Masters and slaves Part 1

“Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.”
NZ has been largely free of slavery for all of its history, and for 150 years, the west has been free of formalised slavery. Brutality, severe racism, and tremendous bloodshed in the civil war is what comes to mind when slavery is mentioned, and the level of sensitivity about this issue is very high. A passage that begins with, “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling,” would be perceived as odd by the world; in fact, the reason the ESV has translated the Greek ‘dulos’ to ‘bondservant’ instead of ‘slave’ is politically motivated, to differentiate between 1st century and 18th century slavery.
Paul does not condemn the practice of slavery in this passage. Hollywood movies often quote the first part of this passage (and rarely the part about what Masters ought to do). In actual fact, Paul is attempting to describe what is the most common form of employment at the time. Between 20 to 50 percent of the Roman Empire were slaves. So it is the employee-employer relationship that is being described. Why doesn’t Paul condemn slavery? Nor does he give explicit indication of the practice. Why is he not being a justice warrior to help abolish slavery.
CULTURAL PRACTICE OF SLAVERY
1st-century slavery should not be looked at through the lens of 18th-century slavery. If we understand what 1st-century slavery was like, we will recognise how different it was to our modern understanding of slavery, and this would help us to understand Paul’s wording and emphasis better. 1- Slavery was not based on race. The vast majority of slaves were white people. 2- Very often slaves had rights, privileges, comforts, education, noble positions in society, and incomes. 3- Slavery was not necessarily a permanent arrangement and often had a certain number of years specified. Generally, slaves could buy their own freedom. 4- Slavery served a social purpose. Free persons had the option to sell themselves to pay off a debt or if they had nowhere to go. A safety net was built into the system.
A number of stories tell about slaves and masters having good relationships with each other. Some slaves even chose to remain in the service of their masters after their time of employment was over. However, this does not completely solve the problem of people owning other people, even Christians participating in the ownership of other Christians. It carried the possibility of serious mistreatment of human beings. But Paul did not take this opportunity to address that.
BIBLICAL PRECEPT
While Paul does not condemn slavery, neither does he endorse slavery. This is unlike how he treated the subjects of Marriage and Parenting, for here we get the impression that the system of slavery is somewhat out of step. Slavery does not seem to be something that Paul sees as a perpetual good, but as an issue that has to be managed, a temporary inconvenience. From other scriptures, we see that he encouraged slaves to look for freedom if possible, and this he leaves to the slave’s judgement (1 Cor 7:21-22). Paul’s description of the way Masters should treat their slaves radically transforms slavery, and in fact renders slavery almost null and void. 1. In saying, “Masters, do the same to them,” Paul tells masters to treat slaves just like slaves need to treat masters with respect, honour, and dignity. This was to be a relatively egalitarian relationship between slave and master, with no difference in dignity and value. 2. Paul wanted masters to stop threatening punishment and fear, in order to get what they want. Instead, masters are to motivate by means other than punishment, force and coercion, recognising that slaves and masters are on the same playing field, before the ultimate Master Jesus Christ who is not partial. The sort of relationship Paul had in mind was to be motivated by mutual love, respect, and equality of value, while viewing slaves as fellow-slaves before Jesus. The difference was to only be in role and authority. Even if Paul was not abolishing slavery as a societal structure, he was abolishing it in practice. The relationship that would exist if Paul’s exhortation were followed would look more like healthy long-term employment.
But why doesn’t Paul command the abolition of slavery altogether? 1. Practical reason: Because of how fundamental it was to the Roman social structure. If Paul had come down heavily against slavery, it would have been disastrous in the society. Slavery provided a social welfare system. 2. Theological reason: Because of the gospel priority.
GOSPEL PRIORITY
The main reason is that the church’s main priority and mission is not social transformation or to make society more just. The church’s main mission is gospel proclamation, that people may be saved from the coming destruction. The church exists in the world to offer salvation to the world.
Traditional reformed theology understands that believers operate as citizens of two kingdoms—primarily as citizens of the kingdom of God (redemptive kingdom) and secondarily as citizens of this world (common kingdom). Both kingdoms are ruled by God, but only the redemptive kingdom will last past judgement day. The main purpose of the common kingdom is that God will provide a way for evangelism, overseas mission, etc., which God uses to call His people to be citizens of His redemptive kingdom. The redemptive kingdom does not exist to transform the common kingdom, but exists to proclaim the gospel of the King. This does not mean that individual Christians should not care for injustices. We care because we are citizens of both kingdoms. We are called to work for the good of both kingdoms. So, as citizens of the common kingdom, we should love our neighbour and to do good to all people, and we fight to abolish slavery, abortion, and other horrific injustices. However, even as we do these things, our priority is to do the work of the redemptive kingdom, which is the preaching of the gospel. This priority is important to remember, because even if we abolish all the injustices in the common kingdom, it is still only a temporary kingdom. And certainly, the redemptive kingdom is not here to transform the common kingdom, which is why Paul does not rail against slavery.
Churches are not to spend time and resources to make the world a better place. Christians should do that as individual citizens of the common kingdom, but as a church, that is not our priority and mission. We must keep our priorities right. The gospel when it is preached consistently does change society. By changing society, lives are changed. When lives are transformed, people fight injustices, and in this way society is transformed. Slavery in England was abolished by Christians, as was slavery in the Roman empire after Paul’s time.
Slavery still occurs in the world, legally and illegally, and it is a terrible tragedy. Christians must lead the way in solving this. But there is a greater danger—that of people living and dying in their sins. Slavery and abortion and injustice will end completely one day, but human suffering in hell will go on for ever. Slavery is bad but hell is worse. We must fight all the harder to preach the gospel.