Colossians 4:1

the book of Colossians chapter 4 and verse 1. Masters give under your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that ye also have a master in heaven. God bless to us the reading of His sacred and holy word. this morning. Anyone who has been in the workforce for a period of time has had to deal with a bad boss somewhere along the line. Some bosses are downright oppressive. You can never satisfy them. You can never meet their expectations. You can’t reason with them. And it seems like you have no hope the situation is ever going to change. Bosses have been known to not keep their promises with regard to pay raises, to steal employees’ ideas and pass them off as their own, to sexually harass the female employees, to demand you constantly work overtime, to make you work under unsafe conditions, or perhaps even cheat you out of your wages. There are plenty of horror stories to go around about bad bosses. The wonderful thing about God’s word is that it’s not one-sided. It covers all angles of the situation. We talked in our previous study about the duty of Christian workers from Chapter 3, verses 22 to 25. But this is balanced out. with the duty of Christian businessmen in chapter 4 and verse 1. Even if you, as a Christian business owner, a boss, have power or authority over others, your workers, you still have biblical obligations toward them. This is the benefit of Christianity. It recognizes that everyone is a sinner. Everyone is capable of abusing the situation in which they are in, whether the worker taking advantage of the employee or the employer, or if you’re the employer, who takes advantage of the worker. The Bible sees all men as sinners and lays it out before us in this perspective of what we’re responsible to do before God and what he’s going to hold us accountable to do. So Paul, Paul here in Strait. both workers and now bosses how to behave in a manner that would be pleasing to God. Let me begin by saying this. As a Christian businessman, you are to provide what is just and equal for your workers. You’ll notice it says masters give under your servants that which is just and equal. Now, what does it mean when it says just here? The word just implies right conduct, that which is, of course, defined by God’s work. That tells us what right conduct is. You recall in Romans 712, God’s law is said to have commandments which are holy, just, and equal. So for you to do what is just implies that you’re going to do what the commandments of God teach, particularly the Ten Commandments, if you want to put it in a nutshell. And we can think, in particular perhaps, about the second table of the law, that which has to do with your relationship to other human beings. Simply put, you’re not to lie to them. You’re not to steal from them. You’re not to commit sexual, sin against them. You’re not to covet their goods and so forth. Nor should you cause your workers to violate the first table, the law, by violating the Sabbath day, the Christian Sabbath. Because remember in the Fourth Commandment, one of the things that says in the Fourth Commandment is your servants are supposed to have a day of rest, too. You know, when Joseph was sold as a slave by his brothers, he ended up in the house of Potipher. down there in Egypt. Now, Paulifer’s wife, who had authority over Joseph, mistreated her servant. First, she pressed him for sexual relations. That was adultery. That violates a commandment of God. And then she lied about Joseph by accusing him falsely of trying to rape her. She bore false witness. So here are two commandments. She tried to cause him to sin in regard. She didn’t act justly for Joseph. Let me make this observation. It’s a wicked boss who treats his workers according to his own whims and not in accord to divine will, which is laid out in the law of God. You are to be just. He says also here you’re to be equal. Now, equal does not mean that all servants must be treated exactly alike. There are various ranks among servants. The Bible speaks of those who are chief servants. Those are lesser servants under them. You recall that Joseph was set over the whole house of Potterford, and it seems to me that he was the one that was giving the orders to the other servants what to do. He sort of was running all the other servants. Equal here means what is fair, what is right, such as the proper food and clothing, or the wages due to hired servants by contract. Early in the morning, and remember in the parable of the vineyard owner, that early in the morning, the vineyard owner hires workers for an agreed upon wage. makes a contract with him. I’ll pay you one penny for the whole day. However, finding more workers later in the day at 9 a.m., and then at noon and then at 3 p.m., he simply says, I’ll pay you whatever is right, according to the scripture. I’ll give you what is fair, what is equitable, according to how long you work. Now, it’s assumed that those who work less would get paid less, but a proportion of the penny that was owed for a whole day’s work. So if you worked half the day, you’d get half a penny. Now, in this case, of course, in the parable, the owner of the vineyard is very generous, so he gives everybody a penny. Gets into trouble because he gives everybody he was too generous. So evidently, with some people, thought he was too generous. But, of course, Christ was indicating to us what grace is really all about. You get what you don’t deserve. But he was generous. But he was equitable. He was fair in what he had done. As a Christian businessman or a woman, you ought not to consider merely what the state requires you to pay, the minimum wage, let’s say, but what Christian charity would regard as right or fair for the work that is being done. This is the idea behind being just and equal. Now, how to behave is just and equal as a Christian