Slavery and the Supreme Lordship of Jesus: Lessons for How to Live Under Human Authority

Timothy Ateek: Good morning, Watermark. How are we doing today? Good to see you. Happy Sunday. If this is your first time ever with us, thanks for trusting us with your Sunday. I hope this place feels like home very quickly. I am so excited about this morning, because you're going to have the opportunity to hear from Pastor John Piper today. I heard the word God spoke through him this morning at the 9:00, and I think it's something our church really needs, so I'm so thankful that the Lord arranged it for him to be here today.

If you're not familiar with Pastor Piper, he serves as founder and lead teacher at Desiring God. He's the chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary. For 33 years, Pastor John served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church. He has authored more than 50 books. He has more than 40 years of his preaching and writing available for free on desiringgod.org. John resides in Minneapolis with Noel, his wife of 55 years, and they have 5 children and 16 grandchildren, which is amazing.

One of the reasons I'm so excited about today is that Pastor John has been so gracious to be willing to jump into our series through the book of Colossians. He's going to jump ahead in chapter 3, so next week we'll circle back and pick up some of the stuff we still have to do business with, but this morning is going to be such an important time for the Spirit of God to work in our hearts. So, can I ask you to do an incredible job of welcoming to Watermark Community Church Pastor John Piper?

John Piper: Thank you so much. Let's pray.

Father, I ask for your help now for me and for our friends here, that as we look at your Word together we'd be faithful to it, submitted to it, obedient, happy with it, not begrudging your authority but glad under it, and that the superior lordship of Jesus Christ would be magnified by the way we live out our obedience and our service in the subordinate lordships of this world. So magnify your worth, your greatness, and your beauty in every way. Help us in those ways and more that I can't even think to ask. In Jesus' name, amen.

It's a real privilege to preach to you. I don't take preaching lightly. It is sacred to me. It's serious business. It's glorious business. It's joyful business. So we have work to do, and it is a high and pleasant work. You've heard how we arrived at the text. They told me I could choose my text or I could take their text. I said, "What is it?" and they said, "Colossians 3:22-4:1," which is a text about slavery.

I said, "I'd like to do that," because slavery was big in the Bible and it was horrifically big in our country, to our shame, and it is big in the world today, and this text is more radical than most people think it is. So is the whole New Testament with regard to this issue. So, I was not unhappy to tackle what is sometimes considered a very, very troubling and difficult issue of slavery. The text is Colossians 3:22-4:1, and I'm going to read it to you. I know some versions translate slaves as bondservants. I think that's a little bit of a cop-out. No offense to my friends at ESV. It's slaves.

"[Slaves], obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. Masters, treat your [slaves] justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven."

I think the main point of this text, when you draw out the principle of it and generalize it (which I think is appropriate to do here), goes like this: Christians (these slaves and these masters, in particular, but you Christians) are to magnify the supreme lordship of Christ in the way you serve in the subordinate lordships of this world. I'll explain in a minute why I'm using lordships.

To say it another way, we exist to make much of the greatness of Christ by the way we submit to the fading structures of this world. And they're all fading…all of them. Government as we know it, democracy as we know it, any form of government as we know it is going away when Jesus shows up. Marriage goes away when Jesus shows up, because Jesus said in the resurrection there will be no marriage or giving in marriage. All children will be grown up in the age to come, and family life as we know it in raising kids will be no more.

Slavery will be no more, and all of the other structures as we know them. Everything changes when Jesus comes. Now, we're going to look at the details of this text to try to prove and show that that main point I just expressed is, in fact, in the text. Before we go there, there are four preliminary clarifications from Colossians, and then from the wider teachings of the apostle Paul, that I want to make.

So, first clarification: Who is Jesus Christ to this slave? Who is Jesus Christ to this master? They're sitting together in church. Who is Jesus to them? Now, this is not new for you. If you're here, you've been through Colossians and come to this point, so let's do a refresher. Chapter 2, verse 9: "For in him [Christ] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily…" That was an absolute bombshell on Colossae…and Dallas and Minneapolis. That's a bombshell. Jesus, this man who walked around and ate fish after he rose from the dead, is God.

