Masters, render unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.
I. THE DUTY OF MASTERS. It is here enforced only on its positive side.
1. Justice. Masters must give their servants what is according to contract, or according to what is just in itself, as to work, wages, food, correction, and example.
2. Equality. Masters sometimes treat servants unequally in demanding inconvenient service, an unreasonable amount of work, in withholding wages. They ought to treat them so that they may serve them cheerfully and efficiently.
II. THE REASON TO ENFORCE THIS DUTY. "Knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven." God's majesty and man's authority stand together. The Lord in heaven is the Master of masters, and will avenge the wrongs they may inflict on their servants. - T. C.
Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal.
Observe —
1. The first step towards righteousness between master and man, mistress and maid, is to respect the relation.
2. Every human being has a right to himself, consistent with the rights of others. When he sells himself, hands or brains, for honourable ends, he is to be respected. The cook makes as respectable sale of her arts in the kitchen as the owner of the real estate in renting a house. Here is safety. The poorest creature you employ never contracted to sell self-respect.
3. The strong, moreover, should bear the infirmities of the weak.
4. You may be conscience to your servants. What are the servants, for the most part? Grown-up children. They ape you; talk large, as you do at times; try to dress like you. You are your servant's example — the keeper of his conscience. You pray every morning for your wife, your children, your property, clear down to the fence at the rear of the lot behind the stable, but never for Jack in the stable.
5. There should be a reciprocity of interest felt between a Christian master and his man. Nothing in social life has been more admirable than the magnificent loyalty of old servants. Read of it in the armour-bearers of Hebrew kings, the squires of days of chivalry. After faithful years he, the old servant, tried and true, did the honours of the castle, and set the turret pennant for great festivals. He spread the plates, and made the feast ready in oaken halls; he conducted fair and brave to their chambers. On errands of knightly valour, he accompanied his lord; he carried the helmet, the shield, the gauntlets, the armour all, and bore the banner of the house; he gave the battle-cry, and when, borne down, his liege would fall, the old servant bore him from the field; and so he won the right to wear golden spurs — no longer a servant, but a knight of the line. In comparison with this shining loyalty of a barbarous age, how pitiful the frequent bickerings and mutual hurt of Christian times. An old family servant, after ten years, comes to look upon your home as her home — all she has in this world. She has clung to you in five movings, and knew just where everything belonged. She knows your ways, moods, likes and dislikes. She has had her flare-ups, and you forgave and said nothing; in return, she has seen flare-ups above her floor, and said nothing. She's been sick, and you waited for her recovery — how she thanked you; and that winter you were all sick she paid you back with interest. She prefers you to the savings bank. She has known Master Charley from birth, and has nigh spoiled him; and that other one down in Greenwood she remembers, and surprises you by saying, "This is the 15th of May, the day he died." God bless you, good creature. She has wept in the doorway at three of your funerals; she has laughed in the doorway at two household marriages; and how she boasts of her cake. You leave everything in her hands and go on long journeys; you return and find all safe, and exclaim, "God bless her; she shall stay with us until she goes on that long, long journey." All this is possible. But it is only possible to those who carry Christ's rule everywhere, even the rule of this text. Brethren, let us treat all artizans, serving tradesmen, labourers, and workers as we wish Christ to treat us, till the time when He shall "call us no longer servants, but friends."
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1. When they require inconvenient things; for though the servant must obey, yet the master sins in requiring unequal things.
2. When they impose more work than they have strength to do.
3. When they turn them away when they are sick; for it is equal that as thou hast had their labour when they were well, so thou shouldest keep them when they are sick.
4. When they restrain them of liberty for their souls. If thou have the work of their bodies, it is equal that thou take care for their souls; and if they serve thee six days, it is very equal thou shouldest proclaim liberty to them to do God's work on the Sabbath day.
5. When they restrain and withhold their meat and wages.
6. When they send them out of their service empty, after many years' bondage, and not provide that they may have some means to live afterwards.
7. When they hear every word that men say of their servants (Ecclesiastes 7:23).
8. When they bring up their servants delicately (Proverbs 27:23).
9. When they leave the whole care of their earthly business to their servants, and fail to know the state of them for themselves (Proverbs 27:23).
