First Timothy lesson 31 Question 6
1 Timothy · Mike Doyle · Oct 19, 2025
1 Timothy, No. 88
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261941153298

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, so we are in 1 Timothy, lesson 31. And last time we had just finished question five, going into question six. And question six is preceded by 1 Timothy chapter six, verse two. Those who have believers as their masters must not be disrespectful to them because they are brethren, but must serve them all the more, because those who partake of the benefits are believers and beloved. Teach and preach these principles."

My first question, question six was, would a Christian slave, well, would a Christian slave have a tendency to presume on his Christian master for better treatment? It would be human nature to do that. It's interesting because a Christian slave whose master, let's assume that his master became a believer after he did, and he finds out about it, he's more likely to presume there's a new relationship now between him and his master, because they're both believers, which means they're brothers in the Lord, and their role of slave and master are somehow modified because of that. What do you think?

In other words, if his, well let's do a comparison. Let's say his master was not a Christian. What's the exhortation? The exhortation is to treat him with respect, to obey to function as a slave and give all due respect to his owner. So now, does that change if the owner becomes a Christian? No. No, it doesn't. No, it doesn't. I mean, even in our world, we sometimes If we have a boss who is a Christian, we try to take advantage of that.

Problem in our society, you're probably dispensational and he's reformed, so you got a problem. But there is an increased respect there, I think. It's probably in advance of, if he wasn't a believer, just because of the role that God has put him in, to be one's master. You would hope as a slave that he would deal fairly with his slaves and treat them equitably and that kind of thing. But if he doesn't, it doesn't mean you change your attitude about him just because he's a believer.

Same way if you have a Christian boss. You comfortable with that? What if the slave don't listen? And what's he supposed to do? Does the Christian master whip him? That'll sure get his attention. I think, not ever having been a slave master, There are, as a leader, as a husband, a father, in business or whatever, you have principles you live by and you have consequences. And so a good slave master would live by certain principles and his slaves would understand that if they don't comply, that there are consequences, whatever they are. And so you can't, a Christian slave breaks a rule and he has to pay the consequence, he's not gonna get let off just because he's a Christian. Right, but the thing is, it's just by one man's sin entered in, and so death for all men. You know, I mean, that one consequence can cause that whole community of slaves to end up. Sure. Yeah.

I think the focus is back, you know, we're starting to find maybe in your prognosis verse or whatever, you're to work as unto the Lord. It doesn't matter whether he's a Christian or not, you're working as unto the Lord. And so whether he's a Christian or not, whether he's good or bad or whatever, you're working as unto the Lord. So it shouldn't make a difference whether he's a Christian or not, whether he's good or bad. That's right. You're to work as under the Lord.

I don't know if anybody, is there any verse that's like, I was trying to find one. Well, and how many of you in the room have had a boss at one time that you really didn't like working for him because they were harsh or they were unfriendly or they were whatever. And if you could find a way to get out from under their tutelage, you would. Anybody had a boss like that?

Yeah, raise your hand. Yeah, absolutely. I was with a guy one time for two years and prayed about it. And finally, the Lord said, you can leave now. But sometimes, like if you're in the military, you don't have a choice. You don't have any choice at all. It just depends on the person. Some people are good bosses, some of them aren't. You guys all know who Stan Fromm is. Stan Fromm was a captain in the Air Force, and Ralph Volker worked for him in Korea. I said, Ralph, what was it like? He said, well, I never saw him, so I guess it was okay.

Ingrid found the verse. Colossians 3.23, whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men. See, that's the key. Because really, even though it says boss on the door, or slave master on the door, whose name is on that door? It's the Lord. As a believer, that's who you work for. Because you don't know. I mean, you take a job to earn money, and it's a contract, usually, or a slave is a slave.

If he's an indentured slave, he's made a contract with the owner that he would give him so many years of service in exchange for clothing and food and shelter and safety. And a lot of Jewish slaves, when their tenure was up, stayed with their master voluntarily. But a lot didn't, depending on the master. So the next question is, how difficult would it be for a slave master, after having become a believer, to rethink his role as a master? I would think it'd be hard. It'd be really hard. Any of you become Christians as adults? What kind of environment were you in in terms of the work relationship when you became a Christian?

