Free As A Slave

Today we hear the world crying out for more rights. More freedom. Two hundred years ago, the great statesman, Edmund Burke, penned this warning: "Men qualify for freedom in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains on their own appetites. Society cannot exist unless a controlling power is put somewhere on will and appetite, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters."

Contemporary history is filled with movements for the rights of men. But no man can change the world until he himself has been changed. No man can free others until he himself is truly free.

Nearly two thousand years ago, the Apostle Paul wrote to a little group of people living in the capital of the world's greatest civilization. Some were rulers, some were servants. Yet all had been freed from one form of slavery and had gladly surrendered to a new kind. New power had gripped their lives. A transforming faith had altered their destinies. In the midst of a world filled with slavery, they met a brave new message that broke off the shackles of their past, and gave them peace and power in the midst of a chained society.

Paul had some astonishing, perhaps even disturbing things to say about the kind of life that results in true freedom. Part of his message was this:

It's hard to imagine that anything good could be learned from slavery. But perhaps Paul, and the early Christian church, knew something about the nature of "slavery" that's totally lost on us today. While slavery to earthly masters can be cruel and harsh, slavery to Christ will set us free. If we really want to change our world, even our world of personal relationships, we need to ask ourselves whether we have "rights," or whether we are "love-slaves" of Christ.

Who Has the Right To Rule?

At the foundation of the struggle for rights, each must settle this question: Who has the right to rule my life? Even as Christians we often struggle with what we consider "our rights." The answer is not only simple, it is logical.

The one who has a right to rule the affairs of men is the one best qualified. And who is better qualified than God? He made us. He has the wisdom, the understanding and the love. He has the power to direct and control, the justice to be perfectly fair and the mercy to be kind. God has the ultimate right to our lives. He has the first right to be loved, the right to be worshipped, the right to be obeyed. He has the right to be King. Men have marched for their own rights, but who is marching for the rights of God?

Long ago a party of powerful religious leaders came to speak to a quiet carpenter. These leaders had a real problem with the man who said He had the right and authority to forgive sins. And so they came, with one of their many difficult questions. "Master," they said, "we know you teach and say what is right, and don't play favorites. So we have a question for you. Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar or not?"

Jesus lifted up his eyes. "Show me a penny," He said. They gave Him one, wondering. "Whose image and name are stamped on this?" He asked. "Caesar's", they replied. "Then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and give to God the things that are God's!"

Like the coins stamped with the image of Caesar, you are made in God's image. Have you given Him the things that belong to Him? Have you given Him what is rightfully His?

Love-Slavery To Christ 

The early Christians called themselves "servants of Christ." In Greek, there is a special word for this type of servant; doulos, which means slave. To understand what it means to be a love-slave of Christ, we must discover what this servanthood meant to the first disciples.

Disciples Are Love-Slaves Of Christ