Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. + Titus 2v9-10
The first obvious word that we notice in our text is the word “Bondservants.” This is contextually who Paul is addressing at the Church in Crete – all of those converts in the church who are bondservants. Some translations may just say “servants” or “slaves”, even. So let’s first tackle what is meant here. When Paul uses this word – the word in the Greek is “doulos” – that we translate into either “bondservant,” “servant,” or “slave” – It could mean or imply several different things. This word covers a wide range of possibilities for what is meant by “bondservant.”
In the Roman Empire during New Testament times there were different forms of servanthood and slavery-like institutions. When we think of slavery we often think of modern slavery that America went through in the 1700 and 1800s predominately. This isn’t necessarily quite that. Some were more dignified jobs of servanthood – a little bit less than employment. There was also forms of slavery in the Roman Empire that were indeed very degrading to people. Some slaves were seen as the property of their owners and had little to no civil liberties. So it’s a wider range of more dignified servants to actual ownership of slaves that Paul is addressing here.
Now of course, just because Scripture addresses slaves, does not mean that it condones humans owning other humans. Absolutely not. Abolitionists in church history such as Charles Spurgeon, John Newton, and William Wilberforce were spot on in their convictions to fight against the evils of slavery. Paul himself, says in 1 Corinthians 7v21, “Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.)” So this is not a condoning of slavery here in Titus, and we don’t need to be worried about that. It’s similar to polygamy in Scripture. Just because it is present in Scripture, does not mean Scripture condones it. So this Scripture in Titus is addressing those slaves who have become Christians and are stuck in slavery, whether by contract or by force, and they have no real options or possibilities to escape it.
Paul is actually very likely addressing specific questions 1st century slaves would have had, such as, “If I am now freed to be a slave to Christ, how can I still serve my earthly master?” And Paul is saying, “Being enslaved, does not disable you from serving Christ, you can serve Christ in your servanthood by the way you work and conduct yourself.”
While there are still different forms of slavery around the world today, the time and place that we live is one of the most free societies that have ever existed in human history. Even though the government keeps nudging its way more and more into our lives, we are still so very free relative to most of world history. So this idea of slavery is very foreign to us – and praise God for that. We long for the freedom of all men, women, and children everywhere. So when we come to passages that address slaves, how does this apply to us today, who are not slaves? What does this have to do with us? While Paul is addressing slaves specifically, he is addressing more generally those who work for someone else. And many of us today, work for someone else. We are under someone else’s authority in our jobs.
I am certainly not equating voluntary employment to forced slave labor, but the principles here of working for or under another person 100% apply to the way we conduct ourselves in our jobs today. If these principles apply to those in 1st century servitude, how much more do they apply to us who voluntarily work for someone? Much more. So as we work through this passage, I want to draw these principles out and show how they apply to us as workers and employees today. I want us to see how the gospel effects our work.
So the first thing that we see in our text is that workers are to be submissive to their own master in everything. Now since we aren’t slaves and don’t have masters, we can extend this principle to our bosses, our business owners, and the managers over us.
Now it isn’t explicitly said in this particular text, but the whole of Scripture would testify to the Christian ethic of being submissive to our bosses, so long as they do not call us to sin. So Paul doesn’t mean “everything, no matter what it is, even if it is sin.” Scripture does not call us to submit to our bosses if they are telling us to make some kind of shady deal, participate in some kind of illegal activity, commit tax fraud, or something of that nature. So the command is that we are to submit to our bosses in everything, in the Lord.
Now, this idea of submitting to our bosses, may come very easy to some of us who have great bosses that we work for. Praise God for that. But where the rubber really meets the road is when you have a boss that is not easy to work for. What do you do when you have a boss that you have serious personality conflicts with, or one whom you constantly disagree with on managing styles or business strategies, or one whom is just a flat out jerk to you? What do you do then? Scripture tells us to submit to them. This Scripture is here for us precisely because many times, it is truly difficult to be submissive to those over us.
Submission is contrary to our sin nature. It is not an easy thing. Our first sin, by Adam in the garden, was, among other things, a rebellion against the rightful authority in his life. It was a failure to submit to the direct and good instructions of a good God. The most wonderful being to submit to in all the universe, God Himself, we, as humans, rebel against his authority the most! Everything God does and commands is good and wonderful to submit to. And yet, our greatest area of rebellion to authority is toward the most glorious and good God. If it is difficult for us to submit to the goodness of a loving God, how much more difficult is it for us to submit to a difficult boss? This will be hard at times.
