Relationship of Slaves to Masters

Today we are going to finish up this section. You might consider it a family discussion by Paul. We are going to talk about slaves to masters. It is very similar to a section in Ephesians. We covered Ephesians before this. It is very similar to that, but there are some differences. We will try to point those differences out.

Next week we will have a review of chapter 3. Chapter 4 is kind of short. The last part of the year I've been thinking about what to do with different suggestions. I'm still kind of thinking. Actually, I'm leaning more now to doing some part of the Riches of God's Grace, Chafer's 33 Riches of God's Grace, which would fit in kind of well with what we've been doing. I haven't quite decided yet, but I'll let you know. Actually, that should stay open. What do you think, Wayne? It's quiet for us. So we'll see. That will mostly be in November and December.

So let's look at the relationship of slaves to masters. As you notice both in the main service and in Sunday school I like Macaulay's outlines. He does a pretty great job most of the time. 318-401 he calls our family life so we saw last week about the relationship of the wife to the husband and you know both 18 had the wife to the husband and then 19 had the husband to the wife and then we had children to parents children to the parents and then the special relationship between the father and the children And then today we're going to talk about the relation of slaves to masters. So some have observed there's three pairs of relationships in the family. And it seems like in New Testament times that I read some place that over half the believers in many churches were slaves in the sense that they were under a master. So slaves to master was a very important relationship and there were even slaves in many households too. This is the second time through for Paul and slaves and masters. He did it in Ephesians. So this will be another go around on that which is important.

McCauley calls it the execution of the requirements. I thought it was a little bit... I was going to change that title. Let's just talk about obeying your master. Execution of requirements seemed a little formal. Carrying out one's job by doing as much as possible, as well as possible. And then lastly, final compensation comes from the Lord, not from men.

This is pretty familiar stuff, pretty familiar territory. Hopefully there are some new things here that you will spot. Here is a passage that we are going to talk about today. Can someone read that? You can read it from the overhead or from your bible if you like. Slaves in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve, for he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.

I thought it would be good actually, if you have your Bible, let's turn, let's read the Ephesians passage too. It's quite similar, but I thought it would just be good to kind of see that as well. I'll read the Ephesians passage. Ephesians, it's going to be Ephesians 6, verses 5 through 9. So, Ephesians 6, 5-9 parallels these five verses.

So it says, Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of your heart as to Christ, not by way of eye service, as men pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with good with good will render service as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatever good things each one does, he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free. And masters, plural, do not do the same things to them and give up threatening, knowing that both their master and yours is in heaven and there is no partiality with him.

So the thing to keep in mind here, and it's shown in here. Let's just go to the next chart. The slaves were believers. Because it talks about these phrases. Fearing the Lord. Fearing the Lord in their obedience to their masters. As for the Lord. Doing your work as for the Lord, not for men. Receiving your true reward as received from the Lord, not from men. And then it is the Lord Christ whom you serve.

Kind of an interesting phrase there that I only found two times. I did a search and I only found two times that the Lord Christ is mentioned in the scripture. It's mentioned here and we'll look at the other spot too. Then I also thought, when Bob did his part last week, he did a good job, I thought it was always helpful to see the relationship between the Godhead, the Son, and the Father especially. So here's a couple of verses of Christ's relationship to the Father.

So in John 5.19 it says, Truly, truly, I say to you, This is truly amazing. This is how God operates. So if we have a problem with how man operates, this is how God operates. And so I think it helps us.

Is it unfair for God to have an order in his relationships on this earth, in his creation? He has an order in his his sphere, the Godhead as it's called, says, truly, truly I say to you, the Son can do how much? Nothing of himself. Unless it is something he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. So it speaks to several things. The unity of the Godhead, and this was another amazing one too. Jesus said, I do nothing on my own initiative. But I speak these things as the Father taught me. And then if you look in the Hebrews passage, it talks about... In fact, let's just turn to that for a second. Hebrews 10. Another passage that talks about the relationship of the Father and the Son. Hebrews 10. Maybe somebody could read that.

10. 4-7. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. Therefore, when he comes into the world, he says, Sacrifice and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. And the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I have come, and the scroll of the book is written to you, to do your will with them. Okay, all this for that very last little phrase at the end of verse 7. So he said, Then I said, Behold, I come in the roll of the book, it is written of me, to do my will, O God, No. To do Thy will, or Your will, O God.

