Colossians 3:22-4:1 Master and Servant in Christ
The Capitalist Liberal Party Parable: The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30, compare Luke 19:12-27):
The bible supports capitalism, and the bible supports socialism. Jesus had a Capitalist Liberal Party parable, and a Socialist Labor Party parable. Jesus was very bi-partisan. The first parable I want to talk about is the famous Liberal Party parable. It is the Parable of the Talents.[1] The parable of the Talents is so famous that our modern notion of ‘talents’, as an ability or gift, is derived from it. Jesus tells a parable about his own second coming. Jesus told his disciples as he headed to the cross that he was going to go away. And Jesus Christ would return as judge at a time he would be least expected. Before Jesus leaves, he likens himself to a rich man, who gives his possessions to his slaves. His wealth is given in the form of ‘talents’, which was a unit of currency. A talent was worth about 15 years wages for a labourer. That would be the equivalent of about $1.2 million dollars in our money.
So one servant gets five talents, about $6 Million dollars. Another gets two talents, over $2 million dollars. And one slave gets one talent, well over a million dollars. Each slave is given the amount of money that accords with his ability. The most talented and able slave is given the most. But the one with the least ability does not miss out. Not too much, nor too little, is given to each servant. Each slave is expected to put his master’s money to work while the master is away.[2]
Now, the master comes back, and the more capable slaves, who were given five and two talents each, engaged in trade. Consequently, each doubled the money entrusted to them. But the slave that was given one talent did nothing with it. He didn’t even put it in the bank. He just dug a hole in the ground and buried it.[3] The Master was pleased with the two slaves who doubled their money, but not with the lazy, excuse making, ‘you’re just lucky that your rich’ slave. The two diligent slaves are rewarded with even more stewardship. But the lazy slave is cast out.
This parable teaches us that Jesus Christ requires fruitfulness of his disciples. Jesus Christ is not a hard Lord, despite the untrue claim of the lazy slave. Jesus’ yoke is easy and his burden is light. He does not test us beyond what we can bear.
But the Lord Jesus Christ does demand our effort. He does call on us to give ourselves fully to his work. He calls on us to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves, while we wait for His return.
Our work now, our labour in the Lord, has eternal meaning. God honours our work Christ Jesus with eternal rewards. All work is good, and so is working with your hands.
The Theological Context: The theology of human work and rule
Ancient Greeks looked down on manual labour and hard work. Jane Austen novels have their share of gentry snobs that look down on someone in a profession. They value a ‘gentleman’, a man of leisure who didn’t need to work, who had no profession, but lived off their estates and the backs of their tenants, and spent their time hunting and arranging balls.
But the bible values human work and labour. God is a worker, and we humans are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26-28; 2:2-3). Six days we are called to work, and to rest on the Sabbath, just like God our creator (Exodus 20:11). Humans are made and mandated to fill the earth and subdue it and rule all creation (Genesis 1:28). God placed Adam in the garden with his wife Eve to work it and take care of it (Genesis 2:15) That is, before the fall, God blessed human labour – both the labour of the man and of the woman. So God dignified and blessed work. God is a worker, and we humans are called to work God’s world as his image bearers.
But human sin damaged and distorted everything. Eve’s situation in marriage and children is now much harder. Her children cause her pain, and she endures difficulties in her marriage. Adam also must endure God cursing the ground (Genesis 3:17-18). So we read Genesis 3:17-18:
Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return. (NIV)
And of course, Adam and Eve share each other’s pain as well. Adam must endure pain with his children and marriage, and Eve suffers because of the difficulty of his work. And the final punishment is death, which both equally share. They are dust, and to dust they will return.
Now, everything we do in our work is two steps forward and one step back.
Evangelism is two steps forward and one step back. People are hardened to the gospel – most are the seed that falls on the path, as far as I can tell. And even of those few that respond to Christ, some fall away after short time or long. But God has still got his good soil, yay!
