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“Slavery in Scripture”
Good evening.
Wow that's hot.
So we need to turn that mic down a little bit back there if we can.
But anyway, if you would turn your Bibles to Exodus 21.
Exodus 21.
And I want to read a passage of scripture that will set the stage for
what I want to share with you this evening.
Read verses 1 to 11.
So this is the law given for Israel.
So it would be this part of the civil law.
And Moses writes, now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.
If thou by an Hebrew servant six years shall he 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 masters 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 under the judges and he shall also bring him to the door or under the door
post and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl and he shall serve him
forever.
And if a man sell his daughter to be a maid servant she shall not go out as the men servants do.
If she pleased not her master who hath betrothed her to himself then shall he let her be redeemed.
To sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.
And if he have betrothed her unto his son he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.
If he take him another that is another wife her food her raiment and her duty of
marriage shall he not diminish.
And if he do not these things if he do not these three unto her then
shall she go out free without money.
Let's pray and then we'll have a song.
Father I pray that you would meet with us in this time together tonight and you'd speak to us through your word
give us some some semblance of understanding and insight this whole matter of
slavery especially as it applies to the scripture and is found in the scriptures.
We pray in Jesus name amen.
So I'll sing just one song number 118.
It's a song he knoweth the way number 118 and sing the
first and the third stanzas.
Number 118 he knoweth the way.
Can we stand as we sing help us sing a little better.
O Lord thou art my king and
who am I to question thy way.
Whatever the loss whatever the cost
draw me closer to thee every day.
He knoweth the way that I
take a new heart within he'll
create.
That I may walk worthy and come forth as gold
he giveth and taketh away.
And the third O Lord thou art my
all and who am I to walk without thee.
My sin I forsake thy cross I will take
now thy servant dear lord make of me.
That I may walk worthy and come forth as
gold he giveth and taketh away.
Thank you you may be seated.
Well tonight what I wanted to do was kind of pick up on the topic
that was addressed in this morning's passage in Ephesians chapter 6 where Paul is writing to
bondservants and their masters, slaves and their masters.
There were different categories of bondservants and slaves and we'll see that here tonight.
But needless to say that topic has been on our mind much in the last
several weeks ever since all of the protests started up again and the
riots and the Black Lives Matter
stuff that's been going on.
And in in many times many cases you've heard in the context of all of that
there have been some who have been calling for reparations for slavery in the United
States.
So the whole subject of slavery is is one that's that's been on our mind and no matter how
you cut it it is something it's a subject it's an issue an institution that is part of our
nation's history.
But one thing I want us to understand tonight is that as an institution slavery
is a huge part of human history.
This isn't something that was isolated to white men in America
enslaving black men.
Slavery is is something that's been going on in the world probably since
there were different nations, different groups of people and tribes of people that formed their
own governing areas.
Slavery has probably been going on for at least for that long.
We know that it's happened and been going on in all parts of the world, all different cultures,
different nations and we see it in the scriptures.
And I want to look at that tonight.
In Ephesians 6 that we looked at this morning Paul addressed this subject but he didn't
direct his remarks to the institution of slavery.
Instead he directed his remarks to those who were involved in slavery on a household level.
And the household level would be the slaves and their masters.
And one thing I didn't point out this morning that might be helpful for us to understand is that
slaves in the New Testament time frame were often considered
part of the family.
They were part of the household and that's probably why Paul saw fit to
include that discussion to slaves and masters right on the heels of the
rest of the household.
First talking about husbands and wives and then parents and children and then slaves and masters.
He was just dealing with that which was going on in the household.
But Paul and the New Testament and the scriptures themselves nowhere really address
slavery as an institution that has to be dismantled.
But what Paul writes and what the scripture as a whole has to say about slavery
undermines slavery from within.
Which explains why it is that Christianity has
been the most aggressive
force to do away with the institution of slavery.
Again not so much because of an attack on the institution directly but there was
first of all an undermining of that institution from within which then made the discussion
about abolishing the institution altogether something that made for
a political possibility.
So what I want to do tonight is just provide a general survey of how the Bible handles this.
