Slave
One of the arguments against having faith in Jesus as your savior, that I’ve heard, has been that the Bible condones slavery. As I read through the Bible a few times, I was able to retort that the Bible doesn’t condone slavery. God’s word treats it, in my opinion, more like divorce.
By that I mean that when asked about divorce, our savior was clear…
“And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.’” - Mark 10:2-9 ESV
I interpret divorce to be against God’s desire or plan for marriage but because of our sinful nature, there is a provision for divorce. I believe the institution of man’s slavery of one man against another is similar - it’s against God’s desire or plan but because of our sinful nature, there is a provision. In other words, God doesn’t condone slavery but he does acknowledge it exists. This distinction has been important to me both in my own faith and defending the faith to others. You can imagine how surprised I was yesterday to find out I was wrong.
I have read through the Bible several times and believe it is an important part of my day and my faith walk. Up until yesterday, I’ve found some reading through the Bible plan and followed it. This year (2025), I decided to modify it a little. I’m still reading through the Bible but I added an RC Sproul’s yearlong study of the book of Romans.
The first day of the first week of that study is entitled “Paul, the bondservant.” The late Dr. Sproul, goes through the translation of Paul’s self-description as the servant of Christ. The Greek word used is ‘Doulas’ and is translated (in my Bible) as a servant.
“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,” - Romans 1:1
But Dr. Sproul commented that he didn’t like that translation. A better interpretation of a doulas, according to Dr. Sproul, is a person who had been purchased and was his master’s property. This puts a whole different spin on Paul’s description of himself and by implication, you and I.
We reassure ourselves all the time that Christ dying for our sins, freed us from the slavery of sin. If you believe Dr. Sproul’s translation of the original Greek, this would imply that we’ve been freed from being slaves to sin only to become slaves to Christ.
That made me stop and examine my heart. You see, I’ve been raised to believe that I lived in a free country as part of our national identity. Additionally, I was raised to believe that slavery, any slavery, is wrong. I had to put aside my secular, nationalistic upbringing to contemplate being a slave to Christ. Once I did, I realized that not only was I ok with it but I wanted and needed to worship Jesus as my master and savior.
“And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” - Luke 9:23-25 ESV
