Counting Masters Worthy of Honor - 1 Timothy 6:1-2

There are times when where we find ourselves in the cultural

moment line up with where we find ourselves in our journey

through the Bible. And, and this is in, in a way,

one of those times. For if you're joining us for the

first time, and just to remind you, we've been going through

this letter that Paul wrote to Timothy to give him the picture

of a trustworthy church. And for the last few weeks,

we've been looking at this section where Paul is

instructing Timothy how people are to honor one one another in

the church and all the different categories of honor.

And So what a what a great day as we take another look at the

call to honor one another, to just honor this incredible role

of mothers in our lives and in our church.

And so thank you for that. Before we get into the new

category of honor, let me start with a popular phrase.

You may have heard it in our culture.

It's simply there are levels to this.

Here's the Urban Dictionary definition.

It's a phrase used to humble someone by highlighting a

disparity in skill and difficulty.

I heard this phrase on the Joe Rogan podcast.

Maybe you heard it when he said, you know, you think you're good

at jiu jitsu until you roll with a world class black belt and you

realize there are levels to this.

Mastery takes a long time and some of you probably feel that

even on a day like today, the world does not pause to say

thank you to mothers. Being a mother is very

challenging. Maybe you felt the level up

happen when you went from, you know, the day where you aspired

to be a mom. And now the newborn has come and

you realize, well, there's levels to being a mom.

And then the second child comes and you realize, wow, I'm, I'm

actually getting more stretched than I did the first time.

And it's true in other areas of your life where you go through

seasons and you finally feel like you figured it out.

And then the new season comes, you go from high school to

college and you have to level up.

You go from college to to now working and having someone to

answer to. And you have to realize, once

again, there are levels. And this is worth pointing out

because it's always true of the call to discipleship in your

life. There will be levels at which

you enter and there will be levels at which you grow.

And we think even today, the it's not hard for me as a pastor

to encourage all of you to show some honor and love to your

mother. But you're going to need some

Christian maturity to continue down the road of discipleship,

to love your enemy, to honor and pray for them.

And before we get into the word, let us just consider where we've

come from in the exhortation to be a church that has a culture

of honor. Our very first sermon in in this

series, within the series honoring one another was the the

call to honor widows. And I have to say, I did not get

any pushback from anyone in our church giving a message to say,

let us honor and care for the most vulnerable people among us.

It's comes from a heart of compassion that all of us at

least accept is clearly part of pure and undefiled religion.

But then last week, Pastor Matt Cochran took it up a level and

he did a great job. By the way, thank you for all

the encouragement and listening ears.

He he is able to teach. Amen.

But he said, not only do you have to honor the widows, you

also have to honor the leaders, the pastors.

And that can for some be a stretch, a challenge, because

often times and more true of leaders than than than widows,

you can have open wounds from bad leadership, pastors who were

not good elders who did not shepherd wisely.

And so that needs to be addressed and healed.

But for the, for the most part, if you just take a little time

and you think about it, it's not hard to think about the pastors

or elders or leaders of the church that are poured into your

life and preach the sermons and think, yes, I, I have a heart of

gratitude for that. I'm thankful and it's happy

Pastors appreciation moment. And then there is the level we

find ourselves at today, read with me in First Timothy chapter

1 Timothy 6 · chapter mention

6, starting in verse one. It says let as many bond

servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy

of all honor. This would be considered the

next level of honor, the one that does not come flowing from

an instinct of compassion or gratitude.

Discipleship becomes real when it actually pushes you to places

you otherwise would not go. And when Paul says now to the

enslaved, to the servant, to the ones who are the lowest on the

on the ladder of hierarchy, you need to show honor up and and

count them worthy of honor. That's going to require some

discipleship. And before we get into the why

this is important and how it actually works, let's start by

just addressing the question that comes up hopefully in your

mind and especially in the mind of the critic of the Bible when

they come to a passage of scripture like this.

And they say, does the Bible condone slavery?

