Biblical slavery and American slavery

Tony Reinke John MacArthur, Lordship, Slavery

I thoroughly enjoyed the DG conference this weekend. It was great to meet up with old friends I have not seen in a while and to meet those of you I’ve only known electronically.

I want to post a few of the interesting quotes from the conference. The first is a sobering one from the second and final MacArthur message. He was speaking on the importance of the word doulas (slave) in the New Testament and letting the hard reality of its meaning land on us today. Here is what he said:

“Here we have a massive, dominating New Testament paradigm for understanding our relationship to Jesus Christ. When you say doulas (slave) and then you say kurios (master) everybody in the Greek culture at that time knew exactly what you were talking about. There is no such thing as kurios without doulas. No such thing as a master without a slave. If you don’t have slaves, you’re not the master of anybody. If you are the master you have slaves. …

In the ancient world this was the most demeaning term possible by which to identify yourself. Freedom was everything. They would have stood with Braveheart and screamed, ‘Freedom!’ They understood the value, the virtue, of freedom and they mocked slavery. …

What did it mean to say you were a slave? The difference between a servant and slave was that a servant was hired for a job and paid. A slave was owned. To be a slave means: (1) you were bought; (2) exclusive ownership; (3) total availability and obedience without question; (4) subject all your life to an alien will; (5) dependent on your master for all your provision and all protection; (6) and your master determined the final disposition of your life as to punishment or reward. … In the ancient Greek world there was somewhere between 10-12 million slaves. Everyone knew what it meant. When you said you were a slave of Jesus Christ everybody knew what that meant. You think they had a Lordship controversy then? I don’t think so!

The Bible does not condemn slavery. The Bible does not condone slavery. It just borrows it as the perfect metaphor to picture a Christian’s relationship to the Lord. For you have been bought with a price, you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold but with precious blood of Christ (1 Cor. 6:20 and 1 Pet. 1:18-19). …

I was talking about this a few weeks ago over in North Carolina (Wake Forest University). And a gracious guy stood up and said, ‘You know, I come from the African American church and I’m not sure this would go over real big – this slavery idea.’

I said, ‘I can understand that.’

I was down in the South, in the office of Charles Evers – the brother of Medgar Evers – when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. [Later] I was in Jackson, Mississippi with some leaders and they actually put me in a car and took me to Memphis into the building where James Earl Ray shot him. I climbed up on the toilet to look through the window where he held the gun. I know these people, I’ve known them through the years and ministered there. I understand all the pain and agony of that in the past.

But I said to him [the man at Wake Forest], ‘For you that’s a memory, for the people living in the New Testament that [slavery] was now! That was their reality.’”

– John MacArthur, Desiring God 2007 National Conference; Certainties That Drive Enduring Ministry, Part 2 (Sept. 29, 2007)

19 thoughts on “Biblical slavery and American slavery”

  1. Tony,

    Thank you for this post. When I preach or teach passages of Scripture with references to slavery to an African American audience, I simply say, “please do not conjure images of antebellum, 17th-19th centuries’ slavery as we speak of these texts, or of the Southern slave masters’ misuse of these texts. Instead, allow me to explain what Scripture teaches.”

    Michael Lawrence of Capitol Hill Baptist Church (DC) spoke in my stead last month. Before my 95% African American congregation, he touched on the issue of how the wealth of the largest African American middle class is used – whether for earthly gain only or for the kingdom. Michael made no apology for being the “white guy in the room.” He simply acknowlegded that he was of the minority ethnicity in the room, and then he preached the Scriptures. (He later shared with me that Thabiti Anyabwile encouraged this approach to speaking before African American believers.)

    I appreciate when men of God do not allow the culture to keep them from preaching the truth. We need sensativity (1 Tim. 1:5), but we also need the truth. African American believers are slaves as much as all other believers. We need to be reminded of our basic relationship to our LORD regardless of the ethnicity of the mouthpiece. In fact, knowing our Biblical identity and living it may foster an effective witness for the glory of God. Rejecting the concept of “‘slaves’ of Christ” will only render us to be slaves of sin.

    Thank you again.

    ECR

  2. Thanks Tony for passing this along. We have been watching “Roots” as a family and it makes this “metaphor” come alive for me. We, however, do not serve a hard task master. Jesus calls us friends, children, and brothers and sisters. He is good! Thanks again.

