Colleen and Nikki discuss the fourth part of chapter three of Colossians. Paul uses this section to teach about relationships between bosses and workers whether slave or free. The racist teachings of the Adventist prophet are also sampled. Transcription by Gwen Billington.
Nikki: Welcome to Former Adventist podcast. I’m Nikki Stevenson.
Colleen: And I’m Colleen Tinker.
Nikki: This week we’ll be discussing the final verses of chapter 3 in Colossians. Now, just to recap, in the earlier portion of the chapter, Paul reminded the church that since they died with Christ to their old life and had been raised with Him into newness of life, they were to now seek and set their minds on the things which are above. He told the church to put off their old ways and to put on the ways that belong to Christ. In this chapter the church is called to live in the reality of who they are as born-again children, loving and seeing one another through the lens of eternity. Now, this letter was read before the entire congregation of Colossae and was shared with other churches, which means they were all publicly accountable to one another to live out this way of Christ, no matter the circumstances they found themselves in, as we’ll see clearly today. Now, in the last 8 verses of chapter 3 and the first verse of 4, Paul’s commands for the church narrow from the general posture of how they’re to live with others down to details about how they’re to relate to one another within the family system and in the home. Now, at that time in history, the home often included having household bondservants, a system of service which was quite different from the North American slavery of the 17th through 19th centuries, but we’ll talk more about that later. Last week we discussed the commands related to marriage and child-rearing, and this week we’ll deal with the last portion related to bondservants and masters, and I just want to quickly say that these verses are especially helpful to us at this particular moment in history, as the secular world has hurled accusations into the public sector of the Bible promoting a type of Greco-Roman patriarchy and the approval and propagation of slavery. This particular passage and others like it, when studied with a proper hermeneutic, reveal those accusations to be quite false. Now, before we get started, I just want to remind you that if you have any questions or comments for us, you can write to us at formeradventist@gmail.com. Also, if you’d like to sign up for our weekly emails containing updates about the ministry and links to our online articles and weekly podcasts, you can do so by visiting proclamationmagazine.com. If you’d like to come alongside us with your financial support, you can also do that there by clicking on the donate tab. And also, we’d love for you to like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Now, Colleen, as an Adventist, what did you think about the idea of Paul addressing slaves?
Colleen: That is an interesting question. I have been trying to remember what I thought about that as an Adventist and can’t remember anything very specific. I think in general I thought of this as time sensitive.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: That he was talking to people who had slaves, and we don’t. It almost didn’t matter to me, and I didn’t pay too much attention to it, although because he said, “Whatever you do, do as to the Lord” and that sort of thing, I did feel like those were commands that I had to keep. Like I’ve said before, every command in the Bible I thought was for me. In some way, I did think it was related to me figuring out how to do my life in a way that would be approved by God. But I really didn’t know what to think about the slave thing. I thought that was time sensitive and I could kind of just not worry about that because that wasn’t today. What about you?
Nikki: I saw it that way too. It was one of those things that was tied to the culture that they lived in and certainly was no longer a command for us because God could never approve of slavery. I think because it made me uncomfortable, I didn’t even try to see any principle in the passage. I just sort of ignored it. When people would accuse the Bible of promoting slavery, I would just sort of shrink back in embarrassment. I didn’t know how to respond. I just didn’t press into uncomfortable passages.
Colleen: Yeah. I didn’t either. I had the same reaction. I just didn’t quite know how to respond because I didn’t actually think the Bible promoted slavery per se, but I didn’t know how to answer the accusation.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: And it’s been interesting to me to look at this now and understand that if you understand that we have an immaterial part of ourselves as well as a physical part of ourselves, an immaterial part of ourselves that’s born dead and can be made alive, everything about this passage is different. Paul didn’t teach abolishing slavery because he knew that the gospel itself would change people internally, and you can’t just abolish slavery in a whole society by a mandate from an apostle. He knew that if people took the gospel seriously, their hearts would change, and they would treat slaves differently, and they would have a different relationship altogether, even in a culture where slavery and bondservants were endemic. Now, Nikki, before we read the passage, I’d like you to share some of the study that you’ve done about the backstory to this particular passage. We’ve already learned that a man named Onesimus is with Paul and is going to be going back with Tychicus to the church at Colossae bearing this letter. But there’s a fascinating story with that, which helps us understand why Paul wrote this section in so much detail. Would you mind sharing that story, please?