At first read, it seems like Paul is looking past a moral

atrocity or or maybe worse, even giving a quiet endorsement of

it. And so for that reason we pause

and like we have done throughout this letter from Paul to Timothy

in this time 1st century church, we remember that this is a real

place in a real moment of history with a real context.

And the context as you study what Paul is speaking to is very

different than what might be in your mind for the recent history

of how the word slavery is used. Slavery, bond, servant servitude

in the Roman Empire was everywhere present.

It it was just common. It was considered taken for

granted that somewhere in the the labor force there would be

people who would be considered servants of the household.

Some estimations say that that number is anywhere from 15 to

20%. One in five people would listen

to this message and think this applies to me.

But it's less almost nothing to do with a hierarchy of of race

and it's more to do with the the social fabric of the day.

Considering how someone found themselves in the position of

servant in this day. There was all sorts of ways that

that were the safety net of society.

Some of them were in debtors prison.

There was no Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The luxuries we have today to not fall under indentured

servitude, but back then, if you owed someone a debt, you had to

pay it and you had to pay it by working it off if you had no

other means. There was also voluntary

servitude for those who wanted to gain citizenship or had no

other way to, to form a household that they could work

in. They could offer themselves as a

servant and from that they would be considered bond servants to

the household that they've partnered with.

There was also just the family you were born into.

If you were born into a family in one of those categories, it

was assumed that you were going to join them in their work.

And every one of them, from the children to the, to the

indentured servant to the the person who's paying off that

there was always a legal path to freedom that someone could be

granted. So it was different than what

you're thinking now. It's still not right.

It's still not God's perfect design for how he wants to see

humanity flourishing, still grieved his heart.

And so for that we can ask the question, why didn't Paul work

towards radical reform? Why didn't Paul write to

Timothy? Timothy, your first order of

business is to get on the rooftop and shout in slavery now

and the answer is found in the advice.

He says it starts with the relationship between the slave

and the master. The Kingdom of God works from

the inside out, which gives us the most simple answer when

these questions arise. It didn't happen then, it would

happen eventually because the Kingdom of God doesn't work that

way. Look what Jesus says of his

Kingdom, my Kingdom, John chapter 18 verse 36.

John 18:36

My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this

world, my servants would fight. But much to the disappointment

of the disciples that sat under the teaching of Jesus post

resurrection when they wanted Jesus to reform the whole system

and overthrow the Roman Empire and restore the glory of King

David, Jesus did not come to start a political movement.

The real enemy this is good for all of us to remember was not

Caesar, It was sin. And that's why we celebrate the

resurrection when the final enemy, sin and death is

conquered. And upon his resurrection, he

started a movement that would eventually, from the inside out,

transform everything else. But God brings reform to the

heart of the Christian before the law of the culture.

And hold that hold that because your life will follow a similar

pattern. Becoming a believer in Jesus

does not reform your entire world.

There are moral atrocities that all of us have to live with.

Consumerism and greed and the filth of this sin soaked world

will still exist after your baptism.

But God will use a new light in the darkness to transform it

from the inside out. And that is what he is going to

do with the idea of slavery. And so for that reason, we now

understand that Paul is writing to Timothy to bring

transformation into relationship, not reform into

the government. It'll eventually get there

because of the believers, but it works like a mustard seed.

So with this said, we have to ask the question now, follow a

question. What does that do for us?

Now there's a temptation to read a verse about slaves and masters

and export it in your mind to an ancient time or a distant part

of the world where this still matters.

So let's read it again. And now we're going to ask the

question, what do we do with this?

How does this verse apply to this sanctuary?

So again, read it with me. Let as many bond servants as are

under the yoke. Count the masters worthy of all

honor. So hold on to that phrase.

Under the yoke. It's going to do 2 things for

US1 It is pointing out a literal condition that some of these

workers are going to be able to relate to the yoke being the

tool of agriculture that you would put on the shoulders of an

oxen or man to get work done. But certainly he's not only

speaking to those who could relate literally.

