1. CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE, 5:22-33

In the former paragraph we discussed spiritual relations concerning the members of the Christian Church. In this we are discussing special Christian duties in domestic relations. We find that the true Christian life is not an isolated life. With such a relationship as presented in this letter there must be a very high standard manifested in domestic relations. This relationship is clearly set forth in the following paragraph.

Ver. 22. Wives be in subjection (submit yourselves) unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.

In Ver. 21 we were instructed that the Christians were to be subject one to another. By its subjection, the gifts of all the members of Christ's Body are made available for the upbuilding of God's temple. This is to be done in the fear of God.

The author has been emphasizing the proper relationship between member and member, and because of this relationship they must walk worthy of it, not only because there is such a relationship, but that the right influence may go out from this society upon the onlooker who is not yet a member of the Body of Christ. Every member in this body is under the direction of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as the different members of the body are in subjection to the head of the physical body, so the members of the Body of Christ are in subjection one to another; related one to another and all under the direction of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is illustrated by referring to the relation that exists between the husband and wife. The right relationship of man and woman will show the influence of the church exerted upon society. In the relation of man and wife, we have on the one side submission to authority, and submission and self-surrender, but the wife is to be in subjection as unto the Lord, or in other words, as is fitting unto the Lord.

The Apostle Paul tells us (1 Tim. 2:11, 12), “I suffer not a woman to teach nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness.”� This subordination is fundamental. Just as the Church looks up and obeys Christ, so in the ideal Christian family, each wife is so related to her husband. When the ideal cannot be obtained through the husband's defects, it is still the aim of the wife to carry it out as far as these defects admit.

The head of the woman is the man, and the head of every man is Christ. The head of Christ is God. The woman is of the man and was created because of the man. This tells us that in the Divine order of things, it is the man's part to lead and rule, and the woman's part to be ruled, and there is no difference whatever, if the instructions of the Apostle Paul are carefully read “as unto the Lord." The Christian woman will not feel any hardship in this if the husband's standing is right in Christ. Such subordination as expressed here by the Apostle Paul does not mean inferiority, but rather the opposite. The same submission must be within the Church that is within the house. Both are the children of God by the same birth-right, both receive the same Holy Spirit according to the Scripture used by Saint Peter on the day of Petecost. Christian courtesy treats the woman as the glory of the man.

Ver. 23. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the Head of the Church; being himself the Saviour (preserver) of the body.

The Church belongs to Jesus Christ. Christ said, “Upon this rock will I build my church.” He is the builder and the Church belongs to Him, and just as the husband is the head of the wife, so Christ is the Head of the Church. The duties here, of the husband to the wife, are enforced by the illustration of Christ being the Head of the Church, the Body. The husband is the head of the wife (1 Cor. 11:3).

It is clear from all Scriptures which taught of the mystery, that the Church is the Body of Christ and the members of that Body are members of Christ, and He is the Saviour of the Body. The Church is His and His alone. Christ, being the Head, is the preserver (Saviour) of the Body, the Church, which would necessarily perish were it not for the life communicated to it from the Head, and so the wife, who separates herself from her husband by living in antagonism instead of submission to him, is dead while she liveth, losing the life which through him might be hers.

Ver. 24. But as the Church is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands in everything.

There is some difference in Christ as the head of the church and man as the head of the wife. Nevertheless the Church is subject to Christ. It would be well for all who study this book to have clearly in mind what is meant by the Church. The Church here is a Body called out from the world, saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who died with Christ, who rose with Christ, and who lives because Christ lives. This new society has a mission similar to that which was expressed by the Head while He was here on earth.

The Church is a separate institution from the world. She has but one great mission, and that is to save men, to add members to this Body. The Church now, in a large measure, is being side-tracked by worldly influence and modernism, having in view civilization and world-betterment, instead of listening to the Head and taking orders directly from Him. There is not that relationship in the so-called professing church to-day to the Head, as taught here by the Apostle Paul. If the Church is subject to Christ, she knows Christ as her Saviour and protector, and knows that under all circumstances the Body is safe when directed and protected by the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent Head. What a wonderful relationship there must exist between the true Church and the Body of Christ. This is to be the relation between the wife and husband.

Ver. 25. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself up for it.

