The sermon opens from Ephesians 6:5-9, Paul's instructions to slaves and masters, and immediately corrects a softened translation: the word rendered "servants" is literally "slaves" (douloi), and "masters" is literally "lords" (kurioi), the same root word used for "Lord." The preacher recalls being challenged decades earlier in Australia over having household help, and uses that memory to press home how uncomfortable and real the language of slavery actually is — not a polite metaphor, but the blunt social reality of the Greco-Roman world Paul's readers inhabited, a world saturated with slavery much as depicted in films about ancient Rome or the American South before abolition. Rather than treat this as a historical curiosity, the sermon argues that the gospel radically reordered the relationship between slave and master, just as it reordered husband-wife and parent-child relationships in the preceding chapters of Ephesians — even though Paul never formally abolishes the institution.

The sermon builds two foundational truths before turning to application. First, every Christian is a slave of Christ. Ephesians 6:9 states that slave-owners and slaves alike answer to the same Lord in heaven, who shows no favoritism. First Corinthians 6:19-20 grounds this: believers are "bought with a price" and therefore do not belong to themselves. The sermon paints the image of a Roman slave market — buyer and seller negotiating a price, chains removed once payment is made — and applies it to redemption: Christ ransomed us not with gold or silver but with his own blood (Ephesians 1:7), buying us out of slavery to sin into a new, willing slavery to himself. Philippians 2 is invoked to show that Christ himself took the form of a slave, obedient even to a slave's death on a cross, so that every command given to believers is one Christ himself already fulfilled — the sole exception being repentance, since he had no sin requiring it. First Corinthians 7:21-24 deepens this: whether one is called as a slave or a free person, all are now "freedmen of the Lord" or "slaves of Christ." The sermon draws on Martin Luther's paradox — a Christian is the most free lord of all, subject to none, yet also the most dutiful servant of all, subject to all — arguing that slavery to Christ alone produces true freedom, freedom from the fear of man, while Galatians 5 warns against turning that freedom into license, urging instead loving service to one another.

Second, all Christians are brothers and sisters in the faith. Redeemed by the same blood, baptized by the same Spirit, sharing one Father, master and slave become family, one body in Christ. The story of Onesimus and Philemon illustrates this: Paul sends the runaway slave Onesimus back to his master no longer as a slave but as "a beloved brother." The sermon notes that the early church lived this out visibly — slaves and masters worshipped side by side, shared the same bread and cup at communion, and some slaves even became elders and preached to the very masters who once commanded them. The institution's outer shell remained, but its inner substance was utterly transformed.

From these two truths, the sermon draws its central application, addressed to masters and slaves alike and, by extension, to every employee, employer, and church volunteer today: obey and serve "as to the Lord, and not to man," with sincerity of heart, wholeheartedly, and willingly (Ephesians 6:5-7), not merely to please people when being watched. Drawing on 1 Peter 2:13-16 and the historical reality that most Roman masters were cruel, the sermon insists that service rendered ultimately to God — illustrated by the painstaking, unseen craftsmanship behind a certified fine watch — frees believers from bitterness when their work or ministry goes unrecognized or unappreciated. Masters, correspondingly, are told to abandon threats, remembering they answer to the same impartial Lord. The sermon closes with Luke 14:13-14, where Jesus commands inviting guests who cannot repay, contrasting the "economy of exchange" with the "heavenly economy": believers do good expecting no repayment from people because their reward and their audience is God, who alone repays at the resurrection of the just.

Bible Verses Used

• Ephesians 6:5-9: the sermon's primary text, commanding slaves and masters alike to serve "as to the Lord," since both answer to the same impartial Master in heaven.

• 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: grounds the identity of every believer as "bought with a price," no longer belonging to themselves but to God.

• Ephesians 1:7: identifies the price of redemption as Christ's own blood, not gold or silver.

• Philippians 2 (kenosis hymn): shows Christ himself taking the form of a slave and obeying to the point of death, fulfilling every command he now gives believers.

• 1 Corinthians 7:21-24: teaches that slave and free alike become, in Christ, freedmen of the Lord and slaves of Christ, reframing social status under a new spiritual identity.

• Galatians 5: warns that Christian freedom is not license for sin but a summons to loving service of one another.

• Philemon 1:10, 12, 15-16: illustrates the gospel's transformation of a master-slave relationship into brotherhood, through Paul's appeal for Onesimus.

• 1 Peter 2:13-16: reinforces submission to authority as ultimately submission to God, and living as God's servants rather than exploiting freedom.

• Luke 14:13-14: Jesus' command to invite those who cannot repay, illustrating the "heavenly economy" of service rendered for God's reward alone, not human repayment.