The Silverdale building project is the same. We now have a Construction Certificate, and a project manager, yay! But we are short of money, boo! So we ask and act, and new money starts coming in, yay! But then new expenses are found and new hurdles to jump, boo! Ray fixes the architraves at Warragamba, yay! But then he discovers he has to repair the door jam as well, boo! I move the steel cabinet from the Mulgoa Hall, yay! But I’ve left paint in it, and it has spilt everywhere, boo! We have internet at St Paul’s Warragamba, yay! But today the internet is down, boo! We have a car, yay, but it needs new tires, boo. Two steps forward, one step back. And that’s the good days. We all know that sometimes it is actually one step forward and two steps back.
Your work is the same. So is mine. Two steps forward, one step back. I have one of the best jobs on earth. But lately, writing sermons for me has been like pulling teeth. There are thorns and thistles everywhere in our work, no matter how much we love it.
Who has done this? God. God has done it because of our sin. But God himself has done it to us. He has built frustration into our fallen world. The command is the same, and has not been revoked: ‘Go forth, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the birds of the airs, fish of the sea, beasts of the field’. And God’s blessing is not withdrawn. But now, our work and rule won’t be easy. You and I will sweat, we will pick the thorns and thistles out of our flesh, and then we will die. And God has done it so that we don’t get too comfortable here. Our true home, our true country, is not 21st century Australia. It is the heavenly land, the Kingdom of Heaven, the Jerusalem above, the renewed heaven and earth that Jesus Christ will bring in when he returns from heaven in power with his angels.
But God still blesses our work now. God never curses the man and his wife. He curses their situation, but not them. God curses the land and the serpent, and the murderer Cain, but not Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:14, 17; 4:11; 5:29). Humans are still blessed.[4] Humans have flourished and indeed rule and show their mastery over the world. So in Genesis 4, we find musicians who play string and wind instruments, farmers and pastoralists, metalurgists, workers in bronze and iron (Genesis 4:19-22). By Genesis 4, we see technology and specialization, two aspects of human enterprise that lead to human flourishing. Technology, the creation of tools, allows us to modify and use the created order to make life easier. And specialization enables us to perfect techniques in ruling the world. By Genesis 11, we see a third factor, which is human co-operation. There is a link between humans ‘going forth and multiplying’ and humans ‘ruling the earth’. We humans are much better ruling the world together. God himself acknowledges that ‘as one people speaking the same language’ ‘nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them’ (Genesis 11:6). Together, we can do amazing things. We stand on the shoulder of our fathers and mothers, and their experiences in ruling the world. That’s what education is: learning the wisdom of previous generations. When it comes to humanity, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. And this is the truth that communism sees when it emphasizes co-operative effort and sharing. Communism rightly sees the problem of unprincipled capitalism. But Communism failed because it refused to respect private property. The Communist states stole from its citizens. But states don’t make or invent anything. People do. So Communism was doomed to fail.
Co-operation, Specialisation and Technology – these are the keys to wealth creation in our world. Of course, we are in a world of sin. There are the twin sins of envy and greed. And so eventually the interests of the common-wealth and that of the individual’s pursuit of wealth will clash.
Among God’s Old Testament people, both communal life and individual rights were protected. So there was taxation – called the tithe – to provide for both priest and levite. But there was also the protection of private property. The eighth commandment said, ‘Do not steal’. This protected private property. Private property rights provided God’s people the incentive to work and reap the rewards. The fruit of people’s labour would be protected by society, and not taken or stolen. Indeed, this was one reason why Yahweh did not impose a Monarchy on Israel, and indeed warned Israel that a King would tax them and render Israel slaves.