Were you a boss? Were you an employee? If you were a boss, you had a boss over you. You had people under you. Did you rethink your position? I remember I was in the real estate business when I became a Christian. there were certain things within the world system, being a realtor, that, what would be the right word, that you would over-persuade somebody to sign a contract, or you'd make a promise to them that you weren't sure that you were telling them the truth or not, or you outright lied to them. But it was all okay, because it made the deal go together. So when you become a Christian, It isn't too many days before you realize, I can't do that anymore. You can't lie. I can't lie. I have to tell the truth. And I can't sit around and think about, how am I going to say that so it doesn't sound like a lie?

I guess you might have come from an unbeliever. Yeah. Because you're transformed now. Sure. The other thing was is that what I, not that I had a lot of trouble with this, but most of the time, if you have a client who's a buyer, her husband's working and so you're with her all day showing her houses. And sometimes those ladies can get a little too friendly.

So I thought, how am I gonna fix that? You know what I did? I put the Bible right between me and her. If you got in my car to go look at houses, the Bible was right there. And that solved the problem, you know. Oh, is that a Bible? Yeah. Are you a Christian? Yeah. And so the conversation would go.

But sometimes, you know, you find yourself, you know, it's like, what's that movie, Liar, Liar, when the guy had to tell the truth no matter what. That's how you find yourself. Well, it's the same thing as a slave master. You reassess how you're dealing with people. What's interesting is, though, you have a tendency as a boss to become more lenient because you think it's a Christian thing to do. Yet, you have a set of principles that you function on. That's Armenianism. I would call that Armenianism. I call it emotional nonsense. I've spent some time since Charlie Kirk was killed to find out about the guy. I saw him in a one-on-one interview with the guy who was the head of the National Restaurant's owners. Entrepreneur Association, and they were talking about how do you put a business together from a Christian standpoint.

And one of the cool things that Charlie Kirk said, he said, well, what you need to have, one of the things you have to have is you have to have your 10, it doesn't have to be 10, your 10 principles. You have to have them written down, and anybody you're bringing on board It's smart to say, okay, here are the principles.

And he just said, like on my list, he said, the first one, the very first one is to show up on time. And number two, you never lie. And number three, he said, put down whatever you want. And that's how you're gonna function. And you tell the person that you're interviewing to hire, these are my principles.

Here's a list of them. Do you have any trouble with any of them? Let's talk about them now. And when they say, no, I really don't say, well, sign it then. So, you know, when you think about that, people will say anything to get hired, even sign something they don't believe in. But there it is, there are the principles. And if you have those, then you have at least a set of rules.

I love the first two, show up on time and don't ever lie. I mean, think about that. People lie to you all the time, whether they work for you or not. So to answer that question, I would say it's difficult, I think, for a slave master to reassess and rethink what it is to be a master as a Christian.

I remember Matt Malloy when he was the commanding general of that air base in Japan. Once a week he'd have a video conference with all the people that were moving on the base that week. And I mean, there were 40,000 people on this base. And he would tell them, he expected them to do a good job, to work hard, to show up on time, and that he was a Christian and that he worked under Christian principles. That's what he'd tell them. And he had a few other things he'd say to them. Welcome aboard. Well, you know, being a Christian, I'd want to know this guy. Sure I would. Sure you would. And it'd be an honor to work under him. Yeah, it would be.

So I think he was, as he grew in the Air Force and became a general, they put you in charge of stuff. And you better all know what you're doing when they do that, because you're responsible for not only thousands of people's lives, but billions of dollars worth of equipment. You know, so.

I wrote down, the position of a Christian must have been very difficult. One Christian master distracted between the principles of faith, which he shared with his slave, and the law of the social state, which he felt were not wholly wrong. One guy suggests that some of these slaves might have been pastors of the local church to which the master belonged. How about that?

I had a personal experience like that. My first job out of college was, I was on the training program at Sears, and I ended up within a few years as the head of advertising for the Denver area. I also was in the Marine Corps Reserves, and the CEO out there was the ad salesman for the Denver Post. On the weekends it was yes sir, no sir. And during the week he'd come in my office and he's trying to sell me ad space. Anyway, but I wasn't a Christian then. Okay, how difficult would it be for a slave after becoming a believer to rethink his role as a slave? I think it'd be really hard. especially if you're reading your Bible.