Chapter 1, verse 16: "For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together." That's breathtaking and life-changing. If you believe that, everything in your life changes, or you're playing games.

Jesus is God. Jesus made all that is. Jesus holds everything together, and all of it exists, including you, for him…that is, to make him look good; to make his glory, his beauty, his greatness, and his worth shine to the people around you. That's why you exist. If you're not doing that, you're wasting your life. You're absolutely wasting it if that's not why you live, because it's just so clear in God's Word that's why you exist: for him. How wonderful is that?

This God-man, Jesus, is sovereign. Chapter 2, verse 10: "[He] is the head of all rule and authority." He's absolutely in charge of Israel, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Russia, Ukraine, and the election process driving this country crazy. He's in charge, totally, absolutely, serene in heaven, no hand-wringing whatsoever, no anxiety, no exhaustion, no depletion. He's absolutely sovereign. That's our Jesus.

This slave knew that. That was his Jesus. This master knew that. He's supreme over this master. He's supreme over this slave. That's going to change things unless they're just playing games. So, that's the first clarification. Who is this Jesus that Colossians is about that they wrote about that this slave and this master are worshiping when they get together in their little church there in Colossae?

Second clarification: Who are they? Who's the slave and who's the master in relation to Christ? Chapter 1, verse 4: "…we heard of your…" That's the slave, the master, and all of the other believers in the church. "…faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints…" So, this slave is sitting there and this master is sitting there, and they believe in Jesus, and they love each other. That's what it says. "You love each other."

Chapter 3, verse 3: "For you have died…" You have died, slave. You have died, master. You have died, Watermark Christians. "…and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." Those are absolutely staggering, breathtaking words.

You're dead, and your life, your real life, your true life is hidden with Christ in God. The world won't even see you until he comes, and when he comes… C.S. Lewis said we will be tempted either to worship each other or to shrink back from demons, depending on whether we're saved or not. Jesus said you will shine like the sun in the kingdom of your Father. Can you look at the sun? You can't look at the sun. Do you know who you are?

That's who the slave is. He's a dead man. He's alive. His life is in Christ. He's just about to discover he's godlike when Jesus comes. Such a glory. I mean, that changes everything unless you're just playing games. There are a lot of Christians who play games. I grew up in Greenville, South Carolina. It's part of the Bible Belt. It runs right across. There are so many nominal Christians in this belt, it's unbelievable. I've devoted my life to trying to shake people out of nominalism for 55 years-plus. That's why I'm here…partly.

Chapter 1, verse 13: "He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son…" That has already happened, Christian. You have been taken out of the domain of darkness and transferred into the rule, the reign, and the kingdom of the Son of God. That's your new allegiance. That's your new patriotism. You live under the supreme lordship of Christ, and America is a foreign country to you now. You are a sojourner and an alien here in Dallas and in America. Jesus and no president and no ruler is your sovereign.

Chapter 3, verse 11: "Here…" Here in Watermark. Here in the kingdom. Here in the people of God. "…there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all." You can't get more radically transformative than next week's text. I wish I could do that. It's yours. Go to school on that, folks. Everything changes if you believe verse 11. That's the second clarification: Who are you, and who are this slave and this master?

The third clarification is…What's their purpose? The purpose of this slave, the purpose of this master at Colossae, and your purpose as a Christian. What's the purpose? We come back to my overarching point through chapter 1, verse 18. "[Christ] is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent."

Your purpose as a Christian, the purpose of the slave and of the master, as a Christian, is to join Jesus in his purpose to be preeminent in all things. That's why you exist. It's just wonderful to know why you exist. There are a few clear, glorious, basic statements in the Bible that give purpose, meaning, and direction to your life no matter what your vocation is. You exist, as a Christian, to join Jesus in making Jesus preeminent in everything. That's why you exist.

