symmetry in human obedience

[Lou Ruppert <lruppert@ucf.org>]

This week is on Ephesians 6:5-9:
  Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity
  of heart, just as you would obey Christ.  Obey them not only to win their 
  favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will 
  of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the 
  Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for 
  whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.
  And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, 
  since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, 
  and there is no favoritism with him.

Paul is in the middle of talking about love and obedience here, having just
finished talking about kids and parents loving each other, with the kids
being obedient and respectful, and the parents caring and being respectful.
He also mentions marriage in another illustration.  These were all common
relationships during the rule of the roman empire in which he is writing.
Another is the master and slave relationship, or employer and employee.  The
lifestyle of the roman slave was anywhere from pretty decent to horrifyingly
bad, depending on whether he was a house slave or a field slave.  They did
pretty much anything from managing the affairs of the house, to teaching greek,
to working the fields, to grinding grain.  The only real personal gain that
could come from work like that was the possibility of finding a way to get
money to buy their freedom, or to do something so brave as to have their
owner give freedom to them.

Paul tells them that, while they are relating to men, they are also relating to
God in their work.  God sees good work and rewards it.  It doesn't matter if
it's forced or fully willful.  Someone who is faithful in doing work is 
rewarded for it.  So instead of being in a completely meaningless situation,
the slave has hope.  Being a slave was to be less than fully human in roman
eyes, but not in God's eyes.  Being hopeless is no excuse to be worthless,
because with God, you're not hopeless.

In the same theme, masters could either be good or bad.  Some treated their
slaves to a lifestyle better than that enjoyed by the average romans, while
others treated them worse than animals or had them slaughtered for
public entertainment.  Paul tells them that that may be cool for the romans, 
but God sees that stuff, and will treat them the same if they abuse their
situation.  Being given a good position of power comes with responsibility, 
and responsibility has consequences.  In the same manner that a slave would be
punished for failing the responsibility for going to the market with money
and buying fish for his master, the master would be punished for failing his
responsibility to take good care of the people in his care.  So there's
symmetry in an asymmetrical arrangement.

God loves us all and doesn't have favouritism based on what our position is on 
the social ladder.  A slave has the responsibility of making his master's life
easier by doing what he's asked, and the master has the responsibility of making
the slave's life easier by treating him well and not asking too much of him or
treating him too harshly.  A kid has the responsibility of obeying his parents
and being respectful, and the parent has the responsibility of caring for the
kid and not driving him crazy with cruelty or neglect.  Nobody is left out.

Somebody who seems to have it made may be worst off of all.  It's like when
you're a kid, and all you want is to be grown up so that you can do as you like,
only when you grow up you find out that you've got stuff to do all of the time
and you haven't time to do as you like at all.  You have more freedom, but
also more responsibility.  If you don't work or do something to provide value
to your employer, you don't have money for your things, and you starve because
mom and dad don't live with you and cook your food anymore, usually. (I know
some people whose parents still clean for them, and mine still get me food and
clothes when I visit, but for the most part you're on your own when you grow
up.)  I would never want the responsibility of managing millions of dollars
because it is almost impossible to find the best thing to spend that much money
on, knowing you'll be held responsible for it, while if you only have $10.00 and
groceries are $9.00, you can be sure you're at least 90% efficient in spending
your money effectively.  So the slaves have a harder life, but they also have
it easier because their responsibilities are given to them, while the master's
involve lots of guesswork.  A slave is responsible for work, while the master
is responsible not only for the slaves' work, but also their lives.

The thing in what Paul is sharing is that it is possible to find God's blessing
no matter where you are.  And there's stuff to do that is easy and intuitive
that he'll be pleased with no matter where you are.  And understanding God's
personality, and knowing him, will help you no matter where you are.  So don't
get consumed with envy or resentment over where you aren't, because the 
landscape is mostly the same from the perspective of our relationship to God.
And that's the only thing that really lasts. :)



-Lou
(happy at being able to eat ice cream all day every day if he likes, but not
too thrilled about not having summers off to play.)