Main Idea || All “new human” employees & employers will serve each other in the same manner & attitude they would serve God. In Jesus, every human being, in any authoritative or subordinate role or relationship, has equal dignity, value and importance. Our new humanity transforms our everyday . 5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. 6 Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. 7 Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. 8 Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do, whether we are slaves or free. We tend to approach our jobs as either resentful or . Colossians 3:17 (NLT) 17And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. Jesus is our true & better SLAVE who served Himself to death, was a slave to the perfect will of His Father and received no earthly wage or compensation in return for his work of suffering. His obedience was only publicly rewarded with a shameful death. 9 Masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Don’t threaten them; remember, you both have the same Master in heaven, and he has no favorites. We tend to motivate subordinates with either threats or . Colossians 3:11 (NLT) 11 In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us. Mark 10:42–43,45 (NLT) Jesus is our true & better MASTER and King of all the Universe who chose to become a slave to set humans free from spiritual slavery, to call his disciples a “friend of God” & wash their smelly/dirty feet, to accept our best effort while overlooking our inadequacies, to demand our work of perfect obedience knowing we’d fail and he’d willingly do it himself in our place. How should we fight against the evil that’s damaging human lives? Ephesians 6:10–20 (NLT) 10 A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. 12 For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. CONTINUING THE CONVERSATION: 1. This passage in Ephesians neither condones nor condemns the dehumanizing cultural system of slavery. Does that bother you? (Why or why not?) 2. We who belong to Jesus are to do our jobs with excellence and work with all our hearts & with contrasting attitudes — not as resentful people-pleasers, but as representatives of Jesus who’s rewarded in a future heaven. Would you consider this instruction difficult to execute in your line of work? 3. Have you ever had an authority figure (employer?) who motivated you with sincere respect instead of making threats? What was that (or would be) like? 4. Of all of these descriptions of what our Jesus has done, what’s your favorite? JESUS is our true & better Master and King of all the Universe. He chose to become a slave to set humans free from spitritual slavery to call his disciples a “friend of God” & wash their smelly/dirty feet to accept our best effort while overlooking our inadequacies to demand our work of perfect obedience, knowing we’d fail, and willingly do it himself in our place. 5. How might this passage help you translate & transform all the evil in this world that’s damaging human lives? 12 For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.