See to it that you love your wife, even as Christ also loved the Church. The husband is here placed in emphatic parallelism with Christ. The reason for this is fully set forth. There is such love expressed between Christ and the Church that He “gave Himself up for it,”� even unto death.

It was by the disobedience of one man that sin came into the world. It was by the obedience of one man, even unto death, that righteousness and life came, and all righteousness and life has come to take the place of sin and death. Then that relationship must not be forgotten that is expressed between the purchased Church and the person who has paid the price. Christ gave Himself for the Church, even unto death, and if that same spirit is manifested by the husband's self-devotion even unto death, there is but continual joy in the heart of the wife who can live in companionship with that self-sacrificing husband.

The Church, knowing what it cost to save her and give her the joy that she now possesses, creates love for Christ, so woman's love for man. Man's love for woman modeled on that of Christ for the Church, leads him, if need be, to sacrifice his life for the protection of his weaker partner and to nourish and cherish her. Woman's love for man, modeled on that of the Church for Christ, shows itself in the one duty of submission—a single duty, but of manifold application.

Ver. 26. That he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing (laver) of water with the word.

The Church's purification is antecedent in thought to her sanctification through the sacrifice of Christ, and it is therefore stated, “ye are washed, ye are sanctified”� (1 Cor. 6:11). It is the order of doctrine which he laid down in the Epistle to the Romans, where sanctification is built on the foundation laid in justification through the blood of Christ. We have learned through Paul's instructions (Rom. 6:4) that baptism serves as a visible and formal expression of the soul's passage through the gate of forgiveness into the sanctified life. The believer, having thus passed through death, burial, and resurrection by faith into union with Christ, is here instructed as a believer, how he may obtain in every period of his Christian life a more complete sanctification. The Apostle here is not emphasizing the fact of passing out of the old into the new, but the great need of spiritual power and growth as a member in the Body of Christ.

The washing unto sanctification here propounded is not in natural earthly water, applied in sacred ceremony, but it is affected by the cleansing, purging, purifying and judging Word of God. In the Jewish church, to approach God in the sanctuary acceptably, there was need of daily washing at the laver that stood in the court on the way from the altar to the sanctuary, and which was always full of water for this purpose. Thus the church to-day in its membership whose service knows no stated or limited period but is continuous day by day, hour by hour, without intermission needs constant and continuous cleansing and purifying by the keen and infallible Word of God. This Word of God is “living, and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart”� (Heb. 4:12). “Sanctify them through thy truth; thy Word is truth”� (John 17:17). And again Christ said (John 15:3), “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.”� So it is impossible for a Christian to grow in grace and make progress in sanctification without repeated and constant washing with the Word. No pious exercise can take its place; as we are regenerated, so we are cleansed and sanctified. When this cleansing and sanctifying is not carried forward by the Word, much confusion and burdening of conscience is experienced by thousands of Christians. When the Word of God is not given its proper place, it leaves the soul open to all manner of unsound and visionary fanaticism even with those who are earnestly striving after holiness. This caution is needed to-day. Many devout and well meaning people are following false leaders because they know not the truth of God.

A very large holiness literature is published and eagerly read by ardent hungry souls, who if they would devote only half the time needed for reading it to acquire a thorough washing of water with the Word of God, they would soon experience a far greater and more healthful growth in true holiness. This cannot be had even by the closest study of the lives and experiences of the most holy and devout people that ever lived. There is danger on the one hand of mistaking our assent to the experience of others for our own actual progress and growth in grace, and on the other hand, of making these experiences a pattern and standard of our own life and thus becoming bond-servants of men.

Ver. 27. That he might present the church to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

The world or anything else cannot produce this glorious church. His purpose in giving Himself for His future Church was: (1) to cleanse it, (2) to sanctify it, (3) to present it to Himself, thus a glorious and holy and spotless Church. The Church is, according to Divine intention, in this world, glorious, without spot or wrinkle; holy and without blemish. Christ died for the Church, not because its perfection made Him love it, but because He was willing to undergo any suffering to deliver it from the world. His love was so strong that He did not recoil from any shame or anguish to bring it out of sin and make it holy and spotless.

Ver. 28. Even so ought husbands also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his own wife loveth himself.

The imperfection of the wife does not release the husband from the debt of love. Through the right kind of relationship is developed the strength of love which gives occasion for self- sacrifice and devotion. Here in this verse he gives another reason for this love. We have been told that husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. So ought husbands also to love their own selves (their wives) because they and their wives are “one flesh.”� The man is now to be head of the wife and the wife the body of the husband, as the Church in Christ is the Body. Therefore, he who loveth his own wife, loveth himself.

