PT-2 "The Submission of Employees" (Eph. 6:5-8)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/15/2019 6:05 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                   Focus:  PT-2 “The Submission of Employees”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 6:5-8

 

            Message of the verses:  “5 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; 6 not by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. 7 With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, 8 knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free.”

 

            We start out with another quote from John MacArthur on slavery:  “Although slavery is not uniformly condemned in either the Old or New Testaments, the sincere application of the New Testament truths has repeatedly led to the elimination of its abusive tendencies.  Where Christ’s love is lived in the power of His Spirit, unjust barriers and relationships are inevitably broken down.  As the Roman Empire disintegrated and eventually collapsed, the brutal, abused system of slavery collapsed with it—due in great measure to the influence of Christianity. In more recent times the back of the black slave trade was broken in Europe and America due largely to the powerful, Spirit-led preaching of men as John Wesley and George Whitefield and the godly statesmanship of such men as William Wilberforce and William Pitt.”  We have in our DVD library a story of William Wilberforce and I believe that one may be able to find this film on one of the internet movie apts.

 

            We have been mentioning that since we began looking at Ephesians 5:18b that in order for believers to accomplish what the Lord wants us to accomplish that we must be filled with the Holy Spirit.  Now after we finish this section in Ephesians chapter 6:1-9 we will be finished with the Spirit-filled teachings, and then we will go onto how we can be protected with the Spiritual Armor and as I the think about this it seems very logical that after the teaching of being filled with the Holy Spirit in the home and in the workplace that we as believers will need the protection of the Spiritual Armor as Paul will bring up in the last part of chapter six so that with the use of the Spiritual Armor we can stay clean thus continuing to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God to accomplish what it is that He wants us to accomplish.

 

            As mentioned in earlier SD’s and this one also the New Testament does not give us a command about slavery, but as we look at how we are to treat slaves and then employees we can tell that the ways that slaves and even employees were treated that the filling of the Spirit in believers will not allow, or should not allow, believers to treat either slaves or employees harshly.

 

            These past two days have actually been an introduction to these four verses and beginning tomorrow we will begin to look more intently at the verses.  John MacArthur gives us a preview on the things which, Lord willing, we will be looking at.

 

            Because the command of mutual submission is possible only to the Spirit-filled believer, Paul is addressing Christian slaves, just as he later addresses Christian masters (v-9).  He calls them to have the right behavior, the right perspective, the right attitude, and the right commitment that reflects their right relationship to God through Jesus Christ.”

 

Today’s quotation from “Love in Action:”  “The Bible tells us clearly that the church, the gathering of believers, is to provide an environment of encouragement for all who seek it.”

 

9/15/2019 6:30 PM