Nikki: Yeah. This was really fun to look into. So you can find Paul’s letter to Philemon if you move very carefully to the right of Colossians. It’s so easy to miss. The letter is six books to the right, and it’s between Titus and Hebrews. Now, we know, like you said, that Epaphras planted this church in Colossae after learning the gospel from the Apostle Paul during his three years of ministry in Ephesus, and this church in Colossae actually met in the home of a man named Philemon. Epaphras and Philemon must have worked pretty closely together, and he would have known him very well. Since Epaphras brought the gospel to Colossae, it’s possible that he had a role in Philemon coming to faith, but we don’t know that for sure, and we learn in Paul’s letter that Philemon was a man full of faith and love. He was hospitable and a great encourager of the Body of Christ. And it seems that this encouragement wasn’t just a sweet, superficial kind of thing. Paul refers to Philemon as “refreshing the hearts of the saints,” and the word there in Greek conveys deep affection, emotion, and intimacy, so the people really loved and trusted Philemon. Now, Philemon was obviously a man of means, as he was able to host the church, and he apparently had bondservants, or at least one. Onesimus was working for Philemon but apparently ran away at some point to the City of Rome, and while he was in Rome he encountered Paul, who was there under house arrest. And he came to faith in Christ through his relationship with Paul. Onesimus became extremely dear to him. He even refers to him in the letter as “my very heart” and “as my child.” It’s really sweet to read. He told Philemon that he had become a spiritual father to Onesimus, so he’s really appealing to Philemon from a place of a lot of emotion. And remember, during this time in history, the culture expected that Onesimus would have been dealt with brutally or put to death for running away, but when Paul met Onesimus, he saw him not as property. He saw him as someone who needed Jesus, and he took him into his very heart and loved him with what I would describe as sacrificial love, because he was going against the culture, and we know that going against the culture doesn’t come without conflict from other people. But he didn’t defer to what the culture expected or demanded. What was interesting in the letter, to me, is how earnest Paul is for Onesimus to be treated well and accepted, and he even played the apostle card. [Laughter.]
Colleen: [Laughter.]
Nikki: He reminded Philemon that he’s able to, by his authority, command him how to handle the situation but said that he would rather appeal to him in love, and that he would do the right thing by Onesimus. He tells Philemon that Onesimus was useless to him as a bondservant, but now that he is born again and he’s a part of the family of God, he’s actually very useful, for ministry even. Paul expressed a desire to have Onesimus join him in ministry, but he insisted first that he return to Philemon so that Philemon could allow it through love and not be forced into it. So he was respectful, but he was pushing against what was expected by society. He clearly revealed that being brothers and sisters in Christ, with a shared mission for the spreading of the gospel, is actually what identifies us, far above any social constructs or expectations. He suggested even that perhaps the reason Onesimus was parted from Philemon was so that he could be returned to him for eternity. So we see him referencing the sovereignty of God in this, the supremacy of who we are in Christ. And then he even takes it a step further and tells Philemon that if he considers Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, his partner in ministry, then he’ll receive Onesimus as he would receive Paul. So he was pretty serious, and he even offered to pay any lasting debt between Onesimus and Philemon, and you know, some people have thought that possibly Onesimus had stolen from him, but based on what I’ve studied through this, preparing for this, you could be a bondservant simply because you have debt with someone, and so you go into service with them to pay off that debt, so it’s possible that’s all it was. We can’t really know. So it’s interesting, we’ll have people today who read Paul’s words in Colossians 3 or in Ephesians and say that Paul promoted slavery, but we know, looking at this passage, there’s a whole story being played out here where Paul is actually very clearly teaching the master of a bondservant that his relationship to Onesimus as a brother in Christ is supreme over anything else. And he ends the letter by telling Philemon that he’s confident in his obedience, which again made me laugh because he said he wasn’t commanding, he was appealing in love, but now he’s confident in his obedience. [Laughter.] When Tychicus travels from Rome back to Ephesus to deliver the letter to the Ephesians and then to Colossae to deliver their letter, he does this with Onesimus by his side, and I don’t know, I imagine that he gave Philemon the letter privately, as Onesimus was returned to him, and that their interaction probably occurred before the letter to the Colossians was read to the church, which would meet in his home, so I imagine that they had reconciled. And then here they are, standing in his living room, or wherever they met –
Colleen: Uh-huh.
