The First Letter of Peter-10

Subtitle: Our Witness before the World- Part 2

1 Peter 2:16-20.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, January 25, 2026.

We continue in this first letter of Peter.  He is focused on how we follow Jesus, and how that affects the world around us.  God wants those who are following Christ to be a witness and a testimony to the world.

This witness will save some.  We will be a witness that they receive.  However, others will not receive our witness.  The things we share and do are then evidence against them.  Of course, this is not our goal.  Our goal is to help them see Jesus.

In many cases, it may seem unfair that God expects us to be a witness for Him to people who do not deserve it.  The rub here is that we are the ones determining who doesn’t deserve it.  No one “deserves” the Gospel, but the grace of God has chosen to make it available to all.  We either agree with that and help, or we disagree and ignore the commands of Christ.

It is common that Christians end up suffering for their active witnessing to the world.  This too may seem unfair.  Why should we suffer so that they can be forgiven?  The answer is Jesus.  He suffered death for you and them so that forgiveness could be possible.  If we believe in him, then we can agree that his purposes are worthy of the greatest of sacrifices.

Let’s look at our passage.

Submit to every human institution of authority (v. 16-17)

We had to stop in the middle of this section last week.  The main point comes from verse 13. We are to do this for the Lord’s sake (not ours), without respect to the level of authority, and in order to silence the ignorance of foolish men.

There are going to be people who reject God no matter what His decision is.  It is God’s will that we submit ourselves to the governing authorities in order to shut the mouths of those who would ignorantly accuse Christians of rebellion.

Of course, it is a spiritual rebellion.  We will not serve the devil and his angels.  However, our goal is not to fight the governments of this world.  It is to silence their mouths through righteousness.

Verse 16 then adds the instruction that we should use our freedom to be slaves of God.  Now, some of them are free people and others are slaves.  There is even a spectrum of from the least freedom to the most freedom.  It would start with those who were slaves and move up to those who are simply servants.  We then would come to those who are free but have no Roman Citizenship (the Apostle Peter) and move to someone like the Apostle Paul who had both freedom and Roman Citizenship. 

However, Peter is not talking about our natural freedom.  He is talking about the spiritual freedom that we have in Christ.  All Christians have been spiritually set free from the guilt of their sins and the rebellion of humanity.  We have been also set free from any claim that the devil may have on us.  Those who were Jews were set free from the Law of Moses.  This doesn’t mean that Christians are lawless.  Instead, we are under the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2).

Many Christians make the mistake of using their situation as an indication of what they truly are in Christ.  If my circumstances are bad, then I am a loser in Christ, a failure.  If my circumstances are good, then God loves me, and I am a blessed winner.  Isn’t our Lord Jesus a rebuke to this kind of thinking?  Of course, he is!  There is no more victorious person who has ever lived than the Lord Jesus.  Yet his circumstances were so bad that “we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.” (Isaiah 53:4 NIV). 

Peter warns against using our freedom as a “covering for evil.”  We can sweep a lot of things under the carpet of freedom that are not in character with the freedom that God has given us.  Another way to describe this is to use grace as a license for immorality.  Did Jesus free us so that we can continue to sin, or God forbid, do even more sinful things?  Of course, he didn’t.

Those who protest the loudest that they are free from being judged are in bondage to the vices and lusts of their heart.  In fact, all of us have recognized how particular sins can get a hold on us.  We want to be free from it, but it seems to have powerful control over us.

This brings up the issue of political freedom.  What good does political freedom do for those who are in bondage to sin?  Only people who are spiritually free can remain politically free.  Those who are not will find their political freedom disintegrating before their eyes.  How much political freedom are we going to lose before we repent?  I don’t know.  God will let us lose it all, if we don’t do so.  It is up to us how far we will fall.

God will goad us along the way, trying to get our attention.  He doesn’t want us to be destroyed, but He may let it happen. 

So, Peter started this passage calling believers to abstain from fleshly lusts (v. 11).  Now he has described that further as not using your freedom in Christ as a covering for evil.

Peter then gives a quick list of the kinds of things we can do as free people who are serving God in verse 17. 

