Dennis Tuuri

# 1 Timothy 6:1-5 Sermon Transcript

in chapter 6 verses 1 and two. I will read through verse 5. We have here an account of how what we have just read about happens. Please stand for the reading of God’s word. 1 Timothy 6, beginning at verse one.

Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather do them service because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit.

These things teach and exhort. If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness. He is proud, knowing nothing but doubting about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth. Supposing that gain is godliness from such withdraw thyself.

Let’s pray. Almighty God, we thank you for your word and we know, Lord God, that this word must be written upon our hearts by your spirit. And we ask that he do his work. Father, we ask you would unplug our stuffed up ears, stuffed up because of our own sins, our own desire to exercise authority of our own and not submit to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ and his word. Help us, Father, then to submit this day and this time.

Give me wisdom of speech and prevent thy servant from error. We pray Lord God that all this would happen to the exaltation of your glory that we would be a praise to you in the earth. We ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and for the sake of his kingdom not ours. Amen.

We have come to the final chapter in the book of Timothy. And this follows right along the chapter break here isn’t particularly useful because this really obviously rather follows along after chapter 5 where we see here in the context of the verses we just read, the honoring due to certain masters and we’ve just spoken of the honor due to elders and prior to that the honor due to deserving widows.

And then we even began this section of what some refer to as practical instructions of Timothy—of not a good term implies the rest of the book isn’t practical but it is very pointed instructions relative to particular groups of people. This began in the first couple of verses of chapter 5 with really incorrect, but still stated how to honor older people who are in sin and how you’re not supposed to, you know, treat them harshly, but rather encourage them.

And in other words, honor the elders even in how they’re corrected and honor the younger people in the church because they are brothers in the Lord Jesus Christ. So honor has to do with this passage and we proceed on then to honoring of the lowest state as it were of relationships in the context of the world, the servant to his master.

Now in the first application or the first interpretation of this text, this is about slaves or servants and masters. This is not about workers and employees and employers. It’s not about husbands and wives and children and all that stuff. But I think that there’s much of what is said in this text and related texts about the interaction between the lowest of human condition that of the servant, the slave to the master that he has been sold into the power of. And there’s relationship to that and application of those truths that we’ll see that he is supposed to do according to the scriptures the word of God to you as you relate to your master at work and to the wife as she relates to her master in the home and to the children as they relate to the masters of their parents and to on the other side we’ll see also in this text there is implied responsibilities to masters and so by way of application interpretation the first instances I’m going to read texts here and in other places that say what masters should act like but by way of application you can also take much of those same truths to tell you how you’re supposed to operate toward your employees if you’re an employer or a manager in a business or how you’re supposed to treat your wife or how the wife is supposed to treat her children or how the father’s supposed to treat his children etc.

So all functional relationships could be kind of brought into this but I want to make sure you understand I’m not saying this refers to the employee employer relationship in the first case that’s a valid interpretation or application rather of the text the interpretation is just the slaves and masters and the fact is that some estimates are that as many as one-third of the culture in which the this epistle was written at that particular time in the history of this particular geographic region that up to a third of the people were servants or slaves.

Even doctors in some cases would be household slaves owned as it were by the masters. So I want to go through some the outline basically have provided you go through the clear teaching of the text the related texts relative to the obligations of servants relative to the obligations of masters relative to the obligations of the pastors and teachers of the churches and then I want to make some application at the end which is a little broader.

Now I preached a couple weeks ago a belated Independence Day sermon probably good we didn’t get caught up in the throes of that movie on Independence Day. We put it off a couple weeks the providence of God and we talked about the Liberty Bell and the implications of that and what we’ll be talking about as we get to the end of this talk is the relationship of these first couple of verses to all of that.

I mean, in a way, I’m going two weeks ago from talking about proclaiming liberty throughout all the land, and now we’re talking about if you’re a slave, be a good slave. You’re not released. How does that work together? And I think that in looking at how that works together, we’ll see some very important truths about the proclamation of the gospel and the way our lives are reformed by the word of God in our culture as well.

So, that’s where we’re going. But first, the obvious meaning of the text itself and the outline. You can follow along if you don’t have an outline of the price of war available in the back. Please get one. Don’t feel bad about getting up and going and get one if you didn’t get one you came in. Okay.

The obligation first of servants with pagan masters is spoken about in the first verse. So he says first let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters.

