Slaves of Christ

Posted by Troy Eckhardt on March 25, 2013 at 3:08 am

From where does morality come? Whose morality should influence social behavior and public policy?

When a friend posted this image on Facebook, I thought a bit about what the Bible has to say about slavery. It mentions differences between Hebrew and heathen slave treatment in the Old Testament. It deals with selling daughters and what their new masters should do with them if they are not “pleasing,” or how the slave girls’ new husbands should regard them if they are re-gifted by their masters to their sons to wed. Jesus Himself tells slaves to obey their masters. Many of the heroes of the Bible were slaves. Years of Jubilee were set up to insure that some types of slave were able to go free.

When asked what the most important commandment was (in a pharisaical attempt to trap Him), Jesus said to love God, and to love others as yourself: ALL of the law and the prophets are summed up in those two things. He told us to love not only one another (other Christians), but also our enemies and those who persecute us. We are to consider others as greater than ourselves, and servitude is the right attitude for all of His followers. Jesus was certainly not in favor of men owning men. On the other hand, our slavery to Him is our reasonable service.

Slavery is heinous, but it’s also a fact of life. It would be quite odd if the Bible didn’t deal with the treatment of slaves.

We live in an evil world because man is inherently evil. I understand that this is a point of contention: My own theory is that this division in ideology is the grandfather of all others. (e.g., Keynesian vs. Austrian economics; I’m of the Austrian school because I know that we’re all greedy.) The Bible is a book about overcoming this evil, but it never promises that we’ll all be wealthy, healthy, set free, treated right, pretty, smart or anything else in this mortal life. What God does promise through His word is that we will struggle with our sin natures until we die, and that by the power of the Gospel we can be adopted by God and be made joint heirs with Christ… period. Those charlatans on TBN (you know, the ones who blow on supposedly broken people, then hit them until they fall over) are fools who could learn a bit from Paul. His example is of one who lived shipwrecked, beaten, injured or sick in some unknown way, and penniless, and who, after spending countless nights imprisoned, finally had his head removed for him. That sort of kicks the crap out of prosperity theology.

Personally, if I could do anything I wanted, I’d hunt modern sex slave traders, and I mean with a rifle. Some might call THAT immoral, but I think it would be cathartic. And no, I don’t think God would approve. I’d settle for just rescuing some of them, and if some pigs just happen to die…

Indentured servitude is something completely different, and there are instances of both that as well as outright slavery in the Bible. As for the former, I believe it’s a great idea. Debtors’ prison isn’t a bad idea either. I have long considered bankruptcy as theft, even before it stung me personally. I learned the hard way to get retainers up front. How is it any less moral for a populace to tolerate slavery than it is for a populace to tolerate people who rack up debt and then skip away with a piece of paper from the courts?

I’ll admit it’s a stretch, but there are millions of people in this country who work, but who do not get to keep all of their earnings because some of it is taken by fiat to support other people who are not working. Some percentage of those not working are not needy, but freeloaders who are gaming the system. Are we not partial slaves to them? Why do they have any more right to the time, talent, and efforts of others than a slave master has?

The Bible, by outlining the Ultimate Freedom, transcends slavery. I know that means nothing to someone who does not believe in anything after death: I was once such a person. Those of you who have Life will certainly agree, though.

I’ve never been owned by a man, shackled, beaten, herded like chattel, or forcefully separated from my family, but I once was a slave to sin, and am now a slave to Jesus. I’m a rebellious, disobedient, and unfaithful slave, but I’m learning. As the prophet Bob Dylan put it, “You Gotta Serve Somebody.” 🙂

Maya Angelou got it wrong: The caged bird can be both a captive AND free simultaneously, and THAT’S why he sings.