Ephesians, chapter 6 versus 5 through 9, read, slaves obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart just as you would obey Christ.

Obey them not only when their favor and when their eye is upon you but as slaves of Christ doing the will of God from your heart.

Serve wholeheartedly as if you were serving the Lord, not people,

because you know that the Lord will reward each and every one of you for whatever good you do,

whether you be slave or free.

We talk a lot on this show about how the Bible condones slavery and how it gives rules for slavery.

Exodus explains what to pay for slaves and how hard you can beat them.

And a lot of the times when we do this, theists call in to tell us that we're taking

things out of context, that slave didn't mean the same thing that it meant then, that it does now, that really, you know, slaves are more like servants and all these things, servants that you can buy and pass on his property and beat somehow. But these verses in particular really summarize what the Bible is talking about, I think.

Obey your masters as you would obey Christ.

Unquestioningly, immediately, unthinking, not trying to put your own worldly

understanding upon the will of the person in charge of you.

And in case you think that maybe that's a bit extreme,

you can read the very next verse,

this is Ephesian 69, 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.

This verse kind of goes both ways in the circles of arguments in that some people say,

well see it's saying that the masters need to be nice. It says they need to be good. It says that

God sees us all. But there's no such thing as a good slave owner.

There is no such thing as a moral slave owner.

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