I Timothy 6:1a

"Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour,..."


Here again, this is something that we have nothing to do with because slavery was part and parcel of the ancient world. As hard as it is to believe, Christianity did not abolish it as quickly as we think they should have. So, slavery was still part and parcel of their economy. But, again Paul admonishes masters as well as the servants to adhere to their Christian principles. So, he wrote, servants if you are under the yoke count your masters worthy of all honour:


I Timothy 6:1b-6:2a

"...that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are (what?) brethren;..."


Now, the perfect example is, of course, the little letter to Philemon. Because Philemon was a slave master and Onesimus was one of the slaves that had run away. We will probably touch on that in our next few lessons, but all of these various levels of society were still one in Christ. Now reading on in verse 2.


I Timothy 6:2b

"...but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort."


I have made comment about this before. Why did God sanction slavery in the first place? You want to remember, we are so programmed to our Western culture, that unless you are a student of history you are prone to not realize that all the way up through antiquity, the masses had no education. They had no technical prowess, or anything like that. So the only place they could function would be under the control of peers that were craftsmen and so forth. They couldn't handle it on their own.


But, in everything that God ever introduced even though it was good, as He intended it, what did sinful men do with it? Well, they adulterated it. And, instead of masters being benevolent and taking care of their servants, what did they do? They took advantage of them and they abused them and they tortured them, and all these things. That is not God's fault. That's sinful men.