Nikki: – hearing this letter to the church being read and the passages we’re going to talk about today. They’re hearing that, through everything that they’ve just experienced, which includes Paul completely redefining the relationship between them on the basis of Christ. I think it’s worth mentioning here also, just in response to people suggesting that Paul is promoting slavery, the Christian church has been credited as having a significant influence in the slow death of slavery in antiquity. The way that Paul teaches, the way the word of God teaches us, there’s not room for those kinds of distinctions between people. We are one in Christ. Because of that, contrary to the idea that Christians are free to segregate and have separate ministries on the basis of what makes them different from each other, Paul gives us an example of shared ministry in the bonds of Christ no matter your background.
Colleen: It’s so interesting, Nikki, that understanding the story of Onesimus and Philemon really sheds light on this little passage in Colossians. It’s a larger passage than the corresponding passage in the Book of Ephesians, which was written about the same time, and many people believe that Paul spent more time on this issue of slaves and masters in Colossians because of the issue of Philemon and Onesimus, because this letter to Philemon was going back to the church of Colossae to Philemon, and that these things were happening at the same time. And it looks completely different than it looked to me as an Adventist –
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: – where I thought, “Oh, this is just some kind of a time-bound thing that isn’t really relevant today anymore.” And again, I’m struck by the fact that if we don’t understand that Paul is not approving of slavery in the way we understood it as Americans, he’s not approving of that. He is saying, “There is something so much greater, so much more life-changing than that. If you know the Lord, if you’re alive in Christ, you can never look at another human being as not being in the image of God, and if he is also a born-again believer, he is your brother. It does not matter what his station in the secular world is. You must treat him as your brother in Christ.” It’s so fascinating because it just makes it even more clear to me that Adventism is not a biblical religion.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: That it’s not based on the gospel. It’s interesting to me to see that historically Adventism was not clear about the race issue. And today, Adventism is very eager to try to present Ellen White as somebody who championed the cause of the slaves and tried to bring equality to them and was instrumental in setting up Oakwood College, where they would be educated, and they try to make her look like a champion of civil rights. But if you really look back at the things she wrote, that is not the case at all. I have some passages here that I want to share because I think it’s very instructive. First of all, I want to say this, to this very day Adventism has, embedded in its system, something called the regional conferences. Now, I grew up knowing about the regional conferences, although they weren’t talked about a lot. It was a surprise to me a few years ago to discover that Christians who did not understand Adventism well did not know about the regional conferences and were shocked to find out that they existed, but they do exist. Today there are nine regional conferences in the United States, and the thing about regional conferences is, that’s code word for Black conferences, Black Adventism. The nine regional conferences today in the United States are the Alleghany East Conference, the Alleghany West, Central States Conference, Lake Region Conference, Northeastern Conference, South Atlantic Conference, South Central, Southeastern Conference, and Southwestern Conference. Interestingly, the head office for the regional conferences is located where do you suppose? On the campus of Oakwood University, the Adventist university which to this day remains as an almost entirely Black university. Now, people don’t like to think about that when they think of Adventism, and Adventism itself doesn’t like to talk about it. Inside of Adventism, this whole regional phenomenon is not something that anybody really hates. Everybody is sort of content with this. In November of 2015, Ted Wilson, who is today still the General Conference president, met with the presidents of the nine regional conferences to explore ways to step up evangelism and outreach in their districts. The report of this meeting that he had with them says that the regional conferences were established in the mid-1940s to accomplish a stronger work for African-Americans and to provide leadership opportunities that would benefit the work of God. Now, that’s a quote from the Adventist News Network. Now, this quote from Adventist News Network and Ted Wilson himself affirms a telephone conversation that I had in the mid-90s with a director of regional affairs for the Southeastern California Conference. Now, in the Western states, they don’t have regional conferences that are distinct from the main conferences. But