The first is to honor all people.  Honor is something that is nobler than submission.  At its root is the idea of value.  It can be a person who has value, or it can be a person who is in a valuable position of authority.  Of course, a high position is not needed for a person to have great honor (value).

A person who has no honor is a person who has become worthless.  Many worthless people end up in positions of honor.  This can be a difficult and oppressive thing to endure.

To honor someone who has honor requires me to see beyond myself.  It really should be easy to do.  Yet a person of honor who is in a position of honor should see the value of the people for whom they are responsible.  Shouldn’t a king see the value of the people he serves, even the peasants?

Ultimately, value comes from God.  It is He who has made us and not we ourselves.  It is a common occurrence that we do not live up to the value that God has given us.  Peter challenges us to see the value in all people and give the honor that God wants you to do.  We must use our freedom to honor all people appropriately.

The second thing in verse 17 is to love the brotherhood.  Brotherhood here contemplates the family of God as a band of brothers, which includes both men and women.  The devil loves to tempt Christians into the path of hating one another, or at least not caring to love one another.

We are called to love one another as Christ has loved us.  This is not a fake honor and not a fake love.  We should not love sparingly or begrudgingly.  We are to use our freedom to love our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Love always begs the question, “What does it mean to love now?”  I know a man whose son ended up in prison for a period of time.  When the son was released, the dad tried to help the son get back on his feet by giving him a place to stay and a job in his shop.  It is clear that the dad loved his son when he could have written the son off.  I’m sure the dad wrestled with what the love of Jesus would have him do.  After some time of working in his dad’s shop, the son began to dip into the till.  At some point the dad suspected it and eventually caught his son’s sin.  What can the dad do now?  He is faced with the hard question.  What does love do now? Yes, you want to help your son, but his problem is clearly far deeper than just needing a helping hand.  What would you do in that situation?  Loving people is difficult, but it is what Jesus calls us to do.  Love doesn’t always do the same thing.  Sometimes love has to say no more.  Sometimes it has to tell someone to leave before they can be received back in repentance. 

Peter also tells us to use our freedom to fear God.  This may sound like a contradiction, but God has not set us free so that we can live a life of not having proper respect for who He is, and what He has done.  He is our Father, but He is also our Judge.  He will not pervert truth in order to make you feel good.  He loves you too much to do that.

We are told in the Bible that the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  Yes, you are free to be a moron, but that is not what God had in mind when He gave you freedom.  We will all give an accounting to God one day.  There will be consequences for the way we have lived our lives.  However, there is more to the Fear of the Lord than just being afraid of hell.
Moses, when confronted with the idea that God might not go with along the way to the Promised Land, feared not having relationship with God.  God, You must come with us.  Otherwise, people will not know that Your favor is upon us.  Can you imagine eternity without Him Who is the greatest good?  Lack of relationship with God should be a far more fearful thought than eternity in a Lake of Fire.

Peter also tells us to honor the king.  This is clearly added to deal with the obvious question that would follow the earlier command to honor all people.  Should we honor even a wicked man like Nero?  We are to treat the king with respect and the honor that is due to his position and authority.  Again, that is in order to shut the mouths of foolish and ignorant people.

Household servants are to submit to their masters (18-20)

This word for servants has the idea of a household servant of various types.  Some may have greater freedom, but some may be actual slaves.  This is similar to the previous category under the king, or civil authority.  Even free people are under some authority in life.  Yet slaves and servants would have an extra layer of authority over them.

Peter calls slaves to use their freedom to submit to their earthly masters.  They are to choose to take their proper place under the master’s authority.  It may not be proper in the sense that God made them to be that way.  However, under the laws of the society, they are under a master.

Now there were some Christians who had slaves.  The letter of Philemon is written to a master asking him to receive a run-away slave back and treat him as a brother.  However, most Christians were not masters.  In fact, quite a few were slaves themselves.  You could understand that a slave might hear the Gospel and rightly think to themselves, “Christ has set me free!  No man can own me.”  Of course, God did not make any person to be the chattel property of another.  Yet this is not a perfect world.  In this imperfect world, God does not ask us to kill the masters with a slave revolt.  Instead, He calls the slaves to show the masters Jesus by giving them respect.  In fact, Peter calls them to show “all respect” in the way they submit to their masters. 