  3. Yes indeed, Delaine, we serve a loving and kind master. It’s amazing that our slavery/yoke to Christ is used as a synonym for finding rest and comfort in Him (Matthew 11:28-30). What a precious picture. Thank you! Tony

  4. Thank you Eric! Did I hear correctly that you may have a book coming out in the future? May God bless your efforts and thanks for the helpful comment! Tony

  5. Keep the comments coming. This quote strikes us all in some way and it’s loaded with implications. I’m very interested to hear how it hits you, so please jump in to the discussion. Tony

  6. I am currently engaged in discussion, if you will, about whether or not slavery is sinful. So far no one has been able to prove that biblical slavery is inherently sinful, and thanks to this article I have been reinforced in that notion.

  7. Remember one thing as far as is slavery right or whatever. To obtain a slave one has violated the eighth and probably the tenth commandment. Folks usually don’t walk up and say “hey can I be your slave?” Just some thoughts if you “struggling” with the issue of slavery…

  9. At the conference bookstore I obtained “Slave of Christ” a N.T. metaphor for total devotion to Christ by “Murray J. Harris”. It is part of the NSBT whose editor is Don Carson.
    So far I’ve only read appendix 3 which discusses how doulos has been translated in English translations and it seems to be in total agreement with MacArthur. This looks like a good resource for those that want to learn more about the meaning of slavery in the Bible.
    http://www.wtsbooks.com/product-exec/product_id/2179/nm/Slave_of_Christ_A_New_Testament_Metaphor_for_Total_Devotion_to_Christ_New_Studies_in_Biblical_Theology_Vol_8_Paperback_

  10. Tony: I wish I knew you were going to the conference — I would have loved to have met you. Perhaps some other time! I’m a long time reader of the scrapbook!

    It was a GREAT weekend, filled with encouragement, hope, and conviction.

  11. Hello Nick! Thanks for your readership, my friend. Getting together with all the TSS readers at conferences is something I’m beginning to think through. I need to come into conferences with a set meeting location and time. I’m working on it, Nick. Maybe in the future we will meet face-to-face. Blessings to you and your student ministry! Tony

  12. I was at the conference with my brother who is a Dallas grad and parted ways with MacArthur over the Lordship/Salavation issue years ago. He contends Slave is not an accurate transalation, but only serves JM’s theology of Lordship/Salavation. If this (slave), meaning, ownership, is the accurate english equil. why have the versions in use continue to translate servant, or bondslave (volunteer as job or sell self into slavery)?

  14. Mason,

    Exactly how Paul describes it in Ephesians 6:5-9. Slaves are to faithfully and cheerfully serve their masters as if they were serving Christ, and masters are to treat their slaves with kindness, for they are slaves to Christ.

  16. the first man – adam – had a problem with lordship, men, and abraham’s desendents(men), hebrews, chrstians and all men of all faiths in a higer power have a problem with lordship-it came with creation-being less than divine, original sin, but is more than compensated for by grace. it is according to truth. of course the bible condemn slavery: love the Lord God with all that you are, with the love He loves you with, even unto death on a tree, the good samaritan, do unto other as you would have them do unto you. why did God rescue israel from egypt. when will we stop forsaking God’s commandments for the traditions of men, Jesus asked his religious leader this question. social norms do not equal God’s will for men. Just because the bible describes social contemporary norms of a time period as it brings prophecy, and does not elaborate on the wrongs that are obvious to even those without law, this does not mean what men are doing at that time against love(God’s will) and in sin is acceptable to God. because we are given freewill, and selfwill(?) truth is our taskmaster and we spit in its face every day. and so we will be judge according to our indididual truth-our soul’s desire, and God need not the testimony of men He made us. Therefore, grace, and grace alone fulfills the will of the Father. He sent His word in full knowledge that it would have to endure the shame of what He intended to do-create, and to create within the fullness of truth that we be truth in His dominion of truth, and if we are found wanting, lacking, then truth – my own truth – is set.
    the tree was in the middle of the garden and we were not to eat of it, it had to be there-God is truth. They ate of it as God knew they would, we were not meant to be divine, but we are meant to be heirs of truth and join heirs with Christ, through truth and grace, rebirth by the spirit of truth which is come to us by Jesus alone. Workout you salvation with fear and trembling o’ man, God be not mocked and His word not in anyway vain or unprofittable. Pray and be found watching and waiting. what has the church to do with the academy, this is men’s way, Jesus’ way was unto the cross, and no man would go that way, but for His grace.

  17. Its 2009 and you’re still chewing on the notions of whether slavery is intrinsically evil or not? You have not been on the receiving end. That is the only reason you would even have to have a discussion about it.

    Its the thing that baffles me most. How can grace dwell in you at the same time?

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