The Right Commitment (Eph. 6:5-8)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/19/2019 9:07 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                          Focus:  The Right Commitment

 

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.”

 

            John MacArthur writes “The fourth qualification for proper submission to masters, or employers, is that of ‘sincerity of heart.’  It is not hypocritical and superficial but genuine and detailed.

            “Paul told the Thessalonian believers to ‘excel still more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you; so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need’ (1 Thes. 4:10-12). The idea is to do well then with the work we are assigned to do, without complaining, bragging, criticizing the work of others, or in any other way being disruptive.”

 

The Right Motive:

 

            I have mentioned that in everything we do we are to bring glory to God, as seen in the Westminster Catechism where we read that we are to bring glory to God in all we do and enjoy the Lord forever.  This includes the work that we do in order to make a living, and also the work that we do for the Lord in things like our giving to the Lord, are devotional time with the Lord, or perhaps our ministries like teaching a Bible study or Sunday school class, it is all to be done to the glory of God.  I think at times believers can seem to think about their work in making a living as a time that is different from our time in worshiping the Lord, however worshiping the Lord is 24/7/365, and this includes your work to make a living.

 

            God does not call every believer into preaching the Word as Pastors, but as we saw in the quote above from John MacArthur quoting Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians we can see that believers are to work at a job, and not just sit around and wait for the Lord to return which is what some of those Thessalonians were doing.  Doing that does not bring glory to the Lord.

 

            Now we have one more sub-section to do, which will take a bit longer to complete and so we will wait until tomorrow, Lord willing, to do that.

 

Quotation from Love in Action:  “The church needs to be a place where we can be built up and not beat up.  The instruction (rather, the command) to encourage one another is found five times in the New Testament.  It’s addressed to all believers.  It is not conditional.  It is not optional.  It’s a command!”

 

9/19/2019 9:35 AM  

A Right Perspective (Eph. 6:5-8)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/18/2019 11:04 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                            Focus:  “A Right Perspective”

 

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.”

                                                                                                     

            In today’s SD we will look at a couple of sub-sections from the main section that we have been looking at “The Submissive or Employers.”  We have five sub-section remaining, with the first one today being “A Right Perspective,” and my plan is to do two today and perhaps two tomorrow and then the last one the next day.

 

            “The Right Perspective:”  “A Christian worker’s submission to his employer is done under the employer’s authority ‘according to the flesh.’  The intent of that prepositional phrase is to emphasize that, while the authority-submission relationship is important and is to be respected, it is only temporal.  It lasts only in this life and does not apply to moral and spiritual concerns at any time or under any circumstances” (John MacArthur).

 

            “The Right Attitude:” This is the next sub-section, and I believe that everyone knows that attitudes are very important as they can actually be hidden.  I remember a story of a child who was being disciplined for doing something wrong and was told that they would have to stop doing what she was doing wrong.  The child was placed in the corner for a while to help the child to remember what he was doing wrong.  The child who was standing in the corner stated that in his, her mind that he or she was continuing to do what was wrong.  Attitude can be hidden, so our verses for today speak of “not by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers.”

 

            MacArthur writes “The place where a believer works is part of his field of service for the Lord, and it is often a mission field.  When he does his work carefully and respectfully it is a testimony to unbelievers, and encouragement to believers, and an act of service to God.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Whatever I do, do the glory of the Lord.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to keep my life clean, confessing any sin and keeping a short list with the Lord so that I can be filled with the Spirit of God enabling me to be humble.

 

Today’s Quotation from “Love in Action:”

 

Therefore, encourage each other and edify each other, just as you also

are doing. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those

who are unruly; encourage the fainthearted, uphold

the weak and be patient with all.

I Thessalonians 2:11, 14

 

9/18/2019 11:23 AM

PT-2 "The Right Behavior" (Eph. 6:5-8)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/17/2019 10:10 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-2 “The Right Behavior”

 

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.”

 

            John MacArthur writes “An employer is an employer, no matter who he is, and he deserves the best effort in whatever work one does for him.  Saints are to submit to the authority of anyone to whom they report.  Pastors and other Christian workers are not exempt from that principle.  They are responsible to submit to a church, a board, another staff member, or to whomever else has supervision over them.” 

 

            This section of this SD reminds me a bit about the post that I put on my other blog earlier this morning which was about Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, anointing the Lord Jesus Christ with a bottle of expensive perfume about a week before He was to be crucified for our sins.  In the Spiritual Diary from the book of Mark we see a contrast between what Mary did and what Judas did.  One could possibility look at these two people as a wonderful employee and a terrible employee.  To have that attitude of Mary would be a good type of attitude for employees to have with their employer and to have the attitude of Judas would be the direct opposite.  Mary surely went the extra mile in her love for Jesus while Judas was only looking out for himself.

 

            John MacArthur writes “When a believer sits beside his boss in a worship service or works beside him in Christian service, he does so as a completely equal brother in Christ.  But on the job he is to submit to the authority of his boss, because that witnesses his submission to the higher authority of God’s Word.”