Pretty amazing. So, as we see, as we go through this, especially last week, and you can struggle with some of that, God has an order in His creation, and His order comes down to the Christian family, husband and wife, parents and children, and now down to what's called slaves and masters. Any thoughts before we go on here? Just a thought. Our Lord came as God to take upon his nature a human nature. But God is spirit. We worship him spirited and true. He is the only one who ruled the human body with his spirit.

True. It is. It is. And that's what he desires us to do. As we know him, as we walk with him, that relationship is to be the, quote, rule of our life by faith as we trust him and walk with him. And actually that's going to come out in How the Slaves Mastered. That's going to come out.

A really interesting passage. I thought of you, Roy. There's a part here. I thought, boy, this is an interesting usage of of the word soul. So we'll get to it there. A little teaser there. So let's go to the first verse. Slaves. Let's just look at slaves to start with. Dulas, a slave, servant, spoken of involuntary service.

And we read that in Ephesians 6.5. Slaves, obey your master or be obedient to your masters. So, Scripture is going to make some interesting things. I'm going to talk about slavery here. Actually, Macaulay had a really great thing. So, let's read the verse first.

1 Corinthians 7.22 For he who was called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's freed man. Likewise, he who was called free is Christ's slave. So, if you think about it, We are slaves right now as believers, but it's a wonderful slavery, it's a wonderful situation.

There's many aspects to look at this. A man is a slave to sin right before he's a believer, but we move from that slavery to a slave to a loving father who cares for us and we have no problem with that relationship. And then I thought Macaulay had an interesting thing.

Why doesn't the Bible take a stance? People say, oh, you guys ought to be pounding hard on slavery. Well, it does it because a master can be served as unto the Lord. God's word did not free slaves who were believers. It rather gave them a new motive for being slaves. Thanks for being a good slave. We don't have any idea what it's like to be a slave.

True. Day by day. That has to be really hard. I don't think we really understand. I've heard people talk about it. If you study the culture of the time, slavery was much more I want to say, a fact of life. And you have good bosses and bad bosses, right? And actually, our earthly boss in our jobs really mirrors more what we're going to be talking about today. And we have good bosses and bad bosses. So what do we do about that?

And the Lord is going to talk to... Actually, He talks to the masters in some passages. He talks to the slaves in probably more passages. So he talks to both, and both are assumed to be, he's talking about at least the slave is a believer and at least the master is a believer. I haven't really picked up on that the slave and the master are believers. I haven't seen that connection, but he's talking about slaves, you're a believer, and that makes a difference for how you look at your master.

And he could tell us that Christian believers No, he never does that. And he doesn't actually say, try to get out of your slavery, right? He says, you're called a slave, you're free in the Lord. He doesn't say, okay, we need to have a... And Paul didn't do that either. Paul didn't go into any place and try to change the political situation. He steered clear of that.

He wanted to talk to people about who Christ was. This time that he's writing this book, he's also writing to play Lehman about Onesimus, the slave, who ran away from his master by Lehman, became a believer in Apollo's ministry somehow, and Apollo sent him back. Yeah, isn't that interesting? I saw something about that and I hadn't... Go ahead, Tom. And the significant part is that the letter survived. Master didn't go into a fit of terror. It all worked out. Yeah. Slavery, I don't think we really realize the social situation, how much slavery ruled. It was part of life then. Anyway, so God's focus is on a believing slave. Wasn't slavery back then kind of different from what we think of as slavery?

I would say you're right. Sometimes you were in debt to somebody and you became a slave or you sold yourself into slavery. Sometimes you did it voluntarily. You realize I don't have much of a chance if I don't... And we see that somewhat in England, people indebting themselves in the indentured service. They did that voluntarily because it was a better life than it was just out trying to make it plowing the fields. They found that to be a better situation. And if you had a good master, life could be good.

I guess, I don't know, what am I doing? Like I said, what do I know about slavery? OK, so let's go on here. So he says slaves in all things or everything. So it's every part of your life. Obey is this word. It's just kind of a cool word. And I like to remember this. So when you hear the word obey, don't read the definition quite yet. You've probably already read it. But anyway, what do you think about if I said, I want you to obey.