This term can mean something like terror.  However, the emphasis is on being very careful in your submission.  What if the masters are not respectable?  We are to respect them for Christ’s sake.  It is the respect of Christ that overshadows the whole issue.  I do it because I respect Christ who asks me to do it.

Jesus will not force us to submit to our master with all respect.  But He will work on our hearts by His Spirit.  He will call you to this and challenge you in it. 

The average American is no longer dealing with actual slavery.  Yes, there is some underground illegal slavery happening, but this is not what is being talked about here.  This best maps over to our relationship with an employer in this life.  Do you have a “good and gentle” boss?  It does happen!  The same thing was true of slaves in the first century.  Some of them had good situations and were happy to work for their master.  Even if they were told they were free, they might choose to stay.  However, many slaves had bad situations, even oppressive situations under masters who were evil men.  These slaves didn’t have a choice about their master.  He was who he was.  Peter challenges them to submit especially to the unreasonable masters.

It would be easier to serve someone who is good and gentle.  Anyone in the position of a lord over another person should have the qualities of being good and gentle because these are the qualities of Christ.

However, when a master is unreasonable, it seems unreasonable to expect a slave to submit to them.  The word unreasonable has the sense of being crooked, perverse, or wicked.  How can God expect us to serve a wicked master?

Many people in our society rail against the Bible and the God of the Bible.  Yet they are often using their political freedom as a license of sin, and a cover for evil things.

Freedom is a puzzle that is much more complex than we would like to admit.  Being politically free is one thing, but being spiritually free is quite another.  God is concerned about bigger issues than rather we are politically free or not.  Yes, He did not make us to be under tyrants and dictators.  However, the only way to break through to hard hearts is to remove their freedom and put them under the heavy hand of another sinner.  God is speaking to our hearts in these times, calling us to turn back to Him.  This is why nations rise and nations fall.  It is something that this rising nation should take to heart.  We have only risen because God has allowed it.  Yet He may cause us to fall as well.

God can help us through oppressive things, like a master who is unreasonable, if we will ask Him.  Rather than complaining, we can choose to trust God and submit to trusting Him.

Peter explains that a slave who endures the unreasonable actions of an evil master will find the favor of God.  Just like Noah found favor (grace) in the eyes of the Lord, we are called to be people who put their trust in God’s way and not our own.

To put a finer point on this, imagine a slave being able to choose between two doors.  Behind one is political and economic freedom and behind the other is favor with God.  Which would you choose?  In truth, it would be suicide to choose freedom over against the favor of God.  What good does freedom do for a person who has drawn the ire of God?  It does none whatsoever.

Verse 19 is somewhat choppy in English, but let’s work through it.  The point is not just suffering unjustly but also enduring under the suffering.  A person will only do so for one of two reasons.  They either have no hope and have been beaten into submission, or they have hope in God.  This latter reason is the testimony of slaves throughout history, even those in America.  They had faith in God and were able to endure great suffering.

African American slave culture had developed great faith in God.  It is the wellspring of the Negro Spirituals that surfaced in that era.  If you read the words to “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the “Black National Anthem,” you will be surprised at the level of faith and prophetic warning to America and black people themselves.

In the time of suffering, they learned something about God that was invaluable.  Yet they also knew that it could be lost.  This is a challenge for all people of all races.    God is found in times of suffering if we will put our trust in Him.  However, we can lose Him in the comfortable times that follow.

Peter tells us that there is no credit before God when we endure harsh treatment due to our own sin.  As free people, we may not have to suffer an evil master punishing us for our sins.  But we can suffer evil men due to our sins.  If I want God’s favor in such a situation, then I need to repent of my sin.

But, if we suffer for doing what is right and patiently endure it, there is favor with God.  Do you remember the Beatitudes of Matthew chapter five?  Jesus listed things that make us feel like we are not favored with God and told the people that they were blessed if they fit into those not so blessed categories.  Why are those who mourn blessed?  They are blessed because they have a Heavenly Father who has determined a time of comfort for them, at least if they will hang on in faith, continuing to draw His favor.