There's no question but much more could be said from what I'm what I'm going to say in the next 40
minutes or so and could make a whole series on the subject and I'm really not interested in doing that
but I did want us to get a good survey understanding.
So we have to understand that first of all the Bible does acknowledge the existence of slavery
and even in the scriptures we can see that slaves were acquired in a variety of ways.
So get your Bibles ready and we're just going to flip through a bunch of passages probably.
So in Numbers 31 for example Numbers 31
verse 7 says the Israelites warred against the
Midianites as the Lord commanded Moses and they slew all the males.
The Israelites slew all of the male Midianites.
They slew the kings of Midian beside the rest of them that were slain and then so forth.
Now look at verse 9.
Verse 9 says and the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives and
their little ones and took the spoil of all their cattle and all their flocks and all their goods.
And then look at verse 18.
So Moses initially is very upset with the
warriors the army because they took these women captives the wives of the
men who were slain and he chides them and said hey listen do you not
remember that it was the women the Midianite women who seduced
the Israelite men and led us into idolatry and got us into trouble?
And so then Moses had had them execute those lives.
But then in verse 18 he says but all the women children all the women children that have not known
a man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves.
So here is in a very early place in Israel's history even before they
crossed over the Jordan and became a nation that the Israelites conquered
the Midianites and those who were left alive became the captives
and the slaves of the Israelites.
Now this may seem this is horrific on one level isn't it?
And this is one of the things that's really challenging for us because we are so far removed
from the institution of slavery and so distant from the realities
of war on a personal level in in our lives and
even in our lifetime the vast majority of us have not
experienced the kind of close -up war that was
commonplace in these days.
I mean here how far away were the Israelites from the Midianites?
They were they were like right next door this would be like this would be like Iowa going to war with Illinois
and when that war got over then then the next thing you know Indiana is attacking Illinois and and and
we're all involved every male that can fight is involved in the militia you see we
don't know anything like that so so this all seems so distant to us
and so horrific but one of the things that we have to
keep in mind is that this taking of the slaves was actually
a humanitarian gesture.
You say well how in the world is that?
Well okay what were the options?
What were the typical options at the time were absolute genocide
so the Israelites won the victory okay then you just kill every single Midianite you just
exterminate them all so there are no Midianites left no men women boys girls
none just completely annihilate this was typical so when
so somewhere along the way they figured out hey you know rather than do that why don't we just take some of these people captive and we
can use we can use them and benefit from them which is a terrible thing
but given the alternative and then and the other thing to keep in mind too is if you
you you have all the men are involved in war and the the guys who lose they all get
killed who's left the women and children all right so then what if the the
victory the winning army just says okay have at it see you later and they just
leave.
This would create a tremendous terrible hardship for those trying to pick up the pieces.
So as strange as it sounds to our ears this was actually to take people
captive in a war in victory was actually considered a more humane or humanitarian
thing at least more humane than genocide.
Another way that slaves were acquired was through purchase.
So that's how um joseph ended up being in slavery in egypt sold by
his own brothers to slave traders that ended up selling him in egypt.
Um in israel foreigners could be purchased from traders
and and even children we saw in exodus 21 this passage we read earlier that
a family a family could sell their child to a
form of slavery.
An israelite family could sell their children to israelites for as as
slaves.
And this again seems terribly.
You know we we cannot wrap our heads around that how in the world could a parent do this.
And um the short answer to that without going into to a to a lot of detail is it
all had to do with economics and survival a matter of survival.
So better to better to
sell sell your child if you will to a neighbor who could
provide for that child that would give you that would allow you to pay off
your debts.
Your child would survive.
It wouldn't starve to death.
Your child would survive and would be cared for and so forth.
And in return for the room and board that the child gets the child would work and so on and so forth.
Another thing to keep in mind about that kind of arrangement is this isn't like the joseph thing where
you know the slave traders come to town and you know the parents need a few extra bucks so they sell off
their kids to the slave traders.
Then take the kids off to another country somewhere.
No this would be this would be like in the community within the community that this would take place.
So it's not like the parent sends the child off and never sees them again for the rest of their life.
They're in the same they're living in the same community.
War captives purchase.
A third way that slavery slaves were acquired was through insolvency.