Does that sound very gracious? Does it sound even friendly? It sounds controlling. Tom? It sounds like the difference between a mirror slave and an outright prisoner. It sounds very harsh. But if you look at the word, it's a compound word. Hupo is under, and Akuo is to hear. It's to hear under. It's to listen under.

And boy, I have a much better Feeling might not be the right word, but much better, able to understand that better. If you, like with your children, you say, you want them to come and listen to you. Come listen to me. This is what we should be doing here. Come and listen to me. Now, sometimes they run away. They don't listen, and there's a lot of other things that happen. But, come listen to me.

This is what we're going to do. And sometimes it actually works with your kids. They don't run around like, we're doing grandkids now, so we get to do it all over again. It's a different deal, but it's still, you know, come listen to me. Listen under what I'm saying. I have something to tell you. And from that definition it really, and it's to be the continuous part of their lives. You're listening under your master.

In Colossians 3.20, the previous verse up a ways. Children, same way. Listen under your parents. Once again, I think a much better way to look at that. Also, a much better way to teach that to your children. You come down with an iron fist, that's going to cause, many times, rebellion. Let's talk this through.

And the word says, come let us reason together. And there's a couple of verses in Timothy that are good. How about Titus 2, 9 and 10? Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things, not answering again, not perjoining, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. Good. Great. Thanks. Yeah, pretty impressive. In my head, it has to be subject to the masters. But it's the same idea. It's the same word, I believe. Okay, so that's the first little part.

Slaves in all things obey. To those who are your masters on the earth, not with external service. To those who are your masters on the earth, literally masters according to the flesh. So master here is the word for Lord. One who exercises power. Colossians and Romans talk about that we haven't gotten to the we're going to see that later on the masters grant your slaves justice and fairness and then Romans talks about to your own master you stand or fall that's kind of interesting verse And it says, not with external eye service.

So this is a lot of cool words in this lesson today. So we had the one about the listening under. And this is the eye service one. This is the word for eye. Like from optometrist. I'm not sure how to pronounce it. Ophthalmos. Thank you. and do loss. As we well know, we see some people, when the boss is around, they're busy as a bee. But when the boss goes away, it's time to relax, right? Since your boss is the Lord, he sees you 24-7.

It's kind of silly to do it for man, since you're working for the Lord. as those who are not merely pleasing men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. So basically, men-pleasers is another compound word here. So men-pleasers is a compound word of the word Anthropos and the word to please. designates not simply one pleasing men, but one who endeavors to please men and not God. So if you're a men pleaser, you're always trying to, you know, there's various kind of very negative other words for men pleasers that are not very nice words sometimes.

And actually I had a verse in, can someone read 1 Thessalonians 2.4?

1 Thessalonians 2.4 kind of brings across part of this. But as we were all allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tries our hearts. Right. Not pleasing men, not being men pleaser, but pleasing God. Okay, with sincerity of heart, not having an ulterior or double motive, fearing the Lord. So we're going to see that this is reverential fear. Okay, so that kind of wraps up 22. Any last thoughts on 22? I'll just read it again.

Slaves and all things, obey those who are your masters on the earth. not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. So once again, each of these verses, the idea of your relationship with the Lord kind of shows up. You're doing it in reverence to the Lord. You're doing it for the Lord. I feel like this can apply to so many other areas of your life. Oh, absolutely. And this is how you live your life. You live your life for the Lord, right? So the fact that your boss may not always see what you do, maybe do things he'll never notice, but the Lord sees them. He knows what your heart is. Even in relationships, this goes down to even with friends, believing friends, any place.

Many times, Other people don't see your true motives. They have a different view of that. Sometimes it's hard to keep... You want to say, don't you see my true motive? What I really want for you is this. But they see the other motive. Sometimes it's never reconciled in this life.

Good point. So now, whatever you do, do you work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men? Whatever you do, or whatever may be your task, do your work heartily. It's a present, it's an imperative. So here's the interesting one. This word, heartily, is ek, it's a word for soul, which is suke, ek suke, which literally translated means out of the soul. And Macaulay says the point here is that it points to both the quality and quantity of the work, And also I found another verse, a very companion verse, it's back in the chapter of Ephesians, but it uses the same phraseology. But as slaves of Christ do the will of God from the heart are literally out of the soul. So I thought it might be good to just, and these are very brief definitions, but I think According to Chaffer, the soul connotes the immaterial part of man, which relates to life, action, and emotions. The spirit is that part which relates to worship, communion, and divine influence. I was interested, and I think you have to be careful. Roy and I have had a few discussions about soul and spirit, and there are some interesting books out there.

