SLAVES OF HONOR

Don’t you know that when you yield yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey- whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? Romans 6: 16

Omo pick a box was a popular Kenyan TV game show in the 1990’s. Hosted by the late Regina Mutoko and Martin Mburu, contestants were lured with flashy new bank notes to forfeit opening the magic box containing rewards ranging from a brand new car, fridges and cookers to a match box. One won or lost depending on his or her poor instinct or good luck. I bet I can recall a man who turned down forty thousands and got a roll of tissue paper or one who took thirty thousands and missed a car. Disappointing! But it had to be money or the box, not both.

Our reference text presents us with a choice to make. However, unlike in Omo pick a box where choice was exclusively based on luck and instinct, here the choice must be deliberate, intentional, and personal. Abstaining is not an option. There is no neutrality. You must choose your side, whether to be a captive of sin or submit to righteousness.

Losing His ‘Image’

God created Adam and Eve in his untainted image and nature and placed them in his garden. In the midst of this perfect setting, He granted them a free will to choose. In that very sense, they were like the ‘gods’ Satan wished them to be. It is the closest they could ever be to the person of God. Though God alone is the Creator, sustainer and life giver and there is none other; they shared in his godly attributes to act impartially, justly and with truth. In his image does not mean that they were his carbon copies or photocopies, neither does it imply that they were infinite, omnipresent, omnipotent or omniscient. In Exodus 7: 1(a) “And the Lord said unto Moses, see, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh….” Moses was not made a god by nature- he did not become God but YWHW made him the declarer of his mind and purpose, endued with divine power to work wonders beyond the ordinary course of nature before the great monarch Pharaoh. And true to God’s promise, Pharaoh stood in great awe of Moses an ordinary shepherd, every time a plague inflicted harm to the Egyptians pleading with him to halt the plagues like he was a deity.

In his image therefore implies that Adam:

1. Shared God’s authority in having dominion over his created works as Genesis 1: 28 says
2. God imparted a spiritual nature to Adam when he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Animals have breath in their nostrils too but God did not breathe into their nostrils. Genesis 2: 7 John 4: 24

• It underscores the close special relationship of interaction between God and man. God constantly visited them in the garden. Genesis 3: 8

1. As the epitome that crowned God’s creation work, Adam and Eve shared his moral image with their affections geared toward the glory of God.

However, when they gave in to Satan’s delusion and ate of the forbidden fruit, they broke their fellowship with God. Their innocent nature became stained with sin. Sin killed them spiritually. Sin became an impediment that would continually strain the relationship between God and man. Sin became a curse that bred degenerates out of sons of men everywhere. Probably, the greatest blow sin dealt man was denying him the divinely given nature to bear children in God’s image! Adam bore a son in his own likeness passing on carnal and rebellious nature to his offspring.

“And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth” Genesis 5: 3

Ultimately, all his offspring including you and me inherited this stain of a fallen nature. David, Job and Paul underline this hereditary corruption and proneness to sin all of us possess from our degenerate parents when they wrote:

“Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” Psalms 51: 5

“Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.” Job 14: 4

“All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” Romans 3: 23        

Is it possible for man’s conduct to be sinless, when his heart by nature is unclean? The obvious response is; “by the very means of natural descent from a corrupt stock, we have all missed the point and are deficient in regard to approval of God.” None among us is pure from sin. We are all guilty. These sentiments should not be taken as an excuse for sin or a failure of admission for one’s faults but a sincere realization of man’s vile nature from which all his sensual passions emanate and how he desperately needs restraints of grace.

However the fall of Adam and Eve brought to fore another vital realization- the need for redemption! Sin brought about an unquenchable thirst for God, an insatiable hunger, a hollowness they could not fill and a restlessness they could not cure. As St. Augustine (354 – 430 AD) aptly said;

“God, you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless till they find rest in you”.

Condemned to slavery

Paul frames our reference text in form of a rhetorical question to win our attention. In so doing, he exercises forethought and prudent caution to forestall any resistance from his audience over his appeal and instead implores us to embrace his mind. The overriding intent of a rhetorical question is not the answer but the effect it evokes. In this statement, Paul provokes our thoughts to deeply examine his words while persuasively and subtly influencing our response and conclusion. The two leading terms in this verse are ‘yield’ or ‘offer’ and ‘slave’. To yield is to give up, to surrender, to submit or to admit defeat. The following definitions paints to us what the term slave refers to:

• A person who is the property of and wholly subject to another, also a bond servant,
• A person who is legally owned by another person and is forced to work for that person without pay
• A person held in servitude as the chattel of another, one that is completely subservient to a dominating influence.

In our current free world, the term slave is quiet distasteful, sickening, foul, annoying, repulsive and emotionally dizzying. We can recount in history sordid and horrific stories of gross violations of civil liberties visited upon millions of helpless children, men and women caught up in this unfortunate web of slavery and domination. For instance, before the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment by the United States Congress on 6^th December 1865 that abolished slavery, a black slave was counted as three-fifths (3/5) of a person and were never allowed to vote. This meant that while the Whites needed only 30,000 persons to get Congressional Representation, black slaves would have to raise 50,000 persons i.e. 3/5 of 50,000 = 30,000. Isn’t this demeaning and insulting? Though it is argued that this had nothing to do with their human worth, the overall mistreatment of slaves says otherwise.

Paul’s audience of the day (Greeks, Romans and Barbarians) understood that the life of a slave hung on the whim of the master. The slave had no own will and he had a continuous obligation to serve his master. Weariness or doing a duty well in the past did not exonerate or release a slave from performing his duty. The slave was also not entitled to any praise, reward or appreciation for serving and neglect was severely punished. The master was never indebted to his servant for service rendered. It was his duty to do.