So if we can’t even be rightly submitted to the most wonderful of beings to submit to – God – how in the world are we supposed to submit to imperfect and difficult bosses? The answer lies in the gospel. As the theme of Titus goes, the gospel is the power of God to save and to train us up into godliness and obedience to the Lord’s commands in Scripture.
As Scripture unfolds from man’s first rebellion in the garden, mass anarchy against the good and holy Creator ensues for generations upon generations. Humans have become the ultimate rebels of the universe. Then as Scripture and time continues to unfold, the very good and gracious God whom we rebelled against comes down to walk among us. As His feet tread the earth that was created by His word and that He holds in his hands, He displayed the reality that all authority in heaven and on earth had been given to Him, the Son of God. He performed many signs and wonders, such as that even the wind and the waves obeyed Him and bowed to His authority. He performed miracles such that paralytic legs obeyed His command to get up and walk. He exercised such authority that even a dead body did not hesitate to submit to the command to “come forth!” And yet, mankind has the audacity to rebel against His unmatched authority and power. In exercising perfect submission that we fail to exercise the Son was submissive to the good will of the Father, even to the point of being delivered unto to death at the hands of the rebels. Christ was the submissive one – but the submissive one is also the all-authoritative one – as death itself submitted to His authority and He got up out of the grave and walked! After His ascension to the right hand of the Father, the Holy Spirit descends down to all those for whom Christ died and begins to apply Christ’s work to us – thus enabling us to walk in obedience and submission to the one to whom we once rebelled against.
When we find our story in God’s story we find the answer to how in the world we can become able to be submissive to our difficult bosses. Jesus’ success is traded to us for our failures; and the Spirit of Christ enables us to walk in obedience in light of the life, work, and nature of Christ.
There is our keys to the car. There is our power to obey. So let’s now walk through what exactly submitting to our bosses looks like.
So Paul tells us to submit, but then he goes on to explain the specific principles of what that entails. He says, “…they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith…” So Paul gives us two things not to do and two things to do. The positive and the negative commands here correspond with one another. The first thing is that we are to be “well-pleasing” – positively be that. That contrasts with what follows – “not argumentative” – we are to negatively, not be that. They are sort of like opposite commands here – or they are the inverse of each other. Now there are a lot of things that I love about that.
Many people think that the Bible is just a big list of negative things that we can’t do. People think it’s just a big rule book of “to-don’ts.” How far from the truth that is. And how joy-evaporating that view is. There certainly are things that the Bible prohibits us from doing – we can see that clearly. But for almost every negative command in the Bible – there is a corresponding positive command that we are to do. And we see that exemplified in this passage. The Bible doesn’t just tell us a bunch of things not to do and then leaves us hanging to figure out the rest. The Christian life is not just like walking through a minefield – walking tentatively on egg-shells trying to not step on a bomb and set it off. That’s not the Christian life. The Christian life is so much better than that. We are told to put on Christ – and with our new-nature desires that the Spirit creates in us we love to put on Christ and put on the commands and the positive instructions that He has given us in His Word.
So we are to be “well-pleasing.” The fact that the command to “not be argumentative” is the opposite of this, gives us a better understanding of what is meant here. This can’t mean that we are to be “boss-pleasers” or “kiss-ups.” Some bosses are impossible to please no matter how great of an employee you may be. And it is wrong to fakely flatter someone. We can’t control their response to our work. But our work and our attitude can be such that is deserving of that.
These two commands – “be well-pleasing” – and – “Not argumentative” – are both things that have to do with the attitude of a Christian worker. We’re not to have an argumentative attitude – even when we completely disagree with business strategy – we are to do what is pleasing to our bosses. This doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to go along with everything and never raise concerns or suggestions. That depends very much on what your position is and the expectations therein. Some of us may have positions that expect us to contribute more to the ideas side of the business – and in such a case we are to do so in a non-argumentative way. We are to do so in a way that is well-pleasing to our boss – one that shows a care for the business and the work – and not out of an attitude of self-righteousness or laziness.
