Rev. David Holwick N 1 Timothy - Clean Up the Church, #13
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
April 11, 2010
1 Timothy 6:1-5
WAGE SLAVES
I. Being owned.
A. It is census time.
1) Interesting statistics in the 1860 census.
Almost 4 million slaves in America, 13% of population.
8% of families owned a slave.
a) Most, of course, were in the South.
b) But in 1830, two-thirds of the slaves in the North were
here in New Jersey!
2) Black members in our church today are ancestors of slaves.
3) America faced a similar dilemma to today's passage - most
of the black slaves here were owned by white Christians.
a) Should the Christian owners evangelize them?
b) What if the slaves started studying the book of Exodus,
especially the part about "Let my people go!"?
(they did)
B. Slavery was common in the Roman Empire.
1) Majority of people were slaves due to wars and poverty.
2) Many Christians were slaves, but not all.
a) Some of the richer Christians owned the homes that the
early churches had services in.
b) This could create tension within the church.
1> Some church members owned other church members.
2> How were the slaves treated?
3> How did the slaves act?
C. Slavery still exists today.
1) Three years ago, two men and a woman from Togo were arrested
in New Jersey for smuggling at least 20 young women from
Africa and forcing them into indentured servitude -
modern slavery.
The women had to work without pay at hair braiding salons
in Newark and East Orange.
2) More common: "wage slaves".
a) Straw poll of congregation:
1> How many of you are bosses?
A> You have total power over your workers.
B> Most people would like to be a boss, but few are.
The story goes that a man went into a pet shop to buy a parrot.
The shop owner pointed to three identical looking parrots on a
perch and said: "The parrot on the left costs 500 dollars".
"Why does the parrot cost so much?" asked the man.
The owner said, "Well, the parrot knows how to use a computer."
The man then asked about the next parrot and was told that this
one cost $1,000.
It could do everything the first parrot could, plus it knew how
to use the UNIX computer operating system.
Naturally, the increasingly startled man asked about the third
parrot.
He was told that it cost $2,000.
Needless to say this begged the question, "What can it do?"
The owner replied, "To be honest, I have never seen it do a
thing.
But the other two call him boss!" #13598
2> How many of you have ever earned a wage?
A> Do you work in a cubicle?
B> Do you hate your job?
3) If you work for wages, you are sort of a slave.
a) You have agreed to sell a portion of your time and labor
to some company or employer, and get money in return.
b) You are better off than slaves of the Roman Empire or
America before the Civil War.
1> You get paid, and maybe have benefits and vacations.
2> You have to plan around your job, but you do have
some freedom which ancient slaves did not.
D. Christianity changes things.
1) The great reversal - the little guy becomes the big guy.
2) But what is true spiritually does not always work out in
this life the way we might expect.
3) What does the Bible say about work relationships?
II. There are different forms of freedom.
A. The New Testament does not outlaw physical slavery.
1) This bothers a lot of people today, and comes up when
Christians use the Bible to make statements on current
social issues.
2) Passages like the one we are studying today almost seem to
accommodate slavery.
a) Slaves should be good slaves.
b) Elsewhere, the New Testament teaches that slaves should
not steal from their masters or run away.
B. Acceptance does not mean approval.
1) The Bible never defends slavery.
2) Early Christians eventually abolished it.
a) In Paul's day there were 60 million slaves in the
Roman Empire.
b) Two hundred years later it had largely disappeared.
3) The driving force was not protests and armed conflict,
but obedience to the Bible's commands.
a) Respect each other.
b) Acknowledge that God is in charge of everything, and
everyone.
c) Look to God for change.
1> God is on the side of the oppressed.
2> He moves slowly at times.
3> But he always wins in the end.
III. Example of Joseph.
A. Sold into Egyptian slavery by his brothers.
1) He was smart and well-educated, yet enslaved.
2) After his slavery he was falsely accused and thrown in jail.
B. It would be natural to turn to bitterness or anger at God.
1) Joseph had done everything right, and it was all downhill.
2) But he never gave up on God.
C. It time, God turned it around.
1) It took longer than you would have expected.
a) Joseph interpreted some jailmates' dreams but when one
was released, he forgot about Joseph.
b) A bigger situation - the Pharaoh's dream - got him out
of jail.
2) The delayed release led to a bigger payoff.
a) Joseph not only gained his freedom, but a high position
in the government.
b) In time, he even got one over on his brothers who had
betrayed him in the beginning.