Okay. So the condition he’s given instructions to particular people. First instruction verse one those that are under the yoke that is a picture of slavery. And he uses the term their yoke for dramatic effect to us to say what kind of slaves these were. He emphasizes God does through the apostle Paul the oppressiveness of their position with this picture of the yoke. They’re under a yoke. Okay? Like an oxen is under a yoke.

So he stresses that and he as well stresses it in the term master that’s used here. Those who they’re to count their own masters. They have masters. And the particular word here for master is the Greek word that is the base for our word despotic today—despotes—or despotic in other words oppressive very powerful domination of others is portrayed in this term masters he’s using a strengthened form here other than the term he might have used a different Greek term so their full estate is placed upon them here that they are indeed servants of pagan masters and he says first of all your first obligation is to count them worthy to count to have Christ’s mind it doesn’t The phrase here to account or consider them worthy indicates a change of mind on the part of the person who has become a Christian.

Now you’re to look at your boss or your master or your husband even if pagan as worthy of honor. All honor as a matter of fact. This is to have Christ’s mind based surely upon an understanding of the sovereignty of God in every area of life and thought. I don’t believe you can be a self-conscious Arminian and make this statement because Paul isn’t saying that the guy is necessarily in and of himself worthy of all that.

But in his position as despotes, he is worthy of all honor. God is the ultimate despotes. The same term is used. Okay? Doesn’t mean God dominates in the sense of domination, but it means that he is all powerful. And in his all powerfulness, he has given you a master. Paul is telling these slaves. And so therefore, you’re to count them worthy of all honor. To count to esteem. This word is used in various places in the scriptures.

Moses, it says, you know, esteemed it better to suffer with Christ than to have all those benefits of being in Pharaoh’s household, to count it that way, to esteem it that way. And so the servant is to have a different mind than he would normally have relative to his servanthood. In Philippians 2:3, all of us, we are told, are supposed to esteem one another more important than ourselves. We’re to count it that way.

That’s the way we’re supposed we’re supposed to put on Christ’s attitude relative to these positions that we find ourselves in. We’re to count it. We’re to have Christ’s mind their own. They’re to count their own masters. There’s no denial of reality here. They still are in slavery. And there’s no headship that goes on here that can remove the fact that the providence of God, they are still and they still have masters even though they’ve been delivered from all things in Christ Jesus.

Christ is to say that in Christ there’s no more bond or freed. Okay? And that’s the ultimate perspective on everything. But in the reality of the fact is that God has still seen fit to leave you in a position of subservience to a particular master. Okay? And so they’re not the Christian slave doesn’t he has a change of mind but his change of mind doesn’t deny the reality of the situation that God has in his providence brought to pass. Rather, it affirms that reality. It affirms the reality. It says that indeed you have masters and you’re supposed to have that understanding of the reality that his God has in his providence provided this situation for you. You’re to count your own masters as worthy.

Now, they may not be worthy, but in light of their position relative to God, they’re to be counted as worthy or honorable. They’re to be honored. And as I said in this text of scripture, we’ve seen the honor of widows, the honor of elders, the honor of the aged. Now we have the honor of servants. And this is pagan servants. Look at the emphasis here. These are pagan masters, pagan desperates as it were, who rule really not for Christ. And yet they’re to be considered as worthy not just of honor, but of all honor, of a great deal of honor.

You see? And so this is the condition that these slaves find themselves in. They want instruction on how they’re supposed to treat their pagan masters. And Paul gives it to him and he says, “Well, I’ll tell you what. may be a bad guy, may beat you unjustly, may have you do things that you don’t like to do, but you’re supposed to consider him worthy of all honor. Now, Paul doesn’t say you have to obey him in all things.

He doesn’t say that if the guy commands you not to worship him or not to worship God, rather to worship him, you’re supposed to do it. That’s not what it means. It means to honor the master, not to obey him in all his commandments, but only in his lawful commandments. So, what’s talked about here is the attitude of submission that God calls the Christian slave to have even to the worst of masters. To the worst of masters, they get the most all honor on the part of the Christian slave.

Now, this teaching of Paul is reiterated in many epistles throughout the New Testament. We have these kinds of instructions, and I want us to look at a few of those. First of all, turn if you would to Ephesians 6 verses 5 and following. This is a hard thing, isn’t it? I mean consider yourself. You you don’t know the experience. I don’t know the experience. But we can empathize hopefully. We can sympathize with people who have been an experience of servitude to pagan masters.