 

            When one has an employer who is a believer I would say that it should make it easier to work under him and submit to him, but even if the boss is not a believer a Christian must still submit to the employer as long as he is not asked to do something that would go against the will of God as found in His Word. 

 

            We will close by looking at the letter that Paul wrote to Titus “9 Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, 10 and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Saviour attractive.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Be ready to always do my work for the Lord in a manner that will bring glory to the Lord whom I owe all things to.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to learn more about being humble as I go throughout my day, remembering that I am to be filled with the Holy Spirit in order to be a humble servant to the Lord.

 

Quotation from “Love in Action:”  “Almost every week at our church, I meet folks who have come out of devastating church situations.  They have been scarred, soiled, and manipulated.  They’re very thankful we don’t pressure them into doing anything.  They wander into our worship center, sit down in the pew, soak up the Word of God, and heal.  And then perhaps some brother or sister in Christ will touch them with a word of encouragement, and little by little they will begin to once again sense God’s wholeness in their lives.”

 

9/17/2019 10:35 AM

PT-1 "The Right Behavior" (Eph. 6:5-8)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/16/2019 9:35 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-1 “The Right Behavior”

 

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.”

 

            Just a reminder from our last SD that what we are looking at today is a sub-section to the main section “The Submission of Employees,” and perhaps this will take a couple of days to complete.

 

            We want to look at the word “obedient” as we begin this section as this word is in the present tense in the Greek, which indicates uninterrupted obedience.  As an employee we are not to just be obedient when we are being watched, but we are to be obedient at all times.  I remember when I first began at my job at the Cleveland Casting Plant I was talking to the superintendent of my department and he was talking about one of the men named Bruce, and I later found out that Bruce was a believer in Jesus Christ.  The superintendent stated that Bruce will always find something constructive to do as he did not need to be told what to do at all times.  This is the mark of a good employee. 

 

            We have mentioned that in the New Testament times that there were many slaves, and many of these slaves became believers in Jesus Christ thereby became children of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, as Paul had already reminded his readers of this in 1:5-14.  When a slave became a believer he may have thought that he needed to become free from his master and not have to be subservient to any human being, certainly not to a ruthless pagan.  As spiritual nobility, they deserved more than common slavery.

 

            We see that Paul plainly tells these slaves that they are to be obedient, (all the time) to their masters, as the first obligation of a Christian is to please his Lord and to be a faithful testimony to Him, which is what Paul is telling the slaves to do by obeying their masters.  One of the ways of being a good testimony to the master is for the slave to be obedient to him and this would probably be a different look for the master as perhaps the slave before becoming a believer did not obey his master all of the time, but now it was going to be different as he desired to be a good testimony to his master.  This certainly goes along with believers in the workforce today.  I have to say that I was not the best worker before I became a believer, but afterwards I strived to be a good, godly worker.

 

            There could be a problem today and back in New Testament times when a worker today or a slave back then is working for a believer, and thus thinks that because both are believers that he can slack off.  This is certainly not the case as this person can show a good testimony to other workers, or slaves, which they desire to do their best because they are working for a believer.

            We will continue this section, Lord willing, in our next SD.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Whatever I do I am to do it to the glory of the Lord.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to keep short lists with the Lord so that His Spirit will fill me to do what He has for me to do, and by being filled with the Spirit He will cause me to be humble in whatever I do.

 

Today’s quotation from “Love in Action:” 

 

Let us not neglect our church meetings as some people do, but encourage

and warn each other; especially now that the day of

His coming back is drawing near.

Hebrews 10:25 TLB

 

9/16/2019 10:02 AM

 

           

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

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

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/14/2019 11:51 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                            Focus:  “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.”

 

            The word “slaves” comes from the Greek word doulot, and according to John MacArthur this word indicates subjection and usually bondage.  In the times when the New Testament was written, and even before, slavery was very common and slaves had no legal rights and were actually treated as commercial commodities.  During the Roman times the citizens looked upon work as degrading and so many had slaves to do their work for them, and many of the slaves were treated very harshly and could be killed at the whims of their owners.

 

            I want to quote two paragraphs from MacArthur’s commentary which I believe are important to read:  “Although Scripture does not speak against slavery as such, it clearly speaks against kidnapping of anyone for the purpose of making him or her a slave (Ex. 21:16).”  “"He who kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death.”  “The European and American slave trade that lasted past the middle of the nineteenth century was therefore a clear violation of Scripture, despite the rationalizations of many Christians who were involved in it.

