The Lord be with you
The American experience has taught us to abhor slavery. So the simple fact that slavery is in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation leaves many Americans uneasy. That such saints like Abraham ad David owned slaves is even more jarring. Of course we can take comfort that Jesus and the Apostles didn’t own slaves and that Revelation 18:13 lists slave dealers as one of the multitude of merchants who mourn over the destruction of Babylon, clearly linking the slave trade with the allies of evil, those who value money over all else. But John begins this very book by identifying himself as a “slave,” a jarring identification for us. In fact, slavery has such a bad taste in our mouths that many English translations soften the Greek text by translating the word “slave” as “servant.”
Slavery, though, was a fact of life in the Greco-Roman world (and throughout time). People could imagine a life without slaves about as easily as we can imagine a life without electricity or cell phones or automobiles. Sure, we might rough it for a week or two, but do you really want to give up microwave ovens, electric lights, or the computer you are using to read this? So it was common to give slaves two week off for Christmas in the Antebellum South, but after the holiday it was back to work.
Slavery was a concept that the first readers of the New Testament would have known well. To use it to make points would be natural to them. So Paul can speak of being slaves to sin and slaves to Christ (Romans 6:20; 1 Corinthians 7:22). It seems Bob Dylan was on to something when he sang, “You gotta serve somebody, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you gotta serve somebody.”
John G. Nordling, in his article Slaves to God, Slaves to One Another: Testing an Idea Biblically, which appeared in Concordia Theological Quarterly (volume 80, number 3-4, July/October 2016, pages 231-250), argues that our very distaste for slavery makes it difficult to grasp what God is communicating when speaking of slavery. He argues that slavery has a deep theological meaning that is of great value for us today.
Though Nordling doesn’t reference it, his article can help us understand the Luther quote, “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant [slave] of all, subject to all.” The article is worth reading. If you want to, follow the link below:
Slaves to God, Slaves to One Another
Blessings in Christ,
Pastor John Rickert