Now, Remnant, what question is that? Eight. Eight. How difficult would it be for a slave, after becoming a believer, to rethink his role as a slave? Now, notice the verse that we just read. Those who have believers as their masters must not be disrespectful to them. Why? Because they are brethren. But they must serve them all the more. Because those who partake of the benefit are believers and beloved.

And then a little phrase. teach and preach these principles. So a lot of times, let's visit that. Let's say that, we'll pick on somebody. Let's say Ron Ford owns me as a slave, but I'm the pastor of the church that he goes to. How do I treat Ron? treat him with respect.

I understand that he, you know, he's reading his Bible, I'm reading my Bible, and there's a certain behavior pattern there. And with this last phrase, teach and preach these principles, the teaching and the preaching is how you live your life. What has to do with sanctity? Well, let's say that I, as the pastor and the slave, no identification, position, condition, and Ron doesn't.

And so he's coming to my church. He doesn't know any of that. So I'm trying to teach it, but he's not getting it. How do I deal with him? We've just gone through what it means to be an elder. So, but I'm a slave elder, you know. I'm the elder, but I belong to this guy over here in the back row. How do I deal with him?

That's probably why I maybe talk too much, or some of my questions are so farsighted, because there's no middle ground. There really isn't. And even to know what the ground is first. And to grow it. So think about what Paul is doing with Timothy. He's teaching him the ground.

Here's how it works. Here's how a slave functions. Here's how a master functions. Here's how a husband functions. Here's how a wife functions. Here's how kids function. Here's how people in the church who are in a position of authority, how they function, how you, as one of their members, how you function. It's interesting that Paul lays out a curriculum for behavior patterns that are based on God so loved the world. That, can I love my fled master? I better. Well, Christ is the Lord of all.

Yes he is, but you don't take advantage of that. I don't specifically adjust my sermons so I can trigger Ron's heart. I don't do that. Yeah, but he's got still that old nature within. And so do I. Right. And that's where the sanctification process has to be went through. And he may fail. Yeah. 80% of the time. Yeah. But he's still got that 10% that he knew he did what was right in the sight of the Lord. So it's establishment of the believer in his Christian walk.

You think it's hard for Americans to understand what it's like to be a slave? That was gonna be mine. I'm trying to wrap my head around the fact that how a slave could be I Mean, I don't know how it functioned to do things one how it functioned You know could it could a slave be a pastor at a church over a master you could say that's that's possible But it's like how did I thought slaves were pretty much you know? But did they have more freedoms than that to be able to go to a church, pastor a church, do all that as a slave? Number one, that just doesn't compute with what I think of as a slave. A slave is somebody who is very restricted in what they're able to do. Maybe that wasn't the case in Paul's time. the others who said, you know, you know, whatever Bible, they didn't have a Bible, they didn't have any of this.

And so, you know, what, what was being taught, you know, Timothy's relaying on all of what Paul told him. And then that got disseminated to all the different local bodies. But yeah, sure. Well, probably the best example is Philemon and Onesimus. Yeah.

And Onesimus was a slave who took off when he became a Christian and ran into Paul somewhere along the line. Philemon was a slave owner and had become a Christian. So Paul sends Onesimus back to Philemon, but he tells Philemon how he's supposed to behave, and he tells Onesimus how he's supposed to behave. So, who knows what Onesimus's role was in the Christian church.

I mean, he could have, I don't know where, he went to Rome, I guess, or wherever he went. Somewhere I read, yeah, he became the head of the church somewhere. Yeah, I did. One of the, you know, leading, I mean, historically it says. Sure. He was a leader of the church somewhere. Yeah.

And, yeah, but yeah, just how it functions, you know. how that role could be reversed, and your pastor over your master, and how that would work over a non-believing master. Well, I guess the non-believing master wouldn't be in that assembly or that group. Yeah, I mean, I think we have the most difficult time in the United States. with the society we have of understanding those kind of roles. Because our mentality is, well, if I come to this church and I don't like it, I'm going to leave and go somewhere else. I'm not bound. Or if I don't like what the elder's telling me, I'm just not going to obey him. Well, if it's not scripturally correct. Even if it is. Even if it is. against the foundational facts, principles.

America was never like it was in the 50s. 1850? No, 1950. 1950. I was in high school in the 50s. 90 years ago? If he talked to my dad, he would say, yeah, those crazy liberals were out doing their thing in 1950. Yeah, yeah. He hated Roosevelt. So anyway. I don't know. It just seems like.

