Titus 2:9-10

Titus chapter 2 and verses 9 and 10, exhort servants to be obedient under their own masters and to please them well in all things, not answering again, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior, in all things. God bless to us, He is sacred and holy word. This evening. Many years ago, there was a 57-year-old government clerk in the West Germany Housing Ministry, and she complained of idleness on her jaw. It seems that Felicetus Striptan started a work diary in which she began to keep all records of how much work she was actually doing. The diary showed that for a 134-day period, she did absolutely nothing at all. And then there was a break in which she actually did some work for nine minutes, and then went back to not working at all. She demanded more work and was told to stop rocking the boat. She was given some menial tasks to do, but she called it nonsense. It was just time-filling work that she was given. Eventually, she complained too much about being idle, and so she was fired. Ministry spokesman Robert Scholl said, she has disrupted the office peace. Such a thing you think would only happen in a government bureaucracy. Could you imagine? I imagine a worker today going into his or her boss and complaining there simply isn’t enough work for me to do. It’s almost unheard of. This is something that would be quite rare. Most workers try to get away with doing as little as possible while they’re on the job. Paul here is demanding in this passage throughout this section really the outworking of doctrine practically in your daily life. He’s addressed five different groups of Christians. We come to the last group, which are the servants in verses 9 and 10. And while clearly Paul is speaking of slaves in this passage of scripture, as we mentioned, it certainly has application the principles do with regard to every Christian in the workplace even today. Now, we’ve already looked at the fact that workers are to be obedient to the their bosses and seek to please them in all things. But we need to consider what else he has to say here. And let me begin by saying this. As a servant, you’re not to be rebellious toward your employer. Not answering again, he says in the last phrase of verse 9. You’re not to have a rebellious spirit. Literally the words not answering again mean not speaking. against. The Greek here cares the idea of a to contradict so that there’s some type of hostile response that you would make to your boss. The attitude of many servants might have been very sulky and surly toward their masters. For a slave to be rebellious is understandable from a human point of view because no one likes to be under the authority of a master and they probably resented their lowly position. Remember how many slaves that they had in the Roman Empire, some six million, I believe. And there had been massive slave rebellions in the past and had to be put down by the Roman legions. Since the apostle emphasizes the speech of a servant here, you can imagine that a rebellious spirit would express itself and maybe sarcastic comments muttered under the breath or perhaps even more or even worse I should say disputing with the master to his face they cross stubborn bitter response to the master now the Christian here is not to behave in such a manner obedience submission respectful speech is required of a believer in Jesus Christ who is under the authority of a master such instructions are certainly very convicting with regard to the workplace in modern workplace it’s easy to fall into them versus us mentality and as if there was a war going on and to get that kind of spirit is easy to do because people naturally chase a chafe against authority. But God says you’re to act otherwise. You’d carefully guard your tongue, your spirit, not to have a rebellious spirit. Now you may respectfully answer and respond. When he says here not answering again, it doesn’t mean you have to remain silent. That’s not what Paul has here. As I said, it has the idea of contradicting some type of hostile response. It doesn’t mean not answering period and not showing any response whatsoever. When you have been treated wrongfully, you certainly could kindly and respectfully point out to your boss the problem. You may take your grievances to him. I read in the book of Job chapter 31, if I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maid servant when they did contend with me, what then shall I do when God rises, though? When he visiteth, what shall I answer him? And he didn’t see anything wrong with them addressing him, pointing out perhaps a problem area, and addressing that. So it’s not as if you can’t answer and respond, but we have to do it in you and with respect toward the boss. In the book of Daniel, you remember that it opens with a count of Nebuchadnezzar conquering Israel. And he takes into captivity some of the young men of noble descent. And Daniel was among them. And they’re placed under the authority of the prince of the eunuchs. His direct superior was Melzar, we’re told. Now, since these young men were of noble descent, they were going to be used in the kingdom of Babylon, not in the capacity of menial slave, so to speak. They seem to be some type of advisors to the king, maybe translators, we’re not sure what all they were going to be used for. But a noble slave is still a slave. And there’s a sense in which, you know, against their will, they were taken captive and forced to do this and had their names, changed and everything else. And you remember that Daniel and his three companions, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo, are given food which the law of God forbade. We don’t know if it was pork or shellfish or whatever it was, but it was something contrary to the Mosaic law. And in a very sweet and loving and gracious manner, he approaches the authority over him, the prince of the eunuchs, and