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People
Archippus,
Aristarchus,
Barnabas,
Christians,
Colossians,
Demas,
Epaphras,
Justus,
Luke,
Marcus,
Mark,
Onesimus,
Paul,
TychicusPlaces
Colossae,
Hierapolis,
LaodiceaTopics
Bondmen, Conscious, Deal, Equal, Equitably, Fair, Fairly, Fairness, Grant, Heaven, Heavens, Justice, Justly, Master, Masters, Provide, Render, Righteous, Servants, Slaves, TreatOutline
1. He exhorts them to be fervent in prayer;5. to walk wisely toward those who are not yet come to the true knowledge of Christ.10. He salutes them, and wishes them all prosperity.Dictionary of Bible Themes
Colossians 4:1 1075 God, justice of
5361 justice, human
5404 masters
5501 reward, human
5522 servants, work conditions
5603 wages
5635 work, and redemption
7448 slavery, in NT
8242 ethics, personal
Library
Without and Within
'Them that are without.'--COL. iv. 5. That is, of course, an expression for the non-Christian world; the outsiders who are beyond the pale of the Church. There was a very broad line of distinction between it and the surrounding world in the early Christian days, and the handful of Christians in a heathen country felt a great gulf between them and the society in which they lived. That distinction varies in form, and varies somewhat in apparent magnitude according as Christianity has been rooted in …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy ScriptureThirtieth Day for the Holy Spirit with the Word of God
WHAT TO PRAY.--For the Holy Spirit with the Word of God "Our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance."--1 THESS. i. 5. "Those who preached unto you the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent forth from heaven."--1 PET. i. 12. What numbers of Bibles are being circulated. What numbers of sermons on the Bible are being preached. What numbers of Bibles are being read in home and school. How little blessing when it comes "in word" only; what …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession
Marcus, My Son
'... So doth Marcus, my son.'--1 Peter v. 13. The outlines of Mark's life, so far as recorded in Scripture, are familiar. He was the son of Mary, a woman of some wealth and position, as is implied by the fact that her house was large enough to accommodate the 'many' who were gathered together to pray for Peter's release. He was a relative, probably a cousin (Col. iv. 10, Revised Version), of Barnabas, and possibly, like him, a native of Cyprus. The designation of him by Peter as 'my son' naturally …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John
The Name Above Every Name
'Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.'--ACTS ii. 36. It is no part of my purpose at this time to consider the special circumstances under which these words were spoken, nor even to enter upon an exposition of their whole scope. I select them for one reason, the occurrence in them of the three names by which we designate our Saviour--Jesus, Lord, Christ. To us they are very little more than three proper …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts
Conflict and Comfort.
"For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; that their hearts may be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ."--COL. ii. 1, 2. Although he was in prison the Apostle was constantly at work for his Master, and not least of all at the work of prayer. If ever the words …
W. H. Griffith Thomas—The Prayers of St. Paul
Prayer and Fervency
"St. Teresa rose off her deathbed to finish her work. She inspected, with all her quickness of eye and love of order the whole of the house in which she had been carried to die. She saw everything put into its proper place, and every one answering to their proper order, after which she attended the divine offices of the day. She then went back to her bed, summoned her daughters around her . . . and, with the most penitential of David's penitential prayers upon her tongue, Teresa of Jesus went forth …
Edward M. Bounds—The Necessity of Prayer
Twenty-Eighth Day that all God's People May Know the Holy Spirit
WHAT TO PRAY.--That all God's People may know the Holy Spirit "The Spirit of truth, whom the world knoweth not; but ye know Him; for He abideth with you, and shall be in you."--JOHN xiv. 17. "Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost?"--1 COR. vi. 19. The Holy Spirit is the power of God for the salvation of men. He only works as He dwells in the Church. He is given to enable believers to live wholly as God would have them live, in the full experience and witness of Him who saves …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession
Author's Introduction,
In Which the Sources of This History Are Principally Treated A history of the "Origin of Christianity" ought to embrace all the obscure, and, if one might so speak, subterranean periods which extend from the first beginnings of this religion up to the moment when its existence became a public fact, notorious and evident to the eyes of all. Such a history would consist of four books. The first, which I now present to the public, treats of the particular fact which has served as the starting-point …
Ernest Renan—The Life of Jesus
We Shall not be Curious in the Ranking of the Duties in which Christian Love...
We shall not be curious in the ranking of the duties in which Christian love should exercise itself. All the commandments of the second table are but branches of it: they might be reduced all to the works of righteousness and of mercy. But truly these are interwoven through other. Though mercy uses to be restricted to the showing of compassion upon men in misery, yet there is a righteousness in that mercy, and there is mercy in the most part of the acts of righteousness, as in not judging rashly, …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning
From John Yeardley's Conversion to the Commencement of his Public Ministry.
