True Servants (Part 1 of 2)

Bob LePine: Most of us place a high value on our health, our happiness or our rights, and as important as these aspects of life are, they are not God's highest priority. So what is? We'll find out today on Truth for Life. Alistair Begg walks us through the Apostle Paul's teaching concerning slavery, and we'll learn how the true servant of Christ responds regardless of circumstances.
Alistair Begg: 1 Timothy 6 and verse 1 all who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect so that God's name and our teaching may not be slandered. Those who have believing masters are not to show less respect for them because they are brothers. Instead, they are to serve them even better because those who benefit from their service are believers and dear to them. These are the things you're to urge to teach and urge on them. If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between men of corrupt mind who have been robbed of the truth and to think that godliness is a means to financial gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it, but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people eager for money have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. Amen. What does the Bible have to say concerning the church making an impact on its culture? Does the Bible encourage us to think in terms of changing structures and organizations first and foremost in order that we might then be able to have a context in which the gospel may flourish, which is exactly what is taught in certain circles? Or does the New Testament teach that it is right for us to think of the gospel transforming individuals first and foremost? And for those individual transformed lives making an impact on the structures of a culture. Now you're sensible people and to you is given the responsibility of wrestling with these things because to each of us is given the privilege of making an impact for good or for ill in the culture in which we live. And the fact is that opinions vary a great deal even among well-meaning Christians. But since the Bible is our sole authority, we must be paying attention to what the Bible says first and foremost and seeking to discover the precepts that it conveys as well as the patterns that it displays. And there are very clearly principles which run throughout all of scripture. Not every express question that we may bring can be found in the pages of scripture uh to be granted an answer. But there is no question of life that when we turn to the scriptures, we are unable to find the biblical principles which we can then bring to bear upon that specific question. Now the most obvious question in turning to these opening verses of 1 Timothy 6 is why is it that there is no call on the part of the apostle for some kind of social revolt or disruption in relationship to the matter of slavery? Those who teach that the Bible provides us as it were a mandate for some kind of political and theological liberation were must be clearly disconcerted by coming to the passages where you would most expect to find that happen and discovering that it doesn't happen at all. In fact, quite the reverse is seen to take place. Now the discovery is obvious, namely that the destruction of slavery, because it is this matter of slavery which was on the mind of the apostle and those who served as slaves, the destruction of slavery was not going to be brought about by insurrection or by agitation. But the whole matter was going to be dealt with according to Paul's instruction here confirmed in the rest of the New Testament by the transforming power of the gospel working from the inside out rather than a call which begins from the outside working in. Now we need to be very very clear in coming to these verses that although slavery was the very bottom rung on the ladder of social status in the Greco-Roman word world, it was actually in many cases preferred by people to freedom. Now that will strike us immediately as immediately strange, but if you want to read history, then you will find that what I'm telling you is true. The reason that people would prefer it at times to freedom was because it offered to them a security and in some cases good positions in households. Because we need to understand that there were an estimated 60 million people in the slave class, if you like, at the height of the Roman Empire. Indeed, secular history records that at certain points one in three members of the Roman jurisdiction were themselves slaves. Now there were a variety variety of ways in which people ended up slaves. Uh for example, some be became slaves because they were taken as prisoners of war, others because they were criminals and part of their punishment may have been incarceration and the rest of it may have been for them to have been placed in a household uh to serve as a slave. Thirdly, people became enslaved as a result of indebtedness. They were indebted to a particular individual. There was no likelihood of the person ever getting his money and so he took the person as a captive into his home and the person if you like worked off their indebtedness by serving within the structure of the household. Others became slaves simply as a result of bandits who kidnapped them and took them away either into slavery to themselves or sold them into slavery for a profit. The kind of thing that you find for example in the life of Joseph whose brothers sold him to the passing travelers and they in turn sold him to Potiphar into service. Fifthly, you could be sold into slavery by your parents. This is an intriguing one and we can only imagine at some of the circumstances that led to it. But I'm sure it wasn't simply trivialities coming home late with consistency and eventually finding that you were sold as a slave. But it does have an intrigue to it that some of the others don't. And we shouldn't go down that road, but it's food for thought over over lunch with some of your teenagers. And uh the sixth way in which you could become a slave was you were born into an enslaved household. In other words, it sort of ran in