And in Ephesians 6, he tells them in verse 5, servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart as unto Christ. Well, there’s the key, isn’t it? It’s how you can do this is because you’re doing it really unto Christ. That Christ again, Christ sovereignty over all things and over all man is the bulwark to this instruction or to be obedient to them your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in singleness of heart so it’s not enough Paul isn’t just telling him here to do what your master tells you to do unless it would cause you to break God’s command he’s saying to do it wholeheartedly he’s saying to serve your master from the heart give him honor not just by obeying him grudgingly but from the heart.

Now parents we all know what it looks like when kids don’t obey from the heart we’ve seen it we’ve seen it often and what we want for our children is obedience from the heart. But what we frequently will see is we’ll see people the children obey us but with you know they set their jaw tight and they’ll do it they’ll do what you tell them to do but it won’t be from the heart and kids you know you do that and parents you know you do that wives you know you do that occasionally to your husbands and husbands you know you do that to your employer and you do it to the civil state you might do it in the church too all that is good that you’re obeying externally but this calls for a much more Christian view of obedience and submit It’s coming from the heart.

It’s singleness of heart here is what you’re supposed to give to those that you have a relationship of authority reference in reference to you. Singleness of heart and honoring. And he says that here as unto Christ, not with eye service, you know, not as men pleasers. You’re not doing this to flatter men, but as the servants of Christ. Well, there’s the key, isn’t it? That’s what’s reformed their view of their servitude is that they now see the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ and they’ve been brought to conversion and humbled themselves and they’ve humbled themselves to the knowledge the Lord Jesus Christ reigns in the affairs of men and that means in their position of servitude as well doing the will of God from the heart again heart attitude is what’s talked about here with good will doing service as to the Lord not to men knowing that whatsoever good things any man doeth the same shall he receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free.

In addition to this instruction and these other Paul doesn’t state it as explicitly to Timothy here but if we take these other passages we know that there is also a reward placed for the believer. The Lord Jesus Christ submitted to the father and humbled himself to the point of death of the cross and the shame and reproach of the cross because of the goal that was set before him. And there was a goal that set before you here as well. God will bring reward to those that submit themselves to his authority. They will receive power from on high but they won’t receive it if they desire to exercise power for themselves instead of being bond servants of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So he tells them here that you’ll receive the Lord that which you have done whether you’re bond or free. Of course, there’s implied cursings to that as well. That if you do this incorrectly, then God’s going to treat you as an unjust a useless servant.

Then in verse 10, finally, my brothers, be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. See, it is hard to do this. And in Ephesians, when Paul writes to the church at Ephesus, he tells them to do these things. And he says, well, you know, be strong in the Lord in the power of his might. You cannot do this requirement of servants by way of application requirement of all functional superiors. Unless you’re strong in the Lord and the power of his might, flesh can’t do it. God breaks the flesh through these kind of instructions. God reveals your flesh to be despising of his government. And then you stop in your flesh and you then exercise yourself in the power of the Lord, the strength of his might.

Colossians 3, read Colossians 3:22, “Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh. not with eye service as man pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. Whatsoever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of inheritance. For you serve the Lord Jesus Christ. So there again, it’s basically a reiteration of what’s said in Ephesians.

He says, “Serve the master, do it with fear, fear of God.” He makes it very clear in the Colossians text. It wasn’t as clear in Ephesians that the fear and trembling that you do that in the context of his fear and certainly not of your master but of God. Master can hurt your body. God can do much more to you. Okay? God can punish you much more severely than the master can. So we do it with fear and trembling relative to God.

We do it not with eye service. We do it from the heart willingly wholeheartedly. We serve our masters in the flesh, masters in this world in other words. And we do it expecting a reward or inheritance from Christ.

Titus 2:9 and 10 we have the same thing. And it’s interesting by the way that in Titus as in this text of Timothy, he goes from the age of women in Titus chapter 2:3 and that he talks about the uh how these women should act. So he’s talking about the widowed women or older married women. And he goes on from then in verse 9, exhort servants to be obedient unto their masters, to please them well in all things, not answering again, not complaining, not stealing, in other words, but showing all good fidelity that they might adorn the doctrine of God our savior in all things. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.