So there was no such thing as bankruptcy court.
And that in those days you incurred a bunch of debts and you couldn't pay your debts.
So how you pay those debts.
Well you sell yourself to slavery to a form of
a form of bond servant.
So like in exodus 22 we see an example of this in verses one to three.
If a man steal an ox or a sheep and kill it or sell it he shall restore five
oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep.
If a thief be found breaking up and be smitten that he die there shall no blood be shed for him.
I think i got the wrong verse here the sun be risen.
Oh you know here it is.
If the sun be risen upon him there shall be blood shed for him.
For he should make full restitution.
But if he can't make restitution if he have nothing then he shall be sold for his
theft.
So here's another example of how that um insolvency comes into play.
Guy steals property.
He can't pay restitution for that property.
Then the only alternative for him is to sell himself into slavery
to pay that debt.
A fourth way that slaves were acquired was through acquisition as a gift.
Acquisition as a gift again.
Really odd isn't it.
But jacob had a couple of wives rachel and leah.
Right.
So when jacob married leah jacob's or leah's father laban
gave to leah zilpah as
a handmaid.
Now that when we read that in the bible in our in our bibles it sounds you know pretty
vanilla you know very innocuous and we just go on.
But what that means is that zilpah was a slave girl and she was
a slave girl to take care of leah.
And so when leah got married dad gave zilpah to leah which
became part of jacob's household.
So acquisition is a gift.
And then a fifth way is by inheritance.
By way of inheritance non -hebrew slaves in israel could be passed on
to the next generation.
A sixth way was through the children of slaves.
So we saw in exodus 21 verses 2 through 4 you know here's a guy who's
a hebrew servant.
He's only he's only allowed to serve for six years and then he's he's got to be released.
But if while he becomes the servant he marries
another servant which would most likely not be an israelite woman.
So he marries this other woman and marries this servant and they have a child
that other servant the female servant and the child becomes is the property of the
of the owner.
The hebrew servant is allowed to go free.
But the um the children the child that guy's children belong
to the owner of the of the slaves.
That's one of the ways that um you would become a slave by being born into
it from your parents.
Now when we look at the old testament we read the old testament we find that there were a lot of old testament individuals that had
slaves of some kind.
For example abraham had as his servant
eliezer.
Remember eliezer in genesis 15 the abraham abram
is complaining to the lord who's promised him an heir.
And abram says you know what what where am i going to get an heir.
The only heir i have is really this eliezer his servant.
But then in chapter 24 and this is an interesting passage to to note actually genesis
24 look at the first four verses of this passage.
It says.
Abraham was old and well stricken in age and the lord had blessed abraham in all things.
And abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house that would have been eliezer
that ruled over all that he had.
He said put i pray thee thy hand under my thigh and i will make thee swear by the lord the god of heaven and the god of the earth that thou shalt
not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the canaanites among whom i dwell.
But thou shalt go into my country into my kindred and take a wife unto my son isaac.
And if you know the rest of that story that's exactly what eliezer does.
He takes he takes a caravan of property of goods with him to
to back back to abraham's home territory to look for a wife for
isaac and eliezer is abraham's servant
his slave.
Now what this whole story does is give us some insight into the
relationship that existed between the master and the slave here.
I mean you think about this.
Why didn't eliezer has he's got this caravan full of good
wealth.
Why didn't he just take off.
I mean he could have gone anywhere with all of that.
But he didn't he.
He served the the desires of his master.
His master had implicit trust in eliezer.
Abraham had an implicit trust in eliezer and eliezer showed
respect and loyalty to uh to his master abraham.
So i think the point to to get here is we have a hard time wrapping our heads around
the idea that there could be a good relationship between the master and slave uh
dynamic.
And and yet throughout history there have been many cases many occasions where
that relationship was not necessarily a hostile relationship.
In many cases the the master was uh the slave owner was very good and
generous and and faithful to his slaves.
And the slaves were very appreciative of all that their master did for them.
That's not an across the board blanket statement.
But you see it here with abraham and eliezer.
And it's it's repeated elsewhere in history.
Sarah also abraham's wife also had a slave a servant
And that was hagar.
