In the early days of Israel if a man got into debt and could not repay he was not sent to prison, but
was allowed to become the slave of his creditor. But it was not to be a permanent situation. When
the 7th year came he would be liberated and be free to be his own master again, and begin to rebuild
his life. Some of these free men would soon find that their chances of making it on their own was
near impossible. They had no future as a free man, and if they liked their master and felt well treated
by them they could go back to him and volunteer to stay as his slave. The master would then take
him to the tabernacle where the priest would bore a hole in his ear lobe as a sign that he was the
slave of his master.
Here was slavery that was not the result of war, or even debt, but a voluntary slavery by choice
because it was the best option available at the time. This might seem crazy to give up your freedom
to be a slave, but it is not a lot different that what we have today. Unemployed people have the
freedom to stay at home, watch T. V. and go for walks and shop whenever they please, but this can
only last for so long. So they go around looking for a place where they can give up this freedom and
volunteer to be a slave for 8 hours a day for the sake of a paycheck. We use different terms, but the
end result is not all that different. We just get a number today instead of the hole in the ear. It is not
all that bad to be a slave to some degree for the sake of the benefits.
Paul was happy to be a slave to his Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. The first thing he says in this
letter to identify himself is that he is a servant of Jesus Christ. The word for servant is doulos, which
is the word for slaves all through the New Testament. It is one of the paradoxes of the Christian life
that the way to the top is to be a servant. There is no greater title than that of being a servant, and
that is why Paul even puts it before his office as an Apostle. He does it again in his letter to the
Philippians and his letter to Titus. The top of the totem pole is not chief, captain, kings, or President,
but servant or slave of Jesus Christ.
Jesus established this value system when he said in Matt. 20:26-27, "..whoever wants to become
great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave." Mark
10:43-45 repeats it with this added slant, "..whoever wants to become great among you must be your
servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to
be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
In the Old Testament in Isa. 52:13 God calls the coming Messiah, "My Servant." Jesus
establishes the way by which Christian status will be determined. It will not be by in heritance or by
riches or by honor or by power or by any of the methods that the world determines status. The
Christian status symbol is a towel that symbolizes the Head of the church wiping the feet of His
disciples. The Head serving the feet is the way Jesus wants us to see true greatness. The more needs
a Christian meets in others the greater the status of that Christian. That is why Paul is proud to wear
the title of slave of Jesus Christ, for his greatest joy is to sever the Head of the church by serving the
church which is his body.
Paul knew the teaching of his Lord that the servant is the greatest of all and that the servant will
be the one greatly rewarded in eternity. Jesus used this same word for slave in Matt. 25:21 where he
said, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you
in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness." If you want the best that heaven
can offer, do not seek to be a king or a noble, but strive to be a servant, for these are the people most
pleasing to the Master of all.
The final use of this word doulos is in Rev. 22:6 where we read that God, "..sent his angel to
show his servants the things that must soon take place." There is no higher honor than to be a servant
of God, and this will be an honor for all eternity. Three verses before this we see heaven described as
a place where "his servants will serve him." When you become a Christian you are volunteering to
become a slave forever. Once a slave to Christ, always a slave to Christ. Voluntary slavery is what
the Christian life is all about.
Paul did not hesitate to call himself a slave, for he was sending this letter to many who were
actually slaves. If you go to the last chapter you read in 16:11, "Greet those in the household of
Narcissus." Before this in verse 10 he writes, "Greet those who belong to the household of
Aristobulus." Paul is referring to slaves. Rome was filled with slaves, and many of them became
Christians. These who were slaves by necessity became voluntary slaves of Christ.
Even if one was not a literal slave when he became a Christian, he became a slave for Paul says
in I Cor. 6, "You are not your own, for you are bought with a price." Like a slave purchased from a
market, so you have been bought out of slavery to sin by the precious blood of Jesus to become His
slave. There is no escape from slavery, for everyone is the slave of some master. But not all masters
are alike. Some are so brutal, and it is miserable bondage to be in their service. Others are kind and
benevolent, and it is a joy to serve them. One does so freely so that it is a choice of voluntary
slavery. Paul spells this out clearly in Rom.7:20-22. He describes the Christian life as escape from
slavery to the freedom of a new slavery.
"When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control
of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from
the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become
slaves to God, the benefits you reap lead to holiness, and the
result is eternal life."
Everyone is either a slave to sin and death, or a slave to holiness and life. The choice is not,
should I be a slave or free, but whose slave shall I be, for all who are not slaves of God are slaves of
sin, self, and Satan. We tend to think the slavery issue is long past, but the fact is, it is always
relevant and contemporary, for every person on the planet struggles with it continuously. We are
ever in an age of slavery. People are slaves to every form of addition on a grander scale than ever
before. In our great land of freedom we have people in bondage to alcohol, drugs, sex, cigarettes,
TV violence, and abuse of every kind. Until Satan is in the lake of fire slavery will be a major issue
of life.
The New Testament answer to all forms of bondage is freedom in Christ. If the Son shall make
you free, you shall be free indeed. But the freedom in Christ is not a form of total independence, for
this will just lead to some other kind of bondage. Freedom in Christ is a liberating form of slavery
which is voluntary slavery. It is a choice to be committed to Christ as Lord of one's life. No man
can serve two masters Jesus said. But every man has to serve one. Every man has to have a master.
The choice is of one that destroys and diminishes the self, or one that enriches an exalts the self to
become what it was meant to be. The Prodigal Son wound up as slave to pigs, but he chose to go
back home and be a voluntary slave of his father. He made the wise choice, and that is a choice all
of us must make.