The protection of private property is one of the necessary building blocks of capitalism. Capitalism requires the accumulation of private property and the use of it as the means of production. And it has been capitalism that has led to the wealth of our world. Not unbridled ‘greed is good’ type of capitalism, but capitalism set on an ethical foundation, built on Christian principles of loving neighbor by working the world. A Christian form of capitalism recognized social obligations. Adam Smith observed that the universe has been so structured that if we seek to satisfy our needs and desires within the boundaries of God’s moral limits, God’s invisible hand turns our labour for our own provision to be a contribution to the public good.[5] And this capitalism sprung from protestant biblical Christianity. It was no accident that the industrial revolution occurred in Protestant England. The bible of the protestants encouraged saving, investing, inventing, innovating, organizing, working, risk taking. ‘Talents’ were to be put to work, not buried in a hole in the ground. And watch this space, because as the United States wanes, China grows. China already has the third largest Christian population in the world, and it has the highest rate of conversion growth, mainly from atheism, Buddhism and Hinduism.[6] If current trends continue, China will have more Christians than the US in 15 years. [7] Mao Tse Tung thought he could eliminate religion in the 1960s and 70s. That was the Cultural Revolution. But Mao died, and Christianity, once pruned, grew back even stronger.
Slaves and Masters as Part of Work
Humans are made to rule the material world, and to work it to survive. Specialization, co-operation, and technology means that we are very good at ruling the material world, which God considers good.
So we come to think about the master-slave relationship. And the first thing to realize is that it is not ideal. It never was. It will not exist in heaven. So there is a real sense where there is no Greek or Jew, or slave or free in the church nor the new heaven and earth, but only Christ, who is all, and is in all, and we are all one in Christ Jesus (Colossians 3:11; Galatians 3:28). Slavery is a temporary situation. So Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 7 verses 21 and 22:
21Were you a slave when you were called? Don't let it trouble you--although if you can gain your freedom, do so. 22 For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord's freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ's slave. 23 You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men. (NIV)
Paul agrees that slavery is not ideal. Buy your freedom if you can. That will free you up to serve Christ. And don’t become a slave if you can help it. ‘Do not become slaves of men’. But if you are a slave and can do nothing about it, don’t let it worry you. It is a temporary situation. Your identity is neither that of a freeman or a slave, if you are Christian. Your identity is that you have been bought by Christ. Christ has purchased you with his blood and Christ now owns you, and in Christ there is freedom. His yoke is easy and his burden is light.
Now, many fancy pants people out there want to ‘dis’ the bible because Paul and Peter tell slaves to obey their masters. Mr Rudd, former Prime Minister of Australia, was one of them. According to Mr Rudd, we should have Gay Marriage, for this reason. The Bible believes in slavery. But slavery is wrong. Therefore, the Bible is wrong. So the Bible is wrong on Gay Marriage as well (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-02/rudd-appears-on-q-and-a/4930540).
But here is the problem with Mr Rudd’s reasoning.
First, the Bible doesn’t say slavery is good. It says that it is tolerable for the short period of time while we wait for Jesus to rescue us. The bible certainly never says that slavery is a natural condition.
Second, the letters of Paul and Peter are not universal declarations of human rights. They are codes of conduct for how real people in very real situations should live as Christians. Paul and Peter did not have the power to declare universal manumission. Instead, they write letters to real groups of Christian people and speak the gospel truth into the mess of real life.
Third, we are deceiving ourselves into thinking we modern Australians don't have slavery. We modern Aussies do not occupy some sort of moral high ground because we have abolished slavery, and are no longer served by slaves. We’ve just moved slavery offshore, that’s all! That’s why our clothes are made in Bangladesh and our consumer durables in China and Indonesia. We have slavery. It’s called the Rise of China and the Asian Century. And we Australians have hitched ourselves to it. We are addicted to economic slavery and the low wage economies to make our stuff, and now we can’t live without it. And my question is, ‘Mr Rudd, why haven’t you spoken to the vast proletariat of China, to set them free from their economic oppression, if that is your expectation of what the Bible should do? Why didn’t you urge them to rise against their western and local overlords, if that is what you expect St Paul and St Peter to do? After all, you can speak Mandarin. You go and tell them to throw off the yoke of oppression. And do you think you will be invited back to Communist China, even if you can speak Mandarin?’
