STILL A PEOPLE: SLAVES OF THE SAME PRICE
SCRIPTURE: EPHESIANS 6
SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2026
Thom Mozloom
Inspiration
Ephesians 6:9b - “you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.”
Thesis:
These verses are not just a list of do’s and don’ts. They are an indictment of the long-held belief that our value is conveyed upon us from the world - that our status is gained by accumulating wealth, living a luxurious lifestyle, talking down to and about others, and chasing fame. The big lie that we are being told is that our value as a human being comes from what stuff you own, whose parties your invited to, and who you’re having sex with.
In reality, the hierarchy of the world is an illusion. While we all have different roles and different positions, none of us have greater or less value in the Kingdom. In the Kingdom, we were all slaves that were bought for the same price - the blood of Jesus - and we were all adopted as sons and daughters - co-heirs to the Kingdom - also equal in status.
This means that as members of the Body of Christ, we all have equal value and equal status. In these verses, Paul is preaching against the status-chasing culture of 1st century Ephesus (which is not at all dissimilar to the culture of 21st Century Miami).
Real status/true status - he argues - only comes from God — and in God, we all have the same status.
This should fundamentally change how we view ourselves AND how we treat others.
Basic Working Outline:
PREAMBLE / DISCLAIMER
A. I’m not the person who should give a sermon on not drinking, cursing, or telling course jokes. (That’s on me).
B. All the do’s and don’ts in these passages are absolute. They are meant to be followed to perfection.
C. The same guy who wrote these words also wrote Romans 5
1. 6bThe judgement followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.”
2. Martin Luther coined the term “simul justus et peccator” Latin for “simultaneously righteous and sinful.”
D. But these verses are so much more than a list of do’s and don’ts
1. This is Paul attacking the order and culture of 1st Century Rome
2. And by extension the order and culture of 21st century Miami
E. In order to understand this, we have put these verses in context.
1. In context with the rest of the book of Ephesians
2. In context with the societal pillars and cultural norms of 1st century Ephesus
II. BEFORE THE “THEREFORE”
A. As Christians, we have been effectually called by God from before the foundations of the world were laid
1. This happened BEFORE we were formed
2. Therefore, we could not have done anything to earn it.
B. We were called from every people group
1. Not just Jews
2. Not based on “heritage”
C. From “all people” we were formed into “a people” … God’s people
D. God’s people are the mystery called The Church
1. We are the Body of Christ.
2. One single, unified, body.
E. The Church exists to glorify God (proclaim in heaven and on earth His manifold wisdom)
F. Because we are one body, we have an obligation to one another
1. Support and hold one another up.
2. Forgive and serve one another
G. Because we are now Christ’s body, we are no longer our own.
1. We are no longer part of the cultures we came from
2. We are now part of the culture of Christ
3. We share in the mission of Christ - to lead others to reconciliation with God
III. THEREFORE
A. Eph 5:1 — Follow God’s example as dearly loved children.
1. God is the father
a) He is the absolute authority according to Greco-Roman thought (Aristotle - “household code”)
b. We’ll explain Aristotle’s household code a little later.
2. We are the children
a) We don’t have agency of our own
b) We do the father’s will (not our own)
B. By defining all of us (men, women, children, and slaves) as children of God, Paul is attacking the societal norms that had been in place for more than 350 years.
a) Aristotle (household code) taught that the man is the only person in society with any status (and only those men that weren’t slaves).
b) Aristotle also taught that the people who were the wisest and of the highest moral virtue were naturally the rulers.
1. Want to know who the best and smartest people in society are? They’re the people in charge
2. Therefore, if you want to improve your status, you should imitate the people who are in charge.
II. HISTORICAL CONTEXT: WHO WERE THE EPHESIANS IMITATING - WHO WERE THE PEOPLE IN CHARGE?
A. Roman society at the time operated of an honor/shame matrix (i.e. aura farming)
1. honor was gained by displays of wealth
a) Lavish lifestyle -
1) flaunting wealth -
2) excessive drinking,
3) consumption/owning stuff
4) Sex
b) And you brag about all of this - loudly and publicly - at every chance you get.
1) Whether it’s reality or not — this is what you portray
2) There is open, public comparison to others
Which leads to vulgar descriptions of why you are more dominant than your rivals
b) And everyone is your rival.
i) Everyone is competing with everyone else for attention
ii) Everyone is chasing status - trying to be higher on the totem pole than everyone else
c)*** NOTE *** Holy smokes!! This is OUR social media culture today!!