It's very few. What the yoke represents is the

weight of the authority structure and all of us right

now can relate to the reality that the Kingdom of God lives

within authority hierarchy on this earth.

All of you have someone that you live under that you will answer

to and represent the person of God in your response.

We'll cover a couple categories and hopefully you can relate to

some, if not all, at one point in your life.

Children are under the yoke of their parents.

That's a reminder as a gift to the mothers in the audience.

They're like, remember what he said.

They're under the yoke of your rules and your guidance and your

bedtimes and your food. And they can listen to this and,

and hear how do you respond under authority.

Students are under the yoke of a teacher, under the yoke of what

to learn and and what will be on the exam and how you actually

pass according to their rubric of grading.

Employees are under the yoke within the context of their work

environment, of the demands of their employer or their boss, of

their or their manager. And in all of this, we have a

beautiful way for us to represent what a disciple of

Christ looks like. I've heard it said the

discipleship accomplishes 2 things in your life that will

set you apart. You will be an outstanding

neighbor and an upstanding citizen.

So believers in Jesus, wherever they live are incredible self

sacrificing, loving neighbors. And there are people that live

within their society in an upstanding way.

And there's no greater way to practice the second part by

looking the authority that exists over you and says I will

be a person who honors up. And so we consider the list that

I shared and let's use this as a Mother's Day call back.

Here's your entry level practice for honoring authority.

Every child is born under the authority of a mother and

father. And today we celebrate the

reality that God has given us all a free bingo square.

The first person that you are under the authority of is the

most incredible, loving and kind and patient and self sacrificing

person in the person of your mother that God could have given

you as a starter pack. So when you came today, you

practice this in a little way. Some of you, no doubt I meant

some first service. I'm sure they're here some

today. You are only here today because

the one thing that your mom wanted from you as her gift was

that you would sit next to her in church and you would honor

her by joining her. And let me just say, if you

don't come to church often, you probably don't like religion.

So let me warn you, you're getting close to religion.

If the only thing you do today is sit next to your mom and take

a picture at the flower wall and then brush off the dust of your

hands and get get on with your actual life.

You are a religious, dutiful person who has no devotion.

The actual thing she wants is for you to honor her and love

her with your whole life. And how do you do that?

You realize some of you still in this context, that she is an

authority figure in your life for your child childhood.

She you look at her and she has instruction for you.

And one of the great ways you can celebrate her beyond today

is to say, yes, mom. In fact, that's one of the

things I actually have a daughter that wasn't planned,

but my one of my daughter's came today.

So I hope that you'll hear this. I'm going to speak just to you.

One of the things that I want all of my kids to be very

disciplined in is when their mom asked them anything or tells

them anything, I want their response to be yes, mom.

Now we live in a culture where, you know, I think just respect

is somewhat of a dying virtue. So I do that to practice what I

think is just good and honorable behavior.

But I also do that because their mother and their father are

training them for a real world of honor up every Yes Mom is

designed to give credit to the mom in the moment and also

prepare you for a real world where you're higher ups will not

be so loving and gracious. So yes, mom is actually training

for Yes coach, Yes, boss, in a in a situation hear this yes,

officer, make sure you say that one.

And if you give you don't say it right, practice with yes, your

honor. And ultimately, all of these are

practice and and overflows of the heart of the believer that

at the core of all of them say, yes, Lord, there's no greater

honor that you can pay your mother than by becoming a child

who grows up to be an adult that says, yes, Lord, I honor you.

And this is where we go from applying this to our sanctuary,

not just in the hierarchy of our current culture.

This is where Paul goes from speaking to slaves to speaking

to disciples. Read it again.

Let as many bond servants as are under the yoke.

Hold on to that phrase, the yoke.

There are 4 great metaphors of the Christian faith for us to

know and relate to the love of God, so we would quickly review

them. There is the love of a father

towards a child. You want to know how much God

loves you. Think of a loving father loving

a child, a son or daughter and he loves you.

