Truth For Life

Guest (Male): The apostle Paul had helpful instructions for Christian slaves and slave masters in his day. But does any of this teaching on slavery have relevance for us now? Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg helps us apply Paul's teaching to contemporary Christian work ethics. If you have your Bible, let's open together to the first verses in 1 Timothy chapter 6.

Alistair Begg: 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.

Now, if you just think for a moment, shoot your mind forward to the cross of Christ. First Peter, what does he say? That when he was reviled, he did not revile in return, but he committed his cause to him who judges justly. In other words, the whole central emphasis of Christianity, the very crucial event of biblical theology, the pivotal event of human history, underscores this principle. If Christ had been thinking about his rights, he would never have died upon the cross, would he? For he had rights to everything. He created the whole universe. If Christ was thinking about his circumstances, he would have never lived as he lived.

If Christ was concerned only for his status, then he would never had to go and sniff out a donkey from somewhere. He would have had a whole host of stallions upon which he could have come riding into Jerusalem. Well, so how could we have this Christ who has given us an example that we should follow in our steps, be the one who does all the dying, all the suffering, deals with all the mess? When I am concerned about my name, my rights, and my just deserts, I am probably at my least useful in the kingdom of heaven.

But when I realize that I am a slave and I am without rights, when I recognize that I am totally dependent upon my heavenly father to bestow upon me blessing or judgment in his way and in his time, then my impact in the kingdom and for the kingdom will be far greater. Now, it would have been one thing if Paul was living in the the relative luxury of a small vacation dwelling on the island of let's say Crete. And he was writing to Timothy and he was telling Timothy, tell these folks, this is what they ought to do.

Their response would have been, how would he feel that he could do this from there? But the fact of the matter is Paul is not calling people to a life with which he himself is unfamiliar. In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, in answering the charges that were raised against his apostleship, he lets the people know that he understands what it is to live in the face of the most dreadful circumstances. He says, I've labored, I've toiled, I've gone without sleep. I've known hunger and thirst. I've often gone without food. I've been cold and naked. And beside everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.

He says, you're weak, I feel weak. You're led into sin, I burn. If I must boast though, he says, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. Now, notice verse 31. The God and father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying. And that little phrase gives the key to his whole business. That's his whole philosophy of existence. That's his whole life. He says, the one thing that is true is that the God and father of the Lord Jesus is to be praised forever. And he may be praised in my beating.

He may be praised in my imprisonment. He may be praised in my enslavement. He may be praised in my prosperity and so on. He says, but the key thing is that we can't lose sight of the whole reason for our existence is that the God and father of the Lord Jesus would be praised. Now, you see, if in order to achieve that, God must bring his people through the most difficult of days. If he must crush the church in America to achieve that, then fine, crush on. Because the reason for our existence is not that we would all be healthy, wealthy, and wise.

It's not that Christianity would release us to a life of ease, but it is that God would be forever praised. Now, this is revolutionary, folks. This is absolutely revolutionary. This is this is completely upside down from where most of us live our lives. This is upside down from where most of us have decided Christianity is supposed to take us. Some of us are actually here this morning because we think that Christianity and God is a means to an end, and the end is our well-being. That God is a cosmic genie, that somewhere in here there's a there's one of those wee brat slamps.

And if somebody is one of the ushers or somebody can give it to us, then we can take it home, rub the brass lamp's belly, produce the genie, and ask him for stuff. And apparently that's why he exists, so that we can get a lot of stuff, so that we can be successful in our business, so that illness will not come our way, so that all will be well with our families. Get a life. It's not true to the Bible and it's not true to human experience. Do you know how much pain and heartache is represented in the Christian community in this in these few pews in here alone?

If that were the answer, we would be liars. We would be missing it. No, no. Through all the changing scenes of life, in sorrow and in joy, in pain and in plenty, in provision and in weakness, God's name is to be praised. Now, when I begin to get even the tiniest glimpse of that, it is a worldview which is revolutionary. Let me just summarize the three the three principles. Three clear points from this passage, and we just give them a moment or two to them. Took a long time introducing it. Number one, there is to be respect, says Paul, for all masters.

All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect. Now, when you apply this to the contemporary environment, you're going back to your work tomorrow and your area manager is not exactly the most congenial individual. The person who runs your little department in the lab is just horrendous. The principle applies. Obviously, it had a striking impact to the people in the Greco-Roman world, but it is no less dramatic in being applied today. Consider your masters worthy of respect. Now, this is simply an outworking of the New Testament principle of servant hood.

Servant hood. The call of Christ is a call to enslavement. Make me a captive Lord, we say, and then I shall be free. Force me to render up my sword and I shall conquer be. Jesus says, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. And whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all. Then he says, think about it. Even the Son of Man, talking about himself, didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. The same principle runs through the epistles.

