A slave's chief desire was to gain his freedom

Pastor-Teacher
John Farley
Wednesday,
December 16, 2009

A slave's chief desire was to gain his freedom

“a slave of Christ Jesus”

Doulos = “slave”

Point 1. Introduction: Whose slave are you?

A person is either a slave to sin or a slave to Christ!

Our Lord became a slave to free us from slavery to sin so that we might freely live as slaves to righteousness and slaves to Christ Jesus.

Point 2. Etymology of the Greek word doulos.

doulos = a slave, bondman, man of servile condition. Metaphorically, one who gives himself up wholly to another’s will or dominion.

The word is sometimes used in a literal sense, and other times in a figurative (metaphorical) sense.

Point 3. Metaphor in the Bible.

A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes one thing or experience in terms borrowed from another.

There is (1) the topic, (2) the image, and (3) the point of similarity.

God the Holy Spirit uses the metaphor of slavery as the image with points of similarity to believers in their relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Point 4. Isagogics, examining Roman and also Greek slavery in the ancient world.

We are learning about slavery in the Roman Empire of the First Century A.D.

Rome ruled the nations where the Gospel originated and spread in the first century. Roman law governed.

Greeks as we have seen really loved freedom, and in fact saw having freedom as the very essence of being a citizen.

The slave must be represented by his master (or someone appointed by him).

The slave, particularly the fugitive slave, is subject to seizure and arrest.

The slave must do what his master orders.

The slave cannot go or live where he wishes.

In the natural realm, the one who must do what his master orders is the slave.

This includes the essence of God, the PPOG, and the mystery doctrine of the Church Age.

The most free you can be as a human being is to live as a slave of Christ Jesus.

Even though we are His slaves and He is our Master, the Lord Jesus Christ never compels us to act under orders or unwillingly.

God also has a geographic will for our lives.

MAT 28:19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,”

2TI 2:4 No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.

MAT 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”

Slavery was a major part of Roman civilization, an essential part of it.

In Roman society, the number of slaves a man owned reflected the owner’s wealth and status.

The price for a slave generally ranged between 500 - 2,000 denarii. A denarius was a typical daily wage, so this was quite a lot of money: the equivalent of tens of thousands of dollars in our day and age.

Roman law said that the slave owner had both absolute ownership and absolute power in relation to the slave.

Roman slaves served as hairdressers, footmen, messengers, accountants, tutors, secretaries, carpenters, plumbers, librarians, and goldsmiths.

Slaves were captured in battle and kept alive rather than killed.

The slave had no recourse to the law for protection.
The slave could not own property.
The slave could not enter into a legally binding contract.
The slave could not hold public office.
The slave could not serve in the military.

Common-law cohabitation, called “tent-companionship” but clearly distinguished from legal marriage.
Membership in certain clubs and associations.
Access to money.
Taking on religious obligations.
Attendance at the theatre, gladiatorial games, and races.
Criminal liability (a strange kind of privilege, granted, but it indicated they were a human person).

They could run away from their master, or their master could set them free.

If a runaway slave was caught, the punishment ranged from death by crucifixion to the branding on the forehead with the letters FVG.

A slave with a reputation for running away lost much of his value on the market, and one runaway made it more likely that others would join him.

A slave’s chief desire was to gain his freedom.

The conditions under which a slave existed varied according to the whim of his master.