So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves.They appointed brutal slave drivers over them, hoping to wear them down with crushing labor.
They forced them to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king. But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread, and the more alarmed the Egyptians became.
So the Egyptians worked the people of Israel without mercy. They made their lives bitter, forcing them to mix mortar and make bricks and do all the work in the fields. They were ruthless in all their demands...
Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Throw every newborn Hebrew boy into the Nile River. But you may let the girls live...”
God heard their groaning...
Exodus 1:11-14, 22-24 (1)
When most of us think of a slave I would venture this is what comes to the forefront of our imaginations. Endless work in desert like conditions under the observance of brutal taskmasters.
We think back to our school days and our study of history to the harsh and inhumane treatment of Irish, Asian, and African American slaves. We remember
how they were bought and sold with impunity, no care given to separating a mother from her child, or a father from his family. We remember the absolute disregard for integrity and honor afforded slaves, and can’t fathom that God, of all beings fair and just, could ever want to chain us back up!
Perhaps this is why, until recently, all the recorded translations of the bible, from Geneva Bible in 1599 to the New International Version in 1984 (last revision) have rendered the Greek word “doulos” as servant, instead of the harsher rendering slave. Indeed, not until the New Living Translation in 1996 and the Holman Christian Standard Version in 1999 was the word rendered as slave by mainstream bible translators. And what a BIG difference a subtle change can make.
I was preparing for a bible study I was going to be participating in on the book of Philippians. I was getting ready for bed and found myself with 2 bibles by the bedside. I picked up one and began to read the first few verses of Philippians 1 and was blown away afresh by Paul’s humility and earnestness. I laid that one down, picked up the other bible I had there, and couldn’t get out of the first verse. For this is how it read...
This letter is from Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus... Phil 1:1 (2)
The implication of that rendering was not lost to me. My curiosity piqued, I resolved myself to study this issue some more in the morning. Morning came quicker than usual. Two seemingly unrelated occurrences diverged and woke me from my slumber. First, I could not get that verse out of my mind, ...Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus...you couldn’t have chosen a more descriptive word than “slave” to describe absolute service. As a result, my sleep was hurting for the undue hardship of trying to get my mind around that one. The second as many a sleeping father and mother can attest was a crying baby! So it was after all had settled down, and sleep continued to evade, that I headed down to the basement for some heavy research on the word “doulos.”
The first place to start of course is the dictionary. I wanted to see if there was an academic difference between the words servant and slave, or if the difference was all emotional. Did the word slave have such a negative connotation because of how and what I was taught about slaves, or was there a clear and distinct difference between the two words?
Sure enough we see that a servant is “a person employed by another...a person in the service of another.” If we look up slave we find something else entirely, “a person who is the property of, and wholly subject to another...a person entirely under the domination of some influence or person...and is absolutely subject to the will of another.” (3)
In her book Surrender, Nancy DeMoss interviews Josef Tson, a Romanian pastor and Christian leader who has suffered prolonged persecution and exile at the hands of a repressive Communist regime. When asked about the subtle difference in meaning of the two words, Josef answered like this, “who wants to be somebody else’s slave...in the Greek slave is doulos, servant is diakonos. In the Greek Bible one never, never diakoneō to God—-one never serves God; one only douleo to God—-that is, one slaves to God. (4)
Earlier we touched on 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.
“Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.” (5)
As you read that passage afresh, does your mind hearken back to the story of Joseph, as he was sold into slavery for 20 shekels, or perhaps the poor widow who cried out to Elisha the prophet, “your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.” (2 Kings 4:1) (6)
This idea was in mind as Paul wrote his letter to the church at Corinth. Many things were bought at the marketplace during the time Paul was writing, food, clothing, and yes, even slaves were sold. In this passage we are being sold at the marketplace as slaves to sin, but thanks be to God, He has ransomed us. He has paid full price, buying us back, and setting us free, forever free, to slave unto Him.
Were there others who announced themselves as “slaves of Christ?” I’m glad you asked, and the answer is Yes, and who may surprise you a little.
First, let us start with the apostle Peter. In addition to being the “rock” upon which Christ will build His church (Mat 16:18), a lover of Christ (John 21:15-17), and a contributor to the New Testament (1 & 2 Peter), Peter was also a slave!
This letter is from Simon Peter, a slave and
apostle of Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:1 (7)
The order is not lost to me, he identified himself as a slave first, and an apostle second!
Second, is James, the half-brother of Jesus. We know from scripture His brothers did not believe in Him (John 7:5; Mark 3:21), that James continued to be a skeptic until the risen Christ appeared to him (1 Cor 15:7), and that James held a prominent position in the early Christian church in Jerusalem (Acts 15). But did you also know he announced himself a slave of Jesus Christ?
