Slavery as Vocation
Chapter 1 - 1.4
As will be discussed in chapters to come, a Christian is called to faith in Baptism, freed from sin, and bound to serve God and neighbor in Christ’s righteousness. The slave or free man is bound and called to righteousness, and sanctification under grace in Christ, and is not under the Law of sin and death (cf. Rom 8:2).
Most Americans would not categorize a slave as a vocation or calling in sanctified Christian living. Yet a Christian slave could love a neighbor within their bondage through freedom in Christ in various relational situations or vocations. John Nordling writes of slavery as a vocation in the New Testament, “The NT presents slavery as a vocation in which typical Christians could honorably serve God, their master, and many others in ancient society.”[1] Vocation is a calling from God in Christ which loves and serves others as well as honoring God. As a result, a Christian may understand callings in the world in slavery terms without difficulty. Slave as a vocation in the context of Paul’s time would be extremely helpful to comprehend what he says about slavery to God and righteousness in Romans 6.
If a Christian is a slave of God in Christ and called to love, the Christian is, in a sense, a slave in vocation under grace and subject to Master Jesus Christ. In a thoughtful perspective of vocation and slavery, Gene Veith highlights an insightful view of otium–leisure and negotium–busy-ness in the preceding article: Veith also mentions,
Some Christians argued that being a slave is a vocation, confusing the Greco-Roman institution cited in the New Testament with the slavery of the new world, which cosigned a whole race to slavery with no provision for individual callings . . . After all, the whole point of vocation is that God is the one who is working through human beings, as they love and serve each other.[2]
God works in and through his people bound to Christ and his righteousness. Perhaps vocation looks like slavery in the world under grace. Nordling writes,
We propose that, in the main, the relationship between master and slaves in the NT and between Christians and persons of greater or less station in the world (as Luther articulated in his doctrine of vocation) is essentially the same. Let one simple, yet telling, example suffice: substitute “employees” and “bosses” for δοῦλοι (“slaves”) and κύριοι (“masters”), respectively, and there remains still today––long after the legal abolishment of slavery in modern democratic societies––essentially the same relationship as obtained long ago in the congregational assemblies in the NT: Slaves [οἱ δοῦλοι], be obedient to your masters according to the flesh [ὑπα-κούετε τοῖς κατὰ σάρκα κυρίοις] with fear and trembling in sincerity of your heart, just as [you are obedient] to Christ [ὡς τῷ Χριστῷ]––not just service for the sake of appearance, as if you are merely trying to please men, but as slaves of Christ [ὡς δοῦλοι Χριστοῦ], doing [ποιοῦντες] the will of God from your heart, wholeheartedly rendering service as to the Lord [δουλεύοντες ὡς τῷ κυρίῳ], not to men. (Eph 6:5-7; cf. Col 3:22-25) Let modern Christians see themselves in this picture, then, and not simply dismiss such passages of God’s Word as outmoded relics of an earlier age.[3]
The context of slavery as vocation carries us forward to a theological perspective. A slave to God and righteousness renders service to Yahweh. The slave of Christ is delivered by grace and subject to Master Jesus Christ under grace. Nordling argues for the need to study slavery as a vocation,
Slavery should be studied by Christians yet today on account of its pertinence to vocation––that is, to one’s life “in Christ” amid the varied circumstances wherein God has set each Christian in this world to be faithful. The sanctified life of a Christian, then, consists not only in a freedom by which Christ sets one free (e.g., Gal 5:1, 13) but also in being all but a slave to others among whom God has set one to be of service (e.g., Gal 5:13; Rom 6:16, 18; 1 Cor 9:19). Naturally, the “metaphorical nature” of biblical slavery is evident in such discussion, yet not so metaphorical as to obscure the essentially servile nature of Christianity itself when carefully considered.[4]
Slavery is a symbolic way to describe the Christian as belonging to Christ. In fact, it is an undeniable biblical truth one way or the other. Slavery has an odd and bitter ring to the ears and is hesitantly spoken, and, yet, it is what Paul uses to teach that all people are either condemned and enslaved to sin or bound to Christ. Middendorf comments on the harshness of the sound of slavery, “As harsh as it may sound to human ears in a society which so often values individualism, personal choice, and liberty above all, there is, in reality, no alternative to slavery.”[5]
Conclusion
Many considerations are too vast on the topic and context of slavery, so this chapter identified only a few different types of slavery. Nordling observes the vastness and complexity of slavery in the ancient era in both positive and negative senses,
Because the evidence suggests that types of slavery existed in ancient times that were socially constructive as well as types that were destructive. An understanding of the more complex forms of slavery operative in ancient times will enable modern Christians to consider more accurately the kind of slavery that St. Paul himself would have encountered within the Christian assemblies of his day—within Philemon’s house congregation.[6]
Although there is much more to slavery in the context of the Greco-Roman period, Paul uses it to help Christians identify slavery to sin and slavery to God. In the background, Old Testament slavery is helpful to see Israel’s relationship to Yahweh, such as deliverance from slavery in the land of Egypt, where Israel was enslaved for over 400 years, and from the Babylonian captivity. In Paul’s day, “a slave could have been ‘legally dead’ no debts to pay back later . . . extension of masters body.”[7]
In a spiritual sense, Paul then asserts that one is born sinful and, therefore, a slave to sin. One is reborn through Baptism, thus paid for, freed, and a slave to God in Christ. The slavery to sin mankind suffers cannot free itself from unless declared righteous through faith in Jesus Christ. However, being dead to sin and alive in Christ Jesus covers the entire chapter in Romans 6. The next chapter explores spiritual deadness and slavery to sin and death.
[1] Nordling, Philemon, 43.
[2] Gene Veith, Slavery vs. Vocation, https://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2021/10/vocation-vs-slavery/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=BRSS&utm_campaign=Evangelical&utm_content=247.
[3] Nordling, Philemon, 138-39.
[4] Nordling, “Slave to God, Slaves to One Another,” Concordia Theological Quarterly 80, no. 3-4 (July/October 2016): 232.
[5] Middendorf, Romans 1–8, 504.
[6] Nordling, Philemon, 43.
[7] Ibid., 43, 44.