T. Austin Sparks has this book What is Man? I find that a hard book to read. Anyway, that's me. I like Chafer, pretty simple thing, pretty simple definitions.

But the word soul, I found Vine had 11 different categories. of how that word soul is used. I couldn't argue with, and if you're interested I can give you the one page handout which I copied off the computer, but the soul is used in a variety of ways. But it's interesting in this case he's saying, you almost think he should say it should be from the spirit because he's talking about our relationship with our Lord, right? But it comes down to our soul. So the connectivity between the soul and spirit It's interesting. I can't necessarily explain it, but it's interesting that he talks about the two phrases here are, whatever you do, do your work out of your soul, out of the soul. And then he says, but as slaves of Christ, do the will of God out of your soul.

And actually I found that Vine actually categorized this Ephesians 6.6.6b. He says that's the seat and will and purpose of the soul. And he has other categories.

There are many verses out there. So I would just caution you as you go through, look at the context for how soul is used. It can be confusing, but there is information there. There are some tremendous verses that talk about how God's Word can divide, is able to divide the soul and the spirit. They are different, and so we don't want to ignore it. I find that I have to be careful. I don't want to make an overarching statement. Any thoughts, Roy? You want to chime in on this? I noticed in that verse in Ephesians 6, it says, as slaves of Christ, as listeners under Christ. Well, we don't do that as unbelievers. That's true. We don't do that as believers. Absolutely.

And that's our relation spiritually to Him. Because He is spirit, We listen to him spiritually. We do. And our soul is now subservient to that. Right. To our spirit. It carries out that action. Correct. And so I haven't found yet one example of the soul doing anything on its own. Okay, that's a good point. It's always in relationship to God that we're exhorted from our souls. Right. It's under that particular... Right. But we do see where a person is called the natural man, right? That's the soul-ish man, the man outside Christ. So the word soul is used in a variety of different ways. So we have to just be careful. So I hope I haven't confused you too much with this. Both of those phrases are out of the soul.

So we're doing the will of God out of the soul. We're doing our work heartily out of the soul for the Lord. But as Roy points out, that's because of our relationship with our Savior. If we didn't have the relationship, the soul wouldn't be able to do that. Could you say the soul that acts on an unbeliever, the only thing the soul can do is look at the sin nature and act out of that?

That's good, that's interesting. Well, and then two, when people tell you they're spiritual, if that's really coming from the soul and not their spirit, it's an unbeliever. That's good, interesting. Well, the thing that drives me up the wall when people say that we're people of faith. I get really spun up over that one because that doesn't tell me anything.

I just think you're a teacher of the universe. I know. Anyway, okay. Alright. Okay, so let's go on here. So actually we said, whatever you do, do your work out from your soul. as for the Lord rather than men so I had a bunch of verses here that basically show you that as the Lord is a normal operating condition of a believer's life with good rendered service as to the Lord and not to men trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord wise be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord so the relationships we have here on earth are relationships that are focused on the Lord, but they're with people. Children, be obedient to your parents in all things. This is well-pleasing to the Lord, rather than to men. So even though you may be carrying it out for man, you're doing it unto the Lord.

So verse 24. So now he's going to switch gears here. He's going to talk about God is a gracious God, and He's going to say that if you do My will, there are rewards. And He's going to say that if you do wrong, there's going to be negative consequences for those.

So first of all, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of inheritance. There could be a little bit of confusion there. Knowing that from the Lord, to receive one's due, you will receive, this is future tense, in Ephesians kind of parallel passage, knowing that whatever good things each one does, he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free. So now this phrase, reward of inheritance, so reward is to compensate stressing action. Here's a verse that each man's praise will come to him from the Lord. So God is in the business of rewarding man. And you think, well is this talking about an eternal inheritance? I really don't think it is. The inheritance is received as a result of our work. It does not come as a gift. That Greek word for inheritance means repayment of a reward. The reward of inheritance is focused on your receiving something from the Lord based upon what you've accomplished, what you've done, how you've faithfully done something.

