2 problems with preaching Ephesians 6:5-9 today

Let me suggest to you 2 apparent problems with preaching Ephesians 6:5-9 (and its instructions to slaves and masters) today and say why I don't think they are real problems at all.

(1) These verses are apparently irrelevant.

None of us is a slave nor a slave master so we can move on, right?

No. I think there are principles here that apply to any hierarchical relationship.

I realise some people will be spooked by the word hierarchical but I'm afraid that's life. And indeed that's the word of God. There are kind of hierarchies in the Godhead (the Son submits to the Father), the Family (wives submit to their husbands and children obey their parents), the World (there are kings and rulers) and the Church (the people of God obey the Elders). Relationships of inferiority and superiority or of subordination, call it what you will, are inevitable. This passage transforms them all. Alongside all these voluntary roles, there is a profound and far reaching equality. Equal worth, dignity and status. Different jobs and ways of relating.

We may not be slaves or slave masters but many of us are employees or employers or both and there is much we can learn from these verses. I find a surprising number of people round here seem to have domestic servants of a sort too!

And maybe even if we are not employed or employing, there are lessons here for voluntary work, family, world and church.

(2) These verses are apparently immoral.

As I have said they smell of wicked hierarchy which we do not like.

They might also be seen as coming near condoning slavery, which we know is wicked.

Well, much needs to be said here.

We should distinguish Old Testament "slavery", slavery in the ancient world and the 18th Century slave trade.

In the Old Testament a brief period of indentured servitude (up to 7 years) was a bankruptcy and social security provision for those who could not afford to repay their debts. The debtor would be given food and a home in return for their labour and their rights were strictly safeguarded.

It seems to me that the gospel radically transforms slavery.

William Wilberforce and other Bible believing Christians rightly saw that the Word of God required the immediate and complete end of the 18th Century slave trade as immoral. It is not lawful to kidnap a man, transport him to the other side of the world away from his family and force him to work like an animal and for no pay. God will judge those who treated his Image Bearers as their personal property. That of course is obvious.

But these verses can teach us an important lesson of how to live under an imperfect and often unjust system. And we know enough of those. The ultimate aim, of course, is the removal of all such systems, but not by further sin. And how do we carry on in the meantime.

Ephesians 6:5-9 turns out to be highly relevant and appropriate to Godly living today.

And perhaps one can watch 12 Years A Slave and call it sermon preparation?