1803--1815. John Yeardley was born on the 3rd of the First Month, 1786, at a small farm-house beside Orgreave Hall, in the valley of the Rother, four miles south of Rotherham. His parents, Joel and Frances Yeardley, farmed some land, chiefly pasture, and his mother is said to have been famous for her cream-cheeses, which she carried herself to Sheffield market. She was a pious and industrious woman; but, through the misconduct of her husband, was sometimes reduced to such straits as scarcely to have …
John Yeardley—Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the Gospel
"And Watch unto Prayer. "
1 Pet. iv. 7.--"And watch unto prayer." "Watch." A Christian should watch. A Christian is a watchman by office. This duty of watchfulness is frequently commanded and commended in scripture, Matt. xxiv. 42, Mark xiii. 33, 1 Cor. xvi. 13, Eph. vi. 18, 1 Pet. v. 8, Col. iv. 2; Luke xii. 37. David did wait as they that did watch for the morning light. The ministers of the gospel are styled watchmen in scripture and every Christian should be to himself as a minister is to his flock, he should watch over …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning
Epistle xxxii. To Anastasius, Presbyter .
To Anastasius, Presbyter [1714] . Gregory to Anastasius, &c. That a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things (Matth. xii. 35; Luke vi. 45), this thy Charity has shewn, both in thy habitual life and lately also in thy epistle; wherein I find two persons at issue with regard to virtues; that is to say, thyself contending for charity, and another for fear and humility. And, though occupied with many things, though ignorant of the Greek language, I have nevertheless sat …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great
Exhortations to Christians as they are Children of God
1 There is a bill of indictment against those who declare to the world they are not the children of God: all profane persons. These have damnation written upon their forehead. Scoffers at religion. It were blasphemy to call these the children of God. Will a true child jeer at his Father's picture? Drunkards, who drown reason and stupefy conscience. These declare their sin as Sodom. They are children indeed, but cursed children' (2 Peter 2:14). 2 Exhortation, which consists of two branches. (i) Let …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12
Mental Prayer.
"Pray without ceasing."--1 Thess. v. 17. There are two modes of praying mentioned in Scripture; the one is prayer at set times and places, and in set forms; the other is what the text speaks of,--continual or habitual prayer. The former of these is what is commonly called prayer, whether it be public or private. The other kind of praying may also be called holding communion with God, or living in God's sight, and this may be done all through the day, wherever we are, and is commanded us as the …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII
Meditations of the True Manner of Practising Piety on the Sabbath-Day.
Almighty God will have himself worshipped, not only in a private manner by private persons and families, but also in a more public sort, of all the godly joined together in a visible church; that by this means he may be known not only to be the God and Lord of every Singular person, but also of the creatures of the whole universal world. Question--But why do not we Christians under the New, keep the Sabbath on the same seventh day on which it was kept under the Old Testament? I answer--Because our …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety
How the Gospels came to be Written
[Illustration: (drop cap B) Early Christian Lamp] But how did the story of the Saviour's life on earth come to be written? We have seen that many years passed before any one thought of writing it down at all. The men and women who had really seen Him, who had listened to His voice, looked into His face, and who knew that He had conquered death and sin for evermore, could not sit down to write, for their hearts were all on fire to speak. But as the years passed, the number of those who had seen Christ …
Mildred Duff—The Bible in its Making
Of the Words Themselves in General.
We come now to the words themselves, wherein Christ asserts that he is, 1, "the way;" 2, "the truth;" 3, "the life;" and, 4, "that no man cometh to the Father but by him." In them we learn these two things in general. First, The misery of wretched man by nature. This cannot be in a few words expressed. These words will point out those particulars thereof, which we will but mention. 1. That he is born an enemy to, and living at a distance from God, by virtue of the curse of the broken covenant of …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life
Gen. xxxi. 11
Of no less importance and significance is the passage Gen. xxxi. 11 seq. According to ver. 11, the Angel of God, [Hebrew: mlaK halhiM] appears toJacob in a dream. In ver. 13, the same person calls himself the God of Bethel, with reference to the event recorded in chap. xxviii. 11-22. It cannot be supposed that in chap xxviii. the mediation of a common angel took place, who, however, had not been expressly mentioned; for Jehovah is there contrasted with the angels. In ver. 12, we read: "And behold …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament
"Be Ye Therefore Sober, and Watch unto Prayer. "
1 Pet. iv. 7.--"Be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer." We now come to consider the coherence and connexion these duties have one to another. First, Prayer is the principal part of the Christian's employment, and sobriety and watchfulness are subordinate to it. "Be sober, and watch unto prayer." (1.) Prayer is such a tender thing that there is necessity of dieting the spirit unto it. That prayer may be in good health, a man must keep a diet and be sober, sobriety conduces so much to its …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning
The Parables Exemplified in the Early History of the Church.
"To Him shall prayer unceasing And daily vows ascend; His Kingdom still increasing, A Kingdom without end." We have seen that our Lord described in His Parables the general character and nature of "The Kingdom of Heaven." Consequently, if the Church established by the Apostles under the guidance of the Holy Ghost is "The Kingdom of Heaven," it will necessarily be found to agree with the description thus given. Let us therefore now consider how far the history of the Church, in the Acts of the Apostles …
Edward Burbidge—The Kingdom of Heaven; What is it?
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