Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven. (Colossians 4:1)
There’s a famous saying that goes something like this, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Would you agree? When you’re in control, it’s easy to have that power go to your head.
Older siblings gleefully make younger siblings do whatever they want them to do. Managers greedily push their employees to do more while paying them less. Presidents or kings insist that it’s their way or the highway and enrich themselves on the hard work of their citizens. Power easily corrupts.
Unless you remember something: No matter how much power you have, you’re not in power. No matter what control you’ve been given, you’re not in control. Who is? God is! That’s what he told Christian masters to remember long ago: “You know that you also have a Master in heaven.”
No matter how much higher or better or smarter or greater your sinful nature wants you to feel than the people around you, the Bible says that you are exactly the same as every other person in two ways: 1) You are a sinner. 2) All you have is by the grace of God.
When God in grace allows you to have responsibility over other people, don’t let it go to your head. Remember that you have a Master in heaven. Remember how Jesus has treated you: With grace and patience and forgiveness and humility. Jesus hasn’t just given us what is right and fair. The truth is that what is right and fair would be for us to face death and punishment and hell for our sins. Instead, Jesus sacrificed himself to pay our debt and suffer our punishment and give us his undeserved love and mercy.
Jesus’ grace makes Christian masters into humble masters. All we have and are is a gift from God. All we’ve accomplished is a result of God’s power and grace. If God has given you the gift of leadership, then lead! If God has given you the ability to manage, then manage! If God has put other people under your responsibility and care, then step up to that responsibility and care for those under your care.
But remember this: “You also have a Master in heaven.” Wouldn’t the world be a better place if it were filled with humble masters, like Jesus?
Dear Jesus, forgive me for when power has gone to my head. Use your Word to remind me that you are my Master in heaven, and lead me to treat others with the grace that you’ve shown me. Amen.
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