Ver. 29. For no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ also the Church.

“No man ever”� is not limited. If he actually injured himself, it cannot even then be said that he hateth his own flesh, “but nourished and cherished it.”� This growing development is brought about through nourishment.

“Even as the Lord the Church.”� Christ called Himself the Bread of Life. We know the Lord is continually directing as far as His children are obedient to Him in the Church. He does not only redeem; He nourishes and feeds.

Through the Apostle Paul, Christ, the Head of the Church, has given us seven great books to study. The Holy Spirit has brought these truths of the Lord Jesus Christ, and through Paul as His agent, these great books were written for our instruction to help us understand our relation to Christ so that our state might be equal to our standing. In this way the Church is fed, nourished and strengthened.

Ver. 30. Because we are members of His body, (of His flesh, and of His bones).

He nourisheth and cherisheth the Church. How could He help but do this when He is the Head of the body. When the body suffers, He suffers. When the body is not nourished, He understands all about it. The Church as a whole and as individual members, are the members of His body, “of His flesh and of His bones.”�

The Apostle Paul is presenting the same line of thought as recorded in (1 Cor. 11: 3-12). He would have you know “that the head of every man is Christ and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.”� Man is the image of the glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man, for man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. So the same thing may be said concerning Christ and His Church. We have here a profound mystery disclosed that the Church is the Body of Christ which accounts for His love to the Church and His authority over it. We were told that He nourisheth and cherisheth the Church just because we are members of His Body.

Now this membership, in its origin, was older than creation itself. God choose His Son before the foundation of the world and the members of His Church were included in that call, and this was the mystery that was hidden in God from before the foundation or creation of the world until finally revealed unto the Apostle Paul as described in the third chapter. We were thus created in the Son of God's love, antecedent to the time of our personal redemption when we accepted Him by faith. Such is the teaching of this Epistle as well as the companion Epistles which Paul wrote while a prisoner in Rome.

Christ died, even the death of the cross; His body was buried, and from that tomb came forth the Church, His Body. The derivation of Eve from the body of Adam, as that is termed the mystery in Genesis, is analogous with the derivation of the Bride from the Body of Christ. The origin of woman in the man which forms the basis of marriage in the Scriptures is later than the origin of the Church, the Body of Christ.

The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man Adam, and while he slept, God took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh, and forming woman brought her to the man, and the man said, “This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh”� (Gen. 2:21-24). Adam spoke and made this declaration at the time of his own wedding. Thus in some mystical and real sense, marriage is a reunion, Adam seeking his other self, the complement of his nature. He founds a new home.

The inspired Apostle, from the passage in Genesis, explains the origin of marriage and indicates that which really draws the bridegroom to the bride. However, with this declaration a deeper truth, as before stated, can be secured from “before the foundation of the world.”�

Ver. 31. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the twain shall become one flesh.

Paul quoted from Genesis (2: 32), “Of his flesh and of his bone,”� and now proceeds to quote the next verse (Gen. 2:24) which confirms his teaching concerning the affection which ought to exist between man and wife. Since the woman was taken from the body of the man, he should naturally, from a Scriptural point of view, cling to her, she being part of him. That which is of interest to one, must also be of interest to the other. Here we have the Scriptural grounds for the forsaking of all others and cleaving but to the one because the two, through marriage, have become one flesh.

Ver. 32. This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the Church.

What does this great mystery signify? We see that it has to do with Christ and His Church. It means that the Church is the Body of Christ. That is the real meaning as expressed in the Scriptures. Mysteries in God's Word are truths which the human mind, unaided by Divine revelation, could never find out or grasp. God, however, unfolds them in His Word and reveals them to His own through the Spirit who searcheth all things, even the deep things of God (1 Cor. 2:10).

Note carefully how this passage relates to the quotation in the former paragraph (Gen. 2: 22, 23). This is the account of the origin and making, not of Adam, but of his wife, who was builded from a portion of Adam's body which was already in existence and completed. Along this line of thought does the Apostle move and here is the explanation of the great mystery. There is a close intimacy between Christ and His Church in as much as the Church is His Body. The term “bride”� or “wife”� of Jehovah is quite often used in Old Testament Scripture and a proper understanding of these terms will help us to ascertain the true meaning of Paul's teaching here.