These unreasonable masters (and unreasonable, evil men) will stand before their Master one day.  They will be judged with a stricter judgment because they were in a position of power and authority.  They abused their power and will thus be treated with their own harsh treatment.

This is not an instruction that makes our flesh feel good.  It is an instruction that delivers our soul from our own sinful tendencies.  You can either be concerned with what you are getting out of life, or you can freely serve God and His purposes.  One thing is certain, you can’t do both!

Our Witness 2 audio

The Sermon on the Mount XIV

Subtitle:  Revealing Areas that are Pitfalls for Hypocrisy

Matthew 6:22-24.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on March 17, 2024.

Our passage continues looking at how the things of this world can become a pitfall for hypocrisy.  Last week, we saw that wealth that is amassed can get ahold of our heart.  It can become the thing we love.

In this passage, Jesus moves to the eye and points out how it can be captured by things as well.

Let’s look at the passage.

The health of our eye (v. 22-23)

How do people who start out wanting to serve God become hypocrites?  How do popes, pastors, general superintendents, and the religious, become hypocrites?  One of those ways is through their love for things more than God.  It shouldn’t be lost on us that Jesus spends more time talking about how things pull our heart away from God, then he does talking about our bad relationships with people.

If wealth can take hold of our heart and become the love of our life, then it can also affect our eye.  What does that look like?

Jesus first starts out with the natural affect of having a good eye or a bad eye.  He pictures the eye as the “lamp of the body.”  The eye  channels light into our brain so that it can be turned into a mental picture of the reality around us.

Notice that the eye is not the source of that light, but only a conduit, or a sensor.  That is exactly how a lamp works.  It is designed to hold oil (the fuel) and generally has a wick, which is lit.  The burning of the oil around the wick is then able to send light throughout the room.

This is important because the man standing in front of them is the “Light of the world.”  He has come to give them the light, the truth, about God’s purpose of salvation and man’s true condition.  Jesus knows that they will need some good spiritual eyes to see him as the light and to receive his teachings, ultimately, to be saved from their sins.  When you have good spiritual eyes, you can make an informed decision and hopefully a wise choice.

Yet, just as wealth can have a grip on people’s hearts so too, it can affect people’s spiritual eyes.  We can be surrounded by the light of God and not see it because we are spiritually blind.  This is why the Scriptures warn us over and over to guard our hearts.  We could add that we need to guard our eyes.  This is the challenge that Jesus speaks to us here.

Yet, there is something more specific than just seeing the truth in Jesus.  An evil eye is always connected to a greedy, miserly, and even covetous person, in the Scriptures.  On the other hand, a good eye is generally connected to generosity and charitable giving.

It is seen as an evil, or bad, eye because you cannot see your brother’s true need.  You can only see that the money you love will be depleted if you use it to help others.  Your eye is good if you can see that the things in your life were most likely given to you so that you could help your brother.  We will come back to this, but it does beg the question.  Why does God allow some to amass wealth and not others?

Jesus uses this concept of an evil eye in Matthew 20 when he tells the parable of the workers in the vineyard.  In the story, the owner of a vineyard goes to the place where day-laborers gather in the morning and hires them to work for the day.  He will pay them a denarius, which was defined as a day’s wage.  He goes back to the hiring place several more times: at the third hour, the sixth hour, the ninth hour, and the eleventh.  For sake of the story, we will assume they were working a twelve hour day.

When evening came, they began to pay the workers starting with the men who started at the eleventh hour.  Interestingly enough, they were paid a denarius.  The story jumps to the men who worked all day long, but imagine if you had worked all day and were in line to get paid when you saw the men who worked one hour receive a whole denarius (a whole day’s wage). Most people would immediately have their hopes up that they would get even more than a denarius, perhaps even 12 of them (for scale, imagine going from thinking you would receive $240 for the day to thinking you might receive 12 times that, $2,880).  Yet, when the men came to get their pay, they only received a denarius.  They began to complain, but the owner challenges them.  Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius?  They couldn’t say no.  They were not being ripped off.  Yet, it didn’t seem fair in some way.

