It seems to me that we are made to be slaves. The question is, what are you going to be a slave of?
You can be a slave to many things:
– a slave to money
– a slave to power
– a slave to career
– a slave to sexual desire
– a slave to ego
– a slave to approval
– a slave to opinion
None of these are very controversial; any Christian would recognise them as Bad Things that we need to be free of.
But there are some other, more subtle things that can enslave us just as effectively as those on the list above. You might be:
– a slave to ministry
– a slave to religious duty
– a slave to tradition
– a slave to comfort
All of these are things we need to be set free from.
But what is freedom? It seems to me that, for human beings, being free from any master whatsoever is problematic; in fact, it may even be impossible. When we are under no master at all, we tend to become our own master, which is to say that we end up being slaves to our ego. Which, for me, is just another way of saying we are slaves to sin. I can say this with some conviction because it’s a pattern I’ve seen very clearly in my own life.
So I need to be mastered, but I need to be mastered by something or someone that is good, pure and truthful. Where can I find such a master? In the final analysis, there is only one who fits that description, and it’s God. When I am a slave to Christ, who is the revelation of God, I can trust him to direct my desires and efforts in a way that is good for myself, for others and for the world around me.
Thus Christ subverts slavery, turning it from something that saps the life out of us and brings degradation and destruction into something that enables us to flourish and be optimally fruitful. It’s one of those mysterious paradoxes that seem to abound in the kingdom: to be a slave to Christ is to be free to be fully alive.
Look for freedom anywhere but in Christ, and you’ll end up a slave. But seek to be a slave to Christ, and you’ll have more freedom than you could ever want.
[ Image: G. S. Matthews ]