And in this text in Titus, we see that servants or slaves are supposed to be subject to their masters in everything. First, they’re supposed to try to please them. You’re supposed to try to please those who are in functional authority over you. Secondly, you’re not to talk back to them. You know, we talked about this before, to speak again. That doesn’t mean to rail against your superior. It means to simply answer back.

And again, parents, we know that’s what our children are going to do in the flesh. They’re going to answer you back, and they’re going to learn pretty quick if you use a rod at your home. Not to answer you back too sharply, perhaps, or not to directly challenge your authority. But what we really want for them is not to answer back in that sense at all. If you need instruction, you want to make an appeal, that’s one thing.

But to answer back is to give in to this temptation to kind of buckle up against the authority and to buck it up, to buck authority somewhat. And God doesn’t want us doing that. doesn’t want us to talk back or answer back to our superiors.

They’re to additionally not to steal from their masters obviously and they’re to show that they can be fully trusted. And in doing this, Titus says they adorn the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Tremendous blessing. The other side of this is that in this particular text, in the Titus text, it says by so doing this you adorn the gospel of Christ. And in this text, the same thing is said with a negative spin to it. And that is that the reason the to this commandment to honor your masters. Give them do honor, all honor even to the unbelieving masters. That the reason next to this commandment is that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.

Ultimately, there is these other passages that talk about how there are rewards, blessings and cursings temporally to us in relationship to how we treat our masters. And the master can beat you and that isn’t good. And your parents can you know spank you or they can put they can do bad things to you that are uncomfortable for you but ultimately that is not the reason for this commandment the motivation is not self it never is in the scriptures the motivation for all actions and commands that God calls us to do is his honor and glory and that’s what this text talks about that we are not to do this because we have the ability the fearful ability in the flesh Christians do who name the name of Jesus Christ if they rail against masters if they’re slovenly in their work if they answer back or talk back to their masters if they have a bad attitude and God is amazing you know you cannot keep a bad attitude even if you want to go knows and usually he reveals it to men they know in Christian if you don’t work well relevant to your employer you got a bad attitude and if wives have bad attitudes and if husbands have bad attitudes to the rightful authority of the wife in the context of the home and if children have bad attitudes this text tells us that indeed this bad attitude could be such that it would cause the name of God and the doctrine to be blasphemed.

Isn’t that horrendous what we can do? It’s a very fearful thing. It’s one thing if we do things that hurt us, but to hurt the name of God. The name of God is all that he is. It encompasses the whole of his revelation to mankind. It encompasses the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Trinity, the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. And this text says, “Servants, do a real good job.” Because if you don’t do a good job as defined by my work, heard.

You’re going to lead men to blaspheme, to rail against, to ridicule the name of Jesus Christ. You’re going to cause people to say that GD worker of mine won’t work along good. And that Christianity is worth nothing, worse than nothing. It’s terrible.

Judge Beers used to have a kind of a joke. Referred to Christians as I’m sorry, I don’t have a coat on today. I forgot it at home. Referred to Christians as the CPOE, cheapest people on earth.

you know, and if you’ve been in churches very long in the Christian real, you know why he says that, but and it is funny, but you know, it’s it’s very sad, but that’s the reality of the situation. I know men who said the last place they’re going to look to hire somebody to work on their car or do service in their home, whatever it is, is the Christian yellow pages. That’s a list of the guys that won’t work well.

Now, that isn’t true of everybody that advertising those pages. And I’m sure that a lot of that reputation is given by the world, not because men have done their work poorly is because they hate Christ and they’re going to hate his people. You can’t guarantee that God’s name won’t be blasphemed. They’re going to shoot at Christ. He’s the target of their hatred and enmity. But you don’t want to make yourself a target whereby they can shoot at Christ.

You don’t want to add, you don’t want to give them ammunition by your failure to give them all honor in their respective callings of submission. It’s what he’s saying here. Nor do you want to bring blasphemy to the doctrine or teachings of the Christian church. Seven times this word doctrine or teaching is used in Timothy completion. It’s so important to all that we are. It’s so important. God has exalted his word above his name.

That’s what we read in the Psalms. What that means is his covenant loyalty. He took his name as Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ died in his being. Died in his humanity. That is took upon himself the full curse of God’s wrath against humankind. So that the covenant word of God, the doctrine of God might be exalted. It might be put forth that gospel might flourish. And we’re to be warned that we don’t want to sin relative to our superiors because we don’t want to cause blasphemy either to the name of God or to the teaching.

