Slaves Should Honor Their Masters? - The Household of God - Part 18
Slaves Should Honor Their Masters?
1 Timothy 6:1-2a
Immanuel – 1/11/26
Whoever divided Paul’s letter into chapters and verses, I wish they would have extended chapter five to include the words we are considering today. Because 6:1-2a continue the theme of chapter 5: honor – particularly how honor operates within the household of God.
And within the household of God, slaves should honor their masters.
If those aren’t explosive words, I don’t know what are! This first letter to Timothy really touches on some of our cultural pressure points.
2:11-12 Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.
6:1-2a Let all who are under a yoke as bondservants (Greek word is literally “slaves”) regard their own masters as worthy of all honor.
In our 21st century, western culture of expressive individualism, those two passages feel like an electric socket reached out and touched you: it’s shocking and a bit painful. With our cultural sensitivities, passages like these can even make us feel a bit embarrassed about what the Bible says.
But if the Bible is truly the word of God – the supreme and final authority in all matters of faith and practice – then it is going to press on our pressure points. Until the day we are perfectly molded to the loving and glorious will of God, parts of God’s word will always feel sharp, like it’s cutting into us. Like a master craftsman working a chisel on a stubborn block of wood, God is shaping us and our culture with his word.
We must not, we must never, seek to conform God’s word to our cultural or personal preferences. God’s word must shape us and our world. Indeed, his word has created us and holds us together and is the source of all abundant life!
Those churches that would rather identify with a flag they hang from their door, rather than the timeless truths of Scripture, are not churches; they are whitewashed tombs full of dead men’s bones.
God’s word is powerful. For through it he speaks, and the dead are raised to life! He speaks, and suddenly there is light in a dark world. And believe it or not, our passage today is evidence of the world transforming power of God’s word.
Read vs 1
The word bondservant is from the Greek word duolos. If you’re reading the NIV, you’ll see duolos rendered as slave. If we are going to rightly understand our passage, we need to understand this word a little better.
Duolos literally means slave. Slavery, as our culture understands it, is inextricably linked to the brutal and dehumanizing chattel slavery of the American 17th through19th centuries. It was horrific, evil, and has left scars on our country that we still feel. Hopefully our country can work together to heal those old wounds rather than continuing to pick at them.
Regardless, a command like “slaves honor your masters” makes us instinctively cringe. But you need to know the Greek word for slave, duolos, had varied meaning when the New Testament was written.
Duolos = slave – involuntary slavery and absolute ownership. Born into, a legal consequence, captive of war.
Duolos = bondservant – voluntary contractual slave, “someone in the Roman Empire officially bound under contract to serve his master for seven years. When the contract expired, the person was freed, given his wage that had been saved by the master, and officially declared a freedman.”1
Duolos = servant – technically a slave but highly esteemed and possessing a wide range of freedoms. This person often started as a bondservant, but after their contract ended they chose to remain a slave of their master for life. For countless people in this era, their quality of life could be far superior as a servant rather than trying to make it on their own as a freedman.
Unlike our word slave, the Greek word duolos carries various meanings.
It’s also important to understand that when the New Testament was written, during the golden age of the Roman Empire (the Pax Romana), society depended on the institution of slavery. If there were no slaves, there would have been no Roman Empire. Rome was not unique in this. Every single society on earth depended on a slave class. Humans oppressing other humans is as old as civilization, and human civilization was built on the backs of slaves.
(Parenthesis)
Slavery may be abolished in the west, but it is rampant in all parts of the world. Some human rights groups claim there are more slaves today than at any other point in history. There are estimated to be more than 11 million slaves in India. Waring factions in Africa steal children and turn them into soldier slaves. Sex slavery is everywhere, including the US. Many modern Muslim countries allow foreign workers to get trapped in debt, effectively creating a class of slave laborers.
(Close Parenthesis)
As long as there has been civilization, there has been slavery – even today. Yet Paul writes, Let all who are under a yoke as bondservants (duolos) regard their own masters as worthy of all honor. It didn’t matter if you were a slave, a bondservant, or an esteemed servant, in all stations the duolos was to honor his or her master. But only his own master. A slave owed no honor to masters that were not their own.
