The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Ephesians 6:5-8, “Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ;

6 not by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.

7 With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men,

8 knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free.”

Readers, who are observant, will notice that I skipped the verses that said, “Children obey your parents…” (v. 1). The rationale for eliminating those verses is NOT because they are irrelevant in today’s culture (although they are ignored by many children and their parents), but because I am confident that most readers of this Letter (and the Bible, too) are either adults or children, whose knowledge of the Word has already taken hold of their lives in the matter of honoring and obeying parents.

The word slave (??????) means one who refuses to utilize his own mind, but shows preference in obedience to the mind of his master.

That is how we are to behave with respect to our human bosses, who are hired to see that we do what we are hired to do. That’s exactly how we are to be toward Christ! We may think we know best, but we don’t. Only when we are adhering to His Holy Spirit are we behaving properly.

When I was doing television, I observed TV personalities, whose behavior and language were hardly proper –until the camera was “ON” and they were talking to their TV audience. That precisely NOT THE WAY THE LORD WOULD HAVE US TO BEHAVE! He is our Authority, and we are to conduct ourselves as His servants at all times. If we conduct ourselves as always doing things for the LORD, what we do for our human bosses will always be pleasing. Beyond that, when we do for our earthly supervisors what we ought to do, we are promised rewards from the LORD Himself.

In summary, if we behave as slaves, we will be treated as free. If we behave as free, we will be treated as slaves. Which sounds better to you? Yes, that first one sound better to me, too. Let’s work on being that this week. God bless you richly and abundantly!

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas 72764

United States of America

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”