they have departments in the conference offices that oversee the churches that are primarily Black Adventist churches. And I asked this director why they had separate regional conferences and separate directors, and his response was actually very similar to what Ted Wilson said. His response was that the African-American Adventists wanted the conferences because they created more leadership opportunities for African-American Adventists. And it’s probably true that historically Black Adventists would have had limited opportunities for advancement in the otherwise mostly White Adventist conferences, but you ask, why does this situation exists, and why does it exist to this day? On the bottom line, it’s like almost everything else in Adventism. This came directly from the prophet. This came from Ellen White. Now, Ellen White lived through the Civil War, and she wrote about the slaves, and she wrote about the situation following the war and how the Adventists were supposed to relate to the what she would called “Coloreds” in a lot of her writing. Just because nothing says it as well as the woman herself, I’m going to read a few of her quotes from the late 1800s. “You have no license from God to exclude the Colored people from your places of worship. Treat them as Christ’s property, which they are, just as much as you yourselves.” So that sounds good; right?
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: But then she has the double-speak. “They should hold membership in the church with the White brethren. Every effort should be made to wipe out the terrible wrong which has been done to them. At the same time, we must not carry things to extremes and run into fanaticism on this question. Some would think it right to throw down every partition and intermarry with Colored people, but this is not the right thing to teach or to practice.” So she’s fine saying, after the war, “Oh, we have to include them. They can be members. But don’t you think that you’re going to carry it out too far. You don’t include them into your intimate circles.” And then she goes on, “Let us do what we can to send this class of laborers, who will work in Christ’s name, who will not fail nor be discouraged. We should educate Colored men to be missionaries among their own people. We should recognize talent where it exists, and those who have the ability should be placed where they may receive an education.” And then she says this, “There are able Colored ministers who have embraced the truth. Some of these feel unwilling to devote themselves to work for their own race. They wish to preach to the White people. These men are making a great mistake. They should seek most earnestly to save their own race, and they will not by any means be excluded from the gatherings of the White people. God has children among the Colored people all over the land. They need to be enlightened. There are unpromising ones, it is true, but you will find similar degradation among the White people, but even among the lower classes, there are souls who will embrace the truth. Should it not be the work of the White people to elevate the standard of character among the Colored race, to teach them how Christians should live by exemplifying the Spirit of Christ, showing that we are one brotherhood?” Now, this was from her book The Southern Work, and it was dated 1891. Now, keep in mind that Ellen White died in 1915. This is less than 20 years before her death. I mean, this is after James White died. The church is established, it was established officially in 1863. This is not early, early Adventism. Ellen White is an older woman, and the church is established. This is not early stuff that she wrote. Here’s one more quote from 1896. This was in the Review and Herald. “The Colored people, though emancipated from physical slavery, are still in the slavery of ignorance. They’re led to believe they should do just what their masters tell them to do.” Now, notice this is after the Civil War by 30 years. “Unless their minds are enlightened so that they may understand the Scripture for themselves and know that God has spoken to their souls, they will not be benefited by the preaching of the truth for they’re in a condition to be deceived easily by false teachers. In reaching the Colored people, it’s best to seek to educate them before presenting the pointed truths of the third angel’s message.” It’s really significant to notice here that she is saying that the Colored people could not understand what she would have called the Adventist gospel, the three angels messages, unless they were educated. They had to learn to read, they had to learn book learning in order for their minds to be able to comprehend what she thought was the truth. Adventism has always believed that education is part of becoming Christlike. Ellen White even said that we had to become educated in order to be restored to the image of God. She completely misses the fact that we have spirits that need to be born again. She’s completely dealing with this on a physical level, and she sees what she called the “Colored people” as different from the White people and as definitely inferior in terms of their opportunities and abilities.