Paul is not commanding this to slaves and servants everywhere. He is speaking to slaves in the household of God. 1 Timothy is not about how unbelieving people in the world are to conduct themselves. It is for people within the church. Christian slaves are to honor their masters.
As the gospel went out many slaves came to faith. Indeed, Jesus loved and died for “the least of these.” He said those who make themselves least in the world’s kingdoms are greatest in his kingdom. Jesus’ message deeply resonated with slaves. And considering how many slaves were in the Roman Empire, early churches were filled with the doulos class.
For a moment, imagine you are a slave in the ancient Roman Empire. You were born into it. You’ve never known anything different. Then you hear the words of Jesus, and your life is forever changed. He said the last shall be first and the first shall be last, and he who would be great must be a servant (Matthew 20:16,26). Might there be a temptation to look at your master differently? You might think to yourself, “I am a servant, so I am great in the kingdom of God. I have been last all my life, but Christ has made me first. I am done submitting to this earthly master! I submit only to Jesus!”
Evidently, similar thoughts were running rampant among the Christian duolos of the day. Paul wouldn’t be addressing this if it weren’t an issue in the Ephesian church. It seems Jesus’ words upended the institution of slavery, and the slaves were the first to recognize it.
Yet, just like in Ephesus, Paul commands slaves in Corinth, Colossae, and Crete to honor their masters. Peter says the same in his first letter. Additionally, Paul’s writes a letter to a slave owner, Philemon. Onesimus was a runaway slave that Paul led to faith and then sent back to Philemon with his letter. Paul did not help Onesimus escape slavery. Rather, he sent him back to his master.
So why didn’t Paul help Onesimus escape? Why did he continually exhort slaves to honor their masters?
The end of verse 1: So that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled. Paul’s main concern was not the social ordering of human society. His main concern was the Great Commission! Paul’s mission – as it is the mission of every Christian – is to serve living water to the nations, to proclaim the pure gospel of Jesus Christ, cleansed of anything that would blemish it.
Think again of the context Paul is writing into. The master of a household is a landowner. He makes a profit off that land. With that profit he supports his family and provides for a number of slaves. Very likely, the landowner was lifting numerous people out of abject poverty.
If one of his slaves starts following Jesus, and immediately after becoming a Christian he becomes disrespectful, unwilling to work, rebellious; what is that slave owner going to think about the Christian God? What is he going to think about the church? Will he not utterly disregard, even despise, the teachings of the gospel? That one slave is no longer a benefit to the household, but has the potential to destroy many lives. In a culture like Rome, that becomes very dangerous for the slave. Won’t other landowners see the volatile situation and despise the Christian God as well?
The gospel is not about dismantling the system. The gospel is about sinners finding forgiveness and life in Jesus Christ to the glory of our everlasting God! A slave uprising will not have that effect. Rather, a rebellion of slaves would result in death and destruction. Spartacus’ slave rebellion, and its horrific slaughter and mass crucifixions, is exhibit A.
This is why Paul does not condemn the global-economic social order of his day. He calls for Christians to submit to it; and again in verse 2.
Read vs 2
Paul now addresses a slightly new situation: believing slaves with believing masters. Slaves are to honor unbelieving masters that their masters might honor God and his gospel of grace! Slaves are to honor believing masters because they are brothers in Christ!
If slaves were tempted to disregard the hierarchy of unbelieving masters, they would be even more so with believing masters. Paul has been traveling all over the Roman Empire teaching,
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. -1 Corinthians 12:13
Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. -Colossians 3:11
Slave or free, Jesus offers salvation to all. And whether you start a slave or a master, whether in a high position or low, all are made new creations in Christ, called as ambassadors, and elevated to the equally glorious status of God’s own sons and daughters! Christ is all, and in all!
How much easier it would be for believing slaves to resent believing masters. But Paul says, in the kingdom of God, that is not the way! Your superior is your brother. Christ loved him and gave himself for him. You also are to love him and give yourself to him. He might be your earthly superior, but in Christ you are to offer superior service!
