Slaves Obey Your Masters (1 Tim. 6:1)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6-15-02

 

My Worship Time                                                      Focus: Slaves obey your masters

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  1Timothy 6:1

 

            Message of the verse:  “1 ¶ 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.”  There were many slaves at the time of the early Church, as many as one half of the people in the Roman Empire were slaves.  Many of these slaves became believers in Jesus Christ, and so Paul addressed this issue in this verse and in others too.  In this verse he is writing about believing slaves and their relationship with their masters.  Interestingly Paul does not try to abolish slavery, but tells the believing slaves that they should “regard their own masters as worthy of all honor.”  He wants them to do so for the sake of the name of God and His doctrine will not be spoken against.  If Paul had been outspoken about slavery the Christian faith would not have advanced like it did. 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I live in a day when there are few if any slaves in the world.  For sure there are none in the USA.  This verse applies to me in relationship with those whom I worked for when I was working, and even now when I work at the church I must obey those whom the Lord has put over me to obey.  It also applies to me in relationship with the leaders of our church, for I am to obey them too.  Here, I believe lies a large problem with the Church today, in that it does not take seriously enough the fact that the leaders in the Church have authority over the believers in it.  This is a trick of the enemy for believers not to believe how very important it is to obey the leaders in our Church today.  We, as believers are soldiers of the cross and our Commander is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and we are to obey him in all that we do, especially when it comes to following the leaders in the Church that He has set over us.  In our day and age if we do not like our leaders we just move to another Church where we feel more comfortable.

The Word of God brought much insight to me today.

 

My Steps of Faith Today:  I want to take more seriously the leadership in the church that we go to and follow there teaching and take more seriously what they have to say.  I want to do this because I believe that they teach correctly the Word of God.

 

Memory verses for the week:  Romans 5:20,21

Moreover the law entered that the offence might abound.  But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.