As Unto Christ

Eph 6:5 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;
Eph 6:6 Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;
Eph 6:7 With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men:
Eph 6:8 Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.


Servants be obedient to them that are your masters... could we interpret this to mean people be obedient to those who are your bosses? Seriously, could we interpret it to mean that? In days of old people who worked under others often called those they worked for masters, right? And it wasn't always in a slave way but a respectful way. The master teaching the servant, the student. Even so, when we have bosses today we aren't always in a learning situation but rather we might be in a position that never changes with little hope for advancement and we'll forever have a boss. Very few people are the 'boss' so to speak in comparison to the many who are the employees. A servant gets paid, a master pays the servant. So if we equate these verses to the employer/boss situation we really need to reconsider our thinking don't we? Or maybe it's a situation where an elder is the 'master' to the younger 'servant' in a home situation, a father over a child, or a husband over a wife.


Servants be obedient to them that are your masters.
Employees be obedient to them that are your bosses.


Be obedient with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart AS UNTO CHRIST.

We are to be obedient with fear and trembling in singleness of our hearts AS TO CHRIST. When we are being obedient to others we are doing so as if they were Christ. Of course we know they're not and in no way are we to even for a heartbeat believe they ARE Christ. We are to respect others as we would respect Christ.


It goes on to say don't treat them disrespectfully - the exact wording - 'as menpleasers, with eyeservice' People who are nice to the face of others but in their hearts they are far from being so.


We have to do the will of God from the heart, with good will AS TO THE LORD and NOT TO MEN.


Will our attitude change if we believe we are working for Christ in ALL we do, with all those we interact with even those with the most surly of demeanors? No, Christ wouldn't have a surly demeanor but we are to treat others as we would treat Christ the Bible tells us this. Would we be nasty to Christ? Would we be condescending? Would we be hateful and hurtful, demeaning and abusive to Christ? When we act in such ways we as representatives of Christ's followers are representing Him very well at all, are we? We are to treat others as we would treat Christ and we are to represent Christ as His followers revealing His love, not our own.


This isn't easy, no one said it was easy, our hearts, our natural inclinations are not focused on being good. We are sinners and the inclination runs in that direction. It's a DAILY, hourly, minutely decision to be Christ's and as such we choose to act as Christ would have us to act. It's a choice not a happenstance. It's like love between a man and woman... really, it is, because after the newness wears off it's a choice to love in good times and in bad times. Those vows spoken saying in sickness in health, etc are relevant. A choice is made to love, to forgive, to walk as Christ would have us walk.


May God help us through His power to be as He would have us be. May we treat those around us as we would treat Christ through the power of Christ's righteousness and love, by His grace and mercy.


Please Lord help us all.


Amen.