Being God’s Slaves

He leads me …

An interesting thing has happened in the New Testament. We usually read that a Christian is supposed to be a servant or bondservant to the Lord Jesus. However, the Greek word used in the majority of cases for these words is doulos and it actually means slave.

 When we think of slavery, we may get a negative mental image of someone mercilessly treating another person to get whatever they want. The slave may be physically and/or mentally abused so that the dominating person has the power and control over the slave’s life. The slave is only able to respond to the dominant person the way they are told to react. They have no choice and no hope. Some of us have suffered under bullies and know what this is like.

 We can only assume that the scholars translating the word doulos found the word slave unacceptable because it created a bad reaction with the readers. After all, our God is the opposite – He is perfect love. However, the word slave appears in the New Testament 130 times in the original Greek text. Those who translated the New Testament from the Greek into English masked what is a really important truth.

 If anyone feels that the word doulos is probably being overemphasized here, they will find that all the commonly used lexicons that analyse the original meaning of Greek words, show that all the words in the doulos root group mean the same thing as the English word slave.

 We should understand too that a servant is a paid worker with some rights, while a slave is usually owned by a master for a lifetime and has no rights. Paul gladly saw himself as being owned by his new life-giving Master, Jesus Christ, and yes, this is what all Christians should aim to do too.

In one example, if we look at Philippians 1:1, Paul writes, ‘Paul and Timothy …’ are servants or bondservants in the majority of the 61 versions available on BibleGateway.com, (the original Internet Bible resource). The word slave is used in 13 instances. They are the Common English Bible, Complete Jewish Bible, Disciples’ Literal New Testament, Holman Christian Standard Bible, Jubilee Bible 2000, Lexham English Bible, The Living Bible, New American Bible (Revised Edition), New English Translation, New Living Translation, New Testament for Everyone, Tree of Life Version, and The Voice. The Expanded Bible, had slaves listed as a secondary meaning. The word slave is not used in the Amplified Bible.

A similar thing applies to Galatians 1:10, where Paul says at the end of the verse, ‘If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ.’ The majority of the translations say either servants or bond servants, with just a few using the word slave.

So logically, how does this work when we share the gospel? Do we say to them, ‘I would like to invite you to become a slave of Jesus Christ. It will mean giving up your independence and freedom, and completely submitting yourself to the Lord’? Let us face it, this is really what the gospel says. As Christians we probably do not hear any talk about being a slave because of the bad reactions that the speaker would get. In misunderstanding the word doulos, we have managed to obscure the true significance of what is actually a vital part of our biblical theology.

This is probably a bit unsettling for a lot of believers who have come to understand that in modern Christianity, our role with Jesus has nothing to do with being a slave. We hear that being a Christian is about freedom. It is about being liberated. It is about health, wealth, prosperity, and fulfilling our purpose in life. We will also hear that God loves us unconditionally and wants us to be all we want to be. We learn that He wants to fulfil all our ambitions, desire, hopes, and dreams.

If we think that being upfront about being a slave to Jesus Christ is going to ruin any chances of seeing souls saved, consider think about the folk in the New Testament churches. In the Greek and Roman world of the New Testament, people were living in a slave-dominated society, where there would have been 10 - 12 million slaves in the region. So if we think that this is a hard message for us to accept, how hard was it for those living in the midst of slavery to accept it? How did Jesus and the New Testament apostles talk to people living in a society full of slaves that being a Christian meant being a slave to the Lord? 

The answer is found in Acts 2:14-41. Peter was preaching to the crowd that was in Jerusalem for the Day of Pentecost during which he said -

“So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!” Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. (Acts 2:36-38 NLT italics added)

So, what does it mean to be a slave to Christ? Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:9b, ‘it is our [constant] ambition to be pleasing to Him’ (AMP). How do we do this? We do what He says, and do what pleases Him. So, when there is a direct command from Him, we obey it, and when there is no direct command, we do what we know would please our Master. Usually this would come from the Bible.[1]

As Christians we are like slaves in that we are totally dependent upon our Master for everything. He provides the spiritual resources that we need, and we are to trust Him in everything else too. As Matthew 6:31-34 (NLT) says,

‘So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.’

This is the Master we serve. He has our lives totally in control. We do not have to worry about anything when we are tuned into what He is doing in and through us.

A Canadian schoolteacher, Everet R. Storms, kept a record of the promises during his 27th reading of the Bible, according to the book ‘All the Promises in the Bible’ by Herbert Lockyer. It took a year and a half for Storms to compile his list, and he able to find 7,487 promises that God has given to believers.

As we progress through the challenges of our Christian walk we become more and more familiar with God’s promises to us, and we know that God keeps His word. Our Master is so much better than we can imagine.

He really means it when His Word says - “I will never, never fail you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5 TLB)

And -   Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. (Isaiah 41:10 NLT)

Dear Reader – If you have found some value in this blog, please feel free to send a copy on to your family and friends. Kind regards, John

[1] Slaves for Christ, John MacArthur, Grace to You, gty.org;

https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/80-321/slaves-for-christ