Mr Rudd, even as Prime Minister of Australia, had limitations on what was achievable in the short term. And so did the Apostles, Peter and Paul. So they didn't expect that the slaves to whom they wrote would necessarily have the opportunity of manumission. The Apostles ministered the truth of the gospel into the current situation to those people who had to live under less than ideal situations. And they did so by telling the truth of the gospel, that in Christ there is neither slave nor free.
Let’s also remember who actually did something about slavery: William Wilberforce and John Newton, Evangelical Anglican Christians. They were prompted by the Bible. So ditching and dissing the Bible won’t lead to improvements in the working life of the vast majority of people in the world. The fact is, people in China are flocking to the Bible.
Anyhow, there’s a lot about the employee relationship that is like slavery. I have a friend I went to school with who is an actuary. Last time I saw him, he said that he works all the time, till late every day. He said he is not married, he doesn’t have a family. He said of himself that he has no life. What is he but a highly paid slave?
In the US, they have ‘interns’. I think an ‘internship’ is a bit like a work experience or apprenticeship position while people are finishing their studies. There are reports that the work culture in the investment banking sector is that students and interns have to work 100 hours a week to break into the industry. In fact, this week there were reports that a 21 year-old Bank of America intern died after having a fit because he had just worked 72 hours straight. (http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/nov/22/moritz-erhardt-merrill-lynch-intern-dead-inquest). In response, Goldman Sachs, that benevolent firm, have limited their workday for interns to 17 hours. (http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/17/goldman-sachs-interns-work-hours). The west doesn’t have slavery, because 21 year old apprentices can go home at midnight and not come in before 7am? Come on, we’re dreaming! There are slaves working in the big investment banks and legal and accounting firms. It is not chattel slavery, but career slavery, professional slavery. And they should probably buy their slavery by taking a pay cut and getting out while they still can.
Duties of Slaves and Masters (Colossians 3:22-4:1) `
So we come to Colossians chapter 3 verses 22 to 25, and Paul’s word to slaves.
22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. 25 Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism. (NIV)
The command is to obey our earthly masters in everything. That is, we are to obey our employers, our bosses. Of course, it does not mean in anything sinful. Then we suffer for righteousness’ sake. And we must remember, we can resign, because we are not slaves.
The reason we Christian’s obey our masters is because we are really serving Christ Jesus when we obey our masters in everything not sinful. So our service is different. We do not offer ‘eye-service’ as ‘men-pleasers’. Because Jesus Christ sees everything, knows everything, and one day will judge us for everything we have thought, said and done. We will receive rewards in heaven for our service here on earth. And there is also loss and embarrassment even for Christians at the judgment. All who repent and believe will be saved, but some will only be saved through the flames, and will lose their work because it wasn’t done well.
So, given our judge knows everything, sees everything, and will reward everything we do, we give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord, knowing that our labour in the Lord is not in vain.
So if you are an employee, you need to be the best employee you can be. You don't have to be the best employee in the company, only the best that you can be. For it will reflect on Christ and your witness. And your work and your works will be judged by Jesus Christ. And with him, you won’t get away with service for show. But with Christ there is forgiveness, therefore Christ is to be feared.
But there is a word for masters. Chapter 4 verse 1:
1 Masters, [lit, lords] provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master [lit, Lord] in heaven. (NIV)
All Lordship on earth is delegated from God. Jesus himself said to Pilate, ‘You would have no authority over me unless it was given to you from above’. And that master in heaven, that Lord, is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Masters or lords to whom Paul is writing have accepted Jesus as Christ and Lord, or Master. So just as being a slave is temporary, so is being a Lord. If you have the benefit of Lordship in this life, you too will give an account to the Lord Jesus Christ for how you have exercised it. And the Lord Jesus’ word is ‘from him who has been given much, much more will be demanded’ and ‘with the measure you use, it will be measured out to you’. So your master in heaven will judge you completely fairly and righteously. And you do not want to be found a hypocrite on that day, by your false claim to faith in Christ shown up by your poor treatment of your employees or servants. So if we treat those under us in this life as we would treat Christ if he were our employee, we are doing what Christ requires. Anything less will be subject to judgment, and we don’t want that.
