Servants and Masters
Generations of black people are still dealing with the effects of slavery and its horrors. Families torn from their land. Women raped and abused. Men and women whipped, beaten, burned and branded as property. Please explain, given this horror, why the bible says to obey your master:
Ephesians 6:5-8 NIV Slaves obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favour when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.
Ephesians Chapter 6:1-10 is sundry exhortation on how we should relate with one another. Instruction to children to obey their fathers, father to be gentle with the children and mind their actions and so to servants and masters. The proceeding verses encouraged us to be strong and put on the whole armour to fight Satan. Reading this passage from New International Version (NIV) uses the word “slave” which is offensive. The King James Version (KJV) used the word “servant” and reads as counsel. The version of the bible you read will determine your growth in the fullness of things of Elohim.
The entire world is suffering from the wickedness we have committed against ourselves and God. Be it the sin of slavery, sacrificing one’s child to idols, honour killing, murder, genocide, holocaust, cutting a pregnant woman in half with the unborn child gushing out, rape, abuse, terrorism, greed, dictatorship, fraud, armed robbery and uncountable evil in the world. Paul was admonishing the Christians at Ephesus not to behave like others in the world.
The Bible decries the evil of slavery and had given us some examples of those who were enslaved for our learning. Joseph was sold by his brothers and what saved him was his knowledge of God. The three Hebrew child and Daniel were captives, what saved them was their trust in God. Nehemiah and Ezra were captives, but God gave them favour. The Lord came through for the children of Israel after 430 years of servitude in Egypt. The Lord will come through for anyone who is being oppressed today either by the effect of the past or is in Modern day slavery.
The Bible instructs to obey Masters, so that the gospel does not fall into reproach. In rebellion against those Masters, no matter how evil, one can fall into two negative situations. From a spiritual standpoint, you are in rebellion. The Bible states that those who suffer for doing good have reward, and in rebellion, such is missed out on. The second is from a very practical standpoint: would rebellion have improved the welfare of slaves? The violent crushing of slave uprisings historically gives the answer.
Slavery has been and is still around, unfortunately, in human society today. The most well-known being the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, which brought Africans to the Americas and Europe. The other major slave trades were the Trans-Saharan, where Africans were taken to the Middle East, and the Barbary slave trade in which Europeans were taken to North Africa. All these involved millions of people and spanned centuries. The question is, after these atrocities occurred, what next? One can make the choice to brood over the past, ever seeking reparations which, from a practical standpoint, are never likely to come. One could choose to put themselves in the shoes of those slaves, which can blind one to the opportunities available today. Indeed, one can take the bull by the horns and decide not to allow the negative circumstances of the past to define the life being lived today.
Slavery is still around today, both explicitly and implicitly. Human trafficking, and ‘implicit’ slavery, where people are paid ‘peanuts’ for hard labour, which is seen in both the developed and developing world. In some nations their heads of state own half of the wealth of the country. Rape is a universal atrocity, and the most painful ones are when parents rape their children. Christians who find themselves in these situations have the hope that, for their continued submission in the face of such evil, they may one day receive their reward from the Lord.
If you are not currently in slavery, please don't dwell on it, it could be distorting. Consider that, when we were saved, we left the attitudes, the desires, all things attached to the old life behind. No matter how bad the bondage of sin was, we left it behind. Similarly, if you were descended from a slave, or your genealogy was affected by slavery in previous times, you have the power to come out of the slavery mindset, and to live a new life. Those slaves suffered, and their blood speaks against those who abused them. But today, you have liberty both in Christ: nothing from the world can hold you in bondage, as the world is temporal and will one day come to an end. For this reason, Christians in slavery can remaining respectful even to the most evil masters (Romans 12:20), knowing that the Lord may deliver them, or give them grace to endure, knowing that any suffering in this life is but for a little while, and that the Lord shall recompense.
The cloud of the slave trade can only continue to hang over us if we stay put under it. Evil comes in many forms, but the Lord gives grace to persevere, to endure, and to overcome.
