“All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God’s name and our teaching may not be slandered. Those who have believing masters should not show them disrespect just because they are fellow believers. Instead, they should serve them even better because their masters are dear to them as fellow believers and are devoted to the welfare of their slaves. These are the things you are to teach and insist on.”
1 Timothy 6:1–2 NIV
To paraphrase Phillip Ryken: the Bible is bound to be misinterpreted when we listen for what God is saying to others rather than to ourselves. That said, we should tread with great care always – but especially here given the nature of current philosophical presumptions about slavery.
First, let’s put aside the slanderous charge that the Bible condones in any way shape or form antebellum slavery or the Atlantic slave trade. Paul is not contradicting himself from chapter one when he condemned such a thing:
“the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,” 1 Timothy 1:10 ESV
But wait a minute, the critic will say. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t say that enslavers are evil and then tell slaves to obey their masters. What’s up with that? Isn’t that the textbook definition of a contradiction? Well, yes…it would be if we don’t understand the context. The slave trade in America, in all its horror, was a result of many things – chief amongst them was ignoring the clear meaning of God’s commands. Of course, it’s not like we don’t have a pattern of doing that, right? It’s not like Israel didn’t ignore/fail to recognize and crucify their own Messiah. But in this case, here it is:
“Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.” Exodus 21:16 ESV
That pretty much settles it, doesn’t it? Need another (as if God has some necessity to repeat Himself!)
“If a man is found stealing one of his brothers of the people of Israel, and if he treats him as a slave or sells him, then that thief shall die. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.” Deuteronomy 24:7 ESV
Yeah…He’s not mincing words, is he? So, if we’re going to run around wondering in self-righteous fury how generations of men and women who proclaimed that all men were created equal on one hand, yet had slaves on the other, we do well to remember that sin is a deceiver. Wasn’t Joseph sold into slavery? Wasn’t Israel enslaved in Egypt, only to be delivered miraculously? Bondage by force is always and completely condemned by Scripture and the clear reading of the text will show anyone this truth. Oh, and while we’re on the subject, we do well to consider another rather obvious passage:
“You shall not steal.” Exodus 20:15 ESV
Really. I mean, c’mon. What type of mental gymnastics do we have to perform to come to the conclusion that God forbids stealing a man’s coat but is okay with us stealing him? If we enslave a dude, haven’t we stolen his coat too? For crying out loud, isn’t sin deceptive?!
That’s the enslaver that Paul is likening to a murderer back in Chapter 1. All those involved in such enslavement, man-stealing really, deserved, according to God’s law, the death penalty.
Okay, so what of this business in Chapter 6 then? If slavery is so bad, and God hates it so much, why this apparent approval of the practice? Isn’t saying that you can have a “believing master” a contradiction in light of this? What’s going on?
There’s no contradiction because we aren’t talking about the same thing. The problem is in the definition. To understand this we need a little insight into the economics of the time in question. John MacArthur says:
“The word servant in verse 1 should be translated slave. It is the word douloi in the plural, doulos in the singular. And it designates a person who is in submission, subjugation, subjection to someone else. And in fact, a doulos had a long term submission, a long term sort of responsibility for obedience to a master. There are many uses of this word. In fact, I think there are about 125 uses of the word doulos and about 25 uses of the verb form douloō in the New Testament. So there is 150 times the term is referred to. That means that it is a very, very common familiar and useful term. Slaves – douloi, doulos – were literally a part of the fabric of New Testament culture. They were everywhere. In fact, the whole economic structure of the Middle East and the Roman world was based upon masters and slaves or employers and employees. It’s no different than today. There are those people who own companies and who own land, and they are the ones who hire those who work for them. And that’s the way it was then. The terminology today would be employee and employer, the terminology then was slave and master.”
So, in short, the slavery of kidnapping people and transporting them across the ocean to live and die in bondage, with literally no rights whatsoever, is not what the Bible means. The form of slavery it refers to is another thing altogether. Slaves were more akin to indentured servants at this point in history. In some cases in Rome, due to the economic realities of the age, there were even advantages to the situation. For example, a slave of that time might earn slightly less than 300 denarius a year while a free day-laborer would generally work for 1 denarius a day. The thing was, though, that the slave, aside from his/her pay also received free food, lodging and clothing. All of that basically ate through the entire income of the free worker so, therefore, the living standard of the slave was vastly better than the alternative. This situation is somewhat similar to the issue of an independent contractor or small business owner today over against a paid employee. The exchange of the freedom of contract work for the greater restrictions demanded by being an employee are seen in things like health insurance and other benefits. The paid employee literally trades his/her labor for greater security and less risk.
A slave in the time of Jesus was often a beloved household member (see Matthew 8:9 where the master comes to the Lord seeking the healing of one of his slaves). Joseph was a faithful “employee-slave” to Potiphar even though he’d been sold into slavery by his own brothers. Jacob was a faithful employee-slave of Laban to whom he contracted to work for seven years as the bridal price for Laban’s daughter, Rachel, whom Jacob loved. Laban, being a liar, tricked Jacob into marrying his other daughter Leah. So, still intent on marrying his first choice, Rachel, Jacob worked another seven years. These working conditions of contract-slavery/indentured servitude were the norm. Again, the Bible in no way endorses or condones the kidnapping and enslavement of anyone. In fact, the Old Testament strictly protects the rights of slaves. The duration of their term was set at six years. Many slaves, being a part of the family at that point, chose to stay on with their master. If they chose to leave, the master had to give them wages and other necessities. Also, a slave couldn’t be beaten or murdered. There was a death penalty to killing your slave in the Old Testament. Does this sound like the slavery in the American south? Of course not. They’re totally separate things, so the Bible is exonerated, as always, from the slanderous charge that it condoned such a vile practice.
Many times in the Old Testament we see people enslaved voluntarily in order to work off debt, to avoid starvation, or as a result of being taken in war. A good example of how God works in His people even in situations like that is found in 2 Kings 5. The whole story of how a little slave girl brought honor to the Lord is worth a reading. It shows us what the Lord has in mind when talking about slavery.
“Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “Would that my Lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” So Naaman went in and told his Lord, “Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel.” And the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.” But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.” So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.” 2 Kings 5:1–14 ESV
If you’ve been confused by modern attacks on Scripture – saying that it either supports, or is soft on slavery, don’t be dismayed. Commit Exodus 20:15 and 21:16 to memory and be glad always. The Lord and His law is always perfect, rejoicing the heart. And we have things like the terrible evils of chattel slavery because of sin and hardness of hearts. As it is written:
“By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.””
Romans 3:4 ESV
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