More than that. There is the care of a shepherd

to a sheep. You want to know how God cares

for your life? Think of a shepherd who will

leave 99 sheep who are well and go fight off lions and bears to

go after the one who has lost and bring him home with great

rejoicing that he's been found. So God cares for you as a

bridegroom and a bride. You want to know with what

expectation we await heaven or the return of Christ?

Well, you think about the ancient culture a bridegroom

goes off to to prepare a place for his bride to come and enter

into. Now they're married and they're

going to live together and he's going to come back when the

house is finished and he's going to marry his bride and he's

going to take her home. That is the expectation.

You want to know how to relate to what we're waiting for.

Relate to that. And then there is the 4th great

metaphor, and it is often forgotten or it is purposely

avoided and it is master and bondservant.

When Paul uses the phrase bondservants as are under the

yoke, he is not only speaking to the bottom of the social class

that could relate to that according to their physical

labor. He is also perfectly echoing

Christ call for disciples me read it to you Matthew Chapter

Matthew 11:28

11 verse 28. Jesus says to disciples, come to

me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you

rest. Here it is.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and

lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

In case you missed it, He finishes by saying, For my yoke

is easy and my burden is light. No doubt you've heard this

verse. We love the part about anyone,

everyone who is burdened with life, who is heavy laden with

trial. Come and receive rest from

Jesus. It's a beautiful invitation, but

all too often we stopped reading at where the exchange happens.

You're exchanging the heavy burdens of the world for the

light burden of following Jesus with now ownership on your life.

Christianity can easily be sold as an upgrade to your lifestyle,

and God is a counselor or a therapist or someone who will

give you advice or a cosmic vending machine in the sky.

And you consult Him on the plans that you have for your life, and

he gives you your best life now, and you come back if you ever

need him. And that's why it's so important

for us to realize what this final metaphor is saying.

There are levels to the metaphors.

They're saying you have been bought with a price.

You are not your own. Following Jesus and accepting

Him into your life is not to make you an earthly ruler, it is

to make you a heavenly servant. And without Jesus in view this

verse becomes for someone else. And without the gospel in view,

this verse is something you do by grip, gripping your knuckles

and clenching your teeth. But with with the view of the

cross that Jesus is inviting us to exchange the burden of the

world for the joyful burden of his Kingdom.

We actually see the gospel and it is this Roman says we were

once slaves to sin and now we are slaves to righteousness.

We once were owned by sin. Selfish desires change that we

could not break. Why do I do what I don't want to

do? Why do I keep returning to

things that make me feel guilty and shameful and distant from

God and people? And then the gospel breaks

through and says, there is a loving God who will give you a

new life by His Spirit. And when you accept that free

gift, you are no longer chained to sin.

You're now chained to Him. Yes, Lord, send me where you

want. Tell me what to do with my life.

Reform my heart. So bitterness gets exchanged

with forgiveness so that my plans get exchanged with your

plans. And this is the reason with your

discipleship in mind where we get to the why this is so

important. Paul gives the answer in the

second part of verse one. Let as many bond servants that

are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor,

so that where there's a rule, there's a reason.

So that the name of God and his doctrine may not be blasphemed.

You bear the name of God. This is actually incredible news

in the context that Paul was writing to.

Remember he is writing two slaves and in the Roman Empire

the slave had zero influence. 0 Ability to move the culture.

There was no expectation putting on them that the way they live

mattered to the people around them.

They got their duties from their master, and that was their

life's mission. But now Paul is saying in the

Kingdom of God, the slave who believes in Jesus is entrusted

with the name above all names. He's gone from a nobody to an

ambassador, and how he lives will affect how others who live

around him see God. Are you familiar with this call

on your life that the way you live determines the way those

who live around you? See God.

Student, athlete to coach, worker to boss.

The name of God is now attached to you.

Let's think this through in terms of a parable.

Jesus often told a parable. So I, I came up with a, a modern

parable for us to understand this.