The Socialist Labor Party Parable: The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16)
I have recounted for you the Capitalist Liberal Party Parable. But I want to finish on the Socialist Labor Party Parable. This parable too is from Matthew’s gospel. This parable too falls from the lips of Jesus Christ.
In the agrarian and subsistence agricultural economy of ancient Israel, day labourers would offer themselves for hire in the marketplace. They would be hired at the beginning of the day especially during the harvest. The going rate was a denarius. And the parable speaks of a landowner who goes to the market place to find labourers for his vineyard. He goes out at 9am, the start of business, then noon, then 3pm. Finally, at the 11th hour, at 5pm, he goes out and finds some layabouts and shirkers. These shirkers are the bottom of the barrell. They managed to avoid getting a days work. But the vineyard owners sends them out to work in his vineyard. In fact, he pays those who just did the one hour of work the same amount that he paid those who came at 9am and bore the brunt of the work during the heat of the day. And to rub salt into the wound, the employer pays the late comers first, and those who came first have to wait till last to get their denarius.
I love this parable, because it is all about salvation by grace. God promises us heaven, and he promises us eternity with him. And those who’ve borne the brunt of the work during the heat of the day need to be glad that those 11th hour labourers finally came to get a job and do some work. We want the thief on the cross to make his 11th hour conversion. We must rejoice and say of Jesus Christ, ‘Thank God you are such a generous Lord and Master! Thank God you invited me into your vineyard, and you thought I was worthy to bear the heat of the day (if that is what you have done). Salvation, friends, is by grace through faith, it is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast. Even if there are degrees of rewards in heaven, we all get the same reward of being citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. There is no slave or free in heaven, because we are all one in Christ Jesus.
Let’s pray.
[1] JOHN HOWARD: Parable of the Talents, to me has always been, has always seemed to me to be the "free enterprise parable". The parable that tells us that we have a responsibility if we are given assets to add to those assets: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2007/s2001192.htm. Compare Vishal Mangalwadi: ‘Therefore it could sound incredible that our complex system of capitalism was created by the Bible’s simple parables. Nevertheless, McCormick was a simple man with a simple faith, and simple men and women like him made America great’: The Book That Made Your World, 324
[2] So the criticism of laziness in the ‘one-talent’ slave and the wish that he’d put the money in the bank and received interest, rather than burying it.
[3] Vishal Mangalwadi generalizes as follows: ‘In traditional cultures, including mine [Indian], people who had wealth hid it, gambled it away, or displayed it by building castles […] In most cultures, in most periods of history, making and saving money was a dangerous affair. It attracted both robbers and rulers […] Absence of a rule of law eliminated the option of banking, forcing my ancestors to hid their meager savings in the fields, walls or floors. […] The Bible created a very different culture; it inspired and enabled the habit of saving and reinvesting. […] Wealth accumulation via hard, creative work; saving; and reinvestment was a modern habit and a key feature of capitalism. […] it made other agicultural innovations possible, empowering farmers to turn America into the breadbasket of the world. Contary to Marxist theory, McCormick [A Christian agriculturalist and inventor] did so not by exploiting others but by liberating slaves and laborers from mindless toil and by enhancing human productivity through machines.’ The Book That Made Your World (2010), 322.
[4] There is some alleviation of the curse after the flood (Genesis 8:21-9:7).
[5] Vishal Mangalwadi, The Book that Made Your World, 322. So Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations: "[E]very individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain; and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.”(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations)
[6] https://discipleallnations.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/the-top-20-countries-where-christianity-is-growing-the-fastest/
[7] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10776023/China-on-course-to-become-worlds-most-Christian-nation-within-15-years.html