Slavery 

Philemon 

Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ; not by way of eye-service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free. 

And masters, do the same thing to them, and give up threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him. Ephesians 6:5-9 

We shouldn’t ignore the fact that Philemon owned a slave. Let’s discuss it. 

Isn’t it interesting that the Bible never openly condemns slavery? Jesus never did either. This isn’t easy to reconcile. 

As I concluded our study on Philemon, I realized I had not considered the topic of slavery. It’s not the main theme of the book, but it is hard to ignore as a topic. A prominent Christian leader, Philemon, had a slave. Isn’t it sinful to have slaves? I’m not sure I have a great answer, but I know I shouldn’t ignore this obvious question. Don’t expect a brilliant conclusion from me. I’m not sure where we’ll land. But often, when I start writing, difficult issues become a little clearer. Let’s see what happens as I write.

Be kind to all 

So, where do we begin? What I do know is that throughout the Bible, Christians are called to treat one another, as well as all people, with kindness, grace and love. So, in the current world we live in today, regardless of a person’s stature, whether noble and wealthy, or lowly and homeless, whether honest in character or wicked and evil, we are to treat all people the same; with kindness, grace and love. Period.

Another fact I am sure of, God did not create mankind to live in slavery. Slavery is not natural and it is not part of the order of creation, as God intended it. Slavery, as in all social injustices and evil, has arisen from the Fall; the sin of Adam that has spread throughout all men. 

Slavery was widespread in the Roman empire. It was a key element of the economy. It had laws surrounding its practice that masters were obligated to follow. I’m not saying it was right but to suddenly stop it and outlaw, would have made a third of the population homeless and without a means to provide for themselves and for many, their spouses and children. For the other two thirds of the population, it would send the economy into collapse. Once again, this doesn’t make slavery right, but it needs to be a consideration.

Social reform and the gospel 

Jesus and the apostles, including Paul, didn’t focus on social reform. They focused 100% on life-transformation; they focused on the hearts of men and women and children; they focused on the gospel that regenerates souls from the inside. So, in the case of slavery, the focus wasn’t on calling it immoral in a sweeping manner, because many of the slaves at that time were living comfortable lives. Good lives relative to many others throughout history. Changing public policy is good but it wasn’t the focus of Jesus or the apostles. Proclaiming the gospel and changing lives was the mandate. 

The passage quoted at the beginning of this post points to the fact that Christians who had slaves as part of their household, were to treat them with kindness, grace and love. Christianity was new to the Roman empire and slavery had grown to become a staple of their economy. So, the immediate guidance for new Christians with slaves was to treat them well, because with God, there is no partiality between slave and free.  

I can’t help but to believe that as these Christian matured, they would slowly but surely begin to view slavery differently and influence society accordingly. Bottomline, slavery of all kinds is wrong. But slavery that involves the mistreatment and abuse of any individual is especially wrong. But once again, the focus of Jesus and the Apostles was the ministry of the gospel, not social justice. The mission to improve society is good but it’s not the gospel. Society improves as a natural outcome of the gospel and the changed lives of their citizens. 

Non-profit’s that exist to improve the lives of others, especially the weak, vulnerable and hurting, ARE GOOD. They do good in this world. Leigh and I prefer to support ministries that improve the lives of the needy and do it in a way that improves their physical lives AND ALSO provides the gospel to the hurting people as part of the ministry as well. This is the mandate of Christ; to take the gospel to the world. To improve someone’s life physically is good. Very good. But to influence their lives with gospel, well, that improves them for all of eternity! 

Father in heaven, this is not an easy subject. Give us wisdom and guidance to know how we should individually minister to the needs of others in this hurting world. We don’t understand everything about the way You view social justice but one thing we know for sure…you have called us to be kind, caring and gracious to all and to uphold the gospel with the words of our mouths and the actions of our lives. Give us strength to do so. Amen.