A work-related devotional can hardly have a more pointed passage!  Although we now consider that slavery is wrong, a violation of personal rights and liberties, it was the way society operated in the 1st Century.  However, in some ways there are close parallels with modern employment: some masters being kind benefactors while others are harsh (1 Peter 2:18).  Paul neither endorsed slavery nor advocated a social revolution.  Instead, he concentrated on the necessity of changing the attitude to work and to the boss, by cooperating with God’s grace.  That is still essential for us in the workp

This verse comes immediately after Paul's instructions to slaves in Ephesians 6:7-8: "Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free."  Now he tells the slave-masters that they should treat their slaves in the same way.  It is a reminder that no boss is God and that all bosses are servants of God, whether they know it or not, whether they serve well or badly - they are accountable to Him.  

Wise Christians are realists.  The idea that we live in a wholesome world, run by the great and the good for the benefit of ordinary society - is an illusion.  While the devil does not trouble his captives too much, he tries his hardest to inflict as much damage as possible on Christians.  However, none of his schemes has escaped God's attention.  The Lord provides every believer with personal defence that needs to be applied before the attacks come.  In other words, God expects us to be in a permanent state of readiness to resist Satan's attempts to seduce our minds and ensnare our hearts

However bright each day may seem, the day of evil will come to the Christian.  It is an inevitable consequence of our close family relationship with God.  His great enemy, the devil, will try to get at Him by disturbing His children or deflecting them from His service.  By seducing us away from the Lord's love or paralysing us to prevent fruitful ministry, Satan contests God's authority and makes a grab at glory for himself.  Evil may come in many forms: verbal hostility, physical violence, temptation, lies and death-threats; and in the internal reaction of fear, accompanied by the impulse