businessman. Let me make a few suggestions here. First is this. You should be reasonable in your demands. I realize that much of the workforce today is rather lazy and unmotivated. But that doesn’t mean you should. shouldn’t be fair and reasonable in dealing with them. You remember when the Israelites were in bondage in Egypt, the Egyptian taskmasters gave them an impossible task. Many believe that the Israelites slays were those who built Pharaoh’s treasure cities like Pitham and Ramesses. All day long, they labored in brick and mortar. making the bricks and perhaps even laying the bricks. Very hard work, very demanding. And the Egyptians, of course, would have those taskmasters with whips watching over them, and they had to meet a certain quota every day. However, after Moses appeared with God’s message, let my people go, Pharaoh got a little bit peeved about the situation, and he said, these guys must have too much time on them. their hands and if they can form a rebellion here and want to leave. And so he decides that he’s going to have them gather the straw and make the same amount of bricks every day that they normally make. Of course, it was too much for them. The Israelites complained because they couldn’t meet the quota and they got beaten by the taskmasters over them. When they get to Pharaoh and bring the complaint, he says, get back to work, I don’t want to hear about it. Now, as a Christian businessman, you’re not to be unreasonable in your demands for your workers. This would include, you know, quotas and deadlines and workload and work time and so forth. Some bosses overload you with work and then complain that you’re not getting enough done. They’re just slave drivers. Jobs that normally require two people to complete on time suddenly are given to you as a single individual, you’re told to get all that work done. As a Christian boss, you can’t be like that. You don’t want to be a hard taskmaster demanding the impossible to be done. So you should be reasonable in your demands. Remember Abraham’s servant, when he told, Abraham told his servant to go back to his homeland and find a wife for his son Isaac. And he tells him. him where to go and he wants to go to his relatives there ends up going into the Laban’s family area there and talking with that family line Rebecca’s or excuse me yeah Rebecca’s or excuse me he goes back I’m sorry when Abraham sends his servant back he says that you have to find someone for Isaac he sends it back to his area and And that’s where, of course, Rebecca comes from. But he says, when you, the servant says that, well, he puts him under an oath that he won’t take, you know, don’t take my son back there and make sure you bring some, bring her back here. And so when he puts him under the oath, the servant says, well, what if he won’t come back? She won’t come back? What happens to that? You know, what am I supposed to do? And Abraham says, well, then I’ll release you from the oath. And that was a reasonable response when he gave him this charge and this duty. You remember the Egyptian servants when they heard that the hail storm was going to come, the plague of hail. Those servants, those Egyptian masters who had servants who were going to send them out in the field, who feared God said, don’t go out in the field today. And so they kept back to servants realizing they would be harmed if they went into the field. They were using, I think, a right approach. They were dealing kindly with their servants in this regard, thinking about their welfare. Another thing I’ll suggest to you, you should not be mean-spirited. You read in the Old Testament of a man named Nabal, who had a very large ranch or farm. He had like 4,000 sheep and goats and so forth. It was extremely mean-spirited. We’re told that. He was churlish and evil in his doings, churlish, bad-tempered, rude, hostile toward his workers. In fact, his servants were very reluctant to even try to speak to him. They said to his wife, he’s such a man of Belial, that a man can’t speak to him. He was so ill-tempered, so gruff, so abusive, that people didn’t want to be around him. Working under him had to be extremely difficult. Now, as a Christian boss, you’re not to have that kind of spirit. You shouldn’t be abusive and inconsiderate toward your workers. You should not be the type of boss who just can’t wait to chew someone out. Don’t be an A-ball, in that sense, churlish. In contrast to A-ball, you ought to be more like Boas that the scripture talks about in the book of Ruth. Now, he was a farmer. He had these large fields. He had all these. workers in the field working to harvest his crops and as Boaz goes out in the morning to see how the work is progressing he would say to his workers the Lord be with you and they would kindly respond the Lord bless you wouldn’t you like to have that kind of relationship when you go to work he would bid them God’s speed and their work that God would prosper them as they were doing their work he was a cheerful boss. That’s the way we ought to be if we’re bosses. You ought to be the kind of boss that workers would want to do their best for, the best kind of work for. Workers ought to be able to talk with you. Today there’s, I think, too much tension and division in the workplace between bosses and workers. I’ve worked in some places where it was quite intense. Job could say in Job 3113, that he did not despise the cause of his man-servant or his maid servant when they contended with him. In other words, when they had a problem and they came to Job, he would talk with them. He would go through it and settle the issue or get it resolved or whatever the problem was. He was a type of person who was concerned about them, his workers, and okay, let’s fix this problem. Let’s get to the solution to it. You should be willing to address the the complaints and problems of