Nikki: And they somehow needed the White people to help them, to rescue them. They needed the White people to educate and condescend to them. It’s so upsetting to hear all of this.
Colleen: It’s deeply upsetting, and most Adventists don’t know she said these things. I have just two more quotes, and I’m sorry that it’s taking so long, but I really think people need to understand what she said.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: And when you understand what she said and then read this passage in Colossians, it’s no wonder we looked at it and had no clue how to take it. But it also helps us understand what we came from and how the view of the nature of man is crucial in helping us to understand what’s real about the gospel. So here’s the second to the last quote: “The Colored people cannot be petted and treated just as if they were on a level with the Whites without ruining them for all missionary work in the Southern field. There is a difference among the Blacks as there is among the Whites. Some possess keen and superior talents that if the possessor is not made too much of and is not treated from a biblical standpoint, as humble men do to a Christlike missionary work, not exalting them but teaching them religious love and Christlike love for the souls of their own Colored race, and keep before them that they’re not called into the field to labor for the Whites but to learn to labor in the love of God to restore the moral image of God in those of their own race, then a good work can be done. There is a work to be done in opening schools to teach the Colored people alone, unmixed with Whites, and there will be a successful work done in this way.” Well, there’s a lot that’s wrong with that, but one of the things that we could almost miss, because of the horror of the racism of these statements, is that she’s saying that people restore the image, the moral image, of God in other people. No. We do not. Not even teaching people to read can do that. It’s God, the Holy Spirit, who makes us alive in Christ and makes us reflect Him. This is a spiritual phenomenon that God Himself does. We don’t do it to each other. And here’s the last quote. This one is from The Southern Work again, and it’s dated 1899. “The breaking down of distinctions between the White and the Colored races unfits the Blacks to work for their own class and exerts a wrong influence upon the Whites.” Nikki, did you have any idea that’s what we came from?
Nikki: No, I had no idea. This is the first time I’ve heard these quotes, and I just want to weep. I can’t believe that this had anything to do – well, no, I take that back. Knowing what I know about Adventism now, I absolutely believe that this is a part of Adventist history because it’s not rooted in biblical Christianity. It is not rooted in the gospel. There is nothing good about this, and I feel like I can hear Adventists I know defend this.
Colleen: Yes.
Nikki: In my own head I can imagine how they would say, “Oh, but she was ahead of her time,” and “She” – no, she wasn’t!
Colleen: No, she wasn’t.
Nikki: The Bible was written thousands of years prior, we had the truth. At that time in American history, her perspective was racist and evil and not biblical.
Colleen: I absolutely agree. The Apostle Paul had already written, and he had already written that no one is permitted to think of himself as superior to another person if they are all made alive in Christ. It doesn’t matter what our position is in society, if we are believers, we are equal before God, and there’s nothing we can do to change that. No amount of redistribution of sin and fault and blame will ever change that in Christ we are one new man, and we are equal before God. In Him there is no male nor female, Jew nor Greek, slave or free. We are one man in Christ, and our value is the same, and we have to treat each other that way. Adventism is an unbiblical religion, and if we really took seriously what the prophet says, we would not be able to, in good conscience, stay there once we see that.
Nikki: Her model of ministry here, the idea that she would suggest that “Oh, they need to just minister to their own people.” Where does she see that in Scripture? Paul was a Jew, he was a Pharisee, and God sent him to the Gentiles.
Colleen: And not only that, think about Luke, the Gentile, who wrote two of the 27 books of the New Testament. He wrote the only book of history, the Book of Acts, and he wrote a gospel. A Gentile. God appointed a Gentile to write two of the New Testament books. God is no respecter of persons. He knows His own, He brings them to life, and in Him there is no distinction. It makes me so angry when I look back and realize what that woman wrote, and I ever thought that she was the voice of God. She was not.
