You can
watch the full video sermon here.
Introduction
Last week we
saw how the Biblical family structure helps us take down the Devil’s influence.
We saw something very clear: an army that is unified in its purpose, and where
its soldiers focus on fulfilling their proper roles, will more than likely
succeed. It is just a matter of getting everything where it needs to be. As
long as nothing interrupts that process, then the army can do what it does. But
it all hinges on people fulfilling their proper roles. The Bible tells us that
the Church is part of God’s spiritual army against darkness in this world, and
how we structure the family matters, men are to provide, women are to manage
the home. But because the roles of men and women have been confused by many
Christians, the church has lost a lot of ground in our culture, and the enemy
has overtaken it.
But telling
women to submit to their husbands, and live under their authority and provision,
is incredibly unpopular in our culture today. The 19th century
feminists said Christian marriage was slavery, “So long as woman is crushed
into a slave, so long will man be narrowed into a despot.”[i]
“Why is it that one-half the people of this nation are held in abject
dependence—civilly, politically, socially, the slaves of man? Simply because
woman knows not her power.”[ii]
So because of their view, the 19th century feminists lobbied to get
the vote, so they could get the vote and then turn around and use that vote to ask
for welfare to live apart from men. In other word’s they replaced their
husbands with the government; they made the government their provider instead.
To this day
one of the primary concerns with modern democratic elections is how much
welfare the political parties will provide for women, so that these women will
not be dependent on men. Whether it is welfare through money, quotas, abortion or
other means, women replaced being provided for by their men with being provided
for by their political representatives, giving the government more direct power
over their lives. The question I want to ask is this: who is more free? The
woman who serves her husband, or the woman who serves her boss, and needs the
government to provide a quota for her to get that job, welfare to supplement
her income, and subsidized childcare to help her put in the hours in at the
office? Who is more free? Feminism is the idea that women are free when they
serve their employers but slaves when they serve their husband and their
children. But who is really more free?
I ask this,
because today we are going to talk about actual slavery, and biblical marriage
is often regarded as slavery by radical leftists, and even a lot of Christians,
so I am going to address this in the context of addressing slavery.
Slavery in
general is an issue that is more complex than most people will admit, because
the Bible never once outright condemns slavery, yet we Christians, and most
other westerners rightly condemn slavery. So, is the Bible at odds with what is
right? Is Biblical marriage slavery? What does the Bible say about slavery? Let’s
examine this issue in some detail, beginning with Titus 2:9-10, and seek to
answer these questions in the process of answering this question: why doesn’t
the Bible condemn slavery more?
Slaves
Obey Your Masters
(vv.9-10) – Paul’s command in Titus is pretty simple, “9 Bondservants are
to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be
well-pleasing, not argumentative, 10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith,
so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.” This
passage, like last week, is not a complicated passage or a difficult passage to
understand. But it is hard to accept, because it doesn’t sit very well with so
much of how we think and live today.
Perhaps the
most common way this sort of passage is applied, is by transferring the advice
given to bondservants to modern employees and simply saying: work for your
boss, as if you are working for God.
This is a
valid application, because in Paul’s day much of the labour market for many
roles in society, from basic household servants up to doctors, lawyers and other
skilled workers were heavily made up by slaves.
“At the
height of the Roman Empire, it is estimated that nearly 40% of the population
of Italy consisted of slaves.”[iii]
And maybe between 10-20% of the whole empire’s population.[iv]
Some of these slaves were uneducated barbarians captured in war, but others would
have been highly educated Greeks captured in war, or bankrupt citizens who sold
themselves into slavery to pay off their debts. Greek slaves were especially
sought after, and skilled slaves brought a much higher price.
If you have
seen Ben Hur, you can imagine how even great men or women became slaves, simply
because they upset the wrong Roman man of power. The Roman economy was
completely reliant on slavery. Almost no one questioned slavery and slaves
largely tolerated it. Even those slaves who rebelled against it, often did not
do so because they hated the idea of slavery, they just hated the idea of not
being masters.
But before
we discuss this anymore, I want to do a bit of a survey of what the Bible
teaches about slavery. Because I think if we can grasp the scope of its
teaching, this might give us some powerful insight into what God has done for
us, and what he expects of us on this issue.
Made Free (Gen. 1-2) – Humanity was created to
be free. In fact, more than that, humanity, male and female, was created to
rule over the World in partnership with each other, Genesis 1:26-28 says, “26
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them
have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and
over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that
creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of
God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them.