he wants to be excused from eating the king’s menu. Now there were no harsh words, there were no tactless actions. You find humility and respect given by Daniel to the man in authority over him. And he states his situation very clearly. He does not want to defile himself because God’s law, his religion, forbade him from eating such foods. When the prince of the eunuch turned him down out of fear of the king’s response, if he didn’t follow the orders carefully, Daniel took the matter to the one who was just directly over him, which was Melsar. He pleads with Melsar. Just put it to a test. Just give us vegetables for a period of time and see if our countenance doesn’t improve rather than eating the king. King’s food. And we find that Daniel found grace in his sight. And he listened, and he responded in a good way to Daniel. So he was allowed to interact. There was nothing wrong with him interacting and trying to change the direction of things for the better, but he had to do it with the right spirit about him. And suppose, you know you’re a Christian maybe you’re working in an advertising department for a company which produces kitchen products and maybe you know you are supposed to advertise the new mixer they’re going to produce and here you find yourself marketing a very inferior product. They change from the metal gears in the mixture to the plastic gears and testing has shown that they don’t hold up. And here you are as a Christian and you’re thinking, well, how am I going to promote this mixture as new and improved when actually it’s, you know, the old ones were better? You might have a difficulty with that. And so you don’t want to violate God’s law. You don’t want to misrepresent things. You don’t want to do ill to your neighbor. And so you’re thinking is, I’ve got to figure out a way to address this with the boss. The boss wants to. your initial work on the advertising campaign, but you want to sit down and talk with them about changing things. Now, when you go in to see him, you’re not going to start out by calling him a dirty cheater and a rip-off artist. You’re going to approach your boss and say, you know, Fred or whoever’s name is, I’m concerned about promoting a vastly inferior product. You know, the testing has demonstrated that plastic gears are not holding up. What is our position going to be? in three years when all these mixers break down these people won’t come back and buy our product anymore now our customers are going to feel cheated it’s going to be very damaging to the company overall and it looks unethical if we went up with all the metal gears the company would be better off an increased cost could be offset you know i came on maybe you’ve come up with a new production technique maybe there’s something you could do that cheapen the cost in some way if it’s still use the metal gears in the manufacturing of the product so that they get a good product and at the same time you would feel comfortable promoting it as new and proved. You know, something like this is how you should approach your boss in dealing with the issue. I think it’s always important if you can to come up with a solution yourself for your boss. If you just throw the problem out there, the bosses don’t like to have a problem just thrown out. It’s better if you can go in and say, you know, we could try this. I think this might work. I think this would be beneficial. They appreciate when you do that. You’re thinking this thing through and not just saying, I’m not going to do it, I’m throwing in your hands. We’re all in it together idea. So as a servant, you’re not to be rebellious toward your employer, not answering again, not contradicting here. Secondly, as a servant, you are not to steal from your employer. not perloining, he says, in the first part of verse 10. Here you’re forbidden to steal from your company. The word here is to appropriate for oneself. Here we have the idea of embezzle to steal, to pilfer, something of that nature. You know, in those days, we find a poll that, that slays often would be in choice. charge of the business affairs of their master. And given this position as a penniless slave, there might be the motivation to steal, to take something for yourself. There are all sorts of opportunities to secretly take what doesn’t belong to you. But the Eighth Commandment applies to the workplace just as well as anywhere else, I’ll shall not steal. In the New Testament, Jesus told a parable. Remember about the unfaithful servant who juggled his master’s books because he was pilfering from his master. That’s a common problem. Thief by employees is a major problem in today’s corporate world. Businesses suffer losses constantly from theft in the workplace. God is watching when people are robbing masters. He’s not indifferent to it, and nor can you argue from the poorness that you have, that you’re a poor that you should be allowed to do it. That’s not what God would have you do. Thou shalt not steal is pretty straightforward. It doesn’t matter whether you’re rich or poor. You’re not to steal. As a believer in Christ, you’re going to be very careful to not wrongfully appropriate anything that belongs to your company. I, you know, when I used to work at Keystone Diesel, there’s some small cardboard boxes that they had in, they had product in and they took it out, and they were going to throw them out. And I would in and ask the boss, can I have the? I wouldn’t want to walk out the door without at least asking, can I have these? Because you never, you know, people can say, well, you’re taking stuff. Even though they’re going to throw it out, the safest course of action is to make sure that, it’s allowable. I once worked at Best Feed Store on McKnight Road where they sold various animal foods and animal supplies and also gardening supplies there. And we had a woman there who was a cashier whose daughter and son-in-law