Who's the Slave?

Ephesians 6:5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ (ESV)

    This term slaves is translated bondservant in the Greek. This verse is addressing the master-servant relationship. Paul is writing this letter to the Ephesians, the same Paul that refers to himself as a bondservant of Christ Jesus in the book of Philippians. I know this verse can be controversial, being used to say that the bible condones slavery. The way I interpret this verse is very different. We are given much insight into the life of the author, Paul. A man who’s identity was one of a servant of Christ Jesus. He had an eternal perspective and was indebted to the service of Christ. I think this term slaves, is simply addressing the servants of Christ Jesus, me and you.
    Taking that mind set this section of scripture applies to every believer, indebted to an earthly master or not, we all serve a heavenly master, Christ Jesus. And what is being said is that we should take that same mindset with our earthly masters, knowing that “there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” So how are we to obey our earthly masters? We are told with fear and trembling. “In scripture, fear is used to express a filial or a slavish passion. In good men, the fear of God is a holy awe or reverence of God and his laws, which springs from a just view and real love of the divine character, leading the subjects of it to hate and shun every thing that can offend such a holy being, and inclining them to aim at perfect obedience. This is filial fear.” We are not motivated by the fear of punishment. Knowing that we were created to bring glory to God, his name can not be glorified if we serve him out of a fear of punishment. But on the contrast Gods name is glorified when we serve him in love, out of a joyful heart. It is in this love that we find a Godly fear.
    So how do we apply this to our earthly masters. Well I couldn’t have said it any better then this verse, “as you would Christ.” I am a firm believer that if you are doing your part to keep the vertical in check (the relationship between you and Christ), then the horizontal (your relationship with the things of this world) will be in alignment with a biblical worldview.
    Secondly we do this with a sincere heart. “Being in reality what it appears to be; not feigned; not simulated; not assumed or said for the sake of appearance; real; not hypocritical or pretended.” This is crucial, without sincerity we might as well not even bother. In my life this is something that has taken a long time to get from my mind to my heart. It is only through Christ that I have been able to do so, and even then I have a long ways to go. Before I knew Christ the sincerity of what I did was next to none. In turn my pursuits were in vain, they were meaningless and quite honestly not rewarding. Today I have found meaning to what I do. Its all for the glory of God. Outside of this there is no meaning. From dust we came and to dust we shall return. Its been said you “gotta serve somebody”, if its not Christ your out of his will.

Application:
Today I will remember it is Christ I am serving as I got about to chores at Manna.