You remember the whole story with with hagar.
What was that relationship between sarah and hagar.
It wasn't her sister.
It wasn't a relative.
It wasn't even a good buddy from across the town.
It was she was her she was her slave.
Solomon had a variety a bunch of slaves.
We don't have time to look at that won't take the time to look at that elisha the prophet.
Remember elisha the prophet had a slave.
And his name was gehazi.
You remember the account where um.
Uh.
Gehazi naman the leper came to elisha to be healed of his leprosy.
He was naman said i want to reward you.
What what can i give you.
Elisha says i don't want anything go your way.
And gehazi elisha's servant ran after nam naman later and and
said hey you know my master wanted something after all and he got some stuff from naman and he came back
and elisha confronted his his servant gehazi what have you done.
Why have you done this.
Is this a time to get stuff.
And um he ended up gehazi ended up getting leprosy.
But that was the relationship.
Elisha was the master gehazi was a slave.
And then let me show you another passage that is uh interesting to show some dynamics here.
Look at joshua chapter 9.
Joshua 9.
Joshua 9 is the account of the gibeonites and the israelites.
You remember that um the israelites had just come into the land of canaan and they
already had the the success at uh jericho.
They had the fiasco at ai but then eventually defeated ai.
But then you come to chapter 9 and in joshua 9 the gibeonites who lived
nearby they came uh deceitfully to the israelites pretended they
sent an ambassador.
They sent some ambassadors who pretended like they were had traveled a long distance to get to
uh to get to this the camp and the israelites ended up um
agreeing to a you know a treaty with the gibeonites and and
promised that they would defend them and they wouldn't treat them ill or anything like that.
But but what i want you to notice is verses 20 and 21 after it was discovered that the
gibeonites actually were living close by they weren't from some far -off country.
Um that there was some there was some people were upset you know let's kill them let's
get rid of them.
I mean they're they're canaanites.
We need to get rid of them.
But um joshua says no we made a covenant with them.
We're not going to get rid of them.
But he says this is what we'll do verse 20.
We will even let them live lest wrath be upon us because of the oath which we swear unto them.
And the prince is said unto them let them live but let them be hewers of wood and drawers of
water unto all the congregation.
In other words let's make them servants let's make them slaves.
And in verse 27 uh it says joshua made them that day hewers of wood
and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the lord.
Now look at verses 24 and 25 when joshua comes back to the comes to the gibeonites and says
all right you tricked us.
This is what we're going to do.
We're not going to kill you.
But this is what we're going to do.
We're going to make you uh our servants.
So in verse 24 here's how the gibeonites responded.
They answered joshua and said because it was certainly told by servants how that the lord thy god commanded his servant
moses to give you all the land and destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you.
Therefore we were so afraid we were terrified of our lives because of you and have done this thing.
And now behold we are in your hand.
We are in your hand as it seemeth good and right unto thee to do unto us do it.
In other words the gibeonites willingly accepted this role of servanthood
to the israelites.
In fact you look earlier in the passage verses 8 and 9 when the gibeonites
are speaking to joshua they said to him we are your servants.
Verse 9 he said we've come from a from a very far country.
Your servants are come because of the name of the lord.
And in verse 11 they say we are your servants.
Therefore now make a league with us.
So they said we're your servants.
It turns out that's exactly what they became their servants.
And here's the deal.
Here's the thing the gibeonites preferred that slavery
over death.
They would rather be the servants to the israelites than to be exterminated
by the israelites.
So i mean it's there it's they're people in the you know god's people.
The israelites in the old testament had servants or slaves
and slaves in even in the old testament they had some rights.
They had some rights.
One was the right of manumission or freedom or release.
Male hebrew slaves.
Hebrew slaves israelite slaves were freed after serving six years.
They couldn't serve more than six years.
But if they wanted to and we saw this earlier they could choose to remain now.
When it comes to female hebrew slaves there was a different thing going on
here.
The presupposition for an israelite girl or woman
that became a slave was that she would become the wife of the one
making the purchase.
Either the purchaser would take her as a wife or he would take her
as a wife for one of his sons.
So there was the there was the understanding that she was betrothed in
this purchase.