Paul in 1 Corinthians 9 and in verse 19 says, though I am free, I belong to no man. I make myself a slave to everyone to win as many as possible. So, respect for all the masters. Why? Because Christians are supposed to be within the framework of their lives respectful. And this express circumstance here of enslavement does not mean they are to do anything less. Now, the other aspect to it is this. The eschatological aspect, the not yet aspect. This is brought to bear upon the circumstances that these individuals face. Peter puts it like this in 2 Peter 3.

He says, asking the question, since this whole world is passing away, what kinds of people ought we to be? Since the whole world is passing away, how then should we live? Now, you see, here is another indication of what happens to a Christian when they get turned the right way up. Because contemporary world views do not believe that the world is passing away. The world is all we've got. They are the ones driving around the stickers that say that the earth does not belong to us. We belong to the earth. You cannot distinguish between the creator and his creation.

That's pantheism. And since we are part of the creation, then you cannot distinguish us from the creator himself. Therefore, we are actually part of the creator. And therefore, I know that God said, I am that I am, and that he is that he is. But since I am part of what he is, therefore, I am that I am. So, we have man as God in charge of their own destiny. No, says the Bible, this world as we know it is passing away. Now, when you think about where you are today in relationship to the fact that it's passing away, it ought to change certain things.

Do we really think that what we can grab and get and handle and hold is real? Is it right that he who dies with the most toys wins? Oh, contemporary culture says, absolutely. This is all we've got. There's no tomorrow. Death ends it all. Therefore, get it now. The Bible says, no. This world is passing away. And since the world is passing away, what kind of people ought you to be? Really good people, really attractive people, really honest people. And if you find yourself in circumstances that are less than best, then you are to display in that circumstance the fact that you view the world totally differently.

We're not going to stay here. We're going home. And the way that I can endure my circumstance now as a slave is in light of the fact that one day I'm going to be a king. That although I may live as a slave, I'm actually a prince in God's house. That although I may be living in this worst little situation, in fact, in Christ I've been raised to the heavenly places. And this world is not my home. I'm just a passing through. See, we don't sing this stuff very much. We don't sing stuff about heaven.

There are hardly any songs about heaven at the moment. Why? Who needs heaven? Who wants heaven? Goodness gracious, this is fantastic. Don't move me from here. I'm having a great time. Then a telephone call from the doctor says the blood count wasn't what it should be. Hey, talk to me about heaven. Then the pink slip. Hey, we're going to heaven. Then the roof leaking. Don't worry. We're going to heaven. But as long as it's all plain sailing, this world is my home. And I'm not passing through. I want to stay here for as long as I can.

I'm going to get as much as I can. And I'm going to place all my confidence in that. The lady who wrote a book called Nine Ways to Financial Success said this. When I finally managed to make more money than I could ever imagine, to wear a Rolex watch with my designer clothes and vacation on my own private island, I found myself as miserable and empty as I could imagine. And I was forced to conclude that if money does not hold the key to happiness, then I have no idea where the key is to be found.

See, she doesn't know what the Christian knows. And that's why out of the experiences of slavery even through the years, and I want to be careful in the saying of this unless I misstate myself. But that is why out of the experience of slavery have come some of the most wonderful statements concerning an understanding of God and his providence, concerning the fact that even though my master may be an ogre, and even though I may be in the experience of deep injustice, and even though all of this will needs to be put to rights, and I hope sooner rather than later, I'm going to take my children and I'm going to gather them around me, and I'm going to say as the grandmother in the hovel, hey, listen kids, all God's children got shoes.

And when we get to heaven, we're going to put on our shoes. I'm going to roll them all over God's heaven. Don't you ever forget that. Now, I don't suggest for one moment that the expectation of heaven was to diminish the rightful concerns for the liberation necessary from brutal racism. All I'm saying is that those who experienced that and left a testimony behind were those who in understanding the pain, the emptiness, the hatefulness, the wrongfulness of it all left a legacy for the listening world which said, listen, we understand that this world is not our home and we are just passing through.

And that's why you see slave masters were eventually brought down. That's why Newton eventually says Amazing Grace. Why? Because he has encountered not simply at the level of his peers, but he has encountered at the level of those whom he has brutalized the most amazing statements concerning God and his glory. Now, what were they doing? They were making the gospel of God, our Savior, attractive. Ugly is easy. Ugly is easy. I have ugliness down. I am ugly. I can be very ugly. My natural bent is ugliness. Attractiveness, that's going to take God. That's going to take the power of the spirit.

That's going to take a right kind of revolution. You're a pain in the neck to your boss, cut it out. Cut it out. Why? So that you might get a rise. I don't care whether you get a rise for the sake of the glory of Christ. That's the point he makes. Respect for all masters. Secondly, and I'll just mention this, no less respect for Christian masters. Those who are believing masters are not to show less respect for them because they are brothers. Now, let me just give this to you in in a way that you'll get immediately.

You get pulled over by a policeman for doing 49 in a 35. And when he comes up to the car and you roll the window down, you recognize him he's a Christian. And so you say to yourself, super. I'm in the clear. Beautiful. Beautiful. And instead of saying, hello Sergeant Wilkins, you say, hey brother, nice morning, isn't it? And the policeman says, give me your license and write you up and send you on your way. Why? Because our relationships within the body of Christ do not overturn civil jurisdiction. That would be corruption. And Christians are not supposed to be corrupt.