B. When Paul says, “Follow God’s example…” he’s saying “Don’t follow the example of the elite or those in power.”
1. He’s telling us we must die to our current culture
2. He’s telling us that we belong to a NEW culture — The culture of Christ.
C. Eph 5:2 - Instead “walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
1. This means that instead of chasing higher status within the culture — we are called to seek the lowest status — the status of slave.
a) giving ourselves up, subjugating ourselves to the will of God,
b) sacrificing ourselves so that the people who hate us can also be adopted into our family, the family of God.
c) C.S. Lewis calls this a “rescue mission”
This is the opposite of what our culture (every culture) says.
III. PAUL’S COMMENTARY ON THE CULTURE OF THE DAY - THE CULTURE WE ARE CALLED OUT OF
A. Sexual immorality -
B. A lifestyle of lust and reckless waste
C. Greed / Consumerism -
D.. Putting others down to elevate our own status (Ephesians 5:3-7)
E. Instead of these things, we find our status in Christ and in seeking the will of the Father (Ephesians 8-20)
IV. WHAT DOES THIS LOOK LIKE? IT LOOKS LIKE MUTUAL SUBMISSION
A. Eph 5:21 - Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
1. Wives to husbands AND husbands to wives (Eph 5:22-32)
2. Children to parents AND parents to children (Eph 6:1-4)
3. Masters to slaves AND slaves to masters (Eph 6:5-9)
4. The Org Chart for the culture of Christ has God as the head — and then everyone else as equals below Him.
B. This is very different from Aristotle’s org chart (how life in Rome would have operated
1. All men (real men) are jockeying for the top position
a) And they do this by all the things mentioned above
b) It is wholly self-centered / “all about me”
2. All women are property of men
3. All children are property of men (and women)
4. Slaves are the lowest thing on the totem pole — they are property on the order of livestock.
V. SLAVES OF THE SAME PRICE
A. Eph 6:9b “you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.”
1. God sees us all as having equal - immeasurable value.
a) We were all bought for the same exact price
b) That price was the blood of Christ
c) It’s the highest price anyone has ever paid OR anyone could ever pay for a slave
d) And after He bought us, He freed us from our bondage by adopting us as sons and daughters - co-heirs of equal status to the Kingdom.
2. Yet, we are consistently under immense pressure (by the world and by the adversary — who is the ruler of this world [Eph 2:2 - “when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air,”] to live under this hierarchy).
3. How do we fight against this? By putting on the full armor of God (tease to next week)
VI. CLOSE
A. Paul is telling the Ephesians — and us — that the old order of the world is dead (and our old selves along with it)
B. These verses aren’t about drinking or cursing or household codes.
C. Instead, Paul is telling us that we are part of a new family with a new culture — the culture of God.
D. And this should fundamentally change how we view ourselves AND others.
Ephesians 6:9b - “you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.”
Thesis:
These verses are not just a list of do’s and don’ts. They are an indictment of the long-held belief that our value is conveyed upon us from the world - that our status is gained by accumulating wealth, living a luxurious lifestyle, talking down to and about others, and chasing fame. The big lie that we are being told is that our value as a human being comes from what stuff you own, whose parties your invited to, and who you’re having sex with.
In reality, the hierarchy of the world is an illusion. While we all have different roles and different positions, none of us have greater or less value in the Kingdom. In the Kingdom, we were all slaves that were bought for the same price - the blood of Jesus - and we were all adopted as sons and daughters - co-heirs to the Kingdom - also equal in status.
This means that as members of the Body of Christ, we all have equal value and equal status. In these verses, Paul is preaching against the status-chasing culture of 1st century Ephesus (which is not at all dissimilar to the culture of 21st Century Miami).
Real status/true status - he argues - only comes from God — and in God, we all have the same status.
This should fundamentally change how we view ourselves AND how we treat others.
Basic Working Outline:
PREAMBLE / DISCLAIMER
A. I’m not the person who should give a sermon on not drinking, cursing, or telling course jokes. (That’s on me).
B. All the do’s and don’ts in these passages are absolute. They are meant to be followed to perfection.
C. The same guy who wrote these words also wrote Romans 5
1. 6bThe judgement followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.”
2. Martin Luther coined the term “simul justus et peccator” Latin for “simultaneously righteous and sinful.”
D. But these verses are so much more than a list of do’s and don’ts
1. This is Paul attacking the order and culture of 1st Century Rome
2. And by extension the order and culture of 21st century Miami
E. In order to understand this, we have put these verses in context.
1. In context with the rest of the book of Ephesians
2. In context with the societal pillars and cultural norms of 1st century Ephesus
II. BEFORE THE “THEREFORE”
A. As Christians, we have been effectually called by God from before the foundations of the world were laid
1. This happened BEFORE we were formed
2. Therefore, we could not have done anything to earn it.
B. We were called from every people group
1. Not just Jews
2. Not based on “heritage”
C. From “all people” we were formed into “a people” … God’s people
D. God’s people are the mystery called The Church
1. We are the Body of Christ.
2. One single, unified, body.
E. The Church exists to glorify God (proclaim in heaven and on earth His manifold wisdom)
F. Because we are one body, we have an obligation to one another
1. Support and hold one another up.
2. Forgive and serve one another
G. Because we are now Christ’s body, we are no longer our own.
1. We are no longer part of the cultures we came from
2. We are now part of the culture of Christ
3. We share in the mission of Christ - to lead others to reconciliation with God
III. THEREFORE
A. Eph 5:1 — Follow God’s example as dearly loved children.
1. God is the father
a) He is the absolute authority according to Greco-Roman thought (Aristotle - “household code”)
b. We’ll explain Aristotle’s household code a little later.
