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Titus 2:9-10
9 Exhort servants [doulos] to be obedient [hupotasso] unto their own [idios] masters [despotes], and to [einai] please them well [euarestos] in [en] all [pas] things; not [me] answering again [antilego];
10 Not [me] purloining [nosphizomai], but [alla] shewing [endeiknumi] all [pas] good [agathos] fidelity [pistis]; that [hina] they may adorn [kosmeo] the doctrine [didaskalia] of God [theos] our [hemon] Saviour [soter] in [en] all things [pas]. KJV-Interlinear
9 Urge bondslaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, 10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect. NASB
The word for servants, ‘doulos,’ refers to all categories of servants, employees, hired labor, contract labor, and so forth. These include people who have entered into a relationship with a master (employer) either by voluntary or involuntary means.
Anyone who has entered into a relationship of labor, of their own volition or were somehow forced into the circumstances of slavery, are to abide by the terms of the arrangement, whatever those terms are, so long as they are legal and right.
This does not mean that that the master (employer) has the rights of a tyrant, to do with the subordinate person as he pleases.
Note that the Bible does not take up issue with ones chosen cultural style. So if you choose to have a beard, wear long dresses, use high tech to the max, drive a buggy or a jag, these things make no difference to your spiritual life or to your spiritual growth.
Not everyone is going to be a mountain climber, a doctor, or a candlestick maker. Again, your vocation is never an issue in your spiritual life. Everyone has free choices and opportunities to follow their life's interests.
Whether free man or slave, is irrelevant as well.
God placed us all in this world and God placed us all in many different situations. These things were done in order to glorify God, not you.
No person has the right to presume that their successes and achievements and acquired status’s in life are of their own doing. They are not. God gives and God removes. No one has anything that did not come from God.
You were not placed in this world in order to be first in this class, first in the race, first in anything, to acquire massively for your own benefit alone. Although, and I emphasize, although, it is not wrong per se to pursue these things in life.
Remember our study of reservoirs? God established reservoirs of all sorts for things for the perpetuation and support of humanity.
From large deposits of oil and coal, to a large atmosphere of air surrounding the planet, to people of ability for accumulating wealth which leads to jobs and commerce, to gravity, to the universe, to genetics, to the divine establishment principles that keeps humanity afloat, to imagination and technology and innovation, to just about anything you can think of. God has made these things for your benefit.
A rich man has one set of rules that govern him. A poor man has the same set of rules. Both have to be fair and honest from their respective positions.
Both will die and both bodies will rot equally without prejudice from the worms. Both will enter heaven, or worse, and both will be confronted with the same set or rules (again) from God.
To be argumentative, to cheat, to try to gain some advantage over someone else, is contrary to Gods instruction. If your gains come at the expense of another, then your gains are ill-gained.
But look around us today, far too many are swarming like piranha around those who are losing their homes through foreclosure, through short sale schemes, through hard money loan sharking. Far too many cheat in life with impunity, for their own selfish gain. And to what end?
Everyone will soon leave this world, and what they have, will be lost instantly.
So whether slave or rich man, your life depends not on your circumstances, not on your inability to make ends meet, not on your ability to scheme better than the next guy, but on the content of your soul with respect to Gods Word.
God is glorified when He demonstrates that no matter what a persons circumstances in this devils world, and the devil has been given wide latitude in running the world, that God can take any set of situations and bring anyone to spiritual maturity.
And in so doing, and this is the whole point of the study, God can bring any person to phenomenal success for eternity.
Our destiny is not in this world, but in the next. But too, that does not mean that we do not do our very best with the gifts that God has given each of us.
Who do you know that is alive now, and is over 150 years old, or over 200 years old, or is a 1000 years old? No one. Where are all of the many hundreds of billions of people who have been born since Adam and Eve? Where are they? Not here, and that is for sure.
Where are your great-great-great grandparents? Dead. Where will you be when you reach your eightieth, or ninetieth, or one-hundredth birthday? You will most likely be dead.
If God has placed you in the position of slave, or diaper changer, or financial wizard, the blame or credit is not yours. You are neither a better nor worse person for your situation.
What you have no excuse for, is your lack for spiritual growth, because that is by your choice.
When you arrive at the pearly gates, heaven does not check your balance sheet or your membership cards, or your empty pockets. Heaven checks only the content of your soul.
How you conduct yourself in this life is a reasonable reflection of the status of your spiritual life. And by the way, you are not here to check up on anyone else. People will make mistakes along the way and they should be given the opportunity to correct their own mistakes.
You check up on yourself and keep your own house in order.