Nikki: It was only recent that they reworded the idea that she was a continuing and authoritative source of truth, and the rewording really didn’t change the meaning. They believe that she was more than a prophet, sent by God for a last-day people with a last-day message, and she’s teaching this garbage?
Colleen: Exactly.
Nikki: And folding it up in moral virtue signaling. It’s really upsetting. I apologize for being so worked up. I’ve just never heard this stuff before.
Colleen: It’s truly horrifying. And yes, Fundamental Belief #18 was changed a couple of years ago, but it is now she “speaks with prophetic authority” instead of saying she’s “a continuing and authoritative source of truth.” That’s essentially the same thing. Prophetic authority has authority from God. So, Nikki, why don’t we actually read our verses, and then we can talk through them and see a little bit more of what Paul said and how he explains how we live with our station in life when we are in Christ. So, Nikki, would you mind reading Colossians 3:22 to 4:1?
Nikki: “Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.”
Colleen: Paul comes right out and addresses bondservants, or slaves, and in the Roman context, thinking of Onesimus and Philemon, we can understand that. But today, when slavery is not an issue in our country or in most of the first world nations, how do you understand that today, Nikki? When he says, “slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters,” how can we understand that?
Nikki: Well, it helps to have a picture of what the system of the bondservants really was about during that time because it was so different from the way Americans, at least, will think about the word “slave.” So, generally they were allowed to work for money, and usually they were only working for their masters for was it about seven years? And then they were freed men. They could buy their freedom. They usually had highly trusted jobs. A lot of them would deal with large amounts of money. They had good work. After they were freed, they often chose to stay in employment with their master, and some of them even adopted the surname of their masters and honored them that way. They made up about a third of the population in cities like Ephesus, and they were actually integral parts of the family, which is likely why Paul mentions them with wives and children whenever he talks about the household codes. So we have a different system that we’re thinking about. I know sometimes they were actually placed in that role because of a conquering nation, from war, and so they were brought over. But even then, my understanding is that they could work their way into freedom, even in that situation, and some of them, I think, were criminals, and that was a sentencing. So I know there were various things that could put them in this position, and it’s not to say that there weren’t people who took advantage of their role as masters. It wasn’t the way that I grew up understanding slavery, so it helps me to understand this is kind of just the way they did economics, in a way, back then.
Colleen: Yes. That’s a good way to put it. Today we might actually think of this in terms of employers and employees.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: Because an employee is responsible to his employer. It’s part of our economic system. And when we work for somebody, this is instructive to help us understand how we honor the Lord when we work for somebody, because we all know that our bosses are not always wonderful people in terms of the way they treat us. What do you do if you have a boss who’s either good or bad? What’s your relationship? Well, Paul is pretty clear here that the way we treat somebody who is in charge of our work should not depend on whether they’re good people or bad people, but we have a job as Christians to do what’s expected of us with sincerity of heart, which is a really interesting phrase. They were not to be doing this just with an external desire to please somebody, to just get the work done so that they can’t fall into criticism. They were to do the work as to the Lord. So when we work for somebody, and I think back to having clients for whom I would do work, who I would write for, or even being a teacher and realizing that I was not only working for those students to learn, but I was also working for their parents, helping their parents take an interest in helping those kids grow, and then also answering to my principal. I look back on that and I think, you know, this passage is saying, in those conditions we work to please the Lord. It makes a huge difference in how we conduct our work and how we see the people we’re serving, if we’re realizing our real boss is the Lord Jesus.
Nikki: And this is a theme in his writing. I mean, this is essentially the same thing he tells wives, to submit to their husbands as to the Lord, and children obey your parents in the Lord. It’s a common theme that we do our work for the Lord.
