At the Head of the Table of Duties: Employer

Perhaps due to my relatively normal childhood and upbringing, I always am attracted to TV shows that showcase the lives of those not afforded such an upbringing.  Recently, I came across  a show call Hardcore Pawn (With this title, I must be clear that this show is not an “adult” show, but is called this due to the pawn shop’s location in downtown Detroit where many describe their hard lives  as hardcore.)  And while I can in no way recommend the show as an edifying show in many ways, there is one very laudable thing.  The owner of the pawn shop Les has many employees including two of his children.  However, on a recent episode, Les made clear that his children were not the only employees he saw as family.  He said all of his employees were his children.  This is laudable indeed.

In the scriptures, we see laid out a relationship defined between master and servant/slave in the sections containing what Lutherans call the tables of duties .  Often we never get further than a discussion of whether the scriptures are speaking for or against slavery.  In this discussion, we cannot seem to free our minds of the idea of the awful master and slave relationships we saw in our own country.  Truth is in the time these texts were written, the master servant relationship was a integral part of the home economy.  Most people in the culture did not work outside of the place they called home.

Our situation is nearly the opposite.  Hardly anyone works inside the place they call home.  And this being true, we have often forgot that the bible assumes that the relationship between employer and employee is intended to run along the model of the father-child relationship.  In words that rebuke our misunderstanding, Luther says in the Large Catechism, “All who are called masters stand in the place of parents…and…ought to have fatherly hearts towards their people [servants].”  

Les is right, employers are to treat their employees as family.  In the culture of the text’s day this was easier to see due to the inclusion of servants in many parts of the families life together, though no doubt it was still not often done well.  In our day where home and employment are so far removed from each other, employees are often only seen as mechanisms of efficiency.  Wages are set without any thought to the individual life situation of the employee.  Employers often simply exercise their authority in manipulative ways meant to increase efficiency.  Where profit becomes the sole motivation for operation, employees are often treaty unfairly or unjustly.  They are not treated like family.

Some verses to consider:

Philemon 1:15-16 For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother

Ephesians 6:9  Masters, do the same to them [servants], and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.

Colossians 4:1  Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

Deuteronomy 24:14-15  You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns.  You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the LORD, and you be guilty of sin.

Job 31:13-15  "If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or my maidservant, when they brought a complaint against me,  14 what then shall I do when God rises up? When he makes inquiry, what shall I answer him?  15 Did not he who made me in the womb make him? And did not one fashion us in the womb?

What a different world we would have if employers treated their employees as family, without using threatening manipulation, paying them fair and just wages delivered to him promptly, and considering their particular situation in life.  This the Lord requires of the Christian master or  employers.  The one who seeks the position of employer should take heed to these things.  His prime job is not ensure the obedience of his employee, but to make sure his employee is cared for well.  The former is the prime concern of the employee.

Perhaps you have never seen Hardcore Pawn.  You may be better for it.  But perhaps you have seen Undercover Boss on CBS.  It is a show where the CEO gets close enough to his employees to understand not only their jobs, but their lives.  It without exception changes the way they treat their employees.  This should not be the exception, but the rule.

This is how employers should treat their employees as they sit at the head of the table of duties.

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I owe many thanks to Pastor Jon Bonine for setting my mind thinking in this direction and for teaching me much through his research and thinking.