 

            “Certain types of nonabusive and beneficial slavery were permitted, or even advocated, in the Old Testament.  For example, a thief who could not make restitution could be indentured until repayment was worked out—a plan far superior to the modern prison sentence which provides for no restitution of property or money to the victim or restoration of dignity for the thief.  Israelites were allowed to buy slaves from the pagan nations around them (Lev. 25:44), but fellow Israelites could not be bought or sold, although they could voluntarily indenture themselves until the year of jubilee (vv. 39-40).  During their time of service they were to be treated as hired workers, not as slaves (v. 40-41, 46).  Even pagan slaves were not to be abused and were given their freedom if seriously injured by their master (Ex. 21:26-27).  A slave who fled from an oppressive master was to be given asylum and protection (Deut. 23:15-16).  A fellow Israelite could not be used as a slave for more than six years, at the end of which he was to be given liberal provisions as a form of severance pay (Ex. 21:2; Deut. 15:13-14).  Every fiftieth year, the year of jubilee, all slaves were to be freed and returned to their families (Lev. 25:10).  A slave who loved his master and preferred to remain with him could voluntarily indenture himself for life by having his ear pierced by his master (Ex. 21:5-6).  The kind of slavery controlled by scriptural teaching was a blessing to both employer and employee and was a rewarding and fulfilling relation between them.”

 

            I think as one reads these two paragraphs and also what we will learn in the remaining SD on this topic that slavery according to the Biblical terms of it was fair and just, which is just as one should believe it should be.  I think that it is interesting that when Jesus Christ came to earth, according to Philippians chapter two that He was actually a slave, however most English translations choose to use the Greek word “doulos”  as “bond-slave” but the word does mean slave:  “5  Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6  who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7  but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:5-7).  Jesus willingly made Himself a slave which means that He could become a man in order to fulfill His Father’s will that He would die on the cross to pay for my sins and all those who will accept His forgiveness.

 

Today’s quotation from “Love in Action:”

 

“Let us consider and give attentive, continuous care to watching over one

another, studying how we may stir and stimulate and incite

to love and helpful deeds and noble activities.”

Hebrews 10:22 Amplified

 

9/14/2019 12:26 PM

 

Intro to Eph. 5:5-9

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/13/2019 9:40 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Intro to Eph. 6:5-9

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Eph. 6:5-9

 

            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. 9 And masters, do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.”

 

            We have been talking about submission for a considerable length of time, and this section here will finish the discussion of submission.  When we go back to Ephesians 5:18 we learn that at the end of that verse it teaches us to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to have the Holy Spirit fill us so that we are able to submit to those that are spoken of in this section, I mentioned earlier that it is my belief that Ephesians 6:1-9 should have been included in the fifth chapter because the subject is the same.  Be that as it may we still can read through this last section on submission and learn from it.  Again the key in doing this is to be filled with the Spirit.

 

            John MacArthur entitles this chapter “Spirit-Filled Labor Relations,” picking up on the theme of being filled with the Holy Spirit.

 

            After I graduated from High School in 1965 I went to work for the Ford Motor Company as a laborer and was in the United Auto Workers union, once I had my 90 days of work at the company.  In 1979 I became a supervisor at Ford and remained in that capacity for most of my remaining time at Ford only had a few months of going back to my job as a union worker for a few months because of a cut back.  I worked a total of 34 years at Ford, and then after my retirement from Ford I did come back as a part-time worker basically as a consultant doing pretty much doing the same job as before.  My point in telling this brief story of my employment is to say that I understand from both sides of labor and management what happens in the work force in today’s climate.  I had been through a couple of strikes, one very long, while working at Ford, and pretty much saw that the Union became too strong which did put some companies out of work because they could not pay the wages demanded by the companies they worked for.  The key to the problem is balance as each side is not to take advantage of the other side or things get out of balance and then both sides can lose everything.  This section talks about slaves and masters and so it is a bit different than the work environment that I was in, and yet there are similar things involved too.  Suppose in Paul’s day that both a master and a slave become believers, and suppose that the slave becomes a leader in the church that he and the master go to.  This could potentially make things difficult as in the church the master would be submissive to his own slave, yet at home the slave would be submissive to his master.  Same could be true in work places of union workers and supervisors in our day.  So the only way that any of this would work if all were filled with the Holy Spirit in order to follow what God has in His Word.

 

            John MacArthur writes towards the end of his introductory comments of this chapter the following:  “Paul’s instructions to masters and slaves continue in the setting of the household.  The vast majority of businesses in New Testament times were family operated, and therefore most servants were part of an extended household.  In agrarian situations the servants, or slaves, worked in the fields or tended the flocks.  If the master had a shop the servants worked as craftsmen or helpers.  If he was a merchant they would do whatever chores were required to help in the business.  In any case, the head of the household was also head of the business.  He was usually the employer and the servants were his employees.

 

            “In this passage Paul continues to deal with the practical effects of the Spirit-filled life (5:18), without which none of God’s righteous standards can be met, including those which regulate working relationships.  Verses 5-8 teach about the submission of slaves, or workers, and 9 teaches about the submission of masters, or employers.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Realize that the filling of the Holy Spirit is key to all relationships.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Humility is also a key to relationships.

 

Today’s quotation from “Love in Action:”  “If the church of Jesus Christ is not a place where we can be who we are, where can we go?  If the church is not a place where we can be encouraged and motivated throughout the process of our growth and maturing in the Lord, then where can we go to find some encouragement?  If we are not known for our love for each other in the fellowship of the church, then what does that say about our status with God?”

 

9/13/2019 10:11 AM