came in frequently to the store to buy their joy dog food, the large bags. And they would always leave with two large abyss. bags of dog food. But I never once saw them actually pay for the dog food. The cashier waited until all the other workers were busy and then just put them through the line and they never paid for it at the checkout. They never rung up the dog food. As far as I know, she was never caught. But it was theft pure and simple. That they weren’t paying for them. That’s just because you work for the company, it’s not give you your right to steal from. You must not make excuses for stealing from the company. You might say, well, this is just a small thing, the company will never miss it. I remind you of what Jesus said, concerning the unfaithful servant who stole from his master, Luke 1610, he did is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much. He did it as unjust in the least, is unjust in the least, is unful. just also in much. If you’re going to, you know, crack your conscience for a trifle, it won’t be long before Aiken’s wedge of gold is before you, and you’ll be willing to take it, too. You know, Judas stole small amounts from the treasury bag of the disciples as he was the treasure. No one knew it but our Lord. And then he certainly jumped at the chance for 30 pieces of silver to betray the Lord Jesus Christ. He was accustomed to unlawful gain. You might say, well, my boss is hard and strict. He doesn’t pay me a decent wage. This is just one way of getting what I think I really deserve. You think that’s really going to fly with the Lord? You think the Lord’s going to think this is the right thing for you to do? Now, today we have this big issue, and you see it, even a Christian college campuses and so forth, the idea of social justice, the idea of give me, it gives me the right to steal because I should get my fair share. No, it doesn’t give you the right to steal. You know what social justice really is? It’s covetousness. It’s he’s got it and I don’t have it and I have a right to it. No, you don’t. If you steal, you’re falling into the hands of a much harder master, who’s Satan himself. Jacob, you recall, had a very difficult period of service, 20 years of work to Laban, who mistreated him badly. Talk about a guy changes the promises one thing does another, changes his wages 10 times, but he didn’t steal any animals, and he didn’t steal any property from him. And when he snuck away, remember Laban tried to chase him down, now it is true. that Rachel took the household gods from Levin’s house. But when Laban checked out all the goods of Jacob, looked at the sheep, the cow, everything they had, there was nothing there that he could say, you stole this from me. And yet Jacob had to say, except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, the fear of Isaac had been with me. Surely thou wouldst have sent me. away now empty. I wouldn’t have had anything if God hadn’t watched out for my interest. The writer of Proverbs says, Confidence in an unfaithful man is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint. Don’t be like that. Is that how you want to be remembered as a worker? Does not the company hire you to be an honest worker? Not one who’s a thief? You disgrace yourself? You disgrace the Christian faith. So as a servant, you’re not not to steal from your employer, not perloining, he says. Thirdly, as a servant, you are to prove yourself to be completely trustworthy, showing all good fidelity. Here’s the second phrase of verse 10. You’re to be faithful. This means honest and upright. You need to be considering your master’s interests and your master’s welfare. Be loyal to the master. The servant must neither say nor do anything which might raise any suspicion that he’s unfaithful. We shouldn’t contradict our master. We shouldn’t steal from him, waste his goods, appropriate for yourself something that belongs to him. Jesus not only condemned the unjust servant, who took from his master. But he also condemned the servant that buried the talent and didn’t use it. Remember that? Because he wasn’t productive. He wasn’t faithful to what he was supposed to be doing. He didn’t decrease its value, but he did increase the value. That’s the problem. He didn’t cause it to grow for his master’s benefit. Even if he had put it in the bank, Jesus said he would at least have gotten a minimal interest, even if it was a small fraction, at least it got something. So applying this to your own work as a servant, you need by your oversight, your diligence, and your care to see that your company is prospered, that nothing is lost because of your pure negligence. You know, when I was working, people had the attitude, this them versus us attitude. Sometimes there was a lot of hostility in the workplace when I was working. at a diesel engine company. It was really intense. People would come in there. Truckers would come in, and they tell us, I can actually feel the tension in this place when I come in the door. And the difficulty was there were people in there who didn’t care whether the company made any money or not. Well, that’s kind of foolish, because if they’re not making money, you’re not going to make any money either. And so you should be thinking, you know, about the prosperity to the company. We should want the company to make money. We should want the company to be productive because ultimately it will benefit us. So I never could understand that thinking that people had. You recall how diligently Abraham’s servant carried out his master’s command to find a wife for Isaac. When Abraham sent him the far away to find a wife for his son, the son, the servant was very, diligent he gets up early he doesn’t waste any time he gets on the road he gets moving and he prays to God for good success that the Lord will direct him to the right woman and lo and behold Rebecca is the one he meets almost