And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue
it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the
heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Humanity was
created for dominion, not dominion over each other, but dominion over all the
earth and its creatures, whether walking, flying or swimming. Mankind was
created to be the kings and queens of creation. But does this mean everyone was
equal, and the same in role? No.
In this
context of perfect dominion, women were still under their husbands authority,
or, more specifically, Adam had authority over Eve. We know this, because Adam
had the authority from God to name Eve: Genesis 2:22-25 - “22 And the rib
that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her
to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh
of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his
wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both
naked and were not ashamed.” The one who is in charge has the authority
to name. This is why in Christian marriage the wife takes her husband’s name,
why children are named by their parents, and why there is conflict in our
society over naming all sorts of things, because naming is an act of authority.
To highlight
how God held the man responsible, God also came to the man after the fall
because it was the man whom he held in primary responsibility, as Paul says, “12
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through
sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—” (Rom. 5:12).
Therefore,
the wife was still supposed to submit to her husband, and be his helper, before
the fall. Yet humans were not created to be slaves, but to be free and to rule.
Hence the feminists are not correct to say that biblical marriage, where a man
leads his wife, is slavery. Husbands leading their wives is part of God’s good
design. Slavery is a corruption of God’s good world, an invading force.
Slavery did
not exist until the evil one, the devil, defeated humanity and conquered the
world, becoming the god of this age: Genesis 3:1-2 - “Now the serpent was
more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He
said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the
garden’?”
When the Devil
defeated Adam and Eve, he usurped the rulership of this world, and humanity
became enslaved to his evil, or as Acts 26:18 says, humanity was put under “the
power of Satan.” Satan captured humanity and enslaved it to his will, 2
Timothy 2:26, “and they may come to their senses and escape from the
snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”
Slavery is
the devil’s work, emanating through a world ruled by his evil beings. As the
Devil enslaves humanity to his will, so to do slave-masters enslave others to
their wills. In other words, slavery is a result of the fall. The
desire for one man to utterly dominate another man finds its seed in the
influence of the evil one over his domination of creation. Perpetuators of
slavery are like little devils.
Slavery is a
reality, then, of our fallen world. Even the flood could not wipe it out fully,
because ultimately slavery comes from the desire of a man to rule over and
dominate his fellow man. It is the image of the beast rising up to replace the
image of God in man. Slavery is a reality that needs to be dealt with in this
world, and it finds its expression in many forms.
Slavery
In The Old Testament – One of the most uncomfortable truths for modern Christians, is that the
Old Testament does not condemn slavery…or does it? The Bible is not an
idealistic book, it is a realistic book, and it presents its characters in the
reality of the world they are in, and shows how God is slowly redeeming and transforming
humanity.
Significant
figures in the Bible have slaves. Abraham had slaves for example, and this provides the
foundation for an important part of the Bible’s account. Abraham’s slave girl,
Hagar, becomes the mother of his first child, Ishmael.
But, just
because Hagar is a slave, this does not mean God has no regard for her, because
as he says, Genesis 21:13 – “And I will make a nation of the son of the
slave woman also, because he is your offspring.” Though Ishmael is not
the son of the promise, still God intends to make a great nation of him because
he is Abraham’s son. God considers greatly the station of the lowly slave.
So great men
of the Bible have slaves. But God considers the condition of those slaves.
Slavery
is seen as tragic.
There is a clear recognition even in the Old Testament that slavery is a
terrible and tragic thing. Because Hagar is a slave she is powerless and easily
abandoned, without remorse by Sarai. When Joseph is sold into slavery by his
brothers to Ishmaelite traders, it is framed as a tragic crime, that they need
to cover up. Genesis 37:29-32 - “29 When Reuben returned to the pit and
saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes 30 and returned to his
brothers and said, “The boy is gone, and I, where shall I go?” 31 Then they
took Joseph's robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. 32
And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said,
“This we have found; please identify whether it is your son's robe or not.”
This event is a tragedy. It is a tragedy that has ramifications across the
generations as well. It eventually leads to the whole nation of the Hebrews
finding themselves in slavery.