The arrangement.
Not exactly an ideal situation if you're the girl.
But that's the way.
That's the way it was.
Um they were also released.
These uh slaves would or servants would be released if the owner in any way
maimed them maimed them by beating them or something of that nature.
There were also distinctions as to types of slaves.
So hebrews were never slaves in the strict sense of the word.
They could be bond servants or they could be hirelings that would be eventually
subject to release foreigners.
Those who were outside of israel who became slaves were indeed slaves as we think of them.
And they did not have any opportunity of being released.
So it was the hebrews that were able to be released.
Some had rights to be freed.
There were also religious rights.
Um so the the slaves of a household shared in the religious practices of the
family.
They celebrated sabbath together.
And the feasts the israel the israel feast together.
They had some civil rights.
We'll talk about those in a different section here.
They had the right to marriage.
Um hebrew slaves could marry.
Uh even in that uh even as slaves we saw that with the guy who becomes a slave and then he
gets married they could acquire personal property.
They were allowed to acquire any kind of property.
And they could even acquire their own slaves and in their in their position as a slave
if they had if they came into money in some way they could buy themselves out of slavery.
They were able to do that as well.
And then they also had the rights of um some slaves had the rights of asylum.
So if a if a slave is a slave in a foreign country
let's say a slave is a slave in egypt and he escapes egypt he escapes slavery from
egypt he's not a hebrew he's an egyptian or whatever.
He escapes slavery in egypt and he flees to israel he gets asylum there.
The the the hebrews would not send that slave back to
the foreign country to serve in slave as a slave they would they would be given asylum.
So the practice of slavery exists in the old testament.
You can't you cannot deny it.
It's there.
It's right there in front of you.
But it was regulated.
It was regulated.
So in exodus 21 passage we read earlier a little further down one of
the things that was strictly prohibited in israel was the practice of slave trade
by kidnapping.
So in verse 16 it says he that stealeth a man and selleth him or if he be found in his hand he
shall surely be put to death.
So what what joseph's brothers did to him four centuries earlier
is here outlawed in uh hebrew civil law it was not.
If anybody tried to do that they would be put to death.
So so uh for for example the the slave trade that was going
on in the united states so much of the slaves for example that came to
america and ended up on the slave blocks in charleston charleston south carolina
many many many of those were actually kidnapped by
other africans.
They were kidnapped and then and taken captive and then taken to a place that were where they were sold as slaves and
put on the slave ships and sent to america or sent to uh to britain
to great britain and so so that practice of kidnapping somebody to
and selling them into slavery was strictly prohibited.
Another thing was strictly prohibited was extreme cruelty.
So in verses 26 and 7 here of exodus 21 says.
If a man smite the eye of his servant or the eye of his maid that it perish he shall let him go free for his eyes
sake.
If he smite out his man servant's tooth or his maid servant's tooth he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake.
You say well those slave slave owners were really cruel people.
Well do you see how this warning this prohibition is one
that is designed to like paul said to the ephesians
um the ephesian masters forbear threatening it was designed to
be a regulation a um a restraint against what
might be commonly done in the culture of the day and that is to treat a slave
cruelly and with cruelty.
So that um extreme cruelty was prohibited.
Now i want us to look at the new testament and see how the bible in the new
testament undermines the institution of slavery how it undermines the
institution what it doesn't do.
And this this causes no little
perplexity for our 21st century sensibilities.
The bible does not call for the dismantling of slavery as an institution.
In other words when god set up the mosaic
the civil law and the law of moses for the nation of israel
isn't it interesting that he did not totally prohibit
slavery altogether.
So again in our in our 21st century modern american culture and economy
with all of its complexity that is free in
our it's sort of free right.
How many of the products that are sold that come from you know china or
some of these asian countries where they use child labor.
How many of those products are really made by child slaves.
And so forth we were we're kind of shielded from that.
But as far as we know and as far as we see the institution of slavery doesn't exist.
And so we're we have a hard time understanding.
Well why didn't god just when he set up the the nation of israel why didn't he just flat out prohibit slavery
altogether.
I don't have a i don't have a short answer to that question and i think the answer to it would be more
complex than i want to take the time with.