Colleen: He does emphasize this idea even more in verse 23, where he says, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men.” Sometimes our human employers can give us irritating work or maybe even unfair parameters for our work, and Paul is saying here when you work for the Lord, that is supposed to inform the way you approach your employer, the way you respond to your employer, and the way you do your work. He’s not saying here not to have a discussion if a discussion is needed. If there is something happening at work that’s unfair or that’s maybe even illegal, he’s not saying ignore that, but he’s saying that what you do is done to the Lord. That affects the way you approach the situation.
Nikki: Isn’t this like the command in verse 17, “Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him”? It’s how we bear Christ’s name in the world, and it’s how we do everything unto Him.
Colleen: Everything is unto Him because we bear His name. And people will understand our relationship to the Lord, if they’re unbelievers, partly by how we respond to them and to the situation that we’re in.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: We are honoring Him by working for Him and to Him. And then, verse 24, “Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.” What’s the reward of the inheritance?
Nikki: Well, I’m glad you asked that because when I first left Adventism and I would read things like this, I would sort of panic because I just assumed inheritance meant my salvation, and then suddenly now, salvation is a reward, which means you’ve earned it, and it was very confusing to me. But this isn’t talking about our salvation because we know that, because Paul has already said at the beginning of chapter 3, “Since you have been raised with Christ,” so we know our position is secure at this point in the letter, so this inheritance is referring to the rewards that are ours in Christ for the work that we’ve done for Him in the flesh.
Colleen: And then in verse 25, “For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.” This is the flip side of the coin of receiving the rewards. It’s interesting in 1 Corinthians 3, where Paul talks about the rewards that believers will receive for the works done in the flesh. He says those things that are done building on the foundation of Christ will receive rewards, but those works that are done that have been the equivalent of wood, hay, and stubble will be burned up. Things that we do that are not built on the foundation of Christ, that are not honoring to the Lord, the Lord will burn that work up, even though the believer himself will be saved, as one passing through the fire, as Paul says. It’s very different from the way I thought about it as an Adventist. Like you, Nikki, I also thought this reward of the inheritance was talking about salvation. No, he’s talking about people who are saved, but our works will either be burned up, if they’re not done for the Lord and on the name of the Lord, or they will be rewarded. He is saying whatever your situation, work as to the Lord, honor Him. Everything about your life is to honor the Lord Jesus, who gave Himself for you.
Nikki: The thing that’s been so amazing to me about this, as I’ve been studying this and Paul’s attitude toward this stuff, is the fact that the gospel transcends culture. No matter where you find yourself, what system you live in, how you may or may not be oppressed, whatever is going on in history, the gospel transcends all of it, and when we’re born again and in Christ and we’re living according to His word, walking in newness of life, it changes everything about us and ultimately, I think, about our circumstances because as we thank Him, give thanks to Him in everything, even our perspective of the life we’re living is changed by the gospel.
Colleen: I’ve been really struck by this passage in 1 Corinthians 7. It’s verses 17 to 24, actually, and Paul is writing to the Corinthians, and he says, “As the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let him walk. And so I direct in all the churches. Was any man called when he was already circumcised? He is not to become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? He is not to be circumcised.” In other words, don’t try to be a Jew, don’t try to be circumcised and keep the law, and if you are a Jew and you are a believer, you don’t have to let go and try to pretend to be a Gentile. And he goes on, “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God.” I just have to say, “commandments” is not a word that means the Ten, which is what I thought as an Adventist. “Commandments” is anything God says to do, to His people. And then verse 20, “Each man must remain in that condition in which he was called.” And then he gets even more specific, and it starts to sound a little bit more like this passage in Colossians, “Were you called while a slave? Do not worry about it; but if you are able also to become free, rather do that. For he who was called in the Lord while a slave, is the Lord’s freedman; likewise he who was called while free, is Christ’s slave. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. Brethren, each one is to remain with God in that condition in which he was called.” Now, I just have to say again, Paul is not endorsing slavery. He is saying there is something that transcends our condition, and what you said, Nikki, about the gospel fitting in any culture is so important. I think sometimes what do Christ followers do, truly born-again children of God who love the Lord, who are in countries where it is illegal, where it is a death sentence, to be a Christian? Who are imprisoned for their faith? They have to have something that transcends that circumstance.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: And Paul is saying whatever your circumstance, if you are a slave, if you are in prison, you are Christ’s freedman, and He sustains you and holds you and gives you Himself no matter what. And if you’re free, like we are here in this country, we are Christ’s slave so that the gospel, the Lord Jesus, becomes the reason for living, the motive behind everything we do. The Lord asks us to trust Him, to live for Him. This is the reason we’re here when we’re Christ followers. The gospel transcends whatever the circumstances, and I just want to say, it doesn’t matter how people redefine the social structure, it doesn’t matter how they try to say, “Well, there are certain people who’ve always been oppressed and others who are always the oppressors.” That’s just trying to redefine sin and make it somehow genetically linked. That’s what Adventism did. No, in Christ we all share the same sin, as natural humans. We are born dead, spiritually dead. But in Christ we’ve been made alive. And that is not cultural, that is not ethnic, that is not hereditary. That is something that happens between us and the Lord. He brings us to life and we share His life.
