Friends: The Apostle Paul was both free in Christ and a slave for Christ. Lots of people are. See the column ... Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #927

August 20, 2024

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Freedom, or Slavery

By Bob Walters

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free … do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” – Paul speaking of the New Covenant vs. the Law, Galatians 5:1

My Bible mentor George Bebawi called Galatians a “stick of dynamite.” Galatians he said is not there for friendly advice about forging a gentle new path ahead in Jesus.

It is there to blow up the Jewish way of thinking about the mindset of the Law.

And who better to do it than Paul?  Early in the book of Acts we see this highly educated but rigid and murderous Pharisee hunt, torture, and mercilessly kill Christians for their disobedience to the Law. Paul then came powerfully to Christ (Acts 9), and in his 13 letters of the New Testament not only explains to all how to be a Christian, but how Jews erred in not accepting Jesus, the new covenant, and Christian thought life.

Later in Acts 18:1-17 we see Paul, rejected by the Jews in Corinth, declare “I will go to the Gentiles” (non-Jews), and is then told by the Lord to “keep on speaking.” Paul, once a vicious Jew who killed Christians brings the message of Christ to non-Jews.

As the Bible is organized, after Acts is Paul’s letter to the Romans, two letters to the Corinthians, and then his run of shorter letters beginning with Galatians. This is where we see Paul note (v2:4), “Some of our false brothers infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ and to make us slaves.” Paul is referring to Jews who insisted Christians, among other things, be circumcised.

Then in Galatians 2:11-21 is Paul’s vociferous disagreement with Peter on many matters concerning the Law. Paul’s “freedom” in Christ was from the “slavery” of the Law. No human could fulfil the burden of the Law from which Jesus frees us by grace.

Paul pounds that message throughout Galatians.  Today’s Americans see the word “freedom” and think “land of the free and home of the brave.” We see the word “slavery” and think of only past plantations, modern social injustice, and CRT racism.

To avoid today’s cultural horrification at the mere word “slavery,” modern Bible translations have largely cleansed the Greek doulos (slave) into “servant.” But here the English is either “slavery” or “bondage” and a “yoke” that limits life. Some form of doulos is used 125 times in the New Testament to describe a person who is owned by another.

But “slavery” is not always a horrible yoke. In Matthew 11:30 Jesus says “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” It means in Christ we are properly yoked with our master. When Paul says he is “a slave of Christ” in Romans 1:1, he is declaring his love and purpose of being owned by Christ. We are usually slaves to that which we love.

Another of my great Christian mentors, Russ Blowers, knew George Bebawi well and gave George the highest compliment I ever heard Russ bestow on anybody. He called George “a free man in Christ,” and Russ was among the greatest of encouragers.

Few anywhere could match George’s scriptural expertise (in many languages), his understanding of the ancient church and multiple doctrines, his life experience of having grown up a Jew in a Muslim neighborhood in Cairo, Egypt, converting as a teen to Christianity, becoming a Coptic priest, attaining a divinity PhD at Cambridge, teaching and serving in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and USA … and the obvious surety and humility of his faith in and love for Jesus Christ.

George joyously made himself a slave of Jesus, and freely shared his joy with all.

G.K. Chesterton wrote that our greatest freedom is to be free to bind ourselves to that which we choose. Freedom only works well when we choose Jesus.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes freedom also requires love and responsibility. And in case you missed it last week, here is a link to my recent guest slot on Rich Jacobs’’ “Finding Genius” podcast (48 minutes): Exploring The Culture Of Christianity With Bob Walters (recorded 7-31-24).

Spirituality Column #726

October 13, 2020

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Sailing the Ocean Blue

By Bob Walters

In terms of the biggest of big, divine pictures – humanity’s relationship with God – I like to joke (and oversimplify) that the Bible’s Old Testament tells us the problem, and the New Testament tells us the fix.

Or: In the Old we see what doesn’t work; in the New we see what does work.

Let’s quickly define a couple of terms.  The “problem,” you likely guessed, is sin.  True, but “sin” isn’t isolated to our bad behaviors; sin defeats our ability to glorify God.  That’s the real problem.  So, the point is hardly just “my sin;” the point is that we’ve allowed Satan to interrupt the central purpose of created human life: to glorify God.

The “fix,” as you also likely figured out, is Jesus Christ.  For God’s Kingdom to be initiated on earth among the sinful generations, God – because of His foreknowledge and perfect righteousness – had to “fix” the “problem” of our sin.  Enter Jesus, who in His death defeated our “death” by covering our sins with His blood and that “worked” because Jesus is God.

Voila, or, voici le fixe! God’s righteousness rescues us from death and restores us lovingly to His Kingdom by covering our sins.  Jesus is Lord, we are loved, and God is glorified by our belief that Jesus is who He said He is, the Son of God.

Simple enough, right?  All is forgiven.  Really.  Done deal.  Pray continually.

