LIFE TOGETHER Employer and Employees: We are to lead as servants of Jesus

5 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ,

6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,

7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man,

8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.

9 Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him. EPH 6:5-9

Employers hold power over those who work for them. They hold the paycheck and the ability to hire and fire. But even slave masters who followed Christ were admonished to lead as servants of Christ—not threatening their slaves or abusing their power. Employers can take a more humble approach when they recognize they are accountable to God, who is sovereign over the lives of both employers and employees, who sees everyone’s heart and hard work, and who is not partial or plays favorites. When Paul wrote that masters are to do the same to them, what did he mean (Eph 6:5-8)?

14 You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns.

John Gill

You shall not oppress a hired worker—That is hired by the day, as appears by Deu 24:15; though the law may include such as are hired by the week, or month, or year; neither of whom are to be oppressed by any means, and chiefly by detaining their wages; so the Jerusalem Targum explains the phrase,

“you shall not detain by force the hire of the hired servant”;

nor by fraud, as in Jas 5:4;

Who is poor and needy—And so cannot bear the lest oppression of this kind, nor to have his wages detained from him any time, and much less wholly to be defrauded of them:

Whether he is one of your brothers—An Israelite, and so a brother both by nation and religion:

Or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns—Jarchi interprets this, both of proselytes of righteousness, and of proselytes of the gate; which latter are plainly described by this clause, and the former must be included; for, if proselytes of the gate are not to be oppressed, much less proselytes of righteousness, who were in all respects as Israelites, the same law was to them both. Jarchi says, the phrase “in your land” is intended to comprehend the hire of beasts, and of vessels; and these in the Mishnah are said to be comprehended in this precept, as well as the hire of man.

15 You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the Lord, and you be guilty of sin. DEU 24:14-15

John Gill

You shall give him his wages on the same day—At the close of the day, when his work is done, the hire agreed for must be paid him; and, by the same rule, all such that were hired by the week, month, or year, were to have their wages paid them at the day their time was up:

Before the sun sets—It was to be paid before sun setting, or at it; see Lev 19:13;

For he is poor and counts on it—Being poor, he cannot wait any longer for the payment of it; his personal and family wants are such as require immediate payment; and besides, he has been eagerly expecting it, and earnestly desiring it, that he may satisfy the craving necessities of himself and family; and therefore it would be a great balk and disappointment to him to have his wages detained:

Lest he cry against you to the Lord—Having none to apply to but him, who is the patron of the poor and needy, not being able to help himself, nor having interest in any to interpose on his behalf; and his cry, and the cry of his hire too, enter into the ears of the Lord of hosts, and is regarded by him (Jas 5:4);

And you be guilty of sin—Be imputed to him, the guilt charged on him, and punishment inflicted for it.

13 If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or my maidservant,

when they brought a complaint against me,

John Gill

If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or my maidservant—Whether it was a cause that related to any controversy or quarrel among themselves when it was brought before him, he did not reject it, because of the meanness of the contending parties, and the state of service they were in; but he received it and searched into it, heard patiently what each had to say, examined them thoroughly, entered into the merits of the cause, and either reconciled them, or passed a righteous sentence, punished the delinquent, and protected the innocent; or, if it was a cause relating to himself, any complaint of their work, or wages, or food, or clothing, as it seems to be from what follows:

When they brought a complaint against me—Had anything to complain of, or to object to him on the above account, or any other, where there was any show or colour of foundation for it; otherwise it cannot be thought he would indulge a saucy, impudent, and contradicting behaviour in them towards him: masters in those times and countries had an unlimited, and exercised a despotic power over their servants, and used them with great rigour, and refused to do them justice upon complaints; but Job behaved as if he had had the rules of the apostle before him to act by in his conduct towards his servants (Eph 6:9; Col 4:1); and even condescended to submit the cause between him and his servants to other judges or arbitrators, or rather took cognizance of it himself, heard patiently and carefully what they had to allege, and did them justice.

14 what then shall I do when God rises up?

When he makes inquiry, what shall I answer him?