One more step of clarification. This one deserves an hour. They all deserve an hour, but I have an hour on this one, which I'm not going to give. Namely, can we just reach out for two or three minutes and gather in a wider vision of slavery from the apostle Paul? I have in my head and on a piece of paper about 21 texts that I would use if I were doing a seminar on slavery in the New Testament. I'll give you three of them to get a flavor, and then I'll try to sum it up in a paragraph.

First would be 1 Timothy 1:9-10. "…understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners…the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers…" Sometimes translated kidnappers. That's crucial. It literally is the word man stealers.

The law is laid down to make sure man stealers are condemned. Slavery in this country was totally based on man stealing. You steal men from Africa. You sell them to the West Indies. You sell them here. Had we been obedient to that verse alone, the system would have collapsed early. It wouldn't have gotten started.

The second text is Galatians 3:28. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise." So, slave and free, master and slave, united in Christ before God, equal fellow heirs of eternal life. Totally transformative. You cannot sit together in church and believe that and leave slavery untransformed. It can't happen.

The third text, perhaps the most striking, is 1 Corinthians 7:21-23. "Were you a [slave] when called?" When you picture this, this is being read out loud to the church in Corinth where there were slaves and masters. "Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.)" He gives the reason now for why he just said that. "For he who was called in the Lord as a [slave] is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a [slave] of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become [slaves] of men."

You can't be owned by two people. That's pretty radical. Christ made you. Christ bought you, Christian. He bought you. You're his. I have no hesitation to use the slavery image with regard to Jesus. He's a good master. He has a lot more to say about us than that we're just slaves, but oh, I am his slave. He bought me. He owns me. He can do with me anything he pleases and do me no wrong. I am his. He bought me, but nobody else can have me. Not as a master.

I wish I had time to take 17 more texts and unpack them with implications, but here's my summary paragraph that I stole from that other lesson. The New Testament ordered human relationships in Christ in such a way as to transform the master/slave relationship into something so different from owner/property that what remained… Think of it as a shell, because Paul still used the language. Right? Slave/master.

Why do you keep using that language, Paul? So that the shell that remains is not recognizable as slavery in this community in any traditional sense. It isn't. It cannot be recognized that way if these texts are being obeyed in the church. To say it another way, when the New Testament instructions to masters and slaves were obeyed, what was left of the master/slave relationship was not a relationship of owner/property.

The master was transformed from owner to owned by Christ with his slave, and the slave was transformed from property to coheir with Christ with his master. That transformation would make slavery unrecognizable as slavery. Call it something else. He used the words slave and master. It's not what other people think of that way in this church at Colossae if you're obedient.

Now I think we're ready for the text. Those are four preliminaries. I like four preliminaries. Here we are, chapter 3, verse 22. I've said the main point is the calling of this slave, the calling of this master, and our calling is to magnify the supreme lordship of Jesus in such a way that we live obediently and gladly in subordinate lordships.

We make much of the supreme lordship there by the way we live horizontally in these subordinate lordships. How is that? I think this main point I've tried to express is almost self-evident if I change one word throughout the text. It's the word master, because the word master is kurios, and the word for Lord Jesus is kurios. That's huge. We should really translate them both lord. Let's read it that way. Here we go.

"[Slaves], obey in everything those who are your earthly [lords], not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord." You can feel the tension here. "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. [Lords], treat your [slaves] justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a [Lord] in heaven."

The whole text screams this is about how owning him as Lord affects lordships. That's what the text is about. That's what the Christian life is about. It's incredibly obvious, I think, when you hear it that way. The point is that earthly lords and earthly slaves in Christ are supposed to shape their lives decisively, radically, by the supreme lordship of Jesus over both of them, slave and master, one supreme Lord over lord and slave here, and not orient their lives toward the service of the master.

I want to say, "Mainly," but read with me verse 23. "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men…" It doesn't say, "Mainly." It's as if the human lords don't exist in that verse. "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord…" So, how are you doing in that? As for the Lord, not for this lord. So, the lord on the earth says, "John, go to the river and get the water for tonight's dinner cooking," and John, this earthly slave, from hearty sincerity… You get that from verse 23. Work heartily. Not begrudgingly. Not "I hate this."

