1 Masters, grant to your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a Master in heaven. 2 Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; 3 praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; 4 that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.
One would think Paul should tell slave masters to set their slaves free and speak out against slavery. However, Paul’s teaching, taken seriously, would radically transform the master/slave relationship—from within! The one in authority should treat those under him with “justice and fairness,” in the same way he wants God to treat him. This is a sort of super golden rule for masters, “Treat others the way you would want God to treat you.”
Interestingly, Paul goes on to talk about prayer, about being in communication with God. Consider three observations of the kind of prayer he speaks of: 1) Devoted prayer, tenaciously seeking communication with the Lord, 2) Alert prayer, being acutely aware of the needs of others and the mind of God, and 3) Thankful prayer, being fully cognizant of the undeserved, but inestimable privilege of having an audience with and blessing from God.
Paul slips in a personal request at this juncture, speaking to his readers as mature Christians and, as it were, team members in the service of our Lord. He asks that they pray for God to “open up to us a door for the word.” What an amazing attitude Paul had: “Lord, You open the door, and I will walk through!”
Consider the implication of his request: 1) Doors open and close only at God’s command, 2) Paul valued the teamwork of prayer 3) When a servant of God is committed to sharing the gospel, he need only ask for opportunities, 4) Sharing the gospel may at times result in confinement, loss of our “freedoms” (Paul was imprisoned as he was writing, which fact gives us insight into his instructions to slaves, who had no freedoms), 5) When Paul asked for an open door, he may have meant the door of the physical imprisonment, but he surely meant also the figurative door into having a hearing for the gospel in many places. 6) Besides an open door, Paul recognized the need for divine help “that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak” (vs. 4). Open doors and clear communications—that is what we need and that should be the focus of our lives, no matter where God has called us to serve, whether as a husband or wife, parent or child—or even as a master or slave!
Lord, open a door today for me to speak clearly the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I ask also for those who You have sent to the mission field that they too would have an open door for sharing the message of Christ.
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