Let’s Go Back to Slavery!

Let’s Go Back To Slavery

Good Day Joes and Janes

Back to slavery! I don’t think so you say!  Or you might say, looking that the direction our country is headed right now, maybe but not without a fight!  But actually I am talking about a different slavery, called in most translations being a bond servant.  Now, I know a some of you Regular Joes might have a different image jump into your mind when I start talking about bond Servants.

Actually You Only Live Once and After That the Judgement, But That's Just What The Bible Says.

No, I am not talking about James Bond either.  Bond servant is really just another word for slave; something that everyone for most of the last 5000 years could relate to.  Even today in Africa and other parts of the world the slave trade flourishes.  The same tribes that sold slaves to American and European slave traders never stopped, just the market changed.

The Free Dictionary is a good resource for looking up definitions.  Here is their listing for bond servant:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bond-servant

1. A slave; one who is bound to service without wages.

If thy brother . . . be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond servant: but as an hired servant. – Lev. xxv. 39, 40.

Slavery was common in the Old Testament.  When God gave the law to Moses he did not prohibit slavery, he only set down rules on buying Hebrew servants.  Let’s read in Exodus

Exodus 21:1-6 “Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him for ever.”

In other words looking at the last part of the text, it was not unusual for a servant to voluntarily choose to remain a slave with his wife and children with the master who bought him.

Let’s look at some New Testament verses:

James 1:1 “James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ…”

2 Peter 1:1 I Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

The word for servant or bond servant depending on the translation you are reading comes from the word dulos.  It is defined as:

1.a slave, bondman, man of servile condition

1.a slave

2.metaph., one who gives himself up to another’s will those whose service is used by Christ in extending and advancing his cause among men

3.devoted to another to the disregard of one’s own interests

•a servant, attendant

Christ commissioned the apostles to go out and multiply themselves, to spread the Gospel, you have the same position as James or Peter or any of the other original apostles if you have received Christ as your personal savior.  Do you consider yourself to be an apostle, a disciple?

In America I think we have a distorted view of slavery or being a bond servant.  Would you happily and proudly tell people that you have decided to become a slave?  Are you a slave?  I guess the big question are you, am I, a bond servant to Christ our Savior?  Are we devoted to Him to the disregard of our own interests?

I personally find it easy to slip into the image or role of a self-made, independent man in the style of James Bond than to be a Peter, bond servant to Christ.  I find it easy to charge ahead and make my own decisions than to stop and ask Christ for permission and direction at every turn.

And yet isn’t Jesus Christ the one who really knows the best course of action for each one of us?  Doesn’t the one who cares for the sparrows care far more for us?  Wouldn’t Jesus make far better decisions than we would?  I know I am going to work harder at being a good bond servant and seek my Masters will by seeking Him at every turn.

Bond Servant Regular Joe

Related articles

• Servants, Slaves and Mustard Seeds (5gsandacupofjoe.wordpress.com)
• Five-Talent Servants (stevensawyer.wordpress.com)
• Slave to Christ (hatchcreek.com)