And here's this phrase, it is the Lord Christ whom you serve And the word is doulos again for serve or slave. And it can be used in a negative sense that there were some who were for such men or slaves not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites, smooth and flattering speech, they deceived the hearts of the unsuspecting. So the Lord Christ appears in these two passages. In our passage, it's used to honor him. That's who you serve, the Lord Christ.

And you're receiving a reward from him based upon what you've done. Is this from the Bible? It seems like it is. At first you think, well, reward of inheritance. You look at the verse, you say, knowing that from the Lord you will receive a reward of inheritance. There certainly is an internal aspect to that. But because the word inheritance is that particular Greek word, it seems like it's more focused on receiving what you do. In our world, typically, if you do a good job, you receive the rewards of a good job. You receive your pay. You receive thanks, hopefully, I mean, you know.

Just ignore me. That's okay. Sounds like a nerd. We'll see if you're doing it for the Lord, you're okay with that, right? Well, what's interesting is here, these 24 and 25 are actually kind of surprising, somewhat surprising, because he's going to say there are rewards for doing good. And then he's going to say in the next verse, he's going to say if you do bad, You rob a bank, I don't care if you're a believer, unbeliever, whatever you are, you're probably going to go to jail. It's going to be bad. I think he's talking about rewards in the context of your Christian life here. And it's interesting that he mentions those. Okay, so let's go on here. Okay,

25. So now he switches gears, he's going to talk about For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of wrong, which he has done, and that without partiality. So he's talked about receiving rewards. Now he's going to switch gears and talk about if you do what's wrong. And I think in some ways, Christians can be poorly taught. Of course, if they live this life, I don't know how they can. Things don't always go smoothly for Christians, as we all know, sometimes even harder.

So, things can go wrong, sometimes of your own doing, sometimes not. For, but, he who does wrong will receive, future tense, the consequences of the wrong he has done. Pretty simple. This is what you tell your children, right? If you do wrong, there are consequences to that. And sometimes you tell them and sometimes they still do it. That's the hard part, you know, as parents.

For what he has done wrong. So here, this is Vine. I'm pretty sure this is from Vine. He says that what he did wrong, which brings the consequence both in this life and at the judgment seat of Christ. I think he's kind of alluding to the fact that You may lose reward, conceivably.

He didn't really elaborate on that. But doing wrong, there are consequences for that. And it's without partiality. So God's no respecter of persons. If a person does wrong, whatever he is, believer, unbeliever, king, or whatever, sometimes you could argue that the privileged seem to miss the punishment. At least in this life, they seem to miss being punished for their wrongdoings. But there is an ultimate punishment for all men. I just had one summary passage here from Macaulay that I liked. Workers must be able to say, I'm here on earth to live for the Lord. I'm a servant to pay the expenses. Doing our job well shows we have respect for our Lord.

So I really didn't have a real long lesson today. Go ahead. But I think too, overall, if you're doing your work, or like Raven said, if you're living by those principles, you're pleasing God. You shouldn't be looking for a bigger raise or things that you can... I agree with you, I agree with you. But in general, if you're living this way, you're pleasing the Lord and you know that he'll take care of you. Right, exactly, exactly. And in general.

And I don't think that that doesn't exclude the believer from forever, maybe pointing out to his boss, that these things, I mean, you can tell them what you're doing. I mean, hey, and I found in my work life, It's good to see what your boss is thinking. If he's thinking you're not doing anything, you're probably in trouble. If he perceives that you're not working, then there's a disconnect. And if you are working, and he doesn't perceive that.

I can remember, this is a friend from my work out of Buckley. His name is Gary Proctor. Some people may know him. A smart guy. He went to CSU, got his engineering degree. He was kind of a funny guy, but he was a real people person. So we had people come into our building and he would just kind of be the guy to help them around. He would be the gopher. He would do anything. He was an engineer, but nothing was below him. He would help them do this and that.

But he wasn't very good at telling his boss what he was doing. So he told me, he said, Roger, I had my yield review today, and my boss said, Gary, what did you do this last year? His boss did not know what he did. And I saw him talking to hundreds of people, helping them out.

We had people come into our building. They brought all kinds of electronic equipment. Sometimes it wasn't working. He would help them. He would find the right people to help them. Just a real servant. He wasn't a believer, but he was just a real hard worker.