Jesus get’s to the heart of the manner with the statement, “Why is your eye evil because I am good?”  It was good of the landowner to pay everyone a denarius.  Yet, somehow that because a situation for those who worked all day to become greedy.  This is an important acknowledgment that we need to make.  Our hearts can be overcome by greed, but here Jesus ties it to our eyes.

These men had their hearts on things, on money.  Thus, they couldn’t see the goodness of the landowner.  They could only see that they had been jilted somehow.  This is hypocrisy in the life of a person who claims to serve God.

Thus, wealth not only gets our hearts, but it affects our ability to properly see people (even God) in our life.  Everything becomes twisted and perverted into our lust and desire for more wealth.  Yet, this can even affect your ability to see the Truth of God when He is standing right in front of you.  People would miss Messiah because their eyes were captures (as well as their hearts) with wealth.

When we are generous, it fills our hearts and minds with the light of Jesus.  However, when we are greedy and stingy it fills us with darkness (every evil thing). 

The point is not about having wealth.  It is about how it affects your heart and eyes.  Jesus is not saying, “If your bank account is above a certain amount, then you are full of darkness.”  Rather, it is similar to the statement that it is impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.  Jesus follows it up with another truth, “but all things are possible with God.”  Similarly, on our own, wealth will conquer our heart and eyes.  We will become hypocritical slaves to it.  But, with Jesus, we can make wealth our slave for His purposes.

Jesus drills home just how bad this problem is.  In the natural, a bad eye simply keeps you from seeing.  However, a greedy, covetous eye is a spiritual problem.  It doesn’t just block light (truth), but also sends darkness into the soul (the whole body).  You become “full of darkness.”  The darkness here is not just the absence of light.  It is something more substantial.  It represents a soul that is lusting with all manner of vice.

Think of it this way.  It is bad not to see when the lights are not turned on.  Israel had received some light in the Law, but the prophets had spoke of a coming Messiah who would give the full light of God.  We can’t blame them for not fully seeing the truth of God.  However, when the lights are turned on (Messiah comes) and we still can’t see, then you find out that something is wrong with your eyes.  The Pharisees and Sadducees were revealing that their eyes and hearts were generally bad all along.

So the problem of heaping up earthly wealth starts by becoming the love of your heart.  It then also affects your ability to benefit from the light of God that you have received.  How can you fix such a problem?  In the natural, there is little that can be done for a blind person, but we are speaking of spiritual matters.  The only solution to spiritual blindness is repentance.  It is casting down the idol that has your heart and going after God.  The sad truth is that we have played a large part in our own blindness because our hearts lusted after things over the top of people and especially God.

The master of your life (v. 24)

A man whose heart is captured by earthly wealth, and whose eye is gripped by greed and stinginess, is a man whose life is filled with darkness.  This leads Jesus to challenge us on who our master truly is.  Is He, who is the Master of the universe, the master of me?  This is easier said than done. 

To the religious leaders, wealth was a sign of God’s blessing upon them.  Yet, they didn’t rightly answer the question, “Why has He blessed me with wealth?”  Most likely, they felt that it was proof that they were such a righteous person and so pleasing to God.  Yet, the truth is that God tests us with wealth in order to see if we will care for our poor brother or not.

The relationship with wealth and things is that wealth enables you to get anything that you want.  This is how it becomes our master.  We will do anything to keep it and amass more of it.  In the end, it rules us and we become its slaves.

Jesus brings up the classical problem of conflicting allegiances.  You cannot be serving your desire for wealth and God at the same time.  You will be drawn one way or the other.  Even selling all of your possessions in order to follow Jesus cannot guarantee that wealth will cease to be an idol in your life.  Idolatry is loving and desiring anything above God.

When we make wealth (or anything else for that matter) an idol in our life, it becomes a worthless and impotent thing.  Nothing in this world can be God to you, but God Himself.  We actually destroy the things in our life by making them into idols. 

It is not that God doesn’t want us to have thing.  The things we have in our life are His goodness and grace.  We should be filled with thanksgiving and fully enjoy them.  But, at the end of the day, if I have to choose between the things and Jesus, I need to choose Jesus.  Otherwise, they have become an idol to me.