So this is the demeanor of the Christian worker at work. It may very well be difficult at times to have this type of Christ-like, gospel-formed attitude in the grind of the work-week, or in the heat of the job. In those stressful and intense moments of work, we can often see the depravity of the human attitude come out. As we’ve noted, Scripture tells us negatively what not do to, positively what to do, and the gospel of Jesus gives us the power to do. For those of us who may struggle with our attitudes towards our bosses and our work demeanor, we have a gospel that changes and reshapes our attitude.
Ecclesiastes is a book of wisdom that is filled with expressions of vanity. It brings out repeatedly the vanity and the meaninglessness of life apart from Christ. And different portions of Ecclesiastes talks about how all of our work and toil under the sun is vanity. It can be easy to realize this and become negative and depressive about the vain toil of our work. But the gospel can change that attitude toward our work. At the end of Ecclesiastes chapter 5 in verse 20 it says, “For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.” What a beautiful thing that is. What a radical way this changes our attitudes toward toilsome work. “For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.” This is kind of like the saying, “Time flies when you’re having fun.” When we’re having a good time, we look up and can’t remember where all the time went. That’s the sense I get here. The Lord can so fill our hearts with joy and happiness that we look up and can’t remember where all those days of toilsome labor went. That’s a hope I can hold on to. That’s a hope a Christian can hold to. The gospel changes our demeanor because God occupies our hearts with joy.
This means our hearts don’t have to be weighed down and saddened by the burden of the curse of toilsome work, or stressed out from our jobs or upset with our bosses. Jesus can make us happy and make our hearts happy in him beyond the remembrance of those things.
You see, in having this right attitude and demeanor of submissiveness and non-argumentativeness toward our bosses we can show that our lives are submitted to the ultimate authority of Christ in being submissive toward the authority that God has put over us.
The next thing in our text that we are to put off is “pilfering.” We are not to be pilferers. This is basically embezzlement – cheating our bosses behind their backs. Stealing from the company. Being un-trustable. What we are to put on to combat that is to “Show all good faith.”
So the last two things had to do with our demeanor – or attitude. These two commands have to do with our character as Christian workers. So the attitude commands effect the way we relate to our bosses face to face – primarily. And these next two commands of the character address how we treat our bosses and act toward them when they aren’t looking and no one is watching. Do we just act like good employees in front of them and then pilfer around wasting their time and money when their eyes are off us? We are called to be genuine workers even when we are out of the range of the cameras. And this is a deeper heart issue. Because if we are not trustable when no one is looking, we show that we merely care about our appearance and not about honoring our job, boss, or even God. By having honorable character behind our bosses back, we not only show that we truly respect them, but also, and even deeper, that we respect and honor God. Why? How? Because when no one else is looking, God is. So if are less of workers when no one is looking than when we are being watched, we show that we don’t care what God sees, only what man sees.
Christians should vastly stand out in this area because we believe in an all-knowing, omnipresent God. Our ultimate authority – God – is always watching and He is always with us – so it matters not to us who else sees – our character should always be the same because it is ultimately God we seek to honor.
Legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden once said that, “Your reputation is who people perceive you to be; but your character is who you truly are.” As Christians we are called to have more than just a good reputation. We are called to have an honorable and trustworthy character. We are more than equipped to, because of the Spirit’s work that unites us with Christ. We are ever and always sealed by the Spirit, united with Christ, and before the eyes of our Father. This makes us into a people who are who they are no matter where they are. The gospel gives us character.
If we as Christians do not have an honest and trustworthy character, how then could we expect non-Christians to believe anything we say about the gospel? If we prove to be untrustworthy in our actions and character, how then will our words about Jesus be able to be trusted? If you ever struggle with wondering why our works matter if we are saved by grace through faith, and not our works, here is another reason to add to the list. People may take us for fools regardless, but having a dishonest character guarantees that we will not be taken seriously by outsiders. Christ is already a stumbling block, let us not allow our character to be an unnecessary one.
Now, all of this Christian work ethic that Paul lays out in Titus contrasts with the immoral culture of Crete that we see back in verse 12 of Titus chapter 1, where it says that Cretans are, “always liars…[and]…lazy gluttons.” That’s what Cretans were known as. Paul lays out a Christian work ethic that proposes a stark difference. This can be true in many cases for us today as well.
So we have seen the demeanor of the Christian worker, the character of the Christian worker, and now in our text we see the motivation of the Christian worker. The last portion of verse 10 says, “…so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.” This is the anchor of the text. This is the foundation for our Christian work ethic. This is the motivation for our good works at work. This is what gives our work meaning and utmost importance. God has designed it so that through our submissive attitude and character at work, we may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior – as Paul puts it.