But i think a lot of it has to do with the radical difference between the
radical economic difference between our world and the world of uh
the ancient near east.
We we cannot grasp putting ourselves back in that world and understanding
how that world would function.
We don't we don't get that.
But the point i want us to get is that even in the new testament there is no call for the
dismantling of slavery as an institution.
Jesus never mentioned the subject at all.
He never even brought up the subject and the new testament.
Interestingly let's look beyond the subject of slavery.
The new testament really never calls for the overthrow of any
institutional evil.
In other words the new testament does not call christians to civil
rebellion to overthrow some kind of institutional evil that the
government of the nation whatever nation you might happen to live um
sanctions so i mean think about being a christian in china
the the the bible does not tell the chinese the church in china
to take up arms and start a revolt against um the
against the government because of its two -child policy or
because of its um demand for the church all churches to be
registered doesn't call for that.
And again that perplexes us sometimes.
But it has more to do with the approach that the new testament actually takes and we're going to work toward understanding
what that approach is in um in helping us understand a little bit about why this new testament
might not call for the dismantling of slavery as an institution.
Right off the bat uh william hendrickson in his commentary on philippians
colossians and philemon philemon of course paul dealing with philemon the
slave owner and his runaway slave onesimus hendrickson writes
this.
He says such a sudden upheaval of the entire roman economy like calling for the
dismantling of slavery.
Such a sudden upheaval of entire roman economy the large percentage of which the large percentage of which
were slaves would have resulted in indescribable misery for many.
A bondman who depended on his master for a living and would have placed an
insurmountable obstacle in the way of the propagation of the christian faith.
And i would suggest further it would have intensified the persecution
of the christian church and would have brought it on even earlier.
So if um if if christians slaves if slaves for example
became christians and paul said we need to overthrow slavery we need to dismantle slavery.
Slavery should be abolished in the empire.
And called for that you would you would find intense persecution
of the christian message right away in immediately.
And uh and and not only not only that but even if it were successful and
never would have been it never would have been accepted that message that even if it were
there are hundreds of thousands of people who would have been left with nothing to eat
nowhere to live and no way to get anything any clothing shelter
no way whatsoever.
This is a concept we don't understand but it is something that was also found to be true in our
own nation.
There's an essay in the book the heritage of america.
Susan dabney wrote this essay and she and it concerns the aftermath of the civil war.
And this is what she writes.
She says that even long after lincoln had issued his emancipation proclamation quote
no apparent change took place among the burley negroes.
Those who worked in the fields went out as usual and cultivated and gathered in the crops in the house they
went about their customary duties.
We expected them to go away or to demand wages or at least to give some sign that they knew they were free.
But except that they were very quiet and serious and more obedient and kind than they had ever been known to be
for more than a few weeks at a time of sickness or other affliction we saw no change in them at
christmas.
Such compensation was made them for their services as seemed just afterward fixed wages were
offered and accepted.
Thomas called the owner called them up now and told them that they uh that as they no
longer belonged to him they must discontinue calling him master.
Yes master yes master was their answer to this.
So the point is that it seems very simplistic to say well why doesn't the bible just demand that slavery be done
with uh and and the answer is it's a whole lot more complex for that.
So it doesn't do that the bible also does not in the new testament does not also does not call for slaves to revolt.
In fact look at first corinthians 7.
First corinthians 7 and verses 21 through 24.
Now paul is writing to believers in the church in
corinth.
So corinth was a city in greece macedonia.
And uh would have been had a large population as in anywhere in the roman empire a large
population of slaves.
And he writes in verse 21.
Are you called being a servant or slave.
Care not for it.
In other words don't be anxious about it.
But if you may be made free use it rather if you have the opportunity for freedom go ahead
and take the opportunity for freedom.
But then it goes on to say for he that is called in the lord being a slave is the lord's
freedman.
Likewise also he that is called being free is christ's slave.
Same word.
It's that word doulas i mentioned it this morning.
He says you are bought with a price.
Be not the slaves of men.
In other words don't look at yourself even if you are a slave.
Don't look at yourself as being a slave to a man.
It's like what paul said to the ephesians.