It is interesting that Jesus uses the word “mammon.”  Most versions translate this as money or wealth.  This is fine.  However, it seems obvious that Jesus is giving a play on words.  He has been using phrases that keep pointing back to the Exodus.  Jesus is the New Moses come to lead them in a New Exodus.  In the Lord’s prayer, he talks about our daily bread, which is reminiscent of Israel in the wilderness with the manna.  I believe he uses the word mammon because they would have been thinking about the manna in the wilderness just moments before (Daily bread is in verse 11 and this is verse 24).

Just as they didn’t need to worry about their daily bread (manna), so they don’t need to worry about having enough money (mammon).  “Man doesn’t live by bread alone.”  We tend to take this as natural bread, but in the context, it begs to be seen as the manna.  Man doesn’t live by the manna alone, but by the fact that the God of heaven decreed that you were to be given it.  We must learn to rest in God’s care for us, rather than amassing wealth so that we can stop being anxious.  Spoiler alert:  the more money you amass the more fearful you will become about losing it.  If money is your idol, you will never be more anxious than when you have a lot of it.

Life has a way of testing us and trying us.  Do we want God or do we want wealth?  If you are serving wealth, then there is going to be a conflict some day.  Do you really love God?  You will find out on the day choosing God will lose you all your wealth.

Yet, Jesus brings up something more than love.  “He will be loyal to the one and despise the other.”  Loyalty and despising have to do with how much you value something.  Would you rather have God than all the gold in the world?  It is easy to say so when no one is offering us all the gold in the world.  In countless many ways, we make choices that declare God’s true value to us.  This is a good place to start looking. 

Jesus, please show me all the ways in which I am saying that something else is more valuable to me than you.  And then, Lord help me to choose You over them.

This reminds me of Isaiah 53:3-4.  Speaking of Messiah Jesus, it says, “He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.  And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.  Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.”

It is a scary thing to live your whole life saying that you love God, but when He reveals Himself, you value Him little.  This is the big reveal of the Old Testament prophets.  Of course, the nations would be in trouble when God came down to judge.  However, Isaiah shows us that even the people of God who claim to love Him and value Him greatly, would despise Him and walk on by.  Imagine not choosing God and esteeming created things over the top of the Creator.  We should value God above the things that He can give us.  We should be thankful to the Giver for the gifts that He gives, but we should never let them have our heart, damage our spiritual eyes, and make us a hypocritical slave to things.

Pitfalls audio

Putting on the "New Man" at Home II

Colossians 3:22-4:1.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 5, 2018 and is the 2^nd part of a sermon that was preached on July 22, 2018.  If you haven’t read or listened to it first then please do so.

Today we pick up where we left off several weeks ago.  In summary this section is about believers in Christ taking off the “old man” and putting on the “new man.”  Of course the old man that we put off is our own nature with its thoughts, feelings, and desires.  The New Man that we are putting on is Christ.

When we stopped in part I, we had begun talking about what it means for a slave to “put on the new man.”  This relationship between masters and slaves was very common in those days and could not be overlooked.  Though western societies may be able to say that they don’t have slaves anymore, we must be careful of discounting these words as no longer relevant, or as morally corrupt.  As I said in part I, the western world has simply taken the slave class and added them to the poor class.  Though they are no longer owned as property by another, they still are at the mercy of those around them who have money and jobs in order to make a living.  Thus these words should be seen as speaking to the relationship of the fortunate and the less fortunate, the haves and the have-nots.

Slaves obey your masters

In verse 22, slaves are told to obey their masters.  In fact, they are challenged and commanded to please God by working hard even when the earthly master isn’t looking.  This is to be done out of a sincere heart that fears God.

In case you haven’t spent time thinking about why even the New Testament emphasizes a positive aspect to a fear of the Lord, I will take a few moments to stir your thinking on this.  It is easy to say something that goes like this.  Fear was proper when people were under the Law of Moses.  But now that we are free in Christ we should no longer fear God.  Besides, doesn’t the Bible say that “Perfect love casts out all fear?”  The problem is that this one verse is not all that is spoken in the New Testament about fear.  We cannot ignore all the other verses, like this one here, and others like Philippians 2:12.

