A Hard Truth to Swallow

I suspect that in various times in history various Christians had various doctrinal problems to overcome that were specific to their times. For instance, in a time when "priests" were "Those guys in priests' robes set apart for that task" -- a sharp distinction between "priest" and "laity" -- the notion of a "royal priesthood" would be hard to swallow. When the Roman Catholics instituted "dead guys rewritten" as "saints," explaining that "saints" referred to all believers wouldn't be easy. In a time when people lived as serfs, the suggestion that we will rule with Christ seemed odd. Today, I suspect, a real problem is the notion of "slaves."

The moment you read that I'd guess you probably clenched in some way. It's a hard term, both from all the negative connotations in today's racism-aware world and the history of slavery in America and Europe, as well as from the angle of American liberty. "I'm no one's slave," I've been told. Because, after all, we're free. And yet, Paul writes over and over that he was a doulos, a bondservant, a slave of Christ (Rom 1:1; Php 1:1; Titus 1:1). The concept, in fact, is so disturbing to our modern ears that some of the translators intentionally shift to "servant" because "slave" just isn't right. But it is unavoidably the word Paul uses. Thayer's dictionary includes this interesting definition of doulos: "devoted to another to the disregard of one's own interests." Oh, no, that is not happening in modern, 21st century America. Today it's all about me.

Paul was pleased to consider himself a bond-servant -- a willing, voluntary slave of Jesus Christ. But he was equally clear that we are all slaves.

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. (Rom 6:16-18)

Here we see that we all present ourselves as slaves -- slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness. Slavery is the normal operating condition of the human being since we are not, by nature, actually autonomous. The question is not "Am I a slave or am I free?" That question is settled, slaves. The question is "Too whom am I a slave?" Good or evil? Christ or sin? There is no "none of the above" option.

Some truths are hard to swallow. For us in our time I think this one is one of the toughest. "I'm nobody's slave." I heard it from a Christian. And he was offended that anyone (including Paul) would suggest it. A fine example of our willingness to read Scripture through our own preferences rather letting Scripture -- God's Word -- read us and say what God sees.