Heartily, willingly, gladly, he runs to the river, and it says he's not man pleasing. He's gladly running off, and Paul says he's doing this not for the earthly lord. That's really big. It's big for all of your relationships. It means he is so profoundly shaped and governed in this life by the superior lordship of Jesus over all of the details of his life that his compliance with subordinate lordships is as if it were a compliance with Jesus, not the subordinate lordships.

The reason I say that's transformative and relevant and amazing for all of you is that you all live in those structures. All of you. Nobody in this room is an exception. For example, child/parent, wife/husband, citizen/government, student/teacher, employee/employer, player/coach, church member/pastors and elders, choir member/choir director, corporal/sergeant, and on and on. You all live in God-ordained authority structures, and you have to figure that out. Like, how does that relate to this authority structure?

I'm going to say the point of this text is you magnify the supremacy of Christ over all of those lordships by the way you think and gladly, humbly serve him through them as though they were not even in existence, verse 23 seems to imply. It is a radically Christ-saturated life. It takes seriously all of the relationships ordained by God and ascribes ultimacy and decisiveness to none of them. Let me say that again. The Bible takes seriously all of the relationships in which you must function and ascribes ultimacy and decisiveness to none of them. This is ultimate. This is decisive. These are all relativized.

The slave says, "You think, earthly lord, I'm obeying you, but it's not what you think, Mister Lord. You don't have any final authority over me. I do not do anything simply because you say I should do it." Don't misread that. Simply. "I don't do anything simply because you say I should do it. I have a Lord who is infinitely stronger than you, infinitely wiser than you, infinitely more authoritative than you, infinitely more satisfying than you in my life. If you ask me to do anything contrary to his will, it's not going to happen. Kill me."

Can you imagine how galling that is to tyrants or people who love power, their life-consistent power over you? You look them in the eye and say, "I don't do anything because you tell me to. Nothing." Now, you may do what they tell you to, like go 55 miles an hour. You do that, don't you? You say to Mister Government or whoever set the speed limit, "It's not because of you. I have a Lord. He sets the speed limit through you. If you tell me to do something contrary to his will, it isn't going to happen. I serve you the way I do because I have an infinitely greater Lord."

Your whole life changes while you function in human lordships in a servant, humble, glad capacity. That's radical Christian freedom. Very, very free, very radical. Inside submission there are these glorious ways of bowing before King Jesus moment by moment. Let's pose one final question. What powerful incentives does Paul give in order to help the slave and the master live that radically? What incentives help?

Now, we could go outside this text and back to chapter 2, verse 14. You can't leave it out. It's so wonderful. Remember what he said back there, namely that he has nailed our canceled debts to the cross. Colossians 2:13-14 is just about as good as it gets for gospel texts. All of your debts summed up with a piece of scrolled paper that would stretch across this room and out into the streets of Dallas, so long you can't count them. Jesus rolled them all up, put them in the palm of his hand, and drove a spike through it so you wouldn't pay anything. That's amazing.

So, we could go there as an incentive, and that's glorious. That's not in the text, though, but I don't mind going outside the text a little bit. Let's see what the incentives are in the text. There are two of them that I see. He mentions the fear of the Lord's displeasure, and he mentions hope for the Lord's inheritance.

The first is in verse 22. "[Obey your earthly lords] not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord." Do you see that last phrase? Fearing the Lord, serve without eye-service. Fearing the Lord, don't serve as a man-pleaser. Fearing the Lord, be sincere in the way you serve your earthly lord. The second is in verses 23 and 24. "…work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward."

So, you get two motives: fear the Lord (let that shape your way of serving your earthly lord) and hope for the inheritance (let that shape the way you serve your earthly lord). Now, I wonder if it works that way for you. Does the fear of the Lord function that way for you? Is it a positive, helpful incentive for enduring some of the things you have to endure in the structures of this world before Jesus comes? Does it help?