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;” (NKJV)

The perfect love of God casts out all the fear in regards to His heart towards us.  When you recognize Jesus is on the cross for your sins, you no longer fear that He doesn’t love you.  You know that He has laid down His life for you.  However, this is not what the phrase “fearing God” means in verse 22.  There it is talking about the restraint we should have when tempted to sin.  Like Joseph when he was being seduced by Potiphar’s wife, we must shudder at the thought of sinning against The One who was willing to die for us.  When we are walking in harmony with God we are secure in His love and need not fear that He will change His mind.  However, when we are tempted by sin, we should shrink back from the hideous thought of betraying our Lord’s sacrifice, not because He will quit loving us, but because I might quit loving Him and become an adulterer at heart.  To summarize, the fear that is cast out is in regard to God’s love.  The fear that should remain is in regard to sin’s ability to pull our heart away from the Lord and destroy us.

In verse 23, Paul adds that they should do everything as if unto the Lord.  This verse is not only about slaves.  First of all, all Christians are slaves of God and thus this applies.  However, even contextually, Paul is just stating for slaves what he already stated for all Christians in verse 17.

“And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus…” (NKJV)

Now in verse 23 Paul has added the word “heartily.”  It means that we don’t just outwardly perform the duty.  Instead we put our whole heart into doing it. 

It is worth noting that the effect of what Paul is doing here is not a means of keeping slaves quiet and away from revolt.  Paul is not working for the master-class to keep the slaves in subjection.  Rather, he has just helped the lowest people of society, whose lives and duties give them no obvious sense of purpose and meaning, to see that there is a holy aspect to the thankless and abject station that they have in life.  Regardless of how the world views you and your place in it, God sees you as His servant and that is a high position indeed.  Such an idea lifts our hearts out of the muck and the mire, washes it off, and says, “You serve the King of the Universe!”  It is only our myopic and snobbish elitism that cannot see how many slaves came to find hope in the Gospel that they never found in revolts.  In Christ the Christian slave could lift up his head and know that His true Master loved him greatly.  This in no way supports slavery, but rather supports the slave who had no hope of getting out of their situation.

Paul goes on to explain why a slave, or employee for that matter, should obey this command.  First, they will receive the reward of the inheritance.  The inheritance that Paul is talking about is the one that all believers will inherit from God the Father.  Though they have no inheritance in this world, Christian slaves know that they stand to inherit from God alongside of every other station and class in this world.  This life is simply a testing ground.  The life to come is our inheritance.  No one can touch it or separate you from it.  Thus the slave could be faithful to God because God is always faithful and will reward our service to Him in temporal things with eternal things.

The second reason a slave should obey in this matter is because God will repay those who do wrong without partiality.  Now, this sword cuts both ways.  On one hand the slave, who remains in anger and hatred, and refuses in this matter will also be repaid with judgment from God.  On the other hand, the main purpose is to encourage the slave who tries to obey their master and yet is wronged by the master.  Many harsh, unrealistic, oppressive masters have existed in this world.  But here a play on the word reward is made.  Those who wrong slaves will be repaid by God Himself.  How does a person keep doing the right thing when others treat them wrongly?  Typically we become frustrated, angry, and vengeful.  We throw off the altruistic purpose and take the path of our flesh.  We reject Christ and embrace Satan.  These destructive works of the flesh then pull us down into the slavery of sin.  However, when I recognize that even those who abuse me will have their day of reckoning before God, then I can focus on my part of the situation and let go of theirs.  God is an impartial judge.  He does not say, “It’s okay that you were overly harsh with your slave even though he tried his best to be faithful to your commands.”  No.  The Lord of Heaven that sends Lazarus to Abraham’s bosom and the rich man into the fire will also pay back those who never seem to have to pay for their sins in this life.  With God, no one is ever “too big” to fail and that should be a shot across the bow for all those in this life who have position over others.  By the way, even if society says it is okay to abuse slaves because they are your property, God will then treat you as you treated your slaves.