In Gen. 24 we have Abraham sending his servant to get a bride for Isaac, his son and heir. He was not to seek her among the Gentiles, but “go unto my country and to my kindred”� (Gen. 24:4; Cp. also Ps. 46 and many other passages in the Prophetic Psalms as well as in the Songs of Solomon). Now there must have been many Jewish believers in the churches to which Paul wrote this letter, and as he expounded this truth of the Body of Christ, taken from all nations (Israel included but without any special prerogative) the questions would arise again and again. What of the fulfilment of the many and glowing promises of Jehovah concerning His final marriage with the virgin, the daughter of Zion? Are not the gifts and calling of God without repentance? Paul warned Gentile believers not to be wise in their own conceits because of this mystery (another mystery that blindness in part happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles) ; so here he speaks of the parallel mystery to-wit: that when the Body of Christ, the Church, is completed from among the nations (including Israel of course, but reckoned among the nations) then will take place the formation and preparation of the bride, the wife of the second Adam.

Thus the term “bride of Christ,”� in this mystery, would mark that portion of the Body which comes from Israel, and who during the formation of the Church, out of all nations in this age, has not had in the judicious providence of God any separate existence or history; but which was hidden as it were in the Body as the rib was in the first Adam's side. So she as part of Israel partakes of the same wonderful life and blessing of Christ with all the other believers, but in the final con- sumation she is to find a peculiar and separate presentation as a special organism. She is to be builded into a second woman for the second Adam, a truly Israelitish bride of Jehovah, a proof and evidence to the rest of the Jewish nation of the unshaken faithfulness of Jehovah to all His promises; evidence, too, that the seeming destruction of the Jewish nation as such and its almost complete scattering and mingling among the Christianized nations of the world was only apparent.

From the side of the great second Adam will be taken a body of Christ-believing Israelites, the earnest and first fruit of Israel's final national redemption and restoration to Divine favor, the guarantee and at once the agent, for the execution of all the great and precious promises of Jehovah given to the fathers. So as the body of Adam enclosed the wife, so the body of Christ (the Church from all nations) encloses to-day, all the Israelitish elements from which the bride proper, according to Scripture, is to be formed and presented to the second Adam, “bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh.”� That will be the signal and means of Jehovah's reopening official relations as it were, with His ancient people Israel. It does not mean any disruption of the Body to distinguish between the Body and bride. All who believe in Christ are one in Christ Jesus, whether Jew or Gentile. Adam declared that Eve was bone of his bone, and Paul declared in Ver. 31, “For this cause a man shall leave—and the two shall be one flesh,”� but it does mean much confusion and darkness of council to confound Body and bride, and to apply the latter term indiscriminately to the whole Body of believers from all nations.

In the summary of this entire passage we see (1) in Ver. 23 man is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church. Had Paul wished to teach that the church was the bride or wife of Christ this would have been his opportunity, then we should have read, “Even as Christ is the bridegroom of the church.”� (2) In Ver. 30, “For we are members of His body”� would also read, “For we are the bride of Christ.”� If Paul had intended to teach in this passage that which he is commonly supposed to teach, that the Church is the bride of Christ, why did he not use the term freely and frankly? It must be that that was not his purpose. He was the bearer and revealer of a mystery, not made known in past ages to the children of men, and it was his special gospel mission to unfold this mystery, which was the Church, the Body of Christ, and we as believers, members one of another.

Ver. 33. Nevertheless do ye also severally love each one his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see that she fear her husband.

The Apostle closes this paragraph with this very helpful instruction for Christian parents. There is nothing to be said beyond what the Apostle has here presented. See that you all, in your individual capacity, whatever may be your relations, do that which becometh members of the Body of Christ. The husband is to love his wife even as he loves himself and the wife is to reverence her husband which is a necessary condition of the submission emphasized in the former part of this paragraph.

QUESTIONS

• Explain the domestic relation as presented in Ver. 22.

• In what sense is the husband the head of the wife as Christ is the Head of the Church?

• Give reason for Christ's love for the church.

• In what sense does Christ Jesus nourish and cherish the Church?

• To whom are all the members, including the officers of the church, subject?

• Explain the mystery as presented in Genesis concerning Adam and Eve. Explain the mystery concerning Christ and the church.

