Ephesians 6:5-9; Psalm 78:1-8

Ephesians 6:5-9
A discussion of slaves and masters seems odd in 21st century America. I can't really think of any time when slavery is a good thing as it seems to me that there is something in the heart of every human that wants and deserves to be free. In addition, slavery seems almost always to be accompanied by other abuses and cruelties. However, Paul doesn't deal with the "right or wrong" of slavery. He simply deals with the fact that there were several million slaves in the Roman Empire at this time. Many of these were in Ephesus, and many slaves as well as masters were being saved. In reality, Paul is giving the slaves, as well as women and children, respect and privileges in the church that the society did not give them. Really it follows quite naturally after the respect that family members are to offer one another. Slaves were to work hard and enthusiastically as if they were working for the Lord. And he reminded masters that all Christians have the same Master in heaven, and He has no favorites. So they were not to mistreat the slaves in any way.

As for application to us today, as employees we should work as though Jesus Himself were our supervisor! And if we are in the position of employer or supervisor, we should treat those in our charge fairly and with respect.

Our earthly society places people at different levels, but we are all equal before God. Each individual is valuable and precious to the Lord, and no one is more important than anyone else!

Psalm 78:1-8
Israel often rebelled against God because as the generations went by, they forgot what God had done for them. In this psalm, Asaph is instructing the people (and us) to often repeat the truths about Him and His great works. And we should be careful to pass them along to the next generation. I'm afraid our society has not a very good job of this, and each generation seems more secular than the last. We can't help what others do, but we can be students of the Word, and we can use our influence among our own families and in our church. "We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord,...so the next generation might know them--even the children not yet born--...So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands..." This is perhaps our most important job; let's not fail at it!