Serve your master as if you are serving christ.
Don't look at yourself as a servant or a slave to that master.
Look at yourself as a slave to christ.
Now look at what he says.
Um in verse 24 he says brethren let every man
wherein he is called therein abide with god.
In other words learn learn to be content in that
place where you find yourself right now.
Again paul is not saying if you're you're a slave and you have the freedom to be.
You have the opportunity to be free.
Don't take it.
No just the opposite.
He says if you have that opportunity take it.
Not in rebellion not in revolution not in um
not in running.
But you have the economic freedom to gain your freedom from slavery.
Take it.
The the bible also does not.
The new testament does not call for slave owners to release their slaves.
So we saw that in ephesians 6.
He addresses the masters.
He doesn't say to the masters let your slaves go.
And when paul is dealing with philemon in that one chapter book
philemon is the owner of the slave onesimus.
Onesimus has run from uh from his
slave position.
And um and in his escape after he escaped he came to christ.
He came to faith in christ.
Paul led him to lord.
And and then paul learns that onesimus is a slave owned by philemon.
And what does paul do.
He sends onesimus back to philemon.
Now he doesn't do so to support the institution of slavery.
What he does is he sends onesimus back to philemon.
And he tells philemon i'm sending him back to you not as a slave
but as a what as your brother.
So so treat him as your brother in christ.
So what he does there is.
He undermines that slave master relationship in
in the way he distinguishes them.
Now you're not slave and master.
You are brother and brother in christ.
Which changes the dynamic considerably in that case.
So what does the new testament do.
Well what the new testament does in uh first timothy 1 verses 9 and 10 is
it condemns the practice of a slave trading.
That was uh you know the kind where a person is kidnapped and traded off.
So first timothy 1 verses 9 and 10
paul writes.
Uh knowing that the law is not made for a righteous man but for lawless and disobedient.
For ungodly and for sinners unholy and profane.
For murders of mothers murder or fathers and murdered mothers.
For man slayers whoremongers them that defile themselves of mankind.
For men stealers.
What's a man stealer.
It's exactly this very thing the kidnapping of someone and then selling them into slavery.
This kind of thing is happening in the um in the sex trafficking industry today.
Stealing children and then and bond and putting them into bondage in that trade.
Well this was a common occurrence even in the first century.
The bible condemns it condemns slave traders.
What the bible in the new testament also does is it treats everyone everyone as equal in
christ.
Every believer is equal in christ.
So galatians 3 28 for example paul says there is neither jew nor greek.
There is neither bond nor free slave or free.
For there is neither male or female.
You are all one in christ jesus.
So what this does.
This statement right here it absolutely dashes the underlying notions
that were held by many americans in the slave in slavery and in
their racist views.
And what i mean by that is and you know again i lived in the south long enough
to hear this and to see it with my own eyes.
Um i heard the notion that black people are
an inherently inferior species to white.
They are they are inferior to white.
Paul says there is no such notion you are one in christ black
or white it doesn't matter.
This is why spurgeon got in trouble in the south.
Uh when he he wanted to come to america and preach he was invited to come to america and preach and was invited by
some southern churches.
But spurgeon said if i'm going to come and preach in your churches you're going to have blacks and whites in that church together.
And they're not going to be sitting in different places.
And they got furious with him for for a for that kind
of a notion.
Well paul would have told them the same thing.
And the other notion that is undermined in this is that um black people are um
they're the cursed descendants of ham canin.
And and i've heard that taught from uh you know the classroom lectern that you know they are
the cursed descendants of can of canin.
And therefore you know they can be treated as second -class individuals.
Paul says no no they there is no neither
jew nor greek bond or free male or female.
You are all one in christ.
And this what paul is saying here actually reinforces what he also said in
athens at mars hill when he said in act 17.
Look at this with me act 17 verses 24 and
following remember he sees all the idols and the the idol to the unknown god.
When he sees that idol to the unknown god he speaks of it in verse 23.
And then he talks about the one god that they didn't know.
And he says god in verse 24 that made the world and all things therein seeing that he is lord
of heaven and earth dwelleth not in temples made with hands.
Neither is worship with men's hands as though he needed anything seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things.