• Give reasons for higher relations of man and wife than father and mother.

2. CHILDREN AND PARENTS, 6:1-4

In the preceding paragraph we considered the duty of wife to husband and members of the church to Christ; we have now to consider the duties of children to parents. The Christian family is the cradle and fortress of the Christian faith. When parents are thus united as expressed in the former paragraph, knowing their obligations to one another, the family honor is secure and a basis is had for reverence and discipline within the home, and so the Apostle turns in the opening of this sixth chapter, from the husband and wife to the children of the household.

Ver. 1. Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.

The Apostle addresses these children as present in the assembly where the letter is read. Paul considered the children holy, even if but one parent belonged to the church (1 Cor. 7 : 14). These children, no doubt, are of tender age and under parental care. Obedience is the law of childhood, and if the parents are in the Lord as expressed before, obedience is in a great part the child's religion and that is to be practiced “in the Lord.”� Jesus is the head over all things and is the authority of life of boys and girls. He is the head over the house, and in His love He guards the little one in the chamber of the home. The wonderful love of parents to their offspring and the awful authority with which they are invested can come only from those united with God through Christ. Christian men and women who understand just what God through Christ has done for the Church, how he does nourish and cherish and keep the Church under His own supervision, can by this more fully learn their relation to one another as parents, and with such an understanding, children in such homes, under such parents, have a great heritage.

“For this is right.”� It is right for children to obey their parents in the Lord. The right relation to the Church or the Head of the Church will bring right relation between parents, and right relation between parents in the Lord will bring sweet obedience from children to such parents. These children are brought into the home to take the place, in some future day, of those who gave them existence, and by the right nourishment and training will be able to establish homes of their own that will be as light-houses to the community in which they live.

Ver. 2. Honour thy father and mother (which is the first commandment with promise).

The Apostle reminds the children of the law and of the ten commandments taught them in their earliest childhood from the Scriptures. He calls their attention to the first commandment with promise and upon this the continuance of the church and of society depends. It is the first commandment with promise showing man's relation to man on the table of stone written there by God Himself. It is not only the first commandment, but it is a commandment with a promise. It takes the form of a promise and holds out to obedience a bright future. It is indeed a promise and upon this promise salvation itself rests both externally and internally.

Paul was not only thinking of the ten commandments as a part of the law given to the Jewish people or else he would have said then that this was the only commandment that has a promise through obedience. He meant that of all the Jewish laws, this was the first that had a promise attached to it and this promise was to the individual and nation. It is not an assurance that every child that obeys his parents will escape sickness and poverty and be prosperous and live to a good old age. It shows that a disobedient child makes disorder in the home and disorder in the nation, and the national disorder leads to the destruction of national life. If children honor their parents they make good citizens and a prosperous nation.

Ver. 3. That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

This is really the purport of the promise referred to in the former verse. The well-being is put in the front rank; the long life is second. Even among the most degraded people it will go well with him who honors his parents through obedience and his life will be long, at least in comparison to others.

The promise made here in the Scriptures through inspiration is seldom presented to the children as a challenge for good behaviour. It must be because parents do not have the faith that they ought to have in things that the Scripture presents, and failing to transmit that faith unto the children it makes the children careless and they lack confidence in what God promises through right relationship of children to parents.

Ver. 4. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord (bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord).

This instruction is made to all parents in the Lord, and if the parents are in the Lord and have the right relationship to one another and to the Church, the admonition given to fathers here would be well to heed. Parents must exercise great care not to provoke to disobedience if they expect children to be obedient. It is the hasty, rough treatment of children that destroys childish confidence and repels them to opposition instead of affection. The Apostle seems to allude to provoking by unreasonable blame and uncertain temper in ordinary home training and discipline.

These instructions to the fathers apply to all who have charge of children; not only to fathers, but to pastors and teachers of every description whose work is among children. Many a child received his bias for life from the influence of the teacher before whom he sat in the day school or Sunday- school. The ideas which children form of Christ and His Church are gathered from what they see, in a large measure, manifested in the home.

“But bring them up in nurture.”� This admonition requires serious observance on the part of the parents that their children should belong to Christ and be under Christ's care. The nurture is to be in the chastisement and admonition of the Lord. The children are also Christ's subjects and have to be taught obedience to His authority. The children's redemption is by their birth into the world and if rightly instructed they will always be members of the Church. The parents have received the charge of their children from Christ and have, therefore, to nurture them in the admonition of the Lord. Let me emphasize this great need of the right admonition now so seldom witnessed in the home. The admonition the Apostle refers to is of the Lord.

