,
threatening. Don't threaten them, but deal
kindly, deal with them in love. We read those few verses in the
15th of John, and they of course refer to love. What a mercy it is if God has
loved us, and we should love one another. We should do all
things in love. We should always remember the
importance of that and not let our own mind, our own will dictate
to the way we operate, but to be forbearing, threatening, don't
threaten at all. And then again the Apostle comes
back to direct us to the Lord knowing that your Master The
Gracious God, the Blessed Saviour, also is in heaven. Neither is
the respect of persons with Him. And so we need to be careful
that we don't elevate people above others. We don't place
people in a higher category than others, just because they may
perhaps have a more important position in life, because perhaps
they may be cleverer than others, We are not to judge people in
that way. We are to realize that we are
all children. We are all made by God. We all bear the same mark and
therefore forbearing, threatening, knowing that your master also
is in heaven, neither is the respect of persons with him. So we need grace to walk out
these gracious words which the Apostle wrote to the Ephesians,
it was necessary then, it's been necessary down through the ages,
and it's necessary for us today. So although we might think that
it's not particularly spiritual discourse nonetheless, it is
a discourse which is practical and we need to remember these
things because it is part of the Christian path and it is
in accordance with the Word of God.