PT-1 "A Word to Servants" (Col. 3:22-25)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/26/2017 8:59 PM

Bible Reading & Meditation                                          Focus:  PT-1 A Word to Servants

Bible Reading & Meditation                                             Reference:  Colossians 3:22-25

            Message of the verses:  “22 Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. 25 For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.”

            I thought that it would be a good idea to look at what Dr. Warren Wiersbe had to say about this section and then look at what John MacArthur has to say about it later on.

            Dr. Wiersbe begins with something that we have talked about earlier and that is that slavery was very common in Paul’s day as there were probably some 60 million slaves at that time and many of them were very educated, people who took care of their master’s children and some of them were even doctors, so the connotation of slavery was completely different then than it is today, although there were some harsh slave masters during Paul’s day as there were in the early part of our history in the United States.  We have also mentioned that Jesus was a slave to God while on earth as Paul points out in his letter to the Philippians as we are slaves to God now, but again remember that our Master is perfect.

            Now in the early days of the church it was a minority and could not afford to go up against the owners of slaves in order to stop slavery, but their mission as is ours today is to preach the gospel.  Now that does not mean that as believers we are not to be involved in matters that are near and dear to the God we serve.

            Paul wrote a letter to Philemon about his runaway slave Onesimus and in that letter did not tell Philemon to let Onesimus to be freed from being a slave.  The letter that we are studying now was taken by Onesimus to Philemon and the church of Colossians as seen in Colossians 4:9 “9  and with him Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of your number. They will inform you about the whole situation here.”

            I write this to make a point that it is all about the slave owner as to whether or not the slave is treated well, and because our God is the One we serve as His slaves then we are surely in good hands and the more we get to know the Lord the more we will want to serve Him.

5/26/2017 9:17 PM