Slavery and the Bible? (Eph. 6:5)

Series: Ephesians: Building the ChurchText: Ephesians 6:5

By: Shaun Marksbury Date: July 30, 2023

Venue: Living Water Baptist ChurchOccasion: PM Service

Introduction

Slavery is in the news again; this time, because of curriculum in Florida prompting critics to allege excuses racism and slavery. For instance, in Jacksonville, Florida, Vice-President Kamala Harris claimed the curriculum teaches middle school students that enslaved people “benefited from slavery,” a claim which one CNN panelist called “fabricated.” Christian commentator Samuel Sey — who I strongly recommend — pointed out the controversial section of the curriculum and wrote that

this shouldn't be controversial at all. If you read the entire curriculum fairly, you'll see that it's actually a great overview of the history of black Americans, including how slavery shaped the kind of jobs black Americans had when slavery was abolished.

You can't analyze the jobs black Americans had during Reconstruction without explaining that the kinds of jobs they had were because of the kinds of skilled they developed through slavery.

I present this recent news not for the commentary but as evidence that slavery is still a contentious topic in America, filled with much emotion. It seems like if anyone provides any nuance to it, or if any dares to ignore it, there are those waiting with accusations of racism and white supremacy. I hope that you don’t have the same knee-jerk reactions.

Considering that there have been abuses of texts like this one by American slavers, Scripture gets swept into such accusations. “Wait a minute!” the objection comes. “Slaves?!” Indeed, the word “slave” is the correct translation of doulos, and yes, the Bible seems to permit it.

This fact has been a sore spot for generations of British and American readers. In fact, we see within the pages of Scripture an even more shocking truth: Christians participated in the institution. Moreover, as evidenced by this very passage, both slaves and their masters coexisted within the Christian church.

Before we seek to understand it, however, let’s take a moment to remember where we are in the book. The first half of Ephesians is theological, whereas the second half is practical. The Christian walk we’ve been discussing in the latter half of Ephesians can only occur as the result of the gospel of the first half. For instance, because of the gospel, we have the indwelling Holy Spirit and can fulfil the great command of 5:18, the imperative to “be filled with the Spirit.” We already have the Spirit, but we must let Him permeate and control our lives through His Holy Word.

This filling affects our churches (vv. 19–21) as well as submission unto the Lord in our households. We considered wives and husbands from vv. 22–33. Last time, we saw how the Holy Spirit affected the relationships of both children (6:1–3) and parents (v. 4). In this text, we see that slaves are in subjection to their own masters (6:5) and masters to their slaves (v. 9). Yet, because of our unique American context, having ousted a horrible form of slavery in the United States, folks have difficulty hearing the good news of the gospel and its effects in our lives when they come across the word “slave.”

Many struggle to understand how a loving God could allow any kind of slavery. As such, we must answer key questions for believers today before going any further. Next week, Lord willing, we’ll examine the elements of the text, but for this evening, I’ve narrowed down three questions that will serve as an outline. Why and where did slavery exist? What stipulations did the Bible place on slavery? Why did God allow slavery to continue? Let’s start with the first of these.

First, why and where did slavery exist?

One of the difficulties we’re faced with is in understanding how slavery operated in the ancient world. This means that we must try and put aside our more recent history on the matter. The reality of ancient slavery wasn’t ideal either, but it was quite different.

First, slavery existed for many reasons. It’s true that many were unwilling participants in the institution, and it’s further the case that many abuses occurred. The Romans enslaved conquered peoples, for instance, and abandoned children were used and abused by those given over to their sin. Even so, many willingly engaged in the practice, seeing it as a legal relationship providing opportunities that would not otherwise exist.

For instance, many were well-educated and contributed to their households and societies in substantial ways. A trained physician might seek out a home with a large family, several properties, and many slaves — knowing that his services as a slave of that household would ensure him continued employment. Slave owners likewise sought teachers for their children and artisans for their home, paying them for their services in addition to providing room and board. Indeed, many slaves owned slaves of their own to help them fulfill their duties.

This conflicts with our cultural understanding of slaves being merely a subjugated class. Many were educated and well-compensated for their services. In fact, an inherent paternalism pervaded the practice, where enterprising slaves could gain prestige and position through their masters as if they were also their fathers. Even when slaves were manumitted (set free), they continued to carry the name of the households they served. Slavery was a social ladder for many in ancient cultures, and when the slaves believed the time was right, they could seek to become freemen (cf. 1 Cor. 7:21–22).