your workers, and whatever it may came up. Don’t be mean-spirited. You should pay fair wages. Now, when I thought about fair wages, the person who came to mind was Laban. Now, this guy was a very shrewd business man, very crafty, very stingy when it came to wages. He reminds you of Mr. Scrooge, doesn’t he? One day he hired Jacob. He recalled to work for him. It was really his nephew. And you recall that Jacob worked seven years to pay the dowry for his daughter, or his daughter, or his daughter, Rachel. He desired to marry the beautiful Rachel, and he says, I’ll work seven years for you. That’s a long time to work for this woman. When the time came for the marriage, Laban substituted, The less attractive, Leah, the older sister, instead of Rachel. So when Jacob woke up after his honeymoon night, it was with the wrong woman. You can imagine he wasn’t feeling too good. He got cheated. He got swindled. Jacob didn’t get the wage he was promised for the seven years of work. He had to actually work seven more years, evidently, to get the wife he wanted. But not only that, but we read that Jacob’s wages were constantly being changed by Laban. Remember, Laban wasn’t paying in cash. You know, you didn’t say, well, at the end of the week, you’ll get a paycheck, it’ll be all printed out, you take you to the bank, and we didn’t have that. So the deal was, okay, I’ll let you have all the spotted sheep, and they’ll be yours. Well, when all the sheep seemed to be… having spotted sheep, and there seemed to be a lot of spotted sheep, Laban said, I’ll tell you what, I’ll give you the strict sheep instead. So he changed it. And then he would give them the black ones and so forth. He kept changing the wages. In fact, Jacob later complains to Laban. Thou hast changed my wages ten times. You told me this? And then you changed it on me. And then he said, except God had been with me, surely thou had sent me away now empty. I wouldn’t have had anything if God didn’t intervene every time and thwart you and caused the sheep to produce the wage was supposed to be, so I ended up with something. He was definitely cheated out of wages, but God intervened. So Laban was really a crooked businessman. He could not be trusted to pay what he promised, and so he is not the type of person we ought to be like. Now, as a Christian businessman, you must not steal the wages of your workers. Karen was telling us about the one church that hired Eddie and didn’t pay him. Now, what kind of testimony you think that would be to someone? So you must not use underhanded deceit or fraudulent means to cheat workers out of what is rightly do them. James warns the Christianist businessman about this in James 5’4. behold the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields which is if you kept back by fraud crieth and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabayoth or the Lord of hosts in the parable the vineyard owner the owner hires laborers he says go you into the field whatever is right that you shall receive and you must be willing to to pay your workers, the going right. That’s what the vineyard owner did for the job they undertake. Should pay fair wages. Another thought is you should not treat your workers harshly. You read that the Egyptians made the Israelites, the children of Israelers, served with rigor, and made their lives bitter, Exodus 1, on verses 13 and 14. In contrast to this, what does God’s law say about how you’re supposed to treat your servants? In Lividicus 2543, thou shalt not rule over them, servants, with rigor, with harshness, with cruelty. When David and his men pursued the horde of Amlikite raiders who had plundered Zichlag, which was his hometown, they found a poor Egyptian service. who had been abandoned by his Amlicite master, left out in the wilderness to die. He had become sick. And with all these new servants, I guess he figured he didn’t, you know, from Zicklag, he figured I don’t need this whole sick one. They neglected him, left him die of starvation out there. This was a very cruel, very heartless way of treating a servant. But it was very very heartless way of treating a servant. commonplace at that time. When the usefulness of worker is gone, he’s often discarded, like a broken tool, as if, you know, we don’t need to have any compassion or pity on anyone. You know, throughout history, including our own day, working people have been heartlessly discarded. Profit, you know, in our day and ages is the bottom line. When there are all these mergers, and then you find all these people getting laid off, and they’re, losing their job, they don’t care. The bottom line is money in many cases. You know, my father worked for a company which hired new machinists at lower wages. And then they’d be trained by those machinists who had been on the job for a long period of time. Of course, because they’ve been on the job for a long period of time, they were getting a higher wage. Well, as soon as the young guys were trained, guess what happened to the older guys? fired and that’s what they were doing they were saying bringing people in you train them and as soon as you train them we’re going to take your job from you now as a Christian businessman we can’t be solely focused on profits profits can’t be the bottom line of everything we do we have to be thinking about the workers their welfare and even their families I read about the centurion and the New Testament who came to Christ on behalf of his servant. He said, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. Luke’s gospel tells us this servant was dear to him and was sick unto death. Now this servant was dear to him, which means he was concerned about him. He was concerned enough to make this trip to see if Jesus would heal him of this sin. of this sickness. So the centurion went out of his way on behalf of this man. He did