The slavery
of the Israelites in Egypt is central to the plot of the Old Testament. The
entire salvation narrative of the Old Testament looks to the Exodus where they
were saved from slavery, “17 You shall not pervert the justice due to the
sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow's garment in pledge, 18 but you
shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed
you from there; therefore I command you to do this.” (Deut. 24:17-18). Pharoah
represents a type of the evil one, who holds God’s people in thrall and must be
defeated. God redeemed his people from literal slavery.
So, slavery
exists, but the Bible recognizes from the beginning its evil nature. Slavery is
not a good thing, it is not a desired thing.
Yet It
Was Allowed – The
law allowed for slavery in ancient Israel, Deuteronomy 15:12-18 – “12 If
your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve
you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. 13
And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed.
14 You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing
floor, and out of your winepress. As the Lord your God has blessed you, you
shall give to him. 15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of
Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today.
16 But if he says to you, ‘I will not go out from you,’ because he loves you
and your household, since he is well-off with you, 17 then you shall take an
awl, and put it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your slave
forever. And to your female slave you shall do the same. 18 It shall not seem
hard to you when you let him go free from you, for at half the cost of a hired
worker he has served you six years. So the Lord your God will bless you in all
that you do.”
Israelite
law allowed a Hebrew to sell himself into slavery, to pay off his debts. But
this slavery was not to be permanent unless the slave wanted it to be. In the
seventh year, the slave was to be given the chance to go free with a great
abundance of possessions, just as the Israelites had when they came out of
Egypt.
This might
sound like a retrogressive law, but remember, our law says that an indebted
person who goes bankrupt can lose everything, and still come out the other side
with debt. This law enabled the poor person to be looked after, pay off their
debt, and then come out with abundance at the end of their indentured
servitude.
All of the
Old Testament laws about slavery were designed to restrain the practice, and
stop the masters from being cruel. But it also functioned as a kind of welfare
where people could pay off their debts.
The Heart
of Slavery – The Old
Testament condemned the heart of slavery, “Whoever steals a man and sells
him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death” (Ex.
21:16). The Old Testament, unlike virtually any other ancient law code,
outlawed the slave trade’s primary engine: the theft of human beings for sale.
Long before
Americans bought slaves from African slave lords to work their cotton fields,
the Ishmaelites and others were trading slaves to Egypt and beyond. Long before
our modern anti-slavery laws, the Bible condemned the sale of stolen human
beings. Biblical slavery was a means of paying off debt, not an engine for
conquest and dominance, which is how most ancient peoples thought of it, though
they also used it to pay of debts.
So, what
about the New Testament?
The New
Testament – Just
like the Old Testament, the New Testament does not condemn slavery. This is
uncomfortable, but let’s consider for a moment what the New Testament actually
says.
Jesus
acknowledged the existence of slaves, and structured many of his parables and
teachings around the reality of their lives, “24 A disciple is not above
his teacher, nor a servant above his master. 25 It is enough for the disciple
to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called
the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his
household” (Matthew 10:24-25).
Matthew
13:27-28 – “27 And the servants of the master of the house came and said
to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have
weeds?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to
him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’”
The word
used here, and in many others passages, is doulos, which means a servant who is
a slave. Jesus acknowledges slavery without blushing.
Paul even
convinced a youth, Onesimus, to go back to his slave-master, Philemon 1:12-16 -
“12 I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. 13 I would have
been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf
during my imprisonment for the gospel, 14 but I preferred to do nothing without
your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your
own accord. 15 For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that
you might have him back forever, 16 no longer as a bondservant but more than a
bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you,
both in the flesh and in the Lord.”
So, Jesus
recognized the existence of slavery, Paul encouraged a slave to go home, and he
also commands slaves to obey their masters. If this is the case, how did we get
to a position where slavery is rightly condemned by Christians? How did we get to
a situation where Christians fought to end slavery across the world? What
happened?
Redemption
- The answer is
simple, because we serve a Lord and Master, who made himself a slave on our
behalf, to redeem all who would believe in him, Mark 10:43-45 – “43 But
it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your
servant, 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For
even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as
a ransom for many.”
Crucifixion
was a slaves death, citizens were often killed by beheading. Jesus became a
slave, literally, the Jews were nothing more than slaves under the Romans, so
that he could redeem humanity from sin, death and the devil.
This had a
profound impact on how the Church viewed slaves, as we saw in Philemon, Paul
is, already early in Church history, telling a Christian slave master to
receive his slave back as a brother, instead. But we also see that Paul was
willing to put his own money on the line to obtain relief for Onesimus: Philemon
1:17-19, “17 So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would
receive me. 18 If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that
to my account. 19 I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—to say
nothing of your owing me even your own self.”
