Paul's Role In The Church Of Rome Series

Romans 1:1

“Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures.”

Paul is writing to the Roman church and his purpose in writing is both to introduce himself and also, to teach them some basics of the faith and he also tells them that he intends to visit them in the near future.

He says in verses 11-13 he says he wants to accomplish three things in this writing: first, he wants to impart some spiritual gifts to them. Second, he wants to give and receive comfort from them and then third, he wants to preach the gospel and he wasn’t specific as to whether he wants to preach to them or to those who lived around them.

The interesting thing about this church is, we don’t have a clue as to whether it was a large fellowship of believers or a small church in its beginning stages or if it was comprised of several small fellowships that gathered in homes for specific purposes. In chapter 16 he mentions at least twenty-four people he knew who were fellowshipping in Rome.

I find it interesting that Paul doesn’t give himself much of an introduction. He doesn’t share his testimony and tell them how he met Jesus on the Damascus Road. He doesn’t stress any credibility he might have in terms of either his academic or spiritual background, and he doesn’t say anything about his past accomplishments of church planting or even mention any miracles he had witnessed. He simply says, ‘I’m Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God.’ And these words would have sounded unusual to anyone let alone those who were part of Roman culture.

Rome had 60,000,000 slaves and slaves did everything from total dirt work to teaching the children of their owners. And the last thing you’d want to say to Romans is that you were a slave but Paul did because he wanted them to know something of his relationship to God.

When I was a pastoring churches I had attended various Bible conferences where the speakers were always introduced as men who had pastored huge churches, they had written several successful books, they had preached everywhere and had even visited the far flung mission fields of the world and they were also the most sought after speakers and if we who were on the front lines of ministry ever expected to accomplish anything, we needed to pay attention to every word that fell from their lips. Listen, none of them were ever refer to themselves as slaves or allow themselves to be treated as insignificant.

But Paul calls himself a bondservant and a bondservant was a slave but a particular kind. The Old Testament taught that a slave could be made to work for six years but in the seventh he was to be set free and as he was leaving; he was given adequate provision so he could go and start a new life.

However, if he chose to stay either because his wife and children were part of the household or because he had enjoyed the way the master had treated him; then the master would take a hammer and an awl (which would be like a three inch spike) and he’d have him stand by the main doorposts and then he’d punch a hole in his ear. I guess that signified that he was attached to the house. And from then on, that servant was called a “bondservant,” which meant that he voluntarily committed himself to stay and serve for the rest of his life.

Some of the bondservants would actually put a ring or some kind of a wooden object in the hole in their ear to keep it open and the purpose was to let everyone know they were a bondservant.

Whenever I see a man with an earing, I always want to ask who he belongs to.

In Galatians 1:10 Paul said, “Am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.” In other words, being a bondservant meant he was in absolute submission to Jesus Christ and to no one else.

So, bondservants were slaves and some slaves became slaves when they were captured in battle and they became part of the spoils of war, and some inherited their slavery because they were had been born to a family of slaves and they belonged to the owner just as their parents did. And then there were some who had been sold into slavery because of debt. So, if you made a poor investment, wasted your money or got in trouble by gambling or some other kind of debt you could simply be sold and have to serve until you worked your debt off.