This letter is from James, a slave of God and of
the Lord Jesus Christ. James 1:1 (8)
Now you would think that James would use his position as brother of Christ to bolster his authority. He certainly could have done so and no one would have challenged him on it, for he absolutely was the brother of Christ. But notice the deafening silence of that very fact! James willingly submitted himself to the roll of slave.
Lastly, we see Jude, brother of James (Jude 1:1), half-brother of Christ (Mat 13:55), and contributor to the New Testament (Jude). We note the same humility in Jude as we did in James referring to himself as a slave of Christ.
This letter is from Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ
and a brother ofJames. Jude 1:1 (9)
We should also note here that these men knew slaves. There were slaves all around them. They may have even worked with slaves. These men knew what it meant to be a slave, and yet they took the title willingly, almost boasting that they are slaves of the risen Christ!
If we were speaking of the cruel system of slavery we are so familiar with then this may seem abhorrent. But it is perfectly natural that we would want to be slaves of Jesus Christ, who only has our best interests in mind (Psalm 50:14-15 & 145:19-20).
In the book of Exodus 21: 1-6, we read an interesting story of a slave’s choice to become a slave indefinitely.
“These are the regulations you must present to Israel.” If you buy a Hebrew slave, he may serve for no more than six years. Set him free in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom. If he was single when he became your slave, he shall leave single. But if he was married before he became a slave, then his wife must be freed with him. “If his master gave him a wife while he was a slave and they had sons or daughters, then only the man will be free in the seventh year, but his wife and children will still belong to his master. But the slave may declare, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children. I don’t want to go free. ’If he does this, his master must present him before God. Then his master must take him to the door or doorpost and publicly pierce his ear with an awl. After that, the slave will serve his master for life.” (10)
In the narrative we see that the slavery practiced by the Jews was far removed than that practiced by other nations, including ours. A Hebrew slave was limited to service for 6 years, for in the seventh year he was released, and owed nothing for his newfound freedom. If he was single, he left single, if married when interned, then he left with his wife and kids (if applicable). If however, he married and fathered children while a slave, then he would be set free, but his wife and children would remain. Given this instance the slave could decide to serve his master for life!
DeMoss comments again, “there could be no secret about the nature of the servant’s new relationship to his master. The transaction was made in a public ceremony where the surrender was recognized in a visible- and painful- way. A sharp instrument was used to pierce a hole in the servant’s ear, signifying obedience to the voice of his master. The decision was irreversible. From that point on, he would always be branded as a bond slave. (11)
If the bond slave ever had second thoughts- if a week or a month, or a year, or 10 years later he decided, “I think I want out of this deal”- he would always have a hole in his ear to remind him that he was not his own, and never would be again. To acquire this mark of ownership involved a degree of suffering, but the servant was willing to endure the physical pain, in order to formally establish and demonstrate his relationship with his master. The hole spoke of lifetime ownership! (12)
The lamented cry of David in Psalm 40 verses 6-8 takes on new meaning in light of the willing choice of indefinite slavery.
Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but my ears you have pierced;
burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require.
Then I said, “Here I am, I have come— it is written about me in the scroll.
I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” (13)
C.S. Lewis once said, “those divine demands which sound to our natural ears most like those of a despot and least like those of a lover, in fact marshal us where we should want to go if we knew what we wanted.”
A wise man once said, “To believe in Him is to do His will.” (14)
We remember our Lord who said, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? (Luke 6:46) He compares the man who “acts” and “does” those things to one who builds on a strong foundation, and thus the house could not be thrown to and fro. However, the one who just hears but does not do must belong to another, for he is tossed to and fro, and is ruined altogether.
Therefore, we most certainly testify in deed to those we trust! God may be calling you to do something that seems absolutely foreign to our Western thought processes. Our Lord and Savior is calling us to serve Him wholeheartedly, not just with our mouths, our ears, or even our minds, for what good is our mind without our heart!
‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ (Mat 22:37) (15)
It is in this vein that we must learn to serve with humility, as our Lord served with gentleness and humility- “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. (Mt 11:29) (16)
To drive this point home, Jesus used an occasion upon which two of His disciples came to Him seeking glory and honor (Mark 10:37). “Grant that we may sit in places of honor,” they requested, “one on your right and the other at your left.”
Like many of us today, James and John did not know what they asked. By asking for this very thing, God’s providence was opened anew to them, and they were told the road that leads to salvation is paved with suffering. They wished for places of honor, however along with Paul (Acts 9:16), they found God’s chosen instruments often suffer for the sake of His name.