Secondly, the text goes on to talk about the obligations of service with believing masters. Command is let them that have these believing masters not despise them because they are brethren. Okay, so there’s a contrast here that pagan masters are given all honor. Believing masters, don’t despise them because our not because we shouldn’t give all honor to believing masters, but the idea is we have pagan masters.

We’re not going to want to honor them. When we’ve got believing masters, our sinful temptation and tendencies, we despise them. To despise means to look down upon or to think of, you know, think less of them because they’re Christians because they’re in a position of authority over you now. Well, those guys should just let me go. They shouldn’t cause me to work hard. He should release me from my servitude.

And so, the Christian slave can think this about his own master. And So that isn’t always the answer. You know, when God’s people came out of Egypt, R.J. Rushdoony has talked excellently about how the people still had a slave attitude while they were brought out of Egypt. And to simply give somebody freedom as a master to a slave could be the worst possible thing for them. To train them in that freedom, to train them how to be free men and then to release them from servitude can be a much better route to go.

And that’s a lot of what God does with us in all things. He’s training us We always want freedom. We want to win the lottery, but we don’t know how to use that money correctly. It’s better for our soul not to have that money. He’s training us. Well, in any event, so Christians are tempted to despise and look down upon their masters that are brothers. And the command is not to despise and look down upon them, but rather do them service.

Work even harder for those is what the implication of Paul’s verse here is. And so, if you have a believing master, you’re warned not to think little of them. And the positive statement is with believing masters, you’re supposed to will work all the much harder for a believing master. And then there’s a reason attach next to this commandment and that is that they are faithful and beloved. That is these believing masters are of the faith.

They’re the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. They’re beloved like your beloved. They’re your brothers. Don’t despise your brothers. They’re beloved by God. Should be beloved by you and they’re faithful and partakers of the benefit. This last phrase the King James is a little confusing. another way to say this would be they occupy themselves with the well-being these masters do. In other words, these masters if they’re Christian masters are going to be characterized by working hard to treat you different because of their Christian faith than they would have if they weren’t believing.

So their relation really the emphasis in verses 1 and two is the relationship of the servant being changed his mind how he counts things how he acts his motivation not for his own sake or even the master’s sake but for glorifying God his mind is changed his standard is changed his actions are changed and as a result His relationship his relationship his environment in the in the servant master relationship is changed as well by God.

New standard new motivation new environment ensues. Okay. The son the standard the word motivation the will of the father who wills the salvation of the elect and the spirit that creates the environment or relationship among men that is godly and ordered as he broods over the created order and brings order out of that which is formless and void. So the Holy Spirit is sent into all the world to arrange us in correct relationships.

Ephesians, the entire book is about the reconciliation of all things terms of God’s order. And so God, the Holy Spirit is in these context of servant master relationships, creating new environment, creating new relationship and order based upon the law of Christian love and submission to the Lord Jesus Christ and to one another. That’s what’s going on here. To accomplish that, this standard of what servants are supposed to act like and the motivation to please God in all things.

And Paul just touches briefly here by way of implication that it’s not just the servants that’s changed in terms of standard and motivation which will produce a change in environment but rather it’s the believing master because he is going to occupy himself here with the welloing with the well-being with the benefit which is the gospel and he’s going to let that change the way he relates to his servants as well.

Another way to say this who reciprocates your master is he who reciprocates this kind of service who busy themselves in kindly service’ be a kind of a very loose translation of the Greek here but one that gives the sense of it a Christian master is to busy himself in this kind and a kindly service toward those he’s in sub toward those who God has in his providence brought under his subjection. I skipped over verse 9 in Ephesians 6 which was the instruction to masters.

Ye master Do the same thing unto them. You see that? That’s correlates with this text here. They’re doing the same thing basically. Do the same thing unto them. Forbearing, threatening, knowing that your master also is in heaven. Neither is their respective persons with him. So masters have obligations because of the impact of the gospel. Things are changed for the master now. New standard. No threatening anymore.

Forbear threatening. New motivation. Knowing your master who is in heaven. He’s brought these things to pass. There’s no respect of persons with him. Colossians chapter 4, masters, given unto your servants that which is just and equal. Well, in reference to what? In reference to the standard of God’s law. That’s what justice and equality is reference to is to God’s standard, not our own minds or our culture.