I think the point is that the Christian life If you learn who you are, where you are, and what you have as a believer, you're positioned in Christ, you have a resurrected life, and like we're gonna talk about later, you've been freed from sin, the sin nature. Then you start to think, well, how does this Christian life work? How does it function? And so when you learn it, Whatever role you have in society, you don't buck against it. You recognize that, well, God put me there, and so that's where I am. And if he put me somewhere else, then I'm gonna go somewhere else.

We were at a baby shower for some friends yesterday. They're gonna have a baby in what, a couple weeks, month? December. And he's a lawyer and he doesn't have a job. We don't know if he got fired from his firm or he just left. I told him, I said, I'm praying for you, brother. He said, well, thank you. He said, I recognize that this is a trial from the Lord and I'm okay. And his wife, who is a doctor, an optometrist, or whatever she is, she's not worried.

So we'll see. There are going to be parents here in a couple of months. I hope he gets a job. Okay, here's an example. Oh boy. Is this way out here somewhere? Well, no, because it's really happening. I mean, I've got a buddy who's a Christian, what do they call it, sex buddies with this gal.

I left. Once I found that out, I just packed up my stuff and left. I told him what the right thing was to do. And he was mad at me for a year or so. But now he's trying to get back in touch with me. And I'm thinking, See, his situation is still the same because he thinks this is grace. See? And he doesn't understand order. Do you believe her? Yeah. Yeah. But, see, he listens to Joseph's Prince. Oh, gee. See? I took him to scripture and talked with him and stuff, and it's like, well, see, the spirit can only lead. You know, I can show him, lead a horse to water, but you can't...

So your question is, how do you treat the guy? Yeah, I treat the guy with utter respect. Yeah, but you packed up your stuff and left. You did the right thing. Yeah. Let me go through these principles. These situations are all over. Oh, well, yeah. And it's people raising their fists to God. Well, you think it was different than the Roman Empire? Well... No, it was worse then. Because what you had were strong men like Caesar, and they ruled with an iron fist and did whatever they wanted.

Here's a couple of points. To disrespect a man, owner is to think down on him, to think disdain, to belittle him, to think nothing of him because he's a leader. The Christian slaves are exhorted not to despise their Christian masters because they, the masters, are brethren belonging to the same brotherhood and they're not going to be liberated because I think most slaves would want to be liberated. Instead, they are to do them service that's what their role as a slave is. And I recognize how hard that is, especially in our society.

If we don't like the work environment we're in, how many Christians you know that go to the Lord and say, well, do you want me to stay here or can I go? Can I go find another job? Or is the decision based solely on the fact that I don't like this guy and I'm going to go somewhere else? And so you start looking, hire a recruiter, whatever. You know, ever think about the fact that where you are, God puts you there? The trouble with getting old is God lets you get old and you can't move. You're not going to the young man's club anymore. Okay. So the last question we'll cover today is question nine. Why are they, slaves, supposed to do it this way? Read the verse.

The part says, because those who partake of the benefit are believers and they're beloved. In other words, they're partakers of what benefits of being initially saved, but also what it means to be in Christ and that they are, the master and the slave both share the same freedom and same life. So, Being faithful here is the fact that these Christian masters have a quality of faithfulness, but that they are believers. What did I do here? The fact that they're believers and you're a believer means it's pretty simple.

They're due respect, no matter what role they have. You know? They do that. You think like a lot of people you meet or run into that, like you're having a board meeting. You respect the guys on the board? Sure. You listen to what they have to say? Even the ones that don't know what they're talking about? Yeah, you do. And you trust God to move a meeting like that towards the goal in the end that he wants.

Kind of cool. You guys weren't very talkative today. I opened my mouth too wide. I opened it too far. So let me have a show of hands. Was Mike talking for the rest of you? Okay, the singer's gotta go sing, so let's close. Well, was that what it was? It's life. Yeah, it's life. All right, let's close.

Dear Father, we thank you for your grace and mercy. We don't really identify with slaves and masters, but we do identify with employers, employees, bosses, and we recognize that we're, as members of the body of Christ, that we're under you, and that makes all the difference because you love us and gave yourself for us. We thank you for that. We pray in your son's name, amen.