Duty of Those Who Serve
THE apostolic warning to submission, addressed to menservants and maidservants, can no longer without more be applied to those who are in service.
The relation of master and manservant, was then different as a rule. There were those, who as freemen made agreement as to wages, but this was not common. In general one was served by male and female slaves.
Such male or female slaves were in their master’s power. They were his property. However hard their master was in his treatment of them, they could not get away. Of giving up a servile position there was no mention. And as a citizen was subject to his king, so slaves owed submission to their master.
Only he who has this in mind, can understand what the apostles said to the men and maidservants of those days, “Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward” (1 Pet. 2, 18).
The apostles knew full well, how hard it was for one who had been made a freeman in Christ, to remain slave with a heathen man or for a female slave with a heathen woman. They realized in full, how the inclination to exalt themselves rather above their masters or mistresses, would root in the heart of baptized male and female slaves.
Were they not children of God and called to be saints, and could it be right before God, that in spite of this, perhaps all their life long, they should remain in hard, always humiliating slavery, not willed of God. And could it be counted evil of them, if they set themselves in opposition against so shameful and hurtful a condition?
And yet on this point the apostles have never hesitated. As we know from the striking example of Onesimus and Philemon, they have never willed nor tolerated, that because a slave had become the property of Christ, he should shake off the chains of social slavery.
Even he who in an evil hour had run away and escaped, was bound, willingly or unwillingly, to return to his master.
And for this reason the apostles warned the men- and maidservants, not merely to subjection, but also to submission.
Both male and female slaves were often bodily punished, and even this baptized men- and maidservants had to endure for Christ’s sake.
For, it is ever demanded, not that they merely bend and yield, but much more that for conscience’ sake, while such is the ordinance of God, faithfully and with a good heart, they shall serve their lords and masters.
FROM this, however, follows, that you neither can nor ought to apply this apostolic warning in its original meaning to your own servants or working people.
They who serve you, are neither male- nor female-slaves, but freeborn men and women, who have entered into some sort of an agreement with you, if you like, have made a contract with you, that they will do this or some other thing for you, and render you this or that service. And that as compensation, they will receive from you a wage, beforehand agreed upon, be it merely in money, be it in shelter, board and wage.
So you cannot say, that you are “lord” over your servants or employees, neither can you assert, that they are your subjects.
Such relations existed aforetimes, but not in our social conditions now.
Lordly rights you can no more exercise in a single particular over your servants. And the claim, that in the real sense of the word they shall be subject unto you, will absolutely no more do in our times.
By rights the only ground for your mutual relation is the agreement, which you have entered upon with your servants. A servant who does not live up to this agreement, violates good faith and as such stands guilty before God and you. But for this reason it can never be said, that as subjects they have fallen short in submission or have slighted your authority.
Especially among us, Christians, this should clearly and definitely be understood.
We must never claim a right, which is not ours.
We are no longer lords, and our servants are no longer slaves.
What dominates our mutual relation, is the relation of agreement, contract and accommodation, but always agreement and contract between freemen mutually.
AND yet, however definitely and unhesitatingly we say this, with equal clearness of consciousness we add, that in the apostolic warning there lies even now a tie on the part of God for our servants.
As a rule our servants refuse to acknowledge, that they are in service, and by preference speak of a “position.”
In this they are partly right.
Over against men and women, alas, also among Christians not infrequently, who from the heights look down upon their dependents, and only partly acknowledge their personal liberty, there is some fairness in it, that the word “position” gets the emphasis.
Sometimes even children in the family assume an attitude of authority toward servants, which wounds and is irreconcilable with the honor of the name of Christian.
But from this it follows least of all, that therefore every idea of service can or must be abandoned.
Rather it should be emphasized, that that, wherein our servants are generally engaged, is a position of service.
In a family of any size there are all sorts of activities, which one cannot gauge accurately beforehand. In all manner of ways assistance is needed. In the course of a day all sorts of occasions arise, at which we need service from others.
For these services one takes servants into his house, and such on the self-evident condition, that willingly and faithfully they will render the services, which reasonably are demanded of them.
Though it be undeniably true, therefore, that our servants hold a position with us, yet the peculiarity of their position brings with it, that they do not merely perform a task previously agreed upon, but that they serve us; do, what they are told, and with discretion and fidelity continue in the doing of this daily task.
IN this sense alone, it may and must be said, that they must be submissive in the fear of God.
Submissive, not by reason of a glorious right, which we as lords and ladies have to exercise over them. But submissive, because by coming into service with us, of their own free will they have bound themselves to this submission.
If you say, that they need not have done so, in the abstract is correct, but actually the matter stands differently.
The actual condition in our present-day life is such, that there is no other way open to many, except that of service. It is their appointed lot. And in this lot they have to reverence the counsel of their God.
The character of a service brings along, that very much must be entrusted to our servants; that so much depends upon their good care; and that it is almost impossible, to admit any one in his house on a footing of such unlimited confidence, in his more private life, and with his children, unless, apart from all agreement, and from all wage, an higher principle unites both the members of the family and the servants.
And it is this higher principle which the apostolic warning rightfully emphasizes, and which, by us Christians, whether we are served or serve, must be brought to honor.
Your contract and your stipulated wage govern the mutual relation according to right. But back of this external right lies the deep-going right of your God.
The right of your God, that in your servants you shall honor His freeborn creatures, His baptized ones, called unto eternal life, and that you shall repress and bring to nought all pride and highness, to which the flesh tempts you.
But also the right of your God, that you, who, under His government, have been placed in the position of service, shall to the end perform your given task, not for the sake of wages, nor yet from eye-service, but for the sake of the will of God, as in His holy service, and that not from necessity, but willingly, you shall seek your delight in your service itself.
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