The minimum wage doesn’t say what a just wage is. God’s law does. God’s law says this relationship is to be just and equal. Knowing that ye also have a master in heaven. Continue in prayer and watch the same with thanksgiving. Pray also for us. And then indeed Colossians 4 goes on in verse 5 to say walk in wisdom toward them that are without redeeming the time. And so again this relationship with the master is seen in relationship to those outside of the church as well.

Just as the slave can adorn the gospel of Christ with his correct relationship to those he’s submitting to. And just as you can go out tomorrow praise God’s holy name and adorn the gospel of Jesus Christ by doing your work well to your employee employer by serving him with your whole heart knowing you’re serving the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise God’s name. You can do that just as the wife can adorn the gospel of Christ and make this a beautiful thing in the context of our relationships governed by the Holy Spirit empowered by him by submitting willfully to the to the husband.

And just as you children have this tremendous ability and the power of the Holy Spirit to adorn the gospel of Christ and make it a beautiful thing by your willing submission to your parents, not by talking back, not by obeying just with eye service. Not just obeying externally but obeying from the heart. We can do these things and masters can as well. Masters can do the same thing. They can make this a wonderful thing to outsiders as well to perceive the way that the way they treat their employees, the way they treat their wives, the way they treat their children, the way masters treat slaves is different because of the coming of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so we have this relationship to those outside our Savior speaks of all of this. We read that when Jesus knew that the hour his hour was come that he should depart from out of this world and the father having loved his own which are in the world, he loved them unto the end. The supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas the Scariot Simon’s son to betray him. Jesus knowing that the father had given all things into his hand and that he was come from God and went to God, he rised from the table.

from the supper laid aside his garments, took a towel, girded himself. He’s going about work here, the girding about the loins, a symbol of work. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. And cometh him Simon Peter. And Simon Peter says, “I don’t want you to do this.” And Jesus says, “No, you’ve got to have me do this.” He says, “What I do now, thou knowest not, but thou shalt know hereafter.” Says that this is what it is.

This is ministry. In verse 13 of that text, he says, “You call me Master and Lord, and you say well, for I am. If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet, for I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you.” If you know these things, happy are you if you do them. And then later as he talks about the father’s love for him, he says that this is my commandment, this that they love one another even as I have loved them.

How did he love us? He loved us by ministry. He loved us by service. And he loved this by service which was not easy. He girded himself about which is to show the work involved. Paul is telling masters and servants to gird themselves about and get busy of the work of loving each other and washing each other’s feet and ministering to each other even in the context of the worst human relationship the world knows.

A master and a slave. What a wonderful thing this gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is touching all relationships.

Timothy then is charged by Paul verses 2 through 5 and says these things. Teach and exhort. Teach them. Exhort them. Teach. Yes, you must instruct. But not just instruct. You want to drive home to the people. You want to exhort them to do these things. And if you see children not treating their parents that way or parents not treating their children correctly.

You know a guy’s having a problem at work. You’re supposed to encourage, exhort, to call them to mind, to come alongside of him and to teach this truth to him and to drive it home. Timothy has an obligation. The pastors that he pastored had an obligation to teach these things and to exhort. Calvin says that the implication here is that these things should be repeated daily. These men need not only to be taught but also roused and urged on by frequent exhortations.

Roused and urged on by frequent exhortations. And so it is. And then the text goes on to say that not only this, but now he’s going to talk about people that don’t teach this in this amazing text that we read verses three and following. If any man teach otherwise count consent not to hold wholesome words. Wholesome words are medicinal words. These words about the master servant relationship are medicinal.

They’re lifegiving words. That’s what he says here. And he says if somebody teaches something other than these words, and you remember what he this purp one of the big purposes of this epistle is to shut down the false teachers and to tell them to shut up. That’s what he’s supposed to do. Exercise discipline, whatever way, pastoral, judicial, whatever it is, get these guys to close their mouths. What is it that they’re saying that’s so bad?

Well, Apparently, one of the things they’re saying that is horrific is they’re encouraging servants not to serve their masters wholeheartedly. They’re encouraging revolution. They’re encouraging anarchy. Or they’re encouraging masters to be not changed as the effect of the gospel on their lives, but to treat their servants harshly. He says, “If any man teach otherwise what I have just instructed you, these last two verses,” and he doesn’t and if he does that, he’s not consenting to the medicinal words of life.