Though the
New Testament did not say Christians could not own slaves, it does condemn
manstealing (1 Tim. 1:10, as with the Old Testament), and as Christianity
spread through the empire, Christians looked at their Christian slaves and
thought, how can I be so arrogant as to own another man or woman, who is owned
by Christ just as I am. After all, Paul says this, “19 Or do you not know
that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from
God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God
in your body” (1 Cor. 6:19-20).
This idea
that the believer is bought with a price, the blood of Christ, started to
impact Christians, who realized they should not have authority over the body of
another person that belonged to Jesus.
Paul
directly relates this idea to slavery himself, 1 Corinthians 7:22-24 - “22
For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord.
Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ. 23 You were
bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men. 24 So, brothers, in
whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.”
If the
believer’s body is bought with a price? Then how can one Christian claim
ownership of another Christians body? How can we claim to own that which is not
ours, but is Christs? Christians who were free were to resist becoming the
slaves of men. Because those men have no authority over their bodies.
More than
that, Jesus became a slave so that he could ransom people from the power and
slavery of the devil. Slavery originates with the devil’s enslavement of
humanity. If we are going to be like our Lord, should we not seek to redeem
people from slavery too?
This is why
the early Church started redeeming people from slavery. This is why they nearly
abolished slavery in Christendom in the medieval era.
Redemption,
what Jesus did for us, became what Christians did for others. It became part of
Christian culture to purchase slaves out of bondage, because you can’t get a
more Christlike act than this? Because of Christian charity, this ended up
having an effect on unbelievers as well.
Our
Passage - So, if we come back to our passage for today,
we can see that Paul is asking nothing of the slaves in this passage, that
Jesus did not do himself, Titus 2:9-10, “9 Bondservants are to be
submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing,
not argumentative, 10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in
everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.”
The reason
today in the West that we speak of employees not servants or slaves, is very
simple: Christians came to realize that if we are going to be redeemed by
Christ, we should live as Christ did, and do what we can to make sure that no
one tries to take control of another person’s body. They have no right to touch
that which is God’s not theirs.
But this
also means, if Paul expected slaves to obey their masters, how much more should
Christians be good employees for their bosses. This does apply to all of us who
work, because we do not work for man alone, but also for God.
This is
encouraging, because it shows us that one of the ways we can extend the kingdom
of God is by simply being a pleasing, honest, and hard-working employee. We can
do this knowing that because of the God who became a slave for us, we do not
have to live as slaves today.
The boss has
no right to ask you to sin, and no right to abuse your body, but they have
every right to be obeyed in that which is righteous and honest work.
So why
doesn’t the Bible condemn slavery more? Because the Lord and Master of this
universe undermined it in a much more powerful way, he used his slavery to
become the saviour of all, redeeming us from the bondage of evil, and he
created a people, his Church, who then lived this out as well.
Conclusion
– Slavery is still
here today. There are more slaves in the world then there were in Wilberforce’s
day, many countries still allow it, even encourage it. In the West in recent
years governments have sought to try and reverse the work of the Church and
claim ownership over people’s bodies again. As Christians we must do what we
can to oppose these efforts, because we should leave at least as good a legacy
to our descendants, as our Christian ancestors left for us. We serve a Lord who
redeemed all who believe in him from slavery. Let’s be a redeeming people who
undermine slavery everywhere we see it, as well. Let’s pray.
[i] Stanton,
Elizabeth Cady; Anthony, Susan B.; Gage, Matilda; Blatch, Harriot Stanton;
Harper, Ida H.. The Complete History of the Suffragette Movement - All 6 Books
in One Edition): The Battle for the Equal Rights: 1848-1922 (pp. 877-878).
Musaicum Books. Kindle Edition.
[ii] Stanton,
Elizabeth Cady; Anthony, Susan B.; Gage, Matilda; Blatch, Harriot Stanton;
Harper, Ida H.. The Complete History of the Suffragette Movement - All 6 Books
in One Edition): The Battle for the Equal Rights: 1848-1922 (p. 1023). Musaicum
Books. Kindle Edition.
[iii] https://www.legendsandchronicles.com/ancient-civilizations/ancient-rome/slaves-of-ancient-rome/
[iv][iv]
https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/nero-man-behind-myth/slavery-ancient-rome