Now what does He mean by that phrase? What is the doctrine of God our Savior? Doctrine is teaching. So it is the teaching of God our Savior. What is the teaching of God our Savior? It’s the gospel of Jesus. It is the message that Christ has taken our sin rags and freely given us His righteous robes and riches all by grace, and not of our own doing. Through our work we can adorn that message! Our good works and behavior make the gospel look good.
Now it’s not as if we actually make the gospel more beautiful, look better, or more attractive. We can’t improve upon the gospel. We cannot add value to the gospel. To add to the gospel is to lose the gospel. But, when people, in this context our bosses and coworkers, look at our lives they should see the gospel making us good – and in so doing, it adorns the gospel. Our good works at work, are not produced by us ultimately, but by the gospel. So when people see our lives and our Christian work ethic, we do not point them to ourselves, but we point them to the Person who has made us so. The finished work of Jesus Christ works itself out in us, through our work. This kind of Christian work ethic “proves” the gospel in a sense, not to God, but to the watching lost.
No matter how mundane or meaningless your work may seem, it is neither. It is gloriously theological.
Think about this more contextually. In calling bondservants or slaves to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior, God is giving the highest calling to the lowliest in society; thus proving that there are no different classes of Christians in the kingdom of God. You don’t have to be a world-class missionary, church-planter, or preacher like Paul. And you don’t have to be a pastor or elder like Titus. The lowest slave of society is given the greatest theological responsibility – to adorn the gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s huge. This is why throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry we see Him hanging out with the sick, poor, despised, and marginalized of society. He was bringing the Kingdom of God to them. This is true for us who may be in the lower classes of society today, or the more blue collar classes of society – because of the theological nature, calling, and purpose of our work, we are in the highest class of Christians in the Kingdom of God, because there is only one class of Christians. We are all one in Christ Jesus. Many members, one body.
This great theological understanding of our work means that 1st century slaves who were in bondage to an earthly master, were actually more free than their masters who legally owned them according to the rule of law. They may have been in human bondage, but they were free from the bondage of sin. Their work ethic testified to the gospel reality that had taken place in their lives. They have been set free from the bondage and yoke of sin, and made free to radically serve their new master Christ in their everyday work of life. A bondservant who has experienced the bondage of physical slavery, could truly get a grasp on what it meant to be in bondage to sin. Imagine the exuberant joy they must have experienced in understanding Christ has set them free from the bondage of their sin. Oh how that would radically reform their work ethic!
If we are saved by grace, not our works, why do our good works matter in our work? As we have observed in Titus 2v10, God has designed our good works and right behavior in the workplace to adorn the gospel – the message of free salvation. Through our good works at work we show that the message of free grace doesn’t produce “grace-abusers,” but godly lives.
Why do our works matter? God has a purpose for them. What is the motivation for the Christian to work hard at his mundane job? The Gospel of Jesus Christ. We can work hard for our bosses because Jesus has worked hard for us. We can work hard for our bosses because Jesus did the ultimate work – all the work – the finished work. We can work hard for our bosses because we don’t have to work hard for our salvation – or at all for our salvation! We can work hard for our bosses because Jesus has finished working for us.
Christ worked for us, His family, in submission to the will of the Father – so we can work at our job, for our families, in submission to our bosses. Christ’s work provided for all His family’s needs, so we can work hard to provide for our family’s needs. Christ’s work provided for us all the riches from the storehouse of wealth of His father.
We who were once workers of iniquity have been bought out by the finished work of Christ. We now work for Him – not for our salvation, but for His glory.
Many of us may grow tired and weary from laborious work days and work weeks. But Jesus is better. While we spend 8, 10, 12 hours a day at work and rest at night – every moment of Jesus’ life – waking, sleeping, and eating, was Him working for our salvation. Jesus never clocked out of His work for us. While His work is complete, He has never clocked out of laboring for us in prayer. He is ever interceding for us before the throne of God. We can’t work like Jesus. He is the ultimate worker – the ultimate worker of salvation. Jesus didn’t just do the work of one man perfectly, He has done the perfect work for every man and woman who would be of His fold.