What is he teaching then? teaching words of death. He’s spewing out death. And he goes on to say then even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godliness. We’ll talk more about this in two weeks this whole section. But I wanted to mention briefly here. He is proud knowing nothing and doing about questions and strife of words where I’ve come with envy riding suiting of man and corrupt minds and destitute of the truth.

Supposing the gain is godliness. This whole section has to do with covetousness. Don’t want to get into that now but just lock it away in your brain. We talked about that last week. The oxen, the end of Deuteronomy, the 10th commandment, thou shalt not covet. The statement of the treading out of the grain by the ox related to the tenth commandment and covetousness and having application to the lever who would do his responsibilities to raising up a seed.

Praise to God in Israel. And this whole section here really focuses on all that. We had the section about oxen last week, but this whole section as we see chapter 6 go to a conclusion, money is going to play a pro prominent theme. And it does here. Somehow it’s a perversion of the doctrine of money that gets these false teachers to speak against these last two verses that he’s talked about to teach otherwise.

But the important thing I want you to see here is that Timothy with these guys is supposed to withdraw himself from such as these. It’s that bad. What they do is so bad as not to be ministering words of life and to merit the withdrawal of Timothy from men that would teach other than these particular things. That seems pretty strong to me. It seems pretty strong to me to say if guys don’t teach this kind of subjection on the part of the servant, this kind of attitude on the part of the master that there are so bad as to be described as all these terrible things that you’re supposed to withdraw from.

But I think that’s a one key to helping us understand that this text we have just read is like that oxen text. The oxen text in Deuteronomy is not some little text about animals thrown in the context of this other stuff. It is a very important text relative to the duties of pastors to raise up life to mature the body of Jesus Christ begotten by the word of faith to raise up that seed as the lever raised up the seed to be a praise to God in Israel.

It’s important stuff and the same way here this is not just a couple of practical instructions thrown in to create social harmony in the early church. That’s not what’s going on here. I believe what he’s teaching is central to the meaning of the gospel. He’s talking here about authority and power and the exercise thereof. And we need to spend just a couple of minutes talking a little bit as we conclude here about authority and power.

You’ve already I’ve already given you it basically. But what we’ve got pictured here is the way that the great reversal that we all know about and love in this church, the Magnificat. We sang it here in church a couple weeks ago, chanted it. The great reversal, you know, how all that don’t rule for Christ are being brought down have been brought down definitively in the Lord Jesus Christ in his incarnation and those that rule for Christ have been raised up and how certain magistrates haven’t allowed that Magnificat to be read in public at certain points in time because they thought it breed revolution well it doesn’t properly understood it does bring about complete reversal but this is the process that’s what I’m trying to get at this is the process a correct understanding of authority a recognition first of all that authority is not abstract.

There is not an abstract relationship of the servant to the master. There is a personal relationship that is pointed throughout these texts we read to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus Christ is called the captain of our salvation. The captain the particular word there means the beginner as well as the head. The author of authority. Authority comes to the same root as author. And God is the author.

God is the authority by which all human authorities and relationships are to be seen in reference to. Okay. So when Paul gives this statement, he’s correcting he’s bringing not correcting, he’s bringing a new creation of a concept of authority into the minds of the slaves and masters and he’s helping us to understand God’s system of authority and how distinct it is from man’s system. And first and foremost, this text and others tell us that authority is rooted in the Lord Jesus Christ.

It’s not just you can trust Jesus to work through the guy here and he’ll dig it so he won’t do terrible things to you. That’s part of it, but it’s much broader than that. It’s a statement that all authority originates from the Lord Jesus Christ. And that’s why you can voluntarily in a good Christian way submit yourselves to the authorities that are established by God. Rushdoony says this. He says, “We cannot say with any legitimacy to our creator, why hast thou made me thus, for instance, at this position of slavery.

We cannot honestly question his authority and establish our word as law over him, nor can we judge him at the bar of our reason. To do so is to manifest original sin, the great temptation of the tempter, that we should be our own gods, determining the nature and establishing the reality of good and evil for ourselves. Man and his fall challenged God’s authority both in opposition to biblical faith and in seeming friendliness to it.