But Jesus did not stop there; he went on to show them what a servant truly looks like:
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them.” It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
Mat 20:25-28 (17)
After answering their question about places of honor, Christ immediately gets to the heart of the matter. The problem with seeking position is that it places the emphasis on you, rather than the Lord. It is ultimately a pride issue. You are seeking after the best that life has to offer, presumably because youbelieve you deserve it. The problem is, we all deserve hell. Anything we get outside of that gruesome place of suffering is nothing more than the goodness of our Father in Heaven raining down upon us. For this we should be grateful, and the natural outflow of a grateful heart, is gracious serving (or slaving)!
Furthermore, we see from these verses that it’s our very act of serving that will determine the place of honor in the kingdom to come. Jesus stated that whoever wished to be first (in the kingdom to come) shall be a slave (in this present age). Thus it would seem that position in one, is dictated by the service
rendered in another.
In addition, we would be remiss not to mention the fact that here, Christ calls himself a slave. Most bibles have translated the last word in verse 27 as serve, however the Greek renders it doulos, or slave.
Following, Christ says, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give His life as a ransom for many.” (18)
Lastly, we see that the word Jesus used to describe His contribution was ransom or lutron (loo’- tron), which literally means a redemption price. In this instance, ransom is referred to as a price paid to secure the freedom of a slave!
And again, in John 13, we see the absolute surrender and humility in which the Lord slaved. Jesus knew His time had come. The mission for which He had been sent into this world to complete was almost done. The Bible says that He loved his own to the very end!
The Last Supper was completed, but our Lord and Savior was not done serving His disciples, who would soon desert him. Again the Bible says that Jesus knew God had put all things into His capable hands, and He was soon returning to His Father. He rose from the table, took a towel, poured water into a basin, and began washing their feet! Can you imagine the scene? The very Son of God, Maker of Heaven and Earth, eternal, holy, and righteous, is washing the feet of a bunch of sinful men. Let me remind you as well that the disciples weren’t wearing Nike’s or Reebok’s on the road to Jerusalem, they were either barefoot or had sandals. To put it mildly, these men’s feet were dirty and odorous. This was no laughing matter as often happens when today’s churches try to reenact the scene. This was the ultimate show of humility! Peter, recognizing that the positions should have been switched quickly says, “No Lord,” only to be rebuked by the ultimate Slave. Watch with me as we render the Greek word for servant as the more appropriate slave:
“For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”
John 13:15-17 (19)
There are more than two, but I want to focus on two absolute gems found in these verses. First, these disciples have been with Jesus for over 3 years, they have seen Him do nothing but serve. All along the way He has hinted to them that His time is coming, He must depart from them, so that He might send another to help them (the Holy Spirit). He reminds them again here, “I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you.” His whole life has been an example to them that they should follow. There is absolutely nothing that He has done, that they shouldn’t feel obliged to do themselves.
Secondly, He reminds them of His position, and what their position to Him is, then adds, “Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.” They are not better than Him that they should fail to do these things now that they know them. Far from it, blessings flow from those things done, not from what you know!
___________________________________________________________
In 1935 B.B. McKinney traveled to Clanton, Alabama to participate in the Alabama Sunday School Convention to lead the music. The featured speaker at the meetings was his good friend, R.S. Jones, a missionary to Brazil.
Late one afternoon as the two men had supper; Jones told McKinney that the doctors were forbidding him from returning to Brazil because his health wouldn’t allow it.
McKinney’s heart went out to his friend, and he asked if Jones had any idea what he’d do. “I don’t know,” said Jones, “but wherever He leads I’ll go.”
Returning to his hotel, McKinney sat down and wrote the words and music of this hymn before leaving for the convention session that night!
“Take up thy cross and follow me,”
I heard my Master say,
“I gave my life to ransom thee,
Surrender your all today,”
My heart, my life, my all
I bring to Christ who loves me so,
He is my Master, Lord, and King,
Wherever He leads I’ll go,
Wherever He Leads, I’ll go,
Wherever He Leads, I’ll go,
I’ll follow my Christ who loves me so,
Wherever He Leads, I’ll go. (20)
Continue to Chapter 3: Slaves to Something
doulos ek Christos
Footnotes
1. (Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved)
2. (Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved)
3. (Dictionary.com)
4. (Surrender The Heart God Controls; Copyright 2003 by Nancy Leigh DeMoss; Moody Publishers. All Rights Reserved)
5. (Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved)
6. (Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved)
7. (Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved)
8. (Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved)
9. (Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved)
10. (Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved)
11. (Surrender The Heart God Controls; Copyright 2003 by Nancy Leigh DeMoss; Moody Publishers. All Rights Reserved)
12. (Surrender The Heart God Controls; Copyright 2003 by Nancy Leigh DeMoss; Moody Publishers. All Rights Reserved)
13. (Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved)
14. (A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs; © 1998 David Bercot; Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)
15. (Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved)
16. (Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission)
17. (Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission)
18. (Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved)
19. (Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission)
20. (Then Sings My Soul; Copyright © 2003 by Robert J. Morgan)
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