2. We are the children
a) We don’t have agency of our own
b) We do the father’s will (not our own)
B. By defining all of us (men, women, children, and slaves) as children of God, Paul is attacking the societal norms that had been in place for more than 350 years.
a) Aristotle (household code) taught that the man is the only person in society with any status (and only those men that weren’t slaves).
b) Aristotle also taught that the people who were the wisest and of the highest moral virtue were naturally the rulers.
1. Want to know who the best and smartest people in society are? They’re the people in charge
2. Therefore, if you want to improve your status, you should imitate the people who are in charge.
II. HISTORICAL CONTEXT: WHO WERE THE EPHESIANS IMITATING - WHO WERE THE PEOPLE IN CHARGE?
A. Roman society at the time operated of an honor/shame matrix (i.e. aura farming)
1. honor was gained by displays of wealth
a) Lavish lifestyle -
1) flaunting wealth -
2) excessive drinking,
3) consumption/owning stuff
4) Sex
b) And you brag about all of this - loudly and publicly - at every chance you get.
1) Whether it’s reality or not — this is what you portray
2) There is open, public comparison to others
Which leads to vulgar descriptions of why you are more dominant than your rivals
b) And everyone is your rival.
i) Everyone is competing with everyone else for attention
ii) Everyone is chasing status - trying to be higher on the totem pole than everyone else
c)*** NOTE *** Holy smokes!! This is OUR social media culture today!!
B. When Paul says, “Follow God’s example…” he’s saying “Don’t follow the example of the elite or those in power.”
1. He’s telling us we must die to our current culture
2. He’s telling us that we belong to a NEW culture — The culture of Christ.
C. Eph 5:2 - Instead “walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
1. This means that instead of chasing higher status within the culture — we are called to seek the lowest status — the status of slave.
a) giving ourselves up, subjugating ourselves to the will of God,
b) sacrificing ourselves so that the people who hate us can also be adopted into our family, the family of God.
c) C.S. Lewis calls this a “rescue mission”
This is the opposite of what our culture (every culture) says.
III. PAUL’S COMMENTARY ON THE CULTURE OF THE DAY - THE CULTURE WE ARE CALLED OUT OF
A. Sexual immorality -
B. A lifestyle of lust and reckless waste
C. Greed / Consumerism -
D.. Putting others down to elevate our own status (Ephesians 5:3-7)
E. Instead of these things, we find our status in Christ and in seeking the will of the Father (Ephesians 8-20)
IV. WHAT DOES THIS LOOK LIKE? IT LOOKS LIKE MUTUAL SUBMISSION
A. Eph 5:21 - Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
1. Wives to husbands AND husbands to wives (Eph 5:22-32)
2. Children to parents AND parents to children (Eph 6:1-4)
3. Masters to slaves AND slaves to masters (Eph 6:5-9)
4. The Org Chart for the culture of Christ has God as the head — and then everyone else as equals below Him.
B. This is very different from Aristotle’s org chart (how life in Rome would have operated
1. All men (real men) are jockeying for the top position
a) And they do this by all the things mentioned above
b) It is wholly self-centered / “all about me”
2. All women are property of men
3. All children are property of men (and women)
4. Slaves are the lowest thing on the totem pole — they are property on the order of livestock.
V. SLAVES OF THE SAME PRICE
A. Eph 6:9b “you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.”
1. God sees us all as having equal - immeasurable value.
a) We were all bought for the same exact price
b) That price was the blood of Christ
c) It’s the highest price anyone has ever paid OR anyone could ever pay for a slave
d) And after He bought us, He freed us from our bondage by adopting us as sons and daughters - co-heirs of equal status to the Kingdom.
2. Yet, we are consistently under immense pressure (by the world and by the adversary — who is the ruler of this world [Eph 2:2 - “when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air,”] to live under this hierarchy).
3. How do we fight against this? By putting on the full armor of God (tease to next week)
VI. CLOSE
A. Paul is telling the Ephesians — and us — that the old order of the world is dead (and our old selves along with it)
B. These verses aren’t about drinking or cursing or household codes.
C. Instead, Paul is telling us that we are part of a new family with a new culture — the culture of God.
D. And this should fundamentally change how we view ourselves AND others.