Is slavery in the Bible similar to the slavery that occurred in the early history of the United States?

A common question that can arise surrounding the Bible involves the issue of slavery. Specifically, does the Bible condone slavery? And is slavery that occurred in the New Testament similar to the slavery that occurred in the early history of the United States?

At the church where I serve, we are in the middle of a sermon series entitled living as part of God’s kingdom community. During this series, we are addressing the reality that as followers of Jesus, the hope we have in Jesus should lead to us embracing our identity as part of God's kingdom community. However, to truly embrace our identity as part of God’s kingdom community requires that we live out our identity as part of God’s kingdom community.

But how do we do that? In other words, what does embracing our identity as part of God’s kingdom community look like? How should followers of Jesus live out our identity as followers of Jesus who are part of God’s kingdom community in the midst of a rapidly changing culture? How should followers of Jesus live out our identity as followers of Jesus who are part of God’s kingdom community when our faith is minimized and marginalized? How should followers of Jesus live out our identity as followers of Jesus who are part of God’s kingdom community when our faith is ridiculed, criticized, and slandered?

This week, I would like for us to spend our time together picking up where we left off last week. And as we jump into the next section of this letter that the Apostle Peter wrote to early followers of Jesus, we will discover a timeless truth about how we are to live out our identity as followers of Jesus who are part of God’s kingdom community in the midst of a rapidly changing culture. So let’s discover that timeless truth together, beginning in 1 Peter 2:18:

Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.

Peter begins this section of his letter by commanding servants to be submissive to your masters with all respect. As we discovered last week, to submit is to willingly place oneself under others by placing others first based on one’s role in the relationship So Peter here is commanding slaves to willingly place themselves under their masters by placing their master first. And for Peter, slaves are to willingly place themselves under their masters by placing their master first with all respect. The word respect here is that same word that is translated fear in our English Bibles. This word conveys the sense of having reverent respect for someone that results in submission and obedience to that person.

In other words, Peter is commanding slaves to willingly place themselves under their masters by placing their master first in a way that results in obedience to their masters. Peter then further unpacks his command by explaining that slaves were to willingly place themselves under their masters by placing their master first in a way that results in obedience to their masters not only to those masters who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.

And not only were slaves to willingly place themselves under their masters by placing their master first in a way that results in obedience to masters who met a high standard of merit and who were gentle and right-minded in their treatment of them. Slaves were to willingly place themselves under their masters by placing their master first in a way that results in obedience to masters who were morally bent or twisted and who were harsh and unjust in their treatment of them. Peter here is commanding slaves, regardless of how their master treated them, to willingly place themselves under their masters by placing their master first in a way that results in obedience to their masters.

Now, for those of us reading this letter in 2017, our initial reaction is to read these words through the cultural prism that we live in today. Our natural reaction is to view slavery through the prism of how slavery was conducted in the early days of the United States. And as a result of this reaction, our natural tendency is to believe that the words that Peter pens in this letter have nothing to do with us today.

However the words that Peter pens for us in this section of this letter have everything to do with us today. To see how these words have everything to do with us today, we first need to understand how slavery in the first century differed from how slavery was conducted in the early days of the United States.

The first difference involved what slavery was based on in the first century. Unlike slavery in the United States, slavery in the first century was not based on ethnicity. Instead, the main sources of slavery involved those who were conquered in warfare, those who were victims of piracy, infants who were exposed and left to die, and economic debt. In the case of warfare, piracy, and infant exposure, those who faced a certain death as a result of those circumstances were instead enslaved and allowed a chance at life. In the case of economic debt, in the first century there was no such thing as bankruptcy; instead you were placed into slavery until you paid off your debt.

Now that leads us to the second difference, which involves how slaves were treated in the first century. While some slaves, especially those who worked in the mines, experienced deplorable conditions, many slaves, especially those who lived in cities or who were household slaves, lived in remarkably different conditions then the slavery that occurred in the early days of the United States.

In addition, slaves in the first century were not separated from free persons when it came to types of work that they performed. Many slaves were educated and worked white collar jobs. As a matter of fact, in some cases in the first century, slavery actually offered the opportunity for social mobility when compared to the opportunities that some people who were free actually had.

Now that leads us to the third difference, which involves how slaves were viewed by society in the first century. You see, at this point in his letter, Peter is making a transition. Last week, Peter commanded the readers of his letter to submit yourselves to every human institution. Peter then specifically addressed how followers of Jesus were to submit to the human institution of government.

Here, in this section of his letter, Peter is addressing how the readers of his letter were to submit and live in relationship with one another as a part of the institution called family. When Peter refers to servants here, he is addressing those who were house slaves. When it came to house slaves, these slaves did not have separate living quarters. Instead house slaves typically lived in rooms within their masters homes. 

Now, in the Roman Empire during the first century, slaves were viewed as property, not as free moral agents. In other words, slaves were not viewed as having the capacity to make moral decisions. By contrast, wives were viewed as being free moral agents who were to be under the authority of their husbands. For example, Aristotle viewed slaves as being incapable of deliberative thinking, while a wife had that capability but not the commensurate authority.

So, in the Roman culture of the first century, the husband was viewed as having both the capability and the authority to reason fully. In addition, in the Roman culture the expectation was that a slave would worship his master’s gods and that a wife would worship her husband’s gods. To not worship their master’s or their husband’s gods would be a sign of disrespect to his authority in the culture of the day.

So, in essence, the only difference between a slave and a wife was that a slave was viewed as property. The only difference between a slave and a wife was that the wife was viewed as being capable of making moral decisions. Both a slave and wife were to live under the authority of the male authority figure in the home, who would be either their master or their husband, respectively.

You see, unlike the caricature that our culture paints of Christianity as being a male chauvinistic religious system, Peter here in his command to slaves, reveals the reality that Christianity is based on the assumption that both wives and slaves have a moral responsibility for their behavior that exceeded the social expectations of the day. Peter and the writers of the letters that make up the New Testament actually subverted cultural expectations of the day by elevating the slave and the wife to a position of unparalleled dignity in the culture of the day.

The issue that Peter is addressing here is how followers of Jesus, as a result of their new identity as part of God’s Kingdom community, were to operate within the culture’s most basic social unit, the home. Peter’s concern was that the behavior of a slave who was a follower of Jesus would be an apologetic for the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel.

And just like we talked about a few weeks ago, part of that apologetic for the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel would be living their day to day lives in that social order of the home in a way that affirmed part of that social order that lined up with the message and teachings of Jesus while rejecting those parts of the social order that were not compatible with the message and teachings of Jesus.

Now right about now you might be thinking to yourself “What does any of this have to do with us today? How can you say that the words that Peter pens for us in this section of this letter have everything to do with us today?” If that question is running through your mind, I want to let you know that is a fair question to be asking. And we see Peter provide the answer to that question in what he says next.

Tomorrow we will look at what Peter says next…