The primary condition of successful Christian parents is that they should care more for the loyalty of their children to Christ than for anything else. They should really care more for this than their health, their intellectual welfare and their prosperity or social activities. Their loyalty to Christ must be cared for, not because it will keep them from vices which might degrade and ruin but for its own sake and Christ's sake. Only when our children have found eternal righteousness and eternal life in Him, has the trust we received from Him been successfully discharged. Only then have our children discharged their supreme duty and achieved their supreme blessedness.

Parents should expect their children to be loyal to Christ. They are born in Christ by parents who are of the Body of Christ. They are born thus, into the Divine household, and as they are born into this Divine household, there should never be a time when the relationship between them and their Lord should not be confirmed and more clearly revealed. It will be a pleasure and a joy to the children to do that which they have learned in their childhood, because the children realize that they were instructed by parents who were obedient to what God's Word teaches.

QUESTIONS

• What is the duty of children toward their parents?

• Why say, “In the Lord”�?

• What is the first commandment?

• What are the two things promised to those who honor their parents?

• What admonition is given to the fathers?

• What is meant by bringing children up in the admonition of the Lord?

3. SERVANTS AND MASTERS, 6:5-9

The Apostle has discussed the relation between husband and wife, showing how the wife must be in submission to the husband and the husband must do that which shows supreme love to his wife. Those parents who are in the Lord are reminded in the last paragraph, as to the training of children and the obedience of the children to the parents, and now further instruction is given to this household concerning servants and masters.

The Greeks regarded slavery as a fundamental institution indispensable to civilization. That the few might enjoy freedom and culture, the many were doomed to bondage. Two or three facts will suffice to show slavery did deprive human rights in the different periods of the human race.

In Athens it was the legal rule to admit the evidence of a slave only upon torture while that of a freeman was received upon oath. Amongst the Romans, if a master had been murdered in his house, the whole of his domestic servants, amounting sometimes to hundreds, were put to death without inquiry. The slave population outnumbered the free citizens of the Greek and Roman cities by many times. They were of the same race frequently and might be even superior in education to their Master.

Now, this new religion was welcomed by the slaves of the Pagan cities. Welcome was the voice that said, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest”� (Matt. 11:28). They welcomed the proclamation that made them Christ's freemen “brethren beloved,”� where before they had been nothing but slaves and tools to those who were over them. In the light of such teaching, slavery was doomed.

The social fabric, as it then existed, was so entirely based upon slavery, that for Christ and the Apostles to have proclaimed its abolition would have meant universal anarchy. The Apostle Paul, in writing about his converted slave Onesimus, does not say, “Release him”� (1 Cor. 7: 20-24). He even advises the slave, who might have had his freedom to remain where he is; to be content to be the Lord's freeman. To the Christian slave what mattered it who ruled over his perishing body; his spirit was free, death would be his discharge. No decree was issued to abolish bond service between man and man; but it was destroyed in its essence by the Spirit of Christian brotherhood.

Ver. 5. Servants, be obedient unto them that according to the flesh are your masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness (integrity) of your heart, as unto Christ.

The Apostle does not disguise the slave's subservience; nor does he speak in the language of pity or of condenscension. “Let every one be subject to the higher powers for there is no power but of God, and the powers that be are ordained of God”� (Rom. 13:1). This means to obey the law and pay all taxes and tolls, to respect our moral duties which must be discharged by conscience sake and not merely to avoid punishment. In the church Christ was honored as the true Lord.

Slavery is dealt with in a way by the Apostle Paul that even the slave can become a member of Christ's Body. When the Jews and Gentiles came into relationship with Christ as members of His Body they no more remain Greeks or Jews or slaves, but are one in Christ Jesus, and although the body is under submission to the master who has authority over the slave, yet that in no sense destroys the freedom that Christ gives him in the Church.

“Masters according to the flesh,”�—earthly masters, whose dominion does not extend beyond the things of this world. This obedience was more clearly designated with fear and trembling. It does not refer to anger and punishment. The Apostle in referring to this class, hits upon the particular vices which characterize slavery, indolence and carelessness.