Nikki: And not only are we brought to life, but He breaks down all the barriers that one time stood between us, and He has made us a new man and a new people group. We are one, and nothing about our background, about our ethnicity, our race, nothing changes that fact.
Colleen: We have to know who we are in Christ, and if we don’t understand that we’re two parts, body and spirit, and our spirit is born dead, and when we trust Christ and His finished work we’re made alive, if we don’t understand that, we can be guilted and manipulated into all kinds of responses to what’s going on around us, but in Christ we know who we are, and that’s where we have to stand, and we know who our brothers and sisters are, and that’s who we embrace as one in Christ. And then the last verse of this passage, Nikki, which is actually the first verse of chapter 4, is to masters: “Masters, grant to your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a Master in heaven.” How do you see that, Nikki? What does that make you think?
Nikki: Honestly, it makes me think of Ephesians 2, where we’re told that God prepares the work that we’re to walk in in advance. He gives the bondservant his work, He gives the master his work, He gives the wife, the husband, the child, He gives all of us the work to do, and He tells us how to do it. And we’re all, every single one of us, held accountable before God. Masters are not the top of the food chain. They have a Master in heaven, who they’re answerable to, and I really like the fact that in verse 25 it says that there’s no partiality. God is – He’s not a respecter of persons. There’s no partiality between any of the groups of people that we’re discussing here, any human.
Colleen: And so we stand looking at this today and looking back at the things Ellen White said in the 1800s, close to the turn of the century, actually, and we realize that was wrong. The Lord Jesus has changed reality. Ethnicity is not what determines our worth. It’s part of our identity, but it’s not who we are before God. His children, His true, born-again, adopted children are from every race, kindred, tongue, and people, and we are 100% equal in the sight of God when we are born again and alive in Christ. And the other thing is we cannot ever look at ourselves as needing to carry the sin that we have already committed to the Lord. We are all born equally sinful in the eyes of God, equally dead. The sin we share is identical, we’re dead, Ephesians 2:3, children of wrath. But when we trust Jesus, we’re made alive with Him. This is Ephesians 2, and we’re equal in His sight. And if you have not trusted the finished work of Jesus, if you have not understood that everything that was laid against you, that condemned you to death, by nature a child of wrath, has been taken by Jesus to the cross. If you’ve not trusted His death, His propitiation for sin, His death and His resurrection, His breaking the shackles of the curse that bound us, then we ask that you do it because everything about life, both now and eternally, changes when you’re alive in Him.
Nikki: So if you have any questions or comments for us, please write to us at formeradventist@gmail.com. Also, if you’d like to sign up for our weekly emails containing updates about the ministry and links to our online articles and weekly podcasts, you can do that by visiting proclamationmagazine.com. If you’d like to come alongside us with your financial support, you can also do that there by clicking on the donate button. And we’d love for you to like us and follow us on Instagram and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you to those who’ve already done that, and I pray that God would bless you in the week ahead and look forward to joining you for the last chapter of Colossians next week.
Colleen: See you then.
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