But his boss didn't know what he was doing. And I thought, that is not good. If your boss doesn't know what you're doing, The ultimate result of that is you probably won't be around because they'll think you're not doing anything. So there's nothing wrong with communicating, this is what I'm doing. You can do it in a gracious way. And maybe other stories you guys could tell too about work situations. The work situation is interesting because it's two multiple sin natures trying to get along with one another. It can be interesting.

It's funny, I became a believer when I was overseas in England. What I found is that scripture kind of came alive in relationships at work and other places. I could see, well this is what happens when this... I could see scripture just kind of unfolding. I found work a great teacher of God's Word. I don't know, that's just me, that's just me. It was pretty amazing. Other questions?

Go ahead, Pat. This idea of inheritance and rewards. It's kind of counter to that. In Peter, he talks about a blessing with an inheritance incorruptible and untrial. And it does not stay the same. Reserved in heaven for you. And it sounds like it's not something that we've worked for, but it's something that's reserved. We have it. And then I think back to Ephesians, it talks about being sealed in the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of our inheritance. And so when I put that together, not fading away, it doesn't sound like it's something we have to earn. Right, and I would agree.

What I would submit is that I didn't do as good a job as what I should have done here on this inheritance part. We should have had a little digression. We should have looked at inheritance like you're talking about and then inheritance in this context. To my understanding of what I've prepared, this inheritance probably isn't the best word to be used there. It's receiving. what you do, just like if you work 40 hours, you get paid for 40 hours. It's not the inheritance. It's a different thing.

I probably should have taken a little rabbit trail and said, here's the inheritance. And I agree, it's incorruptible. God has maintained that inheritance. This inheritance is really, you're receiving what you've What is owed to you? You work 40 hours, you get 40 hours of pay. That kind of deal.

When you use the word inheritance, it comes to my mind that we've been taught by other passages that the inheritance is Christ himself. It's his inheritance. And we are the inheritance to him. and that he has inherited us from the father by his work on the cross. In that context, when we look at this passage, the reward that we're getting is really, he's sharing his reward.

The spiritual concept of the emphasis on inheritance is huge. We probably should have taken some time to show you that and contrast it with this. From my best understanding, this is just saying this is a reward that you're due. The word basically is stressing to receive back what you deserve for whatever work you did. It's a result of who you are.

You're a child of God. You get the unbelievable. inheritance of Christ. And everything that is His glory, we get included. Right, right. Wow. Yeah, that is pretty amazing. What's interesting, if you read the counterpart in Ephesians, it doesn't use that word inheritance, which I think... Let me just look here for a second. The parallel verse to this. If you look at Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 8, this is a parallel passage to that.

Actually, Ephesians doesn't have a negative, but Ephesians 6.8 says, Knowing that whatever good things each one does, he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free. There is an immediate... If you work hard, you'll get back the rewards of that hard work.

Here in this life. There is a temporal reward in this life. But the inheritance that we have is much... The inheritance in Christ is way beyond that. And he wants us to also see and understand that. I believe that too. So is this an earthly reward? If you look at 24 and 25, he talks about receiving a reward here on this earth. And then also, if you do something wrong, you're going to receive the consequences of that. So this is here on this earth, right here. These two verses, 24 and 25, talk about earthly reward and earthly Receiving back for the wrong, what you've done.

Remember, we have an old sin nature. It has rewards. We have a new nature now. It has rewards. Good point. I mean, there's a contrast there. Do you want to say something, buddy? 25, it says, open this life and let them judge you to see the price. Well, that was the definition. And maybe I shouldn't, I thought about not putting that in there. He was alluding to the fact that you might lose reward. And he said the judgment seat of Christ. He was trying to extend it beyond that. Well, let's go ahead and close it.

Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for our time today, Father. Thank you for the blessings we have. Thank you just for your care for us. You do want us to do all our work hardly as for you and trust you for of the results. Father, thank you that these passages talk about that there are rewards here for good work, honest work, and there are dangers if something is done wrong. Your word is honest about that and that we receive back the rewards of what we hear in this life, but probably more important than all this, our wonderful heavenly reward that we have with you, Father, and the inheritance we have, which is almost incomprehensible, that will be with our Savior forever. And we thank you for that. In Christ's name, Amen.