Promoted to Slave

The mere mention of slavery now in our times brings about a flood of feelings, emotions and opinions. Slavery in our country is a blemish that we have long sought to hide or to work to clean up from our reputation. Being a prisoner is no less positive or encouraging. Having to do what you are told to, when and how you are told to. Having all privileges stripped from you and essentially having no rights of your own as an individual. Neither being a slave or a prisoner are descriptors I would have ever wanted to use for myself—until I met Paul.

Now I can’t actually say that I have met Paul (I am talking about the Paul the Apostle). But I have read a lot of what he has had to say. I believe when he wrote his letters to the beginning churches in biblical times that he was truly speaking from his heart (which was full of God and a god granted changed nature). Paul was a regular man who had a great testimony and allowed God to use him for great things. He was an apostle of Christ and did amazing things in terms of edifying, teaching, and discipling. By all accounts and purposes he had earned the right to point this out to us in the opening of his letters. But that was not his nature. In the book of Philemon you can’t get past the first six words of the book with out stopping to say “Wow!” Instead of listing his credentials to establish himself and qualify his words he opens by saying “Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus.” Wow! Instead of lifting himself up, he tells of his servitude to one that he knows is greater than he. He could have called himself the ambassador of the Gospel or of Christ, after all he was commissioned by Christ. But instead he refers to himself as a prisoner to Christ and to all that He has taught. Some might say that Paul was simply referring to the fact that he was in prison because he was preaching the gospel. That is true. But I believe that he was also referencing the fact that he was imprisoned to the gospel. He was only imprisoned for teaching the gospel because the gospel was in him to teach. It had become the driving force behind his existence.

In Romans 6:18 Paul says that we were freed from sin and have now become slaves to righteousness. In the 22nd verse of that chapter he again says that we were freed from sin and made slaves to God. He didn’t say that we had been given this tremendous calling and high position in the body of Christ but rather he puts us at the lowest spot possible—a slave. When a man who truly deserved all the accolades that people could have bestowed on him calls himself a prisoner and a slave to God, why is that there are so many that look for a title we haven’t earned? Why is it that we have to be placed in service where we feel comfortable and where we feel we will excel? A slave has no choice what he will do or what he will be made to accomplish. A prisoner doesn’t have the choice to order up his meals or to lounge around by the pool. Why is it then that if we are truly disciples of Christ that we feel we have the luxury to order up our gifts or tell God how we think they should be used? Being a disciple entails sacrificing who we are, who we want to be, what we have, and where we want to go in life so that we can take on the identity Christ has for us so that we may accomplish His will and purpose for our lives. His will.

We are all a lot of different things to a lot of different people in our lives. But I challenge you, if you are not a whole hearted slave to Christ and prisoner of the gospel, then make that your aim in life.

Father I place my will into your submission and my life into you will. Lord point out the things in my life that I still need to reconcile to this commitment I have made before You. Amen