And here verse 26 and hath made of one blood
all nations of men for to dwell on a face on all the face of the earth.
There is one race and it is the human race.
And it is actually bad nomenclature to talk about the races.
What race are you.
Somebody asks you what race are you say human human.
You know i want to color my skin caucasian but i'm human.
I'm of the human race.
Somebody who is.
What's.
What's the little children song.
Jesus loves the little children of the world red and yellow black and white.
They are precious in his sight.
Why.
Because they're all part of the human race.
There's one race.
And paul understands that.
So that's why he says what he does in act 17.
It's why it's it's why he says what he does in galatians 3 28.
And then what else the new testament does and we saw this this morning is it condemns the abuses
of slavery the abuses of slavery by both the slave and the master.
He tells the slave to obey with a good attitude.
And he tells the master to treat with kindness and with dignity and respect.
He tells the master to treat the slave like you would want the slave to work for you.
So he condemns the abuses of it.
And then in and i mentioned this earlier.
But in philemon verses 15 and 16 um he he
calls for the receiving of one another as brothers in christ.
So in philemon 15 he says um to philemon for perhaps he onesimus
therefore departed for a season that thou shouldest receive him forever.
Not now as a servant or slave but above a slave a brother beloved
especially to me.
But how much more unto thee.
Both in the flesh and in the lord.
Now here's the thing if you are relating to that person as a
brother what is the underlying
what is the underlying dynamic in that relationship.
It's love.
Brotherly love is that is that natural affinity that
those of the same blood have for one another.
And and what paul is calling for philemon to do here is to recognize you are both of the same blood the
blood of christ.
And therefore you are to love one another as brothers love one another.
So again hendrickson let me quote william hendrickson.
He says the true solution to the slavery problem is what paul teaches that
love coming from both sides masters and slaves is the only solution.
This love is the is the response to god's love for his child.
Whether that child be black or white bond or free makes no difference.
It is this love of god which melts cruelty into kindness.
And in so doing changes despots into kind employers slaves into willing
servants and all who accept it into brothers.
In christ the kingship or rule of god works from within
outward not from without inward.
And and that idea is contained in jesus
parable in matthew 13 verses 31
to 33 where he says.
The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed at his field
which indeed is the least of all seeds.
But when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs and becomes a tree.
So the birds of the air come and lodge in it and the branches thereof.
And then he said another parable unto them.
The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures
of meal till the whole was leaven.
So what the new testament does with this whole issue of slavery is it introduces the leaven of
love in the relationship between people
introduces that leaven into the mix.
And that leaven feeds into the whole institution
until it ends up being dissolved.
And that's really what happened.
William wilberforce was the one of the leading instigators in the destruction of and the
abolition of slavery in england.
And what motivated him.
What motivated him.
It was.
It was love for people who were so enslaved.
This works both ways doesn't it.
You think about the uh the hateful condemnation that we're seeing
of presumed racists.
You're seeing it played out on your video on your videos and all the rest of this stuff.
I saw this afternoon the video of an eight or nine year old boy
standing in front of a police line with both of his hands up and all of
his fingers down but one and using that
expression to the cops what in the world are his parents teaching him.
They're teaching him hate.
Well what in the world should christian parents be teaching their children.
We teach them love.
We teach them to look just because a person's skin is a different color.
It doesn't make any difference.
We love them because they're human beings.
We love them because they're made in the remember that song
from south pacific.
Maybe you do.
Maybe you don't.
It's the the title of it is you've got to be carefully taught.
And i i left my phone down there but i pulled up the the lyrics this afternoon.
It says you have to be carefully taught to hate somebody because of the color of their skin
or the shape of their eyes.
And you've got to be carefully taught from childhood.
And that's that's true.
It's also true the other way.
And and it's the other thing.
It's the other way that the new testament calls the christian to do.
We teach love.
We teach love for teach love for fellow human beings just because they're fellow human beings.
And it doesn't matter the shape of their eyes it doesn't matter the accent of their voice.
It doesn't matter the color of their skin.
And that that dynamic that is the powerful impetus
that undermines the whole institution of slavery.
And it is far more effective far more effective than any.