what he could to spare this man’s life. That’s loving your neighbors yourself. It requires the proper treatment of all your workers. So as a Christian businessman, you are to provide what is just and equal for your workers. Secondly, as a Christian businessman, you have an incentive to treat your workers as just and equal because you have a master over you. As the scripture tells us here, you also have a master in heaven. You know this is the case, he says. You’re not free and unaccountable as a business owner to do whatever you please. You’re not at the top of the totem pole. There’s someone above you, and that is the Lord himself. And so you have to run your business in order to please. your master, who is the Lord. Pride and self-exaltation is the instigator, really, of cruelty and mistreatment. But Paul would have you remember, you’re going to be accountable to a heavenly master. And so he’s going to audit all your work. He’s going to take into account every single thing you do and how you do it. God isn’t going to be more lenient with you because you happen to be a business. business owner. Remember the biblical principle to whom much is given? Much is going to be required. Did you have been given this a position of authority? God’s going to require much of you. If anything, you know, we’re going to be judged more severely if we have a position of authority entrusted to us. So let me make this as an observation. This consideration is a sharp stimulus to render justice and equity to your workers. You have a master over you. You should consider the kind of master who is over you. He is not a human master. He is a master in heaven. You have a divine master. Your heavenly master has attributes that you should consider. He’s omniscient. So nothing can be concealed from him, which is done contrary to his law, to his commandments. When you do something unconstrued, unjust and unfair, he knows about it. You can’t hide it from him. For the wicked servant mentioned in the gospel in Matthew 25, he dared not to mistrate the servants while the master was there. He waited until the master went to the far country. Then he mistreated the other servants. Remember? Now, our master is always present, invisibly, of course, but he’s always present in the sense that he’s always watching. It’s never safe to act inconsiderately or cruelly because God sees everything that takes place. Your heavenly master is also holy and just. You can expect a rather strict assessment then of what you do as a master yourself. God doesn’t tolerate evil. He’s going to be a harsh judge of those who do evil that. I want to look at two verses of scripture. The first is in Deuteronomy chapter 24, verses 14 and 15. Deuteronomy 24, 14 and 15. Here’s what the law of God says. Thou shalt not oppress a hired servant that is poor and needy, whether it be of thy brethren or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates. At its day, thou shalt give him his hire there shall the sun go down upon it, for he is poor and seteth his heart upon it, lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee. The Lord’s going to keep account of this. And then if you would, look at Job chapter 31. Job chapter 31, I want to read verses 13 and 14. Job here, in his defense, they made all these accusations of the evil, that he’s done. Of course, these were false accusations. And here’s what he says. If I did despise the cause of my manservant or my maid servant when they contended with me, what then shall I do? When God rises up, when he visiteth, what shall I answer him? I’m going to have to give an account. What am I going to do? If I had mistreated, then I know I’m going to have to give an account to God. So wrongs are not going to be ignored by God. God. My father once worked for a company which agreed to split the cost of the medical insurance with the workers. He said that the agreement was that the workers would pay 50% and the company would pay 50% and their health care would be covered. So for many years, the cost of medical insurance was deducted from the workers’ paychecks. Eventually, however, it was discovered that the workers were actually paying 100% of the insurance, the full amount of their medical coverage. And to make matters worse, they were also paying for the entire medical coverage for the owners and their families. So they paid nothing. Businessmen do these kinds of things. Now, God will equal things up. With a Christian businessman, he should know this. He’s just knowing you of a master, you ought to know that this is the case. This is the case. kind of God you have that he knows what’s going on. You’re not going to pull any wool over his eyes. Finally, your heavenly master is also almighty. He’s all powerful. He can bring any judgment to bear against you. He has the power to punish that which he hates. So no one’s out of his reach. No one is going to escape. And he can made out a very severe punishment when he dies our. So you can’t sin with impunity when you have to deal with the Lord God. He’s in heaven. He’s a divine master. So as a Christian’s businessman, you have to incentive here to treat your workers with equity. Well, some of us have worked for pretty bad bosses. Maybe they were harsh. Maybe you’ve worked for someone who was cruel, who mistreated you, who cheated you, who cheated you out of a wage, or whatever the case may be. Christianity creates, however, new dynamic. for the Christian businessmen. It can’t be all about the money. It can’t be. That cannot be your sole interest. You are to reflect Jesus Christ in the workplace. And you are to follow the biblical principles about being just and fair in your dealings with your workers. We need more Christian businessmen like Boas and less that act like Lavin. That’s the simple. bottom line of the whole message. Let us close with a word of prayer.