Jewish law allowed slavery in the following instances:

• If one was born of slave parents, he/she automatically shared their bond. Exodus 23: 12, Leviticus 22: 11 and Genesis 17: 12- 13 give directions of how to treat slaves that had been born in a master’s household.
• Slaves were also purchased; Leviticus 22: 11 and Genesis 17: 12, 13 makes inference about slaves bought with money.
• Female slaves were sold to do household duties and eventually if lucky get married to the master’s son upon which she would be granted the rights of a daughter. Exodus 21: 7- 11
• Alien slaves were either those captured as prisoners of war or those bought from strangers. Deuteronomy 20: 10- 11; Numbers 31: 26, 27; Leviticus 25: 44- 46
• The Romans condemned criminals convicted of crimes such as stealing or tax evasion to slavery in the mines, building roads and bridges.
• A debtor who was unable to pay back money borrowed from a creditor could compensate through slavery. 2 Kings 4: 1- 7 tells the story of a poor widow who was almost losing her two sons to slavery for failing to pay back what her late husband owed certain creditors before Prophet Elisha rescued her. According to Leviticus 25: 39, Jewish law allowed creditors to enslave debtors until the year of jubilee.

I find all the above scenarios interesting and quite applicable to us. Let’s use the above considerations to make comparisons with our case.

• By virtue of our birth and decent from Adam and Eve, we are sinners as David asserted in Psalms. Our first parents became captives to sin. They were slaves of sin and so are we. We cannot on our own free ourselves from this inherent corrupt nature.
• Messiah paid the redemption price to purchase us for God, our Master. Revelation 5: 9 partly says, “…And with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”
• Once we are redeemed we are granted rights to become his children, as John 1: 12 says;

“…To those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”.

• Don’t the scriptures say that before Messiah redeemed us and reconciled us to his Father that we were aliens and foreigners to the covenants of promise? Ephesians 2: 12. Are believers not aliens and strangers in this world seeking a better country, a heavenly one? Didn’t our Savior confess of us that;

“They are not of this world, even as I am not of the world?” John 17: 16.

It is curious to note that all other categories of slaves could be set free on the first ensuing jubilee year save the alien slaves who served as slaves in perpetuity. Leviticus 25: 46.

• Were we not convicted criminals? Guilty as charged?

“For all have sinned… For the wages of sin is death…” that condemnation and its consequent sentence includes all mankind.

Let me delve into the debtor scenario now.

In the Lord’s Prayer, sin is expressed using the metaphor of a debt. Our sins are debts to God. Our neglect of duty places us under indebtedness to God that we cannot pay. Whether the debt incurred by the sinner seems much or little, the guilt incurred is so enormous that neither of us can pay it. We could not atone for our sins and neither could the blood of bulls and goats cleanse us. Yahshuah offered his sinless body as ransom to redeem us from the captivity of sin- our ‘slave master’. His death was a ransom- the price paid to secure the sin-slaves’ freedom. He freed us from sin and death and guaranteed us eternal life- his gift of grace.

“…who gave himself as a ransom for all men….” 1Timothy 2: 6

It is again peculiar to note that for thirty pieces of silver, Judas betrayed our Redeemer- this being the market value for a dead slave. That’s how lowly our Savior went,

‘…taking the very nature of a servant/slave…humbling himself and becoming obedient to death on a cross’ Philippians 2: 7, 8.

Our Savior stripped himself of glorified honor to become a bondservant in order to deal sin the brow of defeat and release God’s righteousness. The words of this song capture well the servant sacrifice our Savior made:                             Alas! And did my Savior bleed?

                                      And did my Sovereign die?

                                      Would he devote that sacred head?

                                      For such a worm as I?

Choosing our Master

Paul’s statement gives us choice not on whether or not to be slaves, but on who our master should be. Slavery is our inevitable eventuality.  Not that we have no freedom, but in exercising that freedom we are not independent; we have to pledge our loyalty to one or the other. We have to choose between the two opposing ethical principles namely: sin or righteousness. Whichever one we choose becomes our master, and we its bondservants.

Slaves to sin

If we place ourselves at the disposal of our flesh and carnal passions, we become slaves of sin and sin becomes our master. We let evil desires rule us and submit our members to commit sin. We allow our tongues to lie, bear false witness, make false vows, spew venom of hate and incitement, demean and belittle others through slander. We fail to define boundaries of the places our feet tread. We go to the bar, walk down the street to the harlot’s house and are swift in running to do mischief.  Our hands fight and spank with hatred and cruelty, we blame and abdicate our responsibility. We allow our ears listen to defamation and evil talk, our eyes watch uncensored content and we fill our hearts with garbage. By and by we make our bodies inhabitable and dispel the Spirit of God from his dwelling. We enthrone sin; make our bodies the habitation of demons, the hold of foul spirits and a cage of detestable appetites.

Slaves of righteousness

We become slaves of regeneration when we rein in and put a check on our carnal desires. We subdue and subject these stray passions to submit to Messiah’s righteousness. We willingly accept to break from the controlling power of sin and refuse to be captives of our appetites. We readily embrace Messiah’s offer of liberty. We dethrone sin; become slaves of righteousness and Messiah becomes our Sovereign. The unruly tongue gets imbued with words of grace, drips with heavenly wisdom that inspires the fickle of resolve and the faint-hearted. The transformed tongue becomes the pen of a ready writer broadcasting His praises abroad. Our feet rush to attend to the needy, they hasten to