The Apostle Paul (Col. 3:24) says, “Ye are slaves to the Lord Christ.”� Saint Paul was accustomed to call himself a slave of Christ Jesus. We have it stated that Christ Jesus took the form of a slave (Phil. 2:7). The relation of servant and master will endure in one shape or another while the world stands, and the Apostle's injunctions bear upon servants of every order. We are all servants in some capacity, servants of the community. There must be a genuine care for our work. It is obedience that is emphasized here. The fear enjoined is not dread of human displeasure, of the master's whip or tongue, but fear of doing that which would displease the beloved One.

Ver. 6. Not in the way of eye service, as menpleasers; but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.

This is the principle of the Greek and Roman slaves and it is natural from the motive under which servants act who have been brought up in the fear of man instead of the fear of God. We were told in the former verse that this should be done in singleness of heart. This shows the method or maxim of service.

The reference is not simply to compulsion or the appearance of service as menpleasers, that is, not to please men alone. Men can only see what is before their eyes. They use their master's human weakness to their own advantage. It is the common fault and temptation of servants in all degrees to observe the master's eye, and to work busily or slackly as they are watched. Such workmen act as they do, because they look to men and not to God. Their work is without conscience and self-respect The visible human master says, “Well done,”� to all pretentious doing through eye service, but there is another master looking on who says, “Ill done,”� who sees not as man sees, but judges the motive and intent that causes the act. We will have to remember that within the book of accounts there is a stern reckoning in store for deceitful dealers and the makers of unsound goods in whatever way it is manifested. Many overseers can be dismissed when every servant works as well behind his master's back as to his face, when every manufacturer and shopkeeper puts himself in the purchaser's place and deals as he would have others deal with him.

“But as the servants of Christ.”� As slaves of Christ doing the will of God; from the soul with good will doing service, as to the Lord and not to man. Their work must be done from the inner principle with thought and affection and resolution spent upon it. It must be in any service, that we are conscious of the onlooker, who bought us and whom we are to please. In this verse we have a distinction made between Christians who make simply a profession but do not the will of God and those who know and do His will.

Ver. 7. With good will doing service, as unto the Lord, and not unto men.

The Christian shown in this verse is compared to the one in Ver. 6. He is doing good will and good service unto the Lord. He is subject unto the Lord, and not careless and indifferent, simply a pleaser of those who are over him in the flesh. Paul concludes the seventh verse by saying, “And not unto men.”� We must know that we serve the Lord and not men. The earthly master may not give the slave his just reward, or his labor may fail to be recognized for its integrity and zeal, but Christ's servants will not miss their full reward for all work in harmony with His instruction.

Ver. 8. Knowing that whatsoever good thing each one doeth, the same shall he receive again from the Lord, whether he be bond (slave) or free (freeman).

No good work will be forgotten. The reward which is withheld while on earth will be conferred upon us in Heaven. The slave's reward is defined in the epistle to the Colossians as being a participation in the spiritual inheritance. In Rome the slave was regarded as a chattle incapable of inheriting or possessing.

“Whether he be bond or free.”� That is, whatsoever be his social condition, the future has in store for him untold blessings.

Ver. 9. And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, and forbear threatening: knowing that both their Master and yours is in Heaven, and there is no respect of persons with Him.

This refers back both to the will of God from the heart, to good will and to the submitting yourselves one to another”� (Ver. 21). The Apostle had stooped to the slave and he was not afraid to speak directly to the master. “And forbear threatening.”� Their authority is only subordinate and temporary. The true master of slaves is Christ. He will leave no wrong unredressed.

“Knowing that your master and theirs is also in Heaven.”� This refers to the master and servant as standing in equality before Him. The master that helps the latter helps the former and will give each his due. He is in Heaven. He comes from Heaven and judges. With the Lord there is no respect of persons. All have one master in Heaven, and there is no difference in reference to any man's life whether he is rich or poor, whether he rule or serve, if he is obedient to the will of God. It ought to lift up our church society and individual life in the loyalty to God.

QUESTIONS

• Give meaning of servants in Ver. 5.

• What obedience is emphasized in this verse?

• Why say, “In singleness of heart”�?

• Meaning of servants and menpleasers.

• Whose master is in Heaven?

• How is the will of God done from the heart?

• Explain the paragraph, “There is no respect of persons with Him.”