I call it the parable of the dis dis disrespectful worker.

And I want you to imagine there is a growing and thriving lawn

care business. It's going so well.

They've gone through it from a couple lawns to now not one man

can mow it by himself and he has to start hiring people.

We're going to have some physical labor that he needs

help with. And so he puts out word and he

gets word back that someone is ready to make some extra money.

And so he hires them, invites him into the work at hand.

And the person shows up late, unenthused.

They lean on the, the, the shovel more than they actually

get any work done. As they receive instruction,

they roll their eyes. They disagree with the, the

ideas and the ways that the, the job is going to unfold.

They actually make the, the workplace harder, not easier.

And then they instead of giving it a full day, they come up with

a reason that they have to leave early.

And so they they, they leave the tools a mess.

They clock off for the day, say goodbye to the man that just

hired him and walk out to the parking lot and get inside of a

truck. And on the back in big

lettering, there's a sticker that says Rock Harbor.

And the person sits backs and thinks, my goodness, what do

they teach over there? Now this could happen to any

church. The only reason I use them as

examples because we don't have stickers.

Otherwise I would I would have said Calvary Boise.

But they're they're they're risking it all over there and I

love Keith. So so this is by no means them.

It happens in every area. What just happened.

The person may know nothing about Jesus, but what he saw

from a Jesus follower has caused him to discredit God's

character. Blasphemy is when someone,

something, drags the name of God through the mud by their poor

character and that is what is at stake here.

We've got a baptism after service.

It's been announced. What a beautiful reminder pre

baptism and a beautiful reminder for anyone who's been baptized.

To go into the baptismal waters is to identify with the life of

Christ and to come out is to declare to the world that you

now bear His name. You are now living as a light in

the dark. A disciple of Christ lives like

you live, and the danger is that your life would actually become

a counter testimony of who Jesus is.

The way that you live in the hierarchy ladder ladder is

actually how disciples live in that ladder.

And Paul says you bear the name. Every person who has put their

faith in Christ is an ambassador to Christ.

Show honor. So no one disrespects God.

And then he says there's another reason, so that the name of God

and his doctrine may not be blasphemed.

So we have for the sake of the name and for the sake of the

doctrine, not only do you bear the name of God, you also bear

the message of God. Your life is actually an

overflow of your theology, your doctrine, what you say, what you

believe is actually clearly seen in how you actually live.

And what a great follow up reminder for what we talked

about on Easter Sunday. We celebrated the resurrection.

He has risen. He's risen indeed.

But before we did our final moment of worship, we asked the

question, what if he hasn't risen?

If Christ has not risen, then our teaching is in vain.

This whole thing only works. The slave can only show a hope

that goes beyond the current sufferings if the resurrection

has actually happened. Which means that the slave has

to have solid doctrine. How the slave lives with hope in

his heart is how the slave proclaims the doctrine of

eternity. Paul says that the weight of

glory far outweighs the weight of the current sufferings.

The weight of glory far outweighs the weight of the yoke

on the shoulders of the slave. And wherever you live, if you

don't believe that, or if you believe it but don't live it,

your life will actually say as you grumble and think, I don't

like my circumstances. I don't like my boss, I don't

like my landlord. I will give them no respect.

I will give them no honor. All I want is for this

circumstance to be worked out. You're actually denying the hope

that fuels the Christian life, how you respond to suffering and

trial and difficulty and the weight of this world preaches a

message about what you believe in the next World.

So Paul says you're a disciple. Get this right for the name of

God and for the truth of doctrine.

Finally, we'll end with a couple of ideas on how to do this.

What does this practically look like in verse 2, he says, and

those who have believing masters, let them not despise

them because they are brethren, but rather serve them because

those who are benefited are believers and beloved.

Teach and exhort these things. Couple principles just to think

about as you survey your own life and wonder what it would

look like to show honor to the people above you.

Here are some things that Paul lays out for Timothy.