Our necessary, physical rest from work reminds us that we are not God or Savior. And it reminds us that Jesus far surpasses us. He is constantly at work in the world, continuing to draw His people unto Himself, and working all things for His glory and our good – He does that 24/7 – around the clock. While we are snoozing away at night, God is at work in the world.
I pray that you have begun to see how the theology of the gospel is practical. I pray you can see how theological truth and practical obedience is inseparably connected. Not only is the gospel practical, but also, the nature of the gospel itself is practical. I’ve hit on it a little bit. But I want to spell it out crystal clear for you. The nature of the gospel is practical. In the gospel, we see that God Himself is blue collar in a sense. He is a working God. He is a God who works. He does not sit back on His throne of gold relaxing waiting on us to work ourselves up to Him. That’s not the Christian God of the Bible.
God Himself came down to man. He went to work among men. He, in the person of Jesus Christ, got his hands dirty. Literally dirty. Whether it’s diseased people clinging to Him, or Jesus getting His hands in the mud and wiping it on the eyes of a blind man to make him see. Jesus worked hard, long, taxing hours – physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We see this in Jesus’ earthly ministry of proclaiming the gospel and in His caring for the poor, sick, and needy sinners. Jesus’ work was exhausting. We see His humanity in His physical exhaustion as He slept on a boat in the middle of the sea during a sea storm. Jesus’ work at times was also monotonous as one sick and needy person after another lined up to receive from Him.
Throughout the gospels we see Jesus dealing with the same type of people, wanting the same things from Him, over and over again. Sound like your day job, maybe? Jesus had people angry with His work. Jesus had people mock His work, spit on His work, and despise His work. Jesus is not foreign to our work. He is not unable to sympathize. He understands, cares, and experienced it Himself to a far greater degree than we will ever even begin to understand.
Not only is this true in Jesus’ earthly ministry, but also in His redeeming work at the cross. Through Jesus’ work on the cross, God is proclaiming to us that as hard as we may work, we cannot work hard enough to save ourselves, to make things right with God, or to please Him. Yet, instead of God firing us, as if we were employees who continually failed on the job, God Himself, the boss, the owner, came down into the place of the working man, worked Himself, not just completing what we couldn’t finish, but doing all our work for us.
Imagine you go to your job, show up late, sit around, waste time, blow sales, offend customers, break things, and steal things. You should be fired immediately. But imagine the owner of the store comes in, cleans up the entire mess you made, does all the work for you that you were supposed to do, then proceeds to give you a bonus. That’s kind of like what Jesus has done for us. But infinitely greater.
On the cross, Jesus took the punishment of lazy workers who did nothing, and gives to us the finished work of salvation that He worked out for us.
So we have seen that simple obedience in the workplace gives our work glorious theological and eternal meaning and purpose. But if you still find yourself in a monotonous drag at work, there is another way in which we as Christians can spice up that monotony. Proclaim the gospel.
If you’re a Christian, then God has given you a new heart, with new desires for the things of God. So deep down, you want to bring God glory, and you want to live for Him. Yet sometimes we can be a bit confused on how to do that or what exactly that means. We are often pressured by many influences in evangelicalism to make things “Christianized.” Or we are pressured into believing that nothing is Christian unless it is going on mission trips or leading Bible studies. Young people especially are pressured in this way.
But it is much simpler and far more practical than that. Want to spend your life for the glory of God? Then be a great employee! Want to spend your life for the glory of God? Then proclaim the gospel, in all its insanity, to your coworkers. Don’t fall into the trap of guilt-driven emotionalism that says you have to go on mission trips or lead Bible studies to impact the kingdom. Your whole life is a mission trip, even if you spend your entire life in a 50 mile radius from where you were born. If you don’t want to waste your life, then get the gospel out of your mouth, right where you are. God has put you there, around the people you are around for a reason.
There is nothing more practical for the monotony of the work week than this. This kind of thinking will turn your blue collar job into kingdom advancing mission without ever stepping foot onto an airplane.
There is nothing more thrilling than proclaiming the gospel in the mundane work of everyday life. In turn, it makes the mundane quite un-mundane. God is a master reverser of things. For that is what the gospel is – a great reversal of sorts. Our sin, for Christ’s righteousness; our endless cycle of boring, for exhilarating purpose in life.
The gospel works. It came down and worked in our place, and it works for us. The gospel is blue collar, so to speak.
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