God, culture, slavery

This is a dangerous post. It could derail in a couple ways. First, I like history and this could devolve into a worthless rabbit trail that benefits no one. Worse, I could get into a debate about the spiritual nature and ethics of slavery. I get the strange idea that in my present location there may not be a lot of personal application at the end of that road. But there may in fact be some pretty deep application here regarding how a follower of God reacts and interacts with his culture. Also, if we are to know God better we may need to look a little bit at his nature and how he viewed things at the times this was written:

"1 Let all who are under a yoke as slavest regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled. 2 Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful on the ground that they are brothers; rather they must serve all the better since those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved."

I know from my own personal study of history that this passage was used by preachers in the 1800's to defend the institution of slavery in the South leading up to the Civil War. I'm thinking that's not a good thing. People who hate God have used this passage in their talks with me to try and prove that IF God exists, he's not the just and loving God I know him to be. How could he be if he condoned slavery? This is the issue one faces when you read through a book in its entirety; you can't dodge this stuff. Modern well meaning people often take this and try to apply it to employment as if that is fair and answers all the questions. Now it's probably true that the attitudes given here are in fact the way we should treat our employment today, but that hardly answers any of the questions concerning the context of the passage and how it affects the holy nature of God. It requires 2 questions be asked. One, am I ok with a God who condoned and allowed the continued existence and slavery; even allowing true believers to continue as owners of other human beings?

Anyone who knows me much knows that this is the type of question I hate. Any question that contains the idea "Am I ok with a God who would..." is foolish, arrogant, and irrelevant. God could care less if I'm "ok" with him. He is truth. He is what the Word says he is. We adjust our understanding according to the truth of an unchanging God and his Word. He doesn't adjust himself to my fallen mind with a warped humanistic view of justice and ethics. Understanding this brings the second question. Since I know that my God said this, what is the view of culture that he has that places him in a spot where this is his position, and his holiness, goodness, and agape love is intact? Now that's a good question, and it's not a waste of time or a theological plaything because this must be a deep facet of the personality of my God and I want to understand how this works not so I can polish my head knowledge up, but so I can better know my beloved God. So here goes.

I don't think that by God teaching a slave how to react to his master he was "condoning" the institution of slavery. God wasn't setting up a perfect world in this passage, he was teaching his children how to live and function in an imperfect one. That little idea is really all you need to know. God is so much bigger than culture. We are not called to change our culture. Our world is decrepit and broken so ANY culture (even that of our precious founding fathers) is in and of itself fallen as well. Some are obviously better than others but that means little in God's big picture. If we can outlaw abortion, put prayer back in school, and keep the homos from getting married it doesn't mean that our culture pleases God. It doesn't mean that more people will love God more. If anything Christian history teaches us that followers of God are more devout and dedicated in cultures where they are persecuted. For this reason God rides above the varying cultures of men. He teaches his children how live and act in whatever state they are, since we are capable of loving him and bringing him glory and honor in any culture.

The applications aren't all that hard. No I don't think you can use this passage to say that God endorses slavery. I did find a little bit of commentary on this from a guy named David Guzik that was fairly intriguing:

d. This teaching was especially important in the ancient world, where slaves might be treated very differently from master to master, and where there was sometimes intense racism and hatred between slaves and masters.

i. Christianity arose in a social setting where slavery was commonplace. There were some 60 million slaves in the Roman Empire. Sometimes slaves held privileged positions; other times, slaves were treated like dirt.

ii. Paul and others in the New Testament did not call for a violent revolution against the institution of slavery (which would have failed miserably); but they did, through the gospel, effectively destroy the foundations of slavery - racism, greed, class hatred - and made civilization without slavery possible.

iii. The church itself was a place where slavery was destroyed; it was not uncommon for a master and a slave to go to church together, where the slave would be an elder in the church, and the master expected to submit to the slave's spiritual leadership! Such radical thinking was an offense to many, but glorified God and eventually destroyed slavery.

It makes a lot of sense. I don't know exactly where he got his information about slaves and masters attending church together but from what I understand of how the Bible teaches that the children of God are to treat each other and love each other I understand it. I can picture it. I can picture it in my imagination since I haven't seen a ton of it in reality. The bigger concept is that I need to put all my focus, all my strength, all my passion into my relationship with God, other believers, and lost people. I don't have time to play these cultural games. My life must revolve around the truth and that truth exists in any culture. It trumps and defies any culture. When I am dragged into cultural games I lose my focus. I begin to worry about my rights and interests instead of his glory. We all vote, and I will vote according to values that I hold because I believe that they honor my God, but I won't act like God will be defeated if we let the Democrats win. My God is bigger than any culture and therefore my worship of him will be as well. Our God is not that small.