Servants are under obligation to obey their masters: “Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart as unto Christ.” Eph. 6:5. The servant's service to his master should not be wholly for the hire. He should not fear to do him ill service because of not receiving his wages, but his service should be in singleness of heart—an honest, upright purpose—as unto Christ.
They should seek to please their masters: “Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things.” Titus 2:9. They are to be subject to them: “Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear: not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.” 1 Pet. 2:18. Servants are to do good service and not defraud their masters, and thus adorn the doctrine of God. “Not purloining, but showing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.” Titus 2:10. The word “purloin” is from the Greek word “nosphizomai,” and means “to hide or to secrete, to steal.” In this text it would include the idling away of time that belonged to the master.
We believe we have done justice to the subject of “Domestic Relationship.” In conclusion we would be pleased to set before you a picture, not to be excelled in sublimity, sacredness, elevation of character, or soul inspiration by anything on earth. “For thou shalt [pg 287] eat the labor of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.” Psa. 128:2, 3. This picture is set in a beautiful frame, found in the preceding verse and the one following, “Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in his ways.” Ver. 1. “Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord.” Ver. 4. The picture of a happy Christian man, a loving wife, devoted children, embossed with the blessings and glory of God, is one of greatest admiration.
Chapter XIV. Evil Habits And Injurious Indulgences.
The Word of the Lord may not denominate in plain terms every particular sin and evil practise man may engage in; however there are general terms and principles of righteousness that prohibit and condemn every possible sinful act man may perform. The words card-parties, picnics, fairs, shows and theaters are not found in the writings of the apostles; however indulgence in these is “revelry,” “living in pleasure,” “rioting” and worldliness, of which the Scriptures say the participants do not love God and [pg 288] can never enter heaven. Also the terms “whisky,” “alcohol,” “opium,” “morphine,” “tobacco,” “tea,” and “coffee,” “secret vice,” etc., are not made use of by the New Testament writers. They are included, however, in the general term “lust of the flesh.” To make mention of all the things that may be done as a lust of the flesh would make a lengthy catalogue indeed. Anything, no matter what it may be, if done to satisfy the lust of the flesh is very damaging to spiritual life.
“Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.” 1 Pet. 2:11. “This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye can not do the things that ye would.” Gal. 5:16, 17. “For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” Rom. 8:13.
By these tests we plainly understand the “flesh” to be antagonistical to the Spirit. God has created us with a fleshly nature, or made us a fleshly being. He has also created things for the sustenance of this fleshly life. He has created food and drink for man's use. A proper use of these is not a lust of the flesh. An improper use may be considered lust. Our eating and drinking should be to the glory of [pg 289] God. The primary object in our eating should be to sustain life and promote health and strength, that we may be able to labor for and glorify God.
If we have a pure and undefiled conscience and are conscientious before God, and fully comprehend that we are not our own, but that we are God's property and that we should glorify him in our body and our spirit, we then most certainly would eat and drink such things to the extent of our knowledge as are most conducive to development of physical energy, and mental activity. It is not a lust of the flesh if we eat and drink to the glory of God. Temperance in natural God-given food and drink is the law of Heaven. It is of surfeiting that the Son of God warns us to beware. Luke 21:34. There are a great many things in creation which God never designed for the use of man as food and drink. Temperance does not mean a moderate use of these things. Their use is wholly forbidden.
Again man may by certain processes change the natural into an unnatural and make it in opposition to God's law. Because man has not always had the glory of God as his object in eating, drinking, and clothing, but became intemperate in the things which he allows, many have through the lust of the flesh been led to indulge in things from which the Word of God and the laws of health demand total abstinence. The injurious indulgences are so many and various as to furnish subject enough for volumes. We can [pg 290] only mention briefly the ones that are most generally indulged in, and which are destroying soul and body.