As such, the number of slaves far outpaced anything we know in the modern world. As one commentary notes, “It is noted for instance about Corinth that ‘at the peak of its power and influence, the city probably had a free population of 200,000 in addition to half a million slaves in its navy and in its many colonies’.” Slaves numbered in the millions across the Roman Empire.

Again, we should not idealize the system since abuses were common and it implicitly (many times, explicitly) damaged human dignity; many were not willing participants. Even so, we should seek to understand why it existed and the opportunities that it provided in societies without capitalistic-driven economies. In fact, this is the reason that, as Thomas Sowell often points out, slavery has existed everywhere in the world — including the biblical world.

This is why we don’t simply reject Christian authors who owned slaves. For instance, many are calling for us to cancel such towering figures as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield from our histories because they had a history of owning slaves and arguing for the institution. However, according to one biographer of Edwards, blacks were allowed full membership in Jonathan Edwards’ church and also opposed the slave trade. Whitefield advocated for the opening of orphanages, spoke against the slave trade, and urged masters to educate and evangelize their slaves. I’m not saying that either man held the ideal position on chattel slavery in America (all the best men are men at best), but they showed nuanced positions which would have been considered progressive at the time, and they did so based on what Scripture argued.

This brings us to our next question.

Second, what stipulations did the Bible place on slavery?

Scripture permitted the practice of slavery even in Israel, God’s holy nation. However, His Word created laws unlike anywhere at the time. Whereas other nations in the millennia before Christ treated slaves as animals, He consistently calls Israel to treat them according to their human worth.

First, God forbade the practice of manstealing (as the KJV reads). He commanded the death penalty for both the individual who kidnapped someone for enslavement and the individual who purchased him; the Lord says, “He who kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death” (Exod. 21:16). Indeed, in the New Testament, the Lord notes He made the Law for such lawless individuals as those who would engage in kidnapping (1 Tim. 1:10). This point alone condemns much of the slave-trade of the ancient world as well as the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Second, the Lord commanded the personal wellbeing of slaves. For instance, He says that if masters injured their slaves, the master must set them free. He says that just a couple of chapters later; “If a man strikes the eye of his male or female slave, and destroys it, he shall let him go free on account of his eye. And if he knocks out a tooth of his male or female slave, he shall let him go free on account of his tooth” (Exod. 21:26–27). It is as if the Lord is saying the slave just paid whatever debt he owes in full. This is why He later commands a master not to “rule over him with severity” but with reverence to God (Lev. 25:43).

Third, the Lord commanded protection for escaped slaves. The Lord says, “You shall not hand over to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you. He shall live with you in your midst, in the place which he shall choose in one of your towns where it pleases him; you shall not mistreat him” (Deut. 23:15–16). In doing this, the Lord guards unfortunate souls who were being mistreated by sinful masters. We can imagine how the Lord’s words would have transformed slavery here in America, including the next point.

Fourth, the Lord protected slaves against generational servitude. On the Year of Jubilee, the Lord said to set free slaves and forgive debts. He commanded, “You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family” (Lev. 25:10). Whereas human nature would demand every red cent in repayment, even if it takes generations of slaves to do it, the Lord teaches forgiveness. He gives all those who owe reason for great joy during the jubilee!

While teaching this in the jail, I was stopped here and asked if the Year of Jubilee was a set date on the calendar (it was), and what would happen if someone borrowed a month before the celebration. I responded that the person would still be forgiven; the point wasn’t how long someone carried the debt, but the undeserved grace available to all in this picture of the gospel. I continued that we all have a great debt before God, some greater and older than others, but those trusting in Christ find that God remits the penalty and sets us free spiritually to serve Him. Another inmate responded that the gospel is good, but he wouldn’t be caught lending money before the Year of Jubilee!

Of course, as we consider the gospel, many would still argue that the very existence of slavery seems counterintuitive to the good news. Indeed, the institution would never have existed if not for our sin. Still, even with the protections Scripture provides, there is another question that may be nagging at you. Let’s turn to that question next.

Third, why did God allow slavery to continue?