Masters treat your slaves justly and fairly

Though chapter three ends at verse 25, verse one of chapter four clearly goes with chapter three.  For those who aren’t aware, no part of the Bible was written with chapter and verse divisions.  These were added later for convenience.  In the 13^th century AD several chapter schemes were created and then later in the 16^th century verse divisions were added.  The point being that we should be aware that the chapter divisions are not always in the proper spot.  Chapter four verse one is the counterpoint to chapter three’s instructions to slaves.

Notice that if Paul was just trying to prop up a hierarchical system, he wouldn’t say what he does to masters.  He would most likely tell them to obey the magistrates and the king.  But instead, Paul tells masters that if they have put on Christ it will affect how they treat their slaves.  This is critical because it is the tendency to treat slaves as subhuman, property, and undeserving of basic human treatment that makes it so odious and loathsome.  It is too easy for those of the higher class of society to look upon those of a lower station as being something less than human.  This dynamic did not cease with the Emancipation Proclamation.  It continues to this day.  The leaders of our governments have come to see certain parts of our citizenry as less of a human as they are.  This is always used to justify tyranny.  In the 1800’s it was common to hear slaves described as less evolved and thus on par with animals.  Throughout all of history slaves had no redress for any “wrongs” against them.  They were simply property.

Yet here masters are warned that God will take note of how they treat their slaves.  Both the slave and the master are equally human and therefore imagers of God.  Psalm 62:9 says, “Those of low estate are but a breath; those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath.”  The point is that those of high estate are not of greater substance before God.  If you buy into the idea that they do, or that they will somehow be treated differently then you are deluded.  Many a king, magistrate, judge, lawyer, politician, business owner, etc. will have their eyes opened on that day that they stand before God and give account for treating others as somehow less than human.  All humans should be respected as human beings created by God for His purposes, and created higher than the animals, yet lower than the angels.

The treatment is qualified by the word “justly.”  James 5:4 gives a picture of the lack of justice in those days when it says, “The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts!”  It is easy for masters, business owners, and their management to have unreasonable expectations for slaves or workers.  When Israel was enslaved in Egypt, Pharaoh gave the unreasonable demand that the Israelites continue to meet their quotas while additionally having to get their own straw (see Exodus 5).  The key here is that historically masters have done what is in accordance with the commands and laws of their country.  Such laws cared little for slaves.  But God does care for them.  Thus the justness of a Christian’s actions toward their fellow man is not determined by what is acceptable in their country.  It is determined by God.  Many people today are spouting and perpetrating injustices in the name of justice.  They believe that the end justifies the means.  All such self-justification will melt when you stand before God.  The question is what does God think is just and righteous?  His word makes it very clear.

The word “fairly” is also used.  This could be seen in relation to other servants, i.e. treat all the slaves equally without partiality.  However, it is more likely meant in relation to how the slave serves the master.  It is only equitable or fair that the master treats the slave kindly when the slave’s life consists of the lowly duty of serving you.  The slave’s task is not easy.  It is only fair that the master not oppressively add to that task out of selfish concerns.  In fact it begs the question, “How harsh of a task master is God to the master?”  It is intended to make the master realize that he will be held accountable for how he treats his slaves.

Verse one ends with the reminder to masters that they have a Master in Heaven.  We are all in subjection to God.  Clearly, He is not like we are.  But He will hold all men responsible for their actions in this life.  The ultimate principle here is to focus on your side of the relationship, and do it in a way that pleases God despite what others do or don’t do.  We are serving Him in this life not self or society.  If we can righteously work for a change in society then that is good.  But the end does not justify the means.  The goal does not justify the path that we take to get there.

This is the new man: a person who is not trapped in the constructs of today, whether hopelessly furthering them or vengefully rebelling against them.  Even if your flesh and heart wants to identify as homosexual, transgender, white nationalist, black power, ad infinitum, we are called to identify as simply a follower of Jesus.  Instead of seeing ourselves as a 99%’er we are called to see ourselves as a follower of Jesus.  Whatever the distinctions that this world tries to put on you, or you want to take upon yourself, today Christ calls you to drop those things and come follow Him.

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