the family. Your parents were slaves and you grew up and you became a slave along with your brothers and sisters. Now it's also very important to understand in sketching that in you're getting this picture that the enslavement is not a small group of people who are peculiarly brutalized in the culture, but it is 33 and a and a third percent of the culture. It represents not only uh the most basic kind of laboring, manual labor, but slaves were also artisans, some of the most skilled craftsmen in the culture would themselves be slaves. They were also teachers and tutors. They were if you like in the professions, and they would also many of them be serving as physicians. So if you think about it, you could take for example the cross section of this group in here about 1,500 of us or so, maybe a little less, and you can say that approximately 500 of carpenters and teachers and doctors and business folks would in that context of first century Greco-Roman we would have found ourselves in the context of enslavement. Now the reason I labor this point is because I want you to understand that the context to which Paul is writing is not immediately akin to the racially motivated slavery here in the United States. And you know that I've worked hard to tell you that we will never understand the Bible, we will never be able to understand the Bible and apply it to the now unless we understand it in the then. Unless we understand the historic context in which it is written, we dare not begin to immediately make application to another point in time. First we must see it there, then we apply it. And the danger is in coming to this issue of slavery as soon as we see the word slavery, we begin to think of certain scenes that would not have been the scenes to which Paul was writing in first century Greco-Roman culture. Now insane that I'm not suggesting that there is nothing to be learned from this for that, but I'm simply making the observation and it's an important distinction. It is also important to understand that and this is a question that always comes up. I remember doing a Bible study at the law school here at Case Western way back in '94 '95 and we did the book of Titus together. We went through it a group of law students and myself. And I remember getting to a verse that we're going to come to in a moment or two and getting into a huge discussion that lasted for one session and then another session about why it was that Paul apparently gave credence, if you like, to enslavement and why it was that he was not uh agitating for some social disruption and some radical change. And it is an obvious and important question to any thinking individual. Part of the answer is in what he does not say. Now let me try and explain this as simply as I can. Throughout his epistles, he addresses various groups and he gives instructions concerning them. He addresses classes of people if you like. At at one point, he will address uh husbands and wives. And when he calls for husbands and wives to live in a certain way because this is part of the social structure of life, he underpins the call to live in a certain way by quoting foundational truths from the rest of the Bible. I can see your eyes are glazing over. So turn to Ephesians Ephesians chapter 5 for just a moment. Let me illustrate what I mean. Ephesians 5 and 31. He says, for this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh. Now what he is doing there is he is quoting. He is appealing to the way in which God has established things to be from the beginning. In other words, he says, now here is a social unit, husbands and wives. This is how you're to live and this is why you're to live this way. So he takes it and he substantiates his call by quoting scripture. Now when he comes to the issue of slavery, he doesn't under pin it with anything. He doesn't go somewhere and say slavery is fine and slavery is okay and slavery is part of God's plan as it were. And let me tell you why by quoting the Bible. He doesn't because it isn't. And that absence is a crucial indication of Paul's heart and mind in relationship to that fundamental question that we're raising. In fact, Paul's conviction is that slaves should leave their bondage if they're given the opportunity. Now at the other end when he writes to masters, for example in Philemon, he encourages the masters to seize the opportunities of manumission, which is the big word for the setting free of a slave. So to those who are enslaved, he says, you know if you can get out, get out. For those who are masters, he says, if you let your slaves go, you should let them go. Now let me ask you a question and it's rhetorical. You don't need to shout out. But look at the first two verses and ask yourself this question. What would you say is Paul's overarching concern in these verses? Is there a phrase that encapsulates what Paul is, if you like, really on about? And the answer is in the phrase that comes after the word respect in verse 1 so that God's name and our teaching may not be slandered. What is it that drives Paul's life? This. What is it that under girds Paul's instruction? This. What is it that is to constrain the life of the believer irrespective of circumstances? This. Because the shorter Scottish catechism is right. The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. That is the whole explanation of human existence in a phrase. And it is an account of the fact that we choose to disregard that vital principle that our lives are essentially in such disarray. The same emphasis is to be found when Paul writes uh to Titus and you can turn a couple of pages over and see this. In Titus chapter 2 and in verse 10, beginning actually in verse 9, he says, listen, teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything. That's that in itself is it is is amazing, isn't it? I mean if you don't think it's amazing, you're not thinking. Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, not to steal from them, to show that they can be fully trusted. Why? Answer. Look. So that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive. What is the whole purpose of God? To get glory to his name. How does he get glory to his name? As a result of the worshippers that he seeks giving him glory. The father seeks worshippers so that they may say, oh God, you are very great. That they may do that for which they have been created. And therefore if that is the overarching concern of God that he would be glorified, then it is the uttermost concern of the gospel that those who are redeemed would glorify God. You mean even if their circumstances stink, yes? Even if their lives are less than they hoped for, yes? Even if they're the bottom rung of the social ladder, yes? If they're at the top, yes? His overarching concern is that the life of the Christian would make the teaching about God and Jesus attractive. Attractive. Now you understand attractive, don't you? When he goes into chapter 3, he says, if you want to be attractive, let me remind you to remind your people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good. Good. You see because all this shouting and barging around and making a big fuss and bother isn't attractive. It isn't attractive. And we're supposed to make the gospel attractive, to slander nobody, to be peaceful, to be considerate, to show true humility towards all men. This is because if you think about it, the only thing that distinguishes you from the pagan who is involved in all these things is the fact that according to verse 5, God our Savior saved us. He saved us. Where did he save us? Where we are. And as a result of salvation, there are going to be implications in the environment in which we live our lives. But as a result of salvation, he doesn't transform our social circumstances per se and he certainly doesn't overturn civil jurisdiction. And the tragedy of it is that we have been more influenced than we realize by the kind of disruption that gave rise to the United States of America where you have one group of English people fighting another group of English people and the winners call themselves Americans. But in that experience, in that experience we established in this country a pattern for the way things are done and it is therefore hard to realize that the church is not a democracy and it is hard for the church to realize that the methodology that God has chosen to use to transform a culture is not the transforming impact of revolution. But when you have a nation that is built on revolution and you have a church that is tied to that revolution, then you can see how it will champion all kinds of ideas because they won't read the Bible or having read it, they won't do what it says. Now we're doing it all over again at the end of the 20th century. Just another deal, another day, another another business. When will we ever learn? I believe this to be a foundational principle of Christian living. And it is this. What Paul is saying here, think it out, is the matter of our circumstances. While not irrelevant, the matter of our circumstances are not the big issue. Concerned about my well-being or my status or my significance or my rights is always subsuming to a concern for God's glory. So you see, the Bill of Rights is the Bill of Rights. We understand that. It has definite connections to foundational principles that are biblical in their framework. But the Bill of Rights, as to every other human created bill, bows beneath the instruction of this book because the best of men are men at best. And when we start to live our Christian lives thinking that somehow or another everyone, and God included, owes us something and that he is supremely concerned to get us out of all of our predicaments, to transform our circumstances, to make life just one long vacation and that God looks upon our lives and tries to move everything in that direction. You can see why people's heads are so messed up. You can see why they're so mad at God because it hasn't come out that we expected. It was never the way God intended. He would have written it into the book if he wanted it that way. It would have been possible for Paul to mobilize the Christian slaves into some kind of insurrection or revolt. There's no question of his leadership ability. They could have overturned to a certain degree the social structures of the time. It would have been hard for them to make a radical impact on 60 million and beyond, but nevertheless they certainly could have been an irritant. But as a result, it would have meant discredit to the name and glory of God. And so what might have been or what was, if you say, a legitimate concern, a sorry circumstance, a poor predicament, a definite injustice was lived through for a concern for God's glory.
Bob LePine: We're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life. He has titled today's message True Servants and we'll hear the conclusion tomorrow. Now as we're learning, Jesus never promised his followers an easy life, but he did offer us a meaningful one. And you can learn more about what that might look like by requesting a free e-book from Alistair that helps you understand that while faith is often costly, it does provide the greatest reward. The book is titled The Christian Manifesto, Jesus Life Changing Words from the Sermon on the Plain. Things like wealth or popularity, success or comfort, these are what our culture identifies as evidence of being blessed. But in his teaching in Luke chapter 6, Jesus turns that idea on its head. He says that the most blessed people are the poor, the grieving, the persecuted. That may not sound like items that are on your wish list, but as you read through the Christian Manifesto, you'll discover how they can lead to true satisfaction. Download the Christian Manifesto e-book along with its companion study guide. They're both free today at truthforlife.org/manifesto. I'm Bob LePine. Thanks for studying the Bible with us. If you're wondering if Paul's teaching on slavery has any relevance for us today, be sure to listen tomorrow when we'll apply his teaching to contemporary Christian work ethics. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the learning is for living.