To put this simply, we don’t know. God doesn’t argue for the eventual end of slavery as an institution, nor does He explain why He allowed it to exist for the time it did. While theories exist, such as God not wanting New Testament believers to engage in revolution and anarchy, He hasn’t spoken to this question in His Word. Even so, He grants us some truths we can glean from His Word, some to which we turn now.

First, the kind of slavery practiced by believers served as an apologetic against the unbelieving world. Whether we’re considering the pagan world surrounding the Old Testament or the New, we consider cultures that treated their slaves very differently than God prescribes. As one study notes, slaves “were considered mere property and could be abused and even killed by their masters with no resulting investigation by the state. In the church, wealthy slave owners and their slaves broke bread together at the Lord’s Table as equals. No doubt some slaves were gifted spiritual leaders and ministered the word to people far above them on the social ladder.”

Such a situation helped the spread of Christianity. While many pagans mocked the social structure created by biblical living, others converted because they saw the God of Scripture providing answers to the human condition that no one else did. They saw the vapid nature of their own religion and resulting societal structure. This helped people — both slave and free — to consider their own position before God, bring us to the next point.

Second, slavery pictures the bondage that we all share in sin. We’ve already noted in Ephesians how Scripture describes our spiritual state before Christ: we were dead in sin (2:1), formerly “in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest (v. 3). To put this another way, people in the flesh are in bondage to their sin (Rom. 7:14; Gal. 4:3), just as false teachers are slaves of corruption (2 Pet. 2:19). Yet, the blood of Christ redeems unbelievers from the marketplace — not with gold or silver, but with His precious blood (1 Pet. 1:18–19). That brings us to the next point:

Third, slavery serves as an essential image of discipleship. Christians are those purchased by God. In this text in Ephesians (a text that we’re obviously not getting into day), we read that Christians are “slaves of Christ” (v. 6, cf. v. 9). We already noted that in places like Philippians 1:1, Paul calls himself a doulos or slave of Christ, and he calls other Christians (like Epaphras and elders within the church) the same (Col. 4:12; 2 Tim. 2:24). The concept of slavery helps us to understand the kind of submission we should have to our Lord and Master.

Indeed, we find in Christ our example. He took on the form of a doulos and tells us to be of the same mind (Philip. 2:1–11). This doesn’t mean that He calls us to become the slaves of men (just the opposite, 1 Cor. 7:23), but we are to see ourselves as first loving the Lord through our obedience and second, loving our neighbors through our service. Understanding that we are “bought with a price” by the Lord transforms the way we view our position as Christians. We are His, belonging to no other, not even our own will.

Of course, slavery isn’t the only picture of the new believer. To further compare our discipleship to the institution of slavery, a master sometimes manumitted or set free his slave by adopting the slave as a son. In Scripture, we read, “Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God” (Gal. 4:7). Our Lord is a benevolent Master who loves and cares for us as His own children, because we are.

Still, the concept of slavery transforms our personal walk with the Lord and how we view other Christians. For instance, Paul urges Philemon to accept his slave Onesimus back, but “no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother” (Phile. 16). Slavery to Christ ultimately leads believers of all stripes together in affirmation of texts like Galatians 3:28, which says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” This fact will help us better understand Ephesians 6:5–9, which we will study next week, Lord willing.

Conclusion

As we read Ephesians 6 and other passages on slavery, it’s vital that we understand them in the historical context. Perhaps, though, the question which lingers is this: what about the Transatlantic Slave Trade and American history? Yet, we’ve already seen the Scripture’s answer to this. God’s Word forbids kidnapping, protects human dignity and wellbeing, protects runaway slaves, and condemns generational servitude. Point by point, the Lord condemns it, as the slavery He allowed was different.

Still, though, many remain troubled by the existence of slavery in Scripture and in Christian circles. Christians living north and south of the Mason-Dixon line in America dealt with it with varying degrees of biblical consistency, a topic for another day. Even so, it’s worth noting that the only culture that abolished the accepted practice of slavery was one founded upon and motivated by Holy Scripture. Even during its institution, as we noted, there were those Christians trying to set a different example. Christians with Bible in hand argued against the slave trade, and stalwart believers like John Wesley and William Wilberforce brought the full argument to bear. Even when we consider certain cultural forces, such as the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, we must see that the argument presented therein was foundationally a Christian one. The Lord providentially used His people to bring the practice to an end, the historical legacy of His ways.