D. This is how God works in life.
1) You must keep the long view.
2) You must keep your trust in God.
3) And you must do the right thing always, no matter what.
IV. Servitude is no fun.
A. Many have tyrants for bosses.
1) Some are worse than others.
Two weeks ago, the owners of a brick factory in Bangladesh
were upset that their bricks were not red enough.
Red bricks are in huge demand in Bangladesh's countryside
because the color is seen as proof the bricks have been
baked properly.
The bosses went to a fortune teller who suggested that the
factory needed a human sacrifice.
Apparently on the bosses' orders, other workers decapitated
a 26-year-old bricklayer and put the head in a brick kiln.
The article didn't say if this improved the color of the
bricks.
But it did say the police are looking for the owners - and
that fortune teller.
#36201
As bad as your bosses may be, they aren't this bad, are they?
2) Bosses can be irritating, incompetent, or bullies.
3) You will be tempted to be polite to their faces, and goof
off behind their backs.
4) Real Christians should resist this temptation.
B. Treat your boss with respect. 6:1
1) Consider them worthy of full respect - even if they are
not worthy.
2) They are still made in the image of God, like you.
a) They have the potential for reflecting God's glory
beauty and love.
b) Even a total jerk has worth and should be respected.
c) The satanic view treats people as worthless and
open to ridicule and abuse.
Some scholars say, the problem is not the difficult bosses
themselves. It is you.
Bruce Elvin, a director of professional development at Duke Law
School, says there is a good quote from the Talmud.
"'We do not see the world as it is - we see the world as WE are.'
He and others say that rather than seeing the grumpy boss or
whiny nitpicker as the sum of their most wretched behavior,
it is better to empathize with them.
It may be that your boss is grumpy because their personal life
is in turmoil.
Mark Rosen, a social scientist at Brandeis, says, "Some people
really are bad people.
"But I don't think the percentage is as high as people think it
is."
Instead, he said, "most people fall into the category of
incompetent or oblivious."
#34065
C. Is it easier to have a Christian boss?
1) The relationship is different, since you are brother/sister
in the Lord.
2) There may be a temptation to think you will get special
favors.
a) Some modern Christians have this attitude.
1> They think a fellow Christian businessman owes them
a discount.
2> (The businessman often hates to see them coming.)
b) Paul turns this around.
1> Instead of expecting something extra for you, do
something extra for them.
2> Give them extra respect and don't "use" them.
A> In the ancient world, rich people strove to be
"Benefactors" by contributing to their
community.
B> Here, Paul uses the same phrase but applies it
to the slaves - they are to be Benefactors
to their owners! 6:2
3) There is also the temptation to resent them.
a) The slaves may expect their situation to improve under
a Christian owner, but then it does not.
b) Either the owner is not as sanctified as he should be,
or the slave has unrealistic expectations.
c) Paul tells them to treat a Christian boss as a brother,
no matter what.
V. Not everyone accepts it. 6:3
A. Paul knew these principles would encounter resistance.
1) The resisters have a bigger agenda.
a) They are always escalating controversy.
b) They love getting people all riled up and polarized.
c) They keep perpetuating the bad situation.
2) Making money is all they are really about.
B. But this is how God changes the world.
1) It is hard for us to be patient, and submissive, and loving
when it doesn't seem to work immediately.
a) Nevertheless, it is an opportunity to display the
character of Christ.
b) The darker your situation is, the brighter your light
can shine.
2) God can, and will, change the situation.
a) He has been liberating slaves for a long time.
b) All of us are slaves in one way or another.
1> We are bound with bad habits of eating, drinking,
smoking, whatever.
2> All of us are slaves to habits of the emotions,
such as hot tempers and lustful thoughts.
3> We are all slaves to attitudes of resentment and
bitterness.
c) But God can free us when we act as his children in the
midst of the circumstances in which he has put us.
3) How free do you want to be?
=========================================================================
SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#13598 "They Call Him Boss," by Sunday Funnies, quoted in Wit And Wisdom
at <http://www.witandwisdom.org> by Richard G. Wimer,
March 19, 2004.
#34065 "I’m Surrounded By Jerks," by Stephanie Rosenbloom, The New York
Times Online, January 18, 2007.
#36201 "The Solution To A Production Problem," Telegraph newspaper,
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/bangladesh~
/7493874/bangladeshi-man-beheaded-to-redden-bricks.html>,
March 21, 2010. The reaction of the congregation showed me
this illustration was a little too graphic.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
=========================================================================
