May the Word of God be in our minds, on our lips, and in our hearts.
Come Holy Spirit....
Greetings, and thank you for reading Scripture Demystified.
A few years ago, a TV personality and religion basher (especially Christianity) made the remark on his television show, after someone quoted the Bible, that, "The bible also says slavery is OK."
The Bible's commentary on slavery is not a new challenge for Bible readers. It has been debated for millenia, actually. But his comment, like much of his, and others, anti-religion diatribes, comes from ignorance of true scriptural meaning as well as context. (A lack of context is the cause of many person's misunderstanding of Scripture, for that matter.) This is why understanding the translation of ancient languages is so important, and Bibles that use the most up-to-date translations of those languages are the best one to use for study, especially as scholar's understanding of those ancient languages is constantly improving.
American's views of slavery come from our unfortunate history of slavery using African blacks forced to come to America and working in chains against their will and with no chance for freedom or even compensation. It was one of the most brutal human rights abuses in history. But does that reflect "slavery" going back thousands of years?
From Dictionary.com:
However.....
The Bible uses the Hebrew term ebed to refer to slavery; however, ebed has a much wider meaning than the English term slavery, and in several circumstances it is more accurately translated into English as servant or hired worker.[3]
The bible speaks of treating your slaves/servants well, which is more consistent with Christ's teaching than what American's perception of slavery is. If you wanted to expand some of the biblical examples further, you could easily deduce that some of these servants, the ones that are spoken of as being property and having masters that own them, are the equivalent of an American indentured servant.
From PBS:
While the life of an indentured servant was harsh and restrictive, it wasn't slavery.
Romans 1:1
1 Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God....
There are numerous other Apostles who are also "quoted" as calling themselves "slaves" of Christ, of God, etc. Think about that. If the Biblical languages meant slavery as we in America view it, does that even come close to our relationship with the Lord? Does he force us to do His will? Does he keep us in bondage and force us to worship Him? Of course not. He has given us free will do choose to follow Him or not follow Him. That is up to us to decide. He does not make us do anything, and if we were slaves as we know slavery, that would not be the case. However.....that does not mean we have not been purchased, as an indentured or hired servant might be:
That is why St. Paul and the other apostles call themselves slaves of the Lord. The Lord has purchased us with the price of His body, his blood, his life! You'll notice my avatar on the right, it says, "Owned and Operated by Jesus Christ." That's because he does own me, he paid for my sins, and as a result I choose to be his servant.
Yes, there is a price to pay if we reject the salvation that the Lord has bought for us, just like one of the ancient servants would pay a price if they broke their contract early or violated any other agreement with their master. Our price is Hell, of course. If we choose to separate ourselves from our Master, then we have no where else to go when we die but Hell. By our choice and our choice only. That is where the free will comes in. It does not mean anything we do is OK by the Lord, it means we can choose to follow Him or not follow Him. But the end result is based solely on our decision. It is not a forced decision.We can leave our Master if we wish to, and we can also return to Him if we wish to. But at our Judgment, the consequences of our choice will be just.
Some say, "Well how is that free choice? If I don't follow Him I go to Hell!"
That is why God and Jesus can say that. Jesus paid the Ultimate Price for our salvation. He was tortured and killed in a cruel manner so we wouldn't have to be. That is a price greater than if we had been purchased with silver, gold, paper money, or any other form of currency. He will not force us to follow Him, but He can allow there to be a just consequence for not doing so because of that price He paid for us. A price He chose out of love for us. Not because He wants to own us for the sake of owning us, but because He loves us and wants us to spend eternity with Him in paradise, not in the Lake of Fire with the one who rejected God before anyone else, Satan. So He willingly paid the greatest price for us that He could pay. With God, it was the price of His only son, sacrificed for no other reason than His love for us (John 3:16.) With Jesus, it was His body and His life that He willingly gave up as payment for our sins, out of His love for us.
The Bible clearly does not condone slavery as we know it. Those workers were servants, paid laborers, or indentured servants.And Christ taught that they must be treated fairly. Anyone who teaches otherwise is either a false teacher or is using outdated translations to further their agenda.
So, which translation did St. Paul and the other Apostles mean? Were they "slaves" or were they "servants" of Christ and of God? I'd say both would apply. We are owned by the Lord, bought for a heavy price. But we are also servants of the Lord, willingly serving our Master who loved us so much that He gave up everything as payment for our souls.
I will willingly serve the One who rightfully owns me. He deserves no less from me. I belong to Him, not to the world. Who do you belong to?
Godspeed.
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