Men continue to challenge God’s authority. However, all who judge God are in due time judged by God. And that’s just what Paul says to the Ephesians and the Colossians and to the servants. If you challenge the authority of God by getting stiff necked against your masters, God will judge you. Have fear and trembling because you’re resisting God’s authority at that point in time. Seeing that’s not the way out of this situation.

Yeah, slavery is a horrific situation. Long-term, no slaves, but that ain’t the way out of it. By relying upon your arm of flesh, by relying upon the pride. And in fact, the gospel puts to death to your use of your arm of flesh to resist authority. And the gospel puts to death the idea that we are better than everybody else somehow. That’s not the idea at all. It’s exactly the reverse, but it’s what we’re tempted to do with the great truth that God has brought liberation through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Indeed, there are entire theologies built out of a complete absence of authority of God and on the authority of the church instead and men instead. Now, God’s authority is personal. It comes from the Lord Jesus Christ. And secondly, God’s authority is based upon his law, his word of truth. Why do these men obey their masters? Why do children obey parents? Why do older children honor parents? Why do we have to do that?

Is there something in the natural order? Well, in a sense, there is. God has produced his natural order. He’s produced you born into a particular family. But the most important reason, the motivation for honoring your parents pay your parents for services at the masters because God says so in his word. It’s not a natural authority that we see in the context of nature. It’s an authority that God imposes upon us by his word.

It is his word that establishes authority and authority is in relationship to that word. So now the slave has this statement from God, this authoritative word that shows him the authority of the master. And now it’s cleared up, isn’t it? Remember we said that Romans 7, it’s a good thing to say, hey, you know, I didn’t keep God’s law, but I sure want to. I want to keep that law because it means that God has given made us a new creation in Christ.

We have this standard, a sure word from God. And now the servant doesn’t have to try to figure out, well, gee, maybe I got to hooked up with the wrong master or the wife got to say maybe I married the wrong husband and maybe I don’t this isn’t the guy I’ve got to submit to and obey and love and all that. No, all that’s cleared up for us, isn’t it? We have this sure word from God and the servant doesn’t got to try to figure out for himself what’s my relationship now?

of this master. He’s got a sure word from God. And it’s on the basis of that word that we’re to make our assertion of authority. for instance, in the home, another excellent quote by R.J. Rushdoony. This means that the parents who seek to command their children naturalistically deny that they have religious authority. Such mothers will tell their children of the trauma of conception and birth and all their sacrifices for their children.

And the fathers will recount how much time and money their children have cost them. The children are unimpressed. They didn’t ask to be born. And none of those facts give the parents any true authority. Authority is a religious fact. And unless it is religiously grounded, it quickly disappears. See, we fall into that, don’t we? All the time, trotting out all the reasons why our kids should obey us without playing to the one reason that says the word of God says so.

Word of God says you’re to do this. That’s where my authority is rooted. And by way of implication, now we’re talking about the servant. The servant knows that the master knows as well since his authority is rooted not in the naturalistic order but in the word of God. Then the master knows that his authority is bounded by that word. See he’s under authority. He’s like that centurion. I’m under authority under authority.

You command other men. I understand how authority works. And the master who’s a Christian is brought into a new knowledge of what his authority base is and as a result the limits on his authority as well. This is the great truth behind our adoption. Again, not a natural sunship, but an adoption by God and brought into the authority of God through the great act of adoption. The spirit of adoption, again, to quote R.J. Rushdoony, makes us heirs of God.

It makes us a new creation and places us under ultimate authority. Instead of being the lawless element in society, because of our obedience to God’s higher authority, we become the law-abiding element because the spirit of bondage by its rebellion against God’s authority has undermined all authority. Does the spirit of bondage, the naturalistic order, does the spirit of adoption, the command word of God producing authority.

So God completely reworks who we are in terms of the authority structures of our relationships. And our power then is related to God to our to the authority that he has established for us. So return to the text, God says servants are supposed to do something which in their own power they cannot do, which in the mind of man seems absolutely ridiculous to give all honor to a pagan master. And God says that this is his system of authority.

And he does this because all authority is rooted and grounded in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and mediated to us by his word. All human relationships are allotted by God. Indeed, Paul tells slaves in 1 Corinthians 7 and following, he says, “If you are called in the Lord being a servant, he is the Lord’s freeman.” Well, let me I’ll just back up a verse. Verse 19 of 1 Corinthians 7. Circumcision is nothing.

Uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the commandments of God. Let every man abide the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called being a servant? Care not for it.