They're supposed to uphold the rule of law. Therefore, if we deserve it, we should get it. And in the same way, he says the slave might be tempted to expect special treatment from his master because he's a Christian. They go to the same church services together. They actually were sharing a hymn book the other night. And so he thinks, you know, maybe I want to have to strive as hard now. No, because the guy's a brother, because the woman is a sister does not preclude the slave from submitting to discipline and earning his keep like his non-Christian counterparts.

In fact, and this is the third thing in with which I've concluded, believing slaves should be the best. Believing slaves should be the best. Instead of despising or looking down on their masters if they're non-Christian, they should serve them even better. If they're Christian, then they should make an all out attempt to show that they're not going to allow their relationship to make them disrespectful or slack or careless. Because when a Christian employee is disrespectful, slack or careless, he or she supplies the unbelieving world with ammunition to criticize the church. When the Christian worker has the worst kind of attitude coupled with the least amount of service, then they do a disservice to the name and the glory of God.

The people say, you know, I know I know I I saw your sticker, but you can stick your sticker because I am tired of picking up after you in this office. All of your files that you leave lying around, says the pagan, Mr. Christian, cuz you're going to your Bible study, you're going to get spiritual now and leave the secular world behind. Because of all of that stuff, I'm running around picking up your stuff. Or, you know what? I'm tired of covering for you for the first 25 minutes every morning here when Mr. Eggs wants to know where you are.

What are you doing? Says the pagan. Sticking more stickers on your car? I suggest you cut with the stickers and you start with promptness. You see, think about this. Time magazine, Newsweek and everything is waiting for us all to go out there and be the Christian right, you see. They all got us all earmarked for that, you know. We are lobbying for this. We are lobbying for that and everything else. What they don't expect us to be is radical in our own immediate environment. Just transformed in the way we live our lives. You you want to live for Jesus Christ this week?

Let me tell you what to do. Let me give you words. Timeliness, cleanliness, kindliness, honesty and zeal. You get it? Timeliness, cleanliness, kindliness, honesty and zeal. See, walk the walk. The people are fed up with all this talk, fed up with all this banner waving clap trap. I'm fed up with it. But I tell you what, they will respond to you when you're timely, kindly, clean, honest and zealous. Oh, I envy you. You say, well, I envy you. You don't do anything. You just go up in a room somewhere. Well, okay, fine, but I do envy you.

I I have you know, I have worked before this. I've had some high level jobs, you know. I was a butcher, at least a butcher's assistant. I couldn't say that I graduated, but uh but I some days I would like to go back there to that little blue van and the trips to the abattoir where I bought brought back the sheep's heads in the metal trays. And then I skinned them while they were still warm and took the eyes home to my mother as a gift. Anybody can buy flowers. Not everyone can come home with a couple of sheep's eyes, you know.

But my boss was a big burly Yorkshireman called Mr. Peg with a P. He used to say, hey up lad, get yourself up the road there and get it done. And get back down here and get it cleaned up. And I would scrub that thing, that butcher's block thing with all the creases of all those chopping things that went in with all that blood, with that big brush, with those bristles that bust your fingers for you. They were so sharp. And I liked getting that really clean. And I liked it when I delivered to the lady whose husband had had a stroke.

And I liked the chance to have the little joke with the husband before I left. And I don't ever remember giving out tracts. And the only sign on the van said Peg's But butchers. But I discovered something that is foundational to the Bible. If you just walk the walk, you'll get a chance to talk the talk. But if you talk but you don't walk, you will speak so alive, but no one will hear.

Guest (Male): That is Alistair Begg on Truth for Life. The apostle Paul was somebody who clearly talked the talk and walked the walk. If you've ever wondered what his ministry journeys were like, well, if you'd like to see them come to life, you can join Alistair next year on a Journeys of Paul Mediterranean Cruise. You'll visit places you likely remember from Paul's writings, Ephesus, Corinth and Malta. The cruise departs from Barcelona, Spain on August 28th 2027, finishes up in Athens, Greece on September 4th. If you'd like to learn more, go to deeperfaithcruise.com. Next week we'll continue our study in 1 Timothy, but as you likely know, Paul wrote two letters to Timothy.

And it's his second letter that is featured in the resource we're recommending to you today titled Guarding the Truth. This is Alistair's brand new verse by verse study through the book of 2 Timothy. It's a companion to the ESV Bible text that takes you through key themes of Paul's teaching. Believers are encouraged to hold firm to the truth of the gospel, uphold biblical truth and then pass it on to the next generation. You'll also unpack the warnings and instructions Paul gave Timothy about the dangers of false teaching. The Guarding the Truth study guide is yours when you donate to Truth for Life today.

You can give online at truthforlife.org/donate or call us at 888-588-7884. Thanks for joining us this week. On Monday we'll learn about the lure and danger of false teachers. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the learning is for living.