Employer
“Lord, master, owner”
Summary
Biblical teaching on employers (masters) emphasizes their obligations toward workers—fair wages, prompt payment, and just treatment. The relationship between employer and employee is governed by divine law, with swift judgment promised against those who oppress workers.
☩Employer Obligations
The biblical 'master' (Hebrew adon, Greek kyrios or despotes) properly means 'lord' or 'owner,' but this status carries obligations rather than unlimited privilege. Laban's question to Jacob, 'Tell me, what shall thy wages be?' (Gen 29:15), illustrates the proper employer practice of establishing fair terms. The Levitical law insisted on honesty in wages and promptness in payment: 'The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning' (Lev 19:13).
☩Divine Judgment on Oppression
Malachi pronounces swift and sure judgment against 'those that oppress the hireling in his wages' (Mal 3:5). This places wage oppression alongside sorcery, adultery, and perjury as covenant violations that provoke God's judgment. The principle continues in the New Testament, where James warns that 'the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth' (Jas 5:4).