There is no third choice of being independent and free from all commitments to either good or
evil. There is no such ground to stand on between good and evil. You have to make a choice, and
so in a very real sense every person is in some form of voluntary slavery. If the Prodigal would have
stayed feeding the pigs, that too would be a form of voluntary slavery. When the Gospel is heard
one can choose to follow a new master, and by the help of the Holy Spirit come out of bondage to
the old master. This is the ministry of the body of Christ in the world. It is to help people be delivered
from on form of slavery, and be set free to choose another form of slavery so radically
different that it is called coming out of darkness into light.
The whole book of Romans is about slavery. Paul stresses that Jews and Gentiles alike are
slaves to sin. The Jews are slaves to the law also, and the Gentiles are slaves to their evil desires.
The result is that the world is full of judgment on the folly of man. The only solution is the Gospel
which is the power of God to liberate both Jews and Gentiles. It is hard for us to think in these
Biblical terms, but the fact is, the battle with slavery is the crucial battle of life. Paul was a slave to
the law and self-righteousness. He had to be set free from salvation by works, and become a slave to
Christ by faith. The journey from slavery to slavery is the journey all must take if they are to be
used of God to change the world.
In the 13 volume set called 20 Centuries of Great Preaching, most of the names are well known
by those who have studied the history of preaching. But one name is very unknown and obscure, for
though he was a great preacher John Jasper was born a slave in Virginia in 1812 as the 24 child in
his family. At age 22 he married a slave girl, but when his master found he had spent a night away
from his plantation he forced them to separate, and he never saw her again. He went on a wild
rampage of rebellion as he lived a sinful life.
Then at age 27 he came under conviction and was radically converted to Christ and began to
preach. He was so eloquent and full of fire that he soon became the most popular preacher around.
Whites as well as blacks would travel long distances to hear him. He was soon preaching to several
thousand people every Sunday. So many whites came to the Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church of
Richmond that they had to rope off a special section for them. For forty years he was a slave, but
then the Civil War set him free, and he lived forty years more as a free man. Here was a man who
had no training and was terribly ungrammatical, but he became so famous that his sermons stand
along side of the most brilliant preachers of the centuries. Was there ever a slave who set so many
people free?
Yes there was, for all of the great preachers in that set of books from Paul to Billy Graham were
also slaves. They were not literal slaves like Jasper, but they were real slaves before they were set
free in Christ to be slaves of a new master. All of this might seem like a trivial play on words, but
when you study the history of the word doulos or slave you begin to realize just how serious a
biblical issue this is. The word doulos was a nasty word until the New Testament cleaned it up and
glorified it. The Greeks use the word often as a despised word. Plato and Aristotle used it in a
derogatory way. We still do today when we say who was your slave last year, or I'm not your slave.
Seneca said, "The foulest death is preferable to the fairest slavery."
In the Old Testament you have the concept of a noble slave developing, but the Hebrew mind
despised the slave just as much as did the Greek and Roman mind. A Jewish proverb said, "A dog is
more honorable than a slave." This kind of thinking entered into the Christian world and many came
to believe that slaves were less than dogs, and that they were sub-human. There was a time when
calling your neighbor a slave could lead to excommunication from the church. It has been
universally despised to be a slave. The only place where the term and idea become on of honor is in
the New Testament.
Paul describes his whole ministry as that of a slave. In I Cor. 9:19 we read, "Though I m free and belong
to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible." Notice how Paul
stresses it is a voluntary slavery. He does not have to do this. He is not forced against his will, but he
chooses to be the slave of everyone. He goes on to say he become all things to all men in order to
win them to Christ. He is a slave to what others want him to be in order to win them. He did not try
to be anyone's master and win them by authority, but he became their slaves to win them by service.
If you can catch the spirit of Paul as a slave, you will never judge him again as a proud or arrogant
man trying to impose his will on others. He was a humble servant of Christ and a slave to all men.
It was Paul's writing about literal slavery that led eventually to the abolishment of slavery in the
Western world. When Paul wrote to Philemon about his run away slave Onesimus he said in
Philemon 15 and 16, "Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you
might have him back for good-no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is
very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a man and as a brother in the Lord." These words
were the nails that finally put slavery in the coffin where it belonged. But it took centuries for
Christians to grasp the implications of Paul's words. If it was not for servants of God fighting slavery
we could still have millions today being treated like animals rather than like persons made in the
image of God.
Paul has some powerful words in I Cor. 7:21-23, "Were you a slave when you were called? Don't
let it trouble you-although if you can gain your freedom, do so. For he who was a slave when he was
called by the Lord is the Lord's freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is
Christ's slave. You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men." The whole point of Paul is
that Christians are to be free from all forms of slavery except slavery to Christ. Our job as slaves of
Christ is to be rebels against all other forms of slavery, and to help people escape from all other
forms of slavery.
The exodus out of Egypt was the great deliverance of God's people out of slavery. Salvation in
the New Testament is also an exodus out of bondage to sin. Slavery is the number one problem of
man, and freedom is the number one goal. The only adequate answer is a transfer of ownership. The
slave to sin has to find a master who will purchase him. That is what the Gospel is all about. Jesus is
the new Master who bought us with His blood. We are now free to come under his ownership and be
slaves to Him rather than slaves to sin and all of the masters of the flesh. The Gospel revolves
around the idea of voluntary slavery. We are freed by faith in Christ to choose a new master, and
like Paul, become slaves to the Lord Jesus.
