Family Matters – Part 4 Joy in Your Job Serving a Non-Christian Boss Serving a Christian Boss Principles of Conduct on the Job

Family Matters – Part 4 Joy in Your Job Serving a Non-Christian Boss  Slavery – integral part of society, employee  Slaves were acquired in different ways: 1.Prisoners of war – Numbers 31 2.Purchased – Exodus 21:7 3.Sold yourself – Deuteronomy 15: Received as a gift – Genesis 29:24 5.Inherited – Leviticus 25:46

Family Matters – Part 4 Joy in Your Job Serving a Non-Christian Boss  O.T. guarded slaves rights  Distinction between Jewish and Gentile  “Under the yoke” – submissive service  Slaves – doulos – person in submission to another person

Family Matters – Part 4 Joy in Your Job Serving a Non-Christian Boss  Masters – one with absolute authority  Regard – estimate based on objective criteria  Worthy of all honor – 1 Peter 2:18-20  Why show respect?

Martin Luther: To call popes, bishops, priests, monks, and nuns, the religious class, but princes, lords, artisans [sic], and farm-workers the secular class, is a specious device…. For all Christians whatsoever really and truly belong to the religious class, and there is no difference among them except in so far as they do different work…. Hence we deduce that there is, at bottom, really no other difference between laymen, priests, princes, bishops, or, in Romanist terminology, between religious and secular, than that of office or occupation, and not that of

Martin Luther: (cont.) Christian status. All have spiritual status, and all are truly priests, bishops, and popes. But Christians do not all follow the same occupation…. A shoemaker, a smith, a farmer, each has his manual occupation and work; and yet, at the same time, all are eligible to act as priests and bishops. Every one of them in his occupation or handicraft ought to be useful to his fellows, and serve them in such a way that the various trades are all directed to the best advantage of the

Martin Luther: (cont.) community, and promote the well-being of body and soul, just as all the organs of the body serve each other. (“An Appeal to the Ruling Class,” in John Dillenberger, ed. Martin Luther: Selections from His Writings [Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1961], 407, 409, 410)

R. C. H. Lenski: If a Christian slave dishonored his master in any way by disobedience, by acting disrespectfully, by speaking shamefully of his master, the worst consequence would not be the beating he would receive but the curses he would cause his master to hurl at this miserable slave’s God, his religion, and the teaching he had embraced: “So that is what this new religion teaches its converts!” Instead of bringing honor to the true God and the gospel

R. C. H. Lenski: (cont.) of his high and holy Name, as every Christian should be anxious to do, this slave would bring about the very opposite, to the devil’s delight. (The Interpretation of St. Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians, to the Thessalonians, to Timothy, to Titus, and to Philemon [Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1964], )

Family Matters – Part 4 Joy in Your Job Serving a Christian Boss  No difference in treatment – maybe better  Even though a brother ….  Even though you may hold a position ….  Ephesians 6:5-8  Colossians 3:22-25

Family Matters – Part 4 Joy in Your Job Principles of Conduct on the Job  Serve your employer: 1.Obediently – Eph. 6:5; Col. 3:22 2.Completely – Eph. 6:5; Col. 3:22 3.Respectfully – Eph. 6:5 4.Eagerly – Eph. 6:5; Col. 3:22

Family Matters – Part 4 Joy in Your Job Principles of Conduct on the Job  Serve your employer: 5.Excellently – Eph. 6:5; Col. 3:23 6.Diligently – Eph. 6:6; Col. 3:23 7.Humbly – Eph. 6:6; Col. 3:23 8.Spiritually – Eph. 6:6

Family Matters – Part 4 Joy in Your Job Application Are you loving and serving Christ through loving and serving your employer in a biblical manner? How is your witness on the job?