LENTEN READINGS AND REFLECTIONS

DAY 35

Reading: Paul's Letter to Titus to Hebrews 6

This morning's readings deal with the topic slavery quite often. In Paul's letter to Titus, he tells slaves to “obey” their masters. But in his letter to Philemon, he admonishes Philemon not to punish Onesimus, his escaped slave, who had found Paul and become a Christian but rather to receive him as a brother and release him from bondage. Finally, in the letter to the Hebrews, the author of the letter (and we don't know his identity) reminds us that God freed his people from slavery in Egypt , but though free, they complained and grumbled against God, longing to return to bondage.

Critics of Christianity often say that the bible supports slavery. That is manifestly untrue. In 1st Timothy, slave-trading is described as a terrible sin on par with murder.

Moreover, if we read Paul's letter to Titus carefully we see that the reason Paul encourages slaves to obey their masters is not so as to support the institution of slavery but rather that by their loving servanthood, even in the face of brutal injustice, they might turn the hearts of their masters.

“Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything…to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.” (Titus 2:9-11)

God's power flows when injustice is met with goodness and unrighteousness with righteousness.

Paul, in other words, is encouraging slaves to do for their masters precisely what Jesus did to his captors. He loved them. Even while suffering the greatest injustice in human history, Jesus, the only perfectly innocent man ever to be condemned, forgave his tormenters and prayed for those who betrayed him.

This is what led the Roman centurion in charge of his execution to exclaim: "Surely this man is was the Son of God!"

We also were slaves once. We were slaves to our own sinful desires, slaves to the influence and power of Satan. But in Christ, God freed us from this bondage. We are no longer slaves to sin and subject to death. Certainly we sometimes renounce our freedom and return, for a season, to our chains, fall back into sin.

But our freedom from sin is made clear in its failure to hold us.

We return to it, but if we are truly in Christ, if we have truly been saved, we cannot and do not stay. We are not at home in sin anymore. We are at home, we are free, in Christ. We are no longer subject to the power of death. God has freed us by the very same power through which he raised Christ from the dead.

It is this power, given to us through the Holy Spirit, the power that set us free from the bondage of sin; that can also give us the power to love those who treat us unjustly or unfairly; to answer those who bind us or seek to hurt us with love rather than hatred.

We are not subject, in truth, to anyone but Christ and for that reason we can deal patiently and kindly with those who would seek to hurt us.

People may seek to hurt you, but there is really nothing anybody can do to you if you are in Christ. They can insult you, but their judgments do not matter. God has called you his child. They can reject you. But their rejection will come to nothing in the end. Christ has called you his friend. Those who hold power over you can take away your job. But the Lord has promised to provide. They can even take your life. But in Christ there is no death.

You are free.

How then do you respond when you are treated unjustly? How do you answer when your boss or employer asks you to do work above and beyond that which you think is fair? How do you react when insulted or offended?

Do you respond as Jesus would have you?

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