Thursday: Masters Who Are Slaves
In Paul’s final words to slaves, “whether he is a slave or free” (Ephesians 6:8), the word “free” refers to slave masters, allowing Paul to transition to his counsel to them while imagining slaves and slave masters standing on an equal footing before Christ in the judgment (compare 2 Corinthians 5:10; Colossians 3:24-25).
Assuming that you are a Christian slave master who is listening to Ephesians being read out in your house church, how might you react to this counsel, offered in the presence of your slaves? Ephesians 6:9.
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Paul addresses masters, slave masters, in a pointed exhortation, which turns on the sharp contrast between “the lords” (Greek, hoi kurioi, translated as “masters”), who had a habit of “threatening” their slaves, and “the Lord” (ho kurios), Christ, with whom there is “no partiality” (ESV).
Paul asks masters to “do the same to them” (ESV), the slaves, which would have been shocking to a first-century slave owner. Masters should respond to their slaves with deeds of goodwill governed by their allegiance to Christ, corresponding to what Paul has just asked of slaves (Ephesians 6:5-8). He tells them to stop threatening their slaves, a common practice of a time in which masters administered a wide variety of punishments, including beating (1 Peter 2:20), sexual abuse, being sold (and parted from loved ones), extreme labor, starvation, shackles, branding, and even death. For this, they will be judged—by God.
Paul supports his commands with two motivations that call slave masters to look beyond the social structures of the Greco-Roman world: (1) they and their presumed slaves are co-slaves of a single Master (“knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven,” ESV; compare Colossians 4:1); and (2) the heavenly Master judges all without partiality. Since their own Master treats those regarded as slaves on an equal footing with others, so should they (compare Philemon 1:15-16).
Much of Paul’s language in Ephesians would be especially heartening for Christian slaves: adoption as sons (Ephesians 1:5); redemption (Ephesians 1:7); inheritance (Ephesians 1:11,14; Ephesians 3:6); being enthroned with Jesus (Ephesians 2:6); becoming “fellow citizens,” “members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19; compare Ephesians 3:14-15), and integral parts of the body of Christ (see Ephesians 3:6; Ephesians 4:1-16; Ephesians 6:5-9 activates all the teaching in the letter as operative in the relationships between slaves and slave masters, including the counsel about speech (Ephesians 4:25-32) and sexual ethics (Ephesians 5:1-14).
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In all probability, the letter to the Ephesians was read at a Sabbath gathering of Christians. The inference is that both slaves and masters were at that gathering. Both would have heard the words of Paul at the same time. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall, listening to the conversations, after the reading.
Paul, in his own way, is calling for changes in the way that different classes of society interact. His emphasis was on Christ-centred change, not conflict and competition. His idea was to change the hearts of people. The fact that he included both masters and slaves together in his pastoral letter was radical in itself.
Paul reiterates this idea several times in his epistles:
I just try to imagine the master and his slave sitting in the same congregation even as the letter is being read out, or even discussed. The kind of peace each one acquired thereafter.
The slave/master concept is a reality today at work, in social circles, in family, relationships, and self. Desire for control is an ancient disease. Respect for the hierarchical organization of any social group is essential, but no abuse of power can be justified. While human justice fails, Love presents a frame for perfection. It's a matter of patience because, eventually, Christ will balance all discrepancies in the Universe.
The United States stopped having Slavery over 100 years ago under President Abraham Lincoln. We Seventh Day Adventists should not be trying to use the Apostle Paul's counsel of "Slaves and Slave Masters," anymore in this Country. Yes, Submission from all of us as being under Jesus' rulership but no more as "Slaves' or "Slave Masters," in this Country for sure. Jesus was no "Slave Master," to His Apostles nor did any of the Apostles have slaves under them. I doubt that the Apostle Paul was a "Slave Master," himself.
Pete, we still have several Black and White conferences, (Seventh Day Adventist) in the USA.. What a turn off! Other outsiders witnesses it frown on it, and void their potential membership, but we do business as usually ...Hmmm, what will Jesus say?
Is it wise to reach such a conclusion without considering*why* we have black and white conferences? Who wishes to continue these, and why? Is it because of racial prejudices or other reasons?
Do the congregations consist of only black members or only white members? Or are the congregations in both conferences mixed?
I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that Paul was speaking to an audience that may have contained both slaves and slave owners. Irrespective of how one may want to apply calming language to this fact, Paul seems to be providing exhortation on how the slave/slave-master relationship should work in a harmonious manner. We have seen modern versions of government approved inequalities in apartheid as an example. I cannot recall our church taking a stand against the practice of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, exterminations, etc. Is this so because of what we studied this week? How do I explain this to someone who believes that the bible is soft on condemning social injustice.
Given the circumstances of the time when Paul addressed the Ephesians, one can see that these people had a lot to consider when becoming a 'Follower of the Way of Jesus Christ'. Slave-holding was accepted as a custom of the times, but this did not have to mean that they needed to be treaded unkindly. And this is where I see the fundamental, spiritual change having taken place.
I see these circumstances associated with ‘slavery’, or for that matter any custom which degrades a fellow man by treating him with contempt, to be the perfect reflection of what goes wrong as long as blindness to God’s Truth governs man’s conduct. Jesus Christ brought heavenly light to bear on how man engages with each other - may he be free or bond.
Though times have changed, a person's unredeemed heart still shows behavior born from its darkness. They do not know ‘how to love their fellow man', because they have not yet loved their heavenly Father, and Jesus Christ came to change that.
It is the heart's and mind's new disposition which governs what we think of each other and how we treat each other.
Many individuals have personal servants to care for their needs. Would Christians consider their relationship with them as that of a master to a ‘slave’? Even though they pay them wages, could they still be dismissive of them, or are they kind and express respect?
I see the last paragraph of the lesson to be applicable to all mankind, because a Christian cannot consider anyone a slave in the worldly understanding of the word. I hold that a Christian is not a slave nor can he be a master holding a slave; it is counter-intuitive and contrary to the core meaning of being a Christian.
All who accepted Jesus Christ have been freed from the slavery to sin; all have been purchased for a price and are now HIs 'bondservants'. Whether being a believer or a non-believer, whether being the ‘good’ son or the ‘prodigal’ son, we are all children of our heavenly Father created equal in His sight and awaiting our final distinction as sons of God.
The slave/master concept is a reality today at work, in social circles, family, relationships, and self. Desire for control is an ancient disease. Respect for the hierarchical organization of any social group is essential, but no abuse of power can be justified. While human justice fails, Love presents a frame for perfection. It's a matter of patience because, eventually, Christ will balance all discrepancies in the Universe.
An edict often attributed to Ghandi says “be the change you want to see in the world “. I don’t think the apostle Paul was soft on social justice but rather advocating for radical social change from the bottom up as a result of gospel-infused hearts and minds.
We don’t all have power to change laws, but we do have power to make individual choices that reflect God’s love and change in our own lives.