immediately and he’s off to a good start he gets invited back to Rebecca’s house her father Bethuel’s house and food food is that before him and what does he do? He says, I can’t eat. I can’t eat until my master’s business is taken care of first. I got to know whether Rebecca is willing to come back or not. He didn’t let anything deterring him. His duty was to get that taken care of. Then he’ll eat. Until he could get that taken care of it, he wasn’t going to eat. He wasn’t going to just enjoy himself. He was about his master’s business and he was going to get it taken care of. Whether a matter of finding, finances or getting things done and everything, prove yourself to be trustworthy to your company. In the workplace, be hardworking, be willing, be diligent. Seek the Lord’s blessing on your efforts and do the best you can for the company that you’re working for. Now, you have some biblical incentives for doing this. One, you have the promise of God’s blessing. Here’s what we are. we read in Proverbs 2820. A faithful man shall abound with blessings. Or Proverbs 2229. See thou a man diligent in his business. He shall stand before kings. He shall not stand before mean, or we might as say lowly men. Be diligent about your business. And you’ll be promoted. God will take care of you. Faithfulness in little pays the way for advancement as God sees fit. Luke 1610, he that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much. If you’re faithful in little things, you’ll be given bigger things to take care of. Luke 1612. If you’ve not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own? You can’t take care of the boss’s business. How can you expect to prosper God to give you more? And then we should realize the Lord will punish those who prove themselves unfaithful. Look at Matthew 24, if you would, with me. Versus 45 to 51. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom His Lord hath made ruler over his household to give them meat in due season? Blesseth that servant, whom His Lord, when he cometh, shall find him so doing. Verily, I say unto you that he shall. make him ruler over all his goods. But it if that evil servant shall say in his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and to drink with the drunken, the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, in an hour when he’s not aware, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites, and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now, if you look at this passage carefully, I think it is applied to pastors. elders, that the Lord has given them the duty to feed the flock of God, so they’re over the other servants of the Lord. But the general idea is certainly true. Servants have to give an accounting. And here that’s what comes out in this passage of Scripture. There is an accounting, and there is a judgment that falls. There’s a person legend which tells us about a certain king who needed a faithful servant, and he had to choose between two candidates for the position. So he hired them both, gave them a wage for one day’s work, and he told them he wanted them to fill a basket with water drawn from a nearby well. So they took the basket over to the well and started their buckets into the well and pulling out the water and dumping it into the basket. After one or two buckets, one man said, to the other, what is the good of doing this useless work? As soon as we pour the water into the basket, it just flows out the sides. But the master said he was going to come back that evening and check up on their work. The other said, but we have our wages, haven’t we? The use of our work is the master’s business, not ours. Let’s just do what he told us to do. I’m not going to do any fool’s work, the one servant said, and he throws his bucket down, and he’s done. He walks off. The other servant continued until he had drained the well, and looking down in it, he saw something shiny. It proved to be a diamond ring. Now, he says, I see the use of pouring the water into the basket, for if we had picked up the ring in the bucket, it would have been caught by the basket when we poured the water into it, and the water went out. The ring would have stayed there. So our work wasn’t useless after. the faithful servant got the position to work for the king. Sometimes when you go to work, things don’t work out for your expectation. Sometimes you don’t understand what the boss is actually trying to do to accomplish. But we should remain faithful to our task as God commands us. Remember to wait until the well is dry. Maybe there’s something you’re missing. You’re not seeing. Don’t judge things too quickly. There may be something precious at the bottom of all that you’re doing at the present moment you think is wasted time and effort. The Lord is well pleased with those who do as they are commanded and despise not even though they don’t understand everything that’s going on. Well, the woman who worked for the government bureaucracy got fired because she complained about being idle and not having anything to do. She wanted to be a good worker. not a lazy one. As Christians, we should have that kind of spirit. We should neither be rebellious nor steal from our employer, but rather prove ourselves to be completely trustworthy. This is vital teaching, I think, for the Christian in the workplace. If we could carry on our work in such a manner as this, it is going to have an impact. It’s going to have a witness. It’s going to open doors for you to speak about Christ and the salvation of Christ. And so you have to look at these things as God has placed you in this company for a reason. You don’t know why his providence is placed you. You don’t know maybe right away who you’re supposed to reach. But God has placed you there for a reason to be a witness to those people. So do your best to honor him in the workplace. Well, let us go over to prayer tonight.