John Gill

What then shall I do when God rises up? That is, if he had despised and rejected the cause of his servants, or had neglected, or refused to do them justice; he signifies he should be at the utmost loss to know what to do, what excuse to make, or what to say in his own defence, when God should rise up to defend the cause of the injured; either in a way of Providence in this life, or at the great day of judgment in the world to come, when everything will be brought to account, and masters and servants must stand alike before the judgment seat of God, to receive for the things they have done, whether good or evil:

When he makes inquiry, what shall I answer him? When he makes a visitation among men, either in this world, even in a fatherly way, visits transgressions, and reproves and corrects for them; had he been guilty of ill usage of his servants, he must have silently submitted to such visitations and chastisements, having nothing to say for himself why he should not be thus dealt with; or in the world to come, in the great day of visitation, when God shall make inquisition for sin, and seek it out, and call to an account for it; and should this be produced against him, even contempt of the cause of his servants, he was sensible he could not answer him for it, nor for anyone sin of a thousand, as no man will be able to do; but must be speechless, unless he has a better righteousness than his own to answer for him in that time to come. This is Job’s first reason which deterred him from using his servants ill; another follows.

15 Did not he who made me in the womb make him?

And did not one fashion us in the womb? JOB 31:13-15

Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts. MAL 3:5

John Gill

Then I will draw near to you for judgment—And so will manifestly appear to be the God of judgment they asked after (Mal 2:17) this is not to be understood of Christ’s coming to judgment at the last day, but of his coming to judge and punish the wicked Jews at the time of Jerusalem’s destruction; for the same is here meant, who is spoken of in the third person before, and who will not be afar off; there will be no need to inquire after him, when he will come he will be near enough, and too near for them:

I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers—Not only a judge, but a witness; so that there will be no delay of judgment, or protracting or evading it, for want of witnesses of facts alleged; for the Judge himself, who is Christ, will be witness of them, he being the omniscient God, before whom all things are manifest. The Targum is,

“my Word shall be among you for a swift witness.”

Mention is made of “sorcerers,” because there were many that used the magic art, enchantments, and sorceries, in the age of Christ and his apostles, and before the destruction of Jerusalem, even many of their doctors and members of the Sanhedrin (see Gill on Isa 8:19):

Against the adulterers—With whom that age also abounded; hence our Lord calls it an adulterous generation (Mat 12:39; Joh 8:3-9; Rom 2:22):

Against those who swear falsely—Who were guilty of perjury, and of vain oaths; who swore by the creatures, and not by the Lord, and to things not true; see Mat 5:33-37:

Against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless—Defrauding of servants of their wages, devouring widows’ houses, and distressing the fatherless, were sins the Jews were addicted to in those times, as appears from Jas 1:12; 5:4 who wrote to the twelve tribes; and from what our Lord charges them with (Mat 23:14):

Against those who thrust aside the sojourner—And so Kimchi supplies it,

“that thrust aside the judgment of the stranger”;

that do not do him justice in civil things; yea, persecuted those that became proselytes to the Christian religion:

And do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts—Which was the root and cause of all their sins; irreverence of Christ, disbelief of him, and contempt of his gospel.

So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. MAT 7:12

John Gill

So whatever—These words are the epilogue, or conclusion of our Lord’s discourse; the sum of what he had delivered in the two preceding chapters, and in this hitherto, is contained in these words; for they not only respect the exhortation about judging and reproving; but every duty respecting our neighbour; it is a summary of the whole. It is a golden rule, here delivered, and ought to be observed by all mankind, Jews and Gentiles. So the Karaite Jews say,

“all things that a man would not take to himself, ‘it is not fit to do them to his brethren.’ ”

And Maimonides has expressed it much in the same words our Lord here does;

“Whatever you wish that others would do to you (says he), do you the same to your brethren, in the Law, and in the commandments”:

only there seems to be a restriction in the word “brethren”; the Jews, perhaps, meaning no other than Israelites; whereas our Lord’s rule reaches to all without exception, “whatever”

You wish that others would do to you, do also to them—Let them be who they will, whether brethren, or kinsmen, according to the flesh, or what not;

For this is the Law and the Prophets—The sum of the Law and the Prophets; not the whole sum of them, or the sum of the whole law: but of that part of it which respects our neighbours. Remarkable is the advice given by Hillel to one who came to be made a proselyte by him;

“whatever is hateful to you, that do not you to your neighbour, ‘this is all the whole law,’ and the rest is an explication of it, go and be perfect”:

yea, this rule is not only agreeable to the law of Moses, and the prophets, but even to the law and light of nature. Aristotle being asked, how we ought to carry ourselves to our friends, answered, as we would wish they would carry it to us. Alexander Severus, a Gentile emperor, so greatly admired this rule of Christ’s, that he ordered it to be written on the walls of his closet.

And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. LUK 6:31

John Gill

And as you wish that others would do to you—In matters of justice and beneficence were they in your case, and you in theirs;

Do so to them—A golden rule this, agreeably to the light of nature, and divine revelation, and is the sum and substance of the law and prophets (see Gill on Mat 7:12).