He says, those who have believing masters, let them not

be despised. There is a natural tendency in

the human heart to do something outwardly and despise it

inwardly. Have you ever noticed that,

mothers, can you relate to the instructions you sometimes have

to give to your kids? There is a way to obey outwardly

and grumble, grumble inwardly. There is a temptation that a

servant serving a master, he, he might listen to this word, but

actually want to just in everything in him, deny it.

This is what Jesus calls honoring with lips and having

hearts that are far. So Paul says there is no honor

where you despise someone, which means something else has to come

into your life as the motivation.

It cannot be duty, otherwise it will just turn into resentment.

And so here is that motivation. He says.

Why? Because they are brethren and

they're believers, and when you serve them, they benefit.

So here is another helpful principle.

Christian honor will work gladly for the benefit of others in the

Kingdom. You think about all the ways

that we are called to honor and serve one another.

One principle has to be in mind. When you honor and serve people,

no matter their rank or file, you are actually honoring and

serving the King. Christian honor works for the

benefit of others. Remember their brethren,

remember their believers, Remember your work benefits

them. And so this will be my second to

last Mother's Day recall. I know when I was young one of

the the gifts that my mom would ask for every year was for her

kids to just get along. I see some mothers nodding their

heads. It took me a while to give her

that gift, but I think we're I think we're coming to a place

where we can honor her in that way.

Mothers are not unique in that desire.

There's no greater joy for the one that overseas the household

than when the household is honoring one another and loving

one another. So once again, kids, if you're

here sitting next to your mom as a gift to her, honor her by

loving your siblings, whether they're older or younger.

Wherever you land in the hierarchy ladder, show, honor up

and show service down. And you will be doing that to

honor your mother Believers. Show honor to the coach and the

teacher and the landlord that is part of the brethren.

And in doing that, when you honor those people, you are

actually honoring God. To honor in the Kingdom is to

honor the king. And then finally, he says for

one last reason, and their beloved Paul is just taking for

granted that a slave and a master who are both part of the

Kingdom of God are part of the beloved.

This one word changes everything about the Christian call to

serve one another, from religious duty to heartfelt

devotion, that we are the beloved, You are the beloved of

God, and every one of us are the beloved of one another.

And so he's saying, servant, honor your masters because you

love them. This whole thing falls apart.

Every one of our little sermons on honoring within the church

breaks down at this word. You cannot honor widows if you

do not love them. You cannot honor the leaders and

the elders of the church just out of duty, and you will not

honor anyone above you unless God's love has been shed abroad

into your heart and you are motivated by His love for them.

So the final Mother's Day moment, a picture of how all of

this works when a person is within the aim of your love,

serving them becomes an instinct.

And so for that I say to mothers, thank you, because this

point is clearly seen in every one of you.

A mother is the servant of her child from the day she finds out

she's pregnant and serves them for nine months, giving up her

body. And then she serves them the day

that they were born in the greatest pain a human can go

through. And then she serves them with

her sleep and her emotion and her prayers.

And she serves them when she feeds them and she changes their

diapers and when she helps them with their homework.

She serves them because she loves them, because the child is

her beloved. And with that picture in mind,

this is how the church has to serve, because they are the

beloved. And as we end, it's almost

backwards to think about Mother's Day and instead of

looking up at mothers, we actually see that mothers are

the servants. But this is how it all starts,

because your call to discipleship does not start with

Jesus putting a yoke on you, it starts with Jesus putting the

yoke on himself. Jesus came.

I did not said I did not come to serve to be served, but to serve

and to give my life a ransom for many.

Paul echoes this in Philippians when he says, have this mind in

you, which was also in Christ, who became a bondservant, a

slave to the point of death, even death on a cross.

So all of this is a response to the God of eternity that so

loved us that he sent his Son to die for us as he honored his

Father. So here is the picture.

To become a believer is to say of your own life.

I did not come to be served, but to serve.

I did not come to Lord, but to lay down my life.

My Master is worthy of all honor, and to Christ receive all

glory for any way that our life could bless someone else.