‘Timothy! Here’s what to teach the slaves in your flock!’ (1 Timothy 6:1-2)

https://bendigopc.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/bpc20160702.mp3
As a ‘Handbook on Church life’, Paul’s first letter to Timothy contained many intructions as to how Timothy was to treat members of his church family, of which salves were a major part in the first century world, up to one third of the population. Slavery in the Roman Empire was nothing like the brutal slavery known throughoutthe world in more recent times and so Paul encouraged Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:1-2 to remind the slaves that as believers, their responsibility was to honour their masters so that the Word of God may not be reviled and to do that even more (not less) when their masters were fellow brothers in the Lord. The principle behind all this is that in all of our employment, wherever and for whoever that may be, we are to live and work in such a way that our Master (Jesus) is honoured.