And then, with brilliant subtlety, Paul says something that completely flips the global-economic order of slavery on its head: serve all the better since those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved.
According to Greco-Roman thinking, benefit only flowed downhill. The greater benefited the lesser. Slaves did only what was required of them. To benefit their master was their duty, their fate. But masters had no obligation to benefit their slaves. Any kindness a master showed his slave was a benefit, a blessing, a demonstration of their generosity and nobility. Thus, in the Greco-Roman world, benefits only flowed downhill.
Paul entirely flips this on its head. By offering superior service, slave, you benefit your master. Paul is saying slaves can do what everyone else says is only possible for masters to do. In other words, slaves have the same power to bless as their master do. Slaves have the same power to be generous, self-sacrificial, gracious. In the kingdom of God, nobles are made of both slaves and free!
All of us were born and raised after slavery was abolished. But in an age when that was inconceivable, Paul’s words turned the world upside down. And there is even more – words that continue to flip the world on its head.
In the kingdom of God, everyone belongs to the servant class!
Paul and Timothy, servant of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi. -Philippians 1:1
You are serving the Lord Christ. -Colossians 3:24
Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords. All things are from him and through him and to him. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end. How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
Rich or poor, strong or weak, famous or obscure, slave or free; Jesus is our master and we all owe him our service. But Christ is so unlike any earthly master, and his kingdom is not of this earth. For this great King, this Master of the universe, stepped down from glory. And taking the form of a slave, he was born a man. He came to serve and not to be served. With his whole life he gave of himself to others. Then, like the rebellious slaves in the Spartacus rebellion, Jesus was crucified as a slave and criminal.
The King became a slave, died the death of a slave, so those born into slavery could go free.
But you might say to yourself, “I am not a slave.” Jesus says otherwise.
Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
-John 8:34
An addict is a slave to their addiction. A sinner is a slave to their sinning. Try and try again, you cannot break free from your sin. And if you do manage to escape one sin, you only fall into the chains of another. Anyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
But Jesus said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” -John 8:31
Jesus is the truth, and knowing him breaks the shackles that weigh down your soul. In him is the way of freedom, where our every sin is forgiven. In him is life and life abundant! The King, the Master, spilled his blood so you could know this freedom and life!
You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. -1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Unlike the slavers of American history, Jesus forces no one to serve him. He spilled his blood to offer us a better life. Like the servants who loved their masters, and found a better way with them, let us pledge our everlasting loyalty to the master who has given everything for us. For if we trust Jesus enough to serve him, he lifts us out of the servant class.
No longer do I call you servants…but I have called you friends.
-John 15:15
If we choose not to serve him, then we will be enslaved by other masters: money or comfort or entertainment or indulgence or lust or whatever else. These masters do not give life, they only take. With his own blood Jesus paid it all so we would owe them nothing. But we have been bought with a price, and all to him we owe – happily, joyfully, gloriously! Jesus is the master that has become our friend, who offers us no whip, but lavishes us with his love and power and peace! Shall we not serve such a friend with everything we have!
The gospel is not about dismantling the systems of the world. The gospel is about sinners finding forgiveness and life in Jesus Christ to the glory of our everlasting God! Yet, under the weight of such truths the world will be transformed. Proof of this is that these same Christian principles were fundamental to the abolition of slavery in the west.
It began by slaves honoring their masters that no blemish would come upon the gospel. It led to an entire culture adopting Christian values and destroying the structures of slavery. Brothers and sisters, do not underestimate the gospel of Jesus Christ. Even a tiny dripping of water can wear away the largest boulder. How might faithful Christians self-sacrificially living out the gospel further transform our world?
What should we know? God transforms society by first transforming human hearts. This is why the message of the gospel is the hope of the world and our joyful duty to proclaim!
What should we believe? Jesus gave everything to make us his own – not as slaves, but as friends.
What should we do? Make yourself a slave to everyone around you. If they do not yet believe, serve them so they might honor God and his gospel of grace! If they do believe, serve them as a beloved brother or sister in Christ.
For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men. -1 Corinthians 7:22-23
[1]The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (2011) Pg ix. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