Now, let’s look at one specific thing in the Old Testament that, while smaller than all humanity’s relationship with God, was a huge mistake the Jews made regarding their relationship with the One True God who chose them as His people.

God was Lord; He had bestowed on Israel judges, but the Jews wanted an earthly king.  Here the Creator of All Things chose them as His avenue to establishing His eternal kingdom on earth, and they said, “Great, but we want our own King.  Could we have one please?”  You can read all about it in the Bible’s 1^st and 2^nd Samuel.

What that showed was – and is – fallen humanity’s reluctance to accept God as “King.” So, we make our own kings and, through all human history, the “king” thing – whether Jewish, Christian, secular, pharaohs, or whatever – never really worked great as it related to human freedom.  Earthly kings tend to take control, not give freedom.

Jesus’s death “freed” us from our sins and, in that freedom within God’s kingdom and the shelter of Jesus identifiable through our faith in Christ, are unleashed our creativity, responsibility, aspirations, love, and imago dei (“image of God”) born in each human soul glorifying God.  We live this life, thanks to Jesus, equipped with the truth of the divine God, not an earthly king.  God’s glory is eternal and His alone.

Believe it or not, this all came to me as I was thinking about Columbus Day.  We have mostly lost the federal holiday (except closing the post office and banks) – and vilified Christopher Columbus – because of contemporary, politically correct, diversity and identity politics-generated earthly sensitivities about whether Europeans should have even settled America and Columbus’s later rumored dalliance in the slave trade.

In 1492 Columbus, an Italian Christian, “sailed the ocean blue” west across the Atlantic Ocean on a mission funded by Christians – King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain.  Their treasury had just become healthy after winning Spain’s war against the invading Moors (Muslims), and upon his second asking bestowed Columbus with funds to seek new trade routes to India and spread Christianity to whomever he encountered.

That was the horizon-chasing, seafaring Italian’s mission: discovery, trade, and – key point – to be a witness for Christianity to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).   

At that time and before, every continent and most cultures on earth held, traded, or sold human slaves in some fashion.  Earthly kings were fine with it.  Few if any had stepped up and forcefully said, “This is wrong.”  Not the famous kings, queens, great empires, military powers, and significantly – you never hear this – not the church.

Slavery as a practice continued throughout the first millennium and a half of the Christian era.  Neither Rome nor Constantinople ended it, and throughout the Bible there are many forms of slavery that were accepted as normal practice.  People commonly were cast or sold themselves into slavery to resolve debts or gain work. War prisoners often became slaves.  Even the Apostle Paul was a “slave of Christ.”  We find it impolite to say “slave,” but in Paul’s sense each of us is a slave to, or servant of, that which we most love and freely dedicate our lives; the purpose that brings joy and peace.

But there is a very, very, biblically wrong slavery, and that is the kind we’re talking about that happened in Africa with the trans-Atlantic (to the Americas) and trans-Saharan (to the middle east) trade.  One African tribe would capture another African tribe and sell them to foreign slave traders for profit.  That type of slavery, wherever it happens, deeply angers God and we see that in the Old Testament in Amos 1:6:

“I will not turn my back on my wrath, because [Gaza] took captive whole communities and sold them to Edom. I will send fire up the walls of Gaza that will consume her fortresses.”

Before Columbus’s memory fully goes over infamy’s horizon, let’s look at what happened scarcely 200 years after his first journey in the wild and wide-open land that was called the New World.  The earthly kings were an ocean away, and the ensuing settlers brought with them the hope of religious and specifically Christian freedom.

How was slavery “abolished”?  It is astounding what God can use and what He can do when earthly kings get out of the way and people with faith in Jesus Christ work in faith to recognize God’s will and nurture God’s kingdom. Even if it takes a while.

The first salvo came from the early American Quakers who penned “The 1688 Germantown Petition against Slavery.”  There were no monarchs in America, and over the next 100 years the lifeforce of human equality and the Holy Spirit began to take hold here in revival and awakenings.  The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution came into being.  Monarchial England soon bought into abolition thanks to William Wilberforce.  In another 100 years, a civil war in America had been fought and won.  While many problems were not solved, the righteousness of God and the faith of free Christians fueled the abolition of slavery.  Reviled Columbus had opened the door.

All of this Christian work and fruit, crazily, happened even as the ascendant and then dominant Western philosophy was the Enlightenment’s quasi-Christian, secular humanist agnosticism.  Go figure.  Today I lament the apathy and ill-intent of education that has led culture-wide to disappearing general knowledge of and dying appreciation for both U.S. history and Christianity.  It is a fascinating, enriching legacy we are losing.

Columbus wasn’t perfect but I am deeply thankful for the broken road that led to the American opportunities and freedom we enjoy.  Even as a citizen of heaven, I pray for our earthly nation to revere its foundation a lot more and shun Jesus a lot less. 

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes that earthly kings are never the answer because their human fallenness is always a problem.  The fix, always, is Jesus.

Spirituality Column No. 511
August 30, 2016
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

By Bob Walters