My guess is many of you would say, "No. It doesn't help. It's negative. I'm not sure what it is." I think a lot of Christians say, "I'm not sure what it is. How does it help? How does the fear of God help me live the Christian life as I ought to live it in hope and gladness?" Here's my effort to help you. This was now 44 years ago. In 1980, I came to Bethlehem. My oldest son Karsten was 8 years old, and we went to visit Dick Teagan. I didn't know him. He's in my church. I'm a brand-new pastor, been there a few months.

I go to his house, and he greets us at the door with his German Shepherd who's about as big as my son is tall. My son is looking this dog in the eye like this. He's huge. I've never seen a dog like this. At that moment, I remember I have something in the car I meant to bring in, so I ask Karsten, "Run to the car and grab that." So he trots off, and this dog lopes up behind him, growling. Dick calls out, "Oh, Karsten, you might want to just walk. He doesn't like it when people run away from him."

I'm sitting there thinking, "That's going into next Sunday's sermon," and it has gone into 50 sermons, like this one. I just have not been able to improve. So, what's the picture? That growl is terrifying to an 8-year-old. This dog is huge. God is big, and his growl is terrifying, and he doesn't like it when you run away from him. If you hear God growling on your way to another god, another pleasure, another treasure, another guide, you ought to be afraid, but it's not because he's an unfriendly dog.

In fact, Dick Teagan said to Karsten, "Just walk. Put your arm around his neck like this. He likes that." So does God. God Almighty likes it when people say, "You're my God. You're my protector. You're my friend. Nobody can touch me when I have my arm around this God." But you run away from him, and he will growl, and if you keep running, you're dead forever.

Sometimes people say, "Well, the fear of God is just reverence. It's not negative. You shouldn't be afraid of God." Baloney! Of course you should be afraid of God if you are running away from God. The Bible doesn't play games. He is God. He means for you to hug his neck, and he will fight for you with all his omnipotence. That's what he means to happen. If you run, he's growling, and he'll growl after you for 30, 40, or 50 years, and then it will be too late to turn.

So, you don't have to dilute the meaning of the fear of God in order to make it positive. You just have to make the distinction between "If I'm running toward him, do I need to be afraid or if I'm running away from him, do I need to be afraid?" That's not rocket science. If you are running toward God, penitently, for all of those horrible sins, this is the friendliest dog you will ever meet. Forgive me for that analogy. I like dogs, but he is the Lion of Judah. I don't like cats, but I have to yield to that biblical… Big cats are different. (That's not in the manuscript.)

So, the first incentive of helping this slave and this master and you and me submit to the supreme authority of Jesus and function humbly, gladly, and wisely in these subordinate lordships is the fear of God. Don't run from God. Let the fear of God turn you around, Karsten. Put your arm around his neck and walk to the car. He might even carry it for you when you're done. He might even carry you. He does.

The second and last incentive is in verses 23 and 24. "…work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward." So, you hear this message. You've been running, and now you say, "Well, I've been hearing the growl. I don't like it. It's scary, and I'm turning." What will you find when you turn? The answer is you will find God, who's looking at you eye to eye and saying, "You're not my slave; you're my son, my daughter."

I use father and son and daughter just because that's what inheritance implies. We're going to get an inheritance. What does God own? He owns everything. So, what you're going to get when you turn is God looking you in the face with the smile of Jesus, saying, "Everything I am and everything I have is yours." I think that's a really strong incentive for a slave and a master to have an utterly transformed relationship.

So, I think that text applies to you, because all of you serve in structures, morning to night, where you must sort out supreme lordship with subordinate lordships. I think the text says, "Live so as to magnify, make much of, the beauty and the worth and the greatness of this supreme lordship in the way you gladly, humbly, and faithfully serve in these lordships as though they didn't even exist." Let's pray.

Father in heaven, this is a great mystery, in one sense, to live this paradoxical, wonderful Christian life. I pray that you would give supernatural Holy Spirit wisdom to these friends and that those who have been running away and hearing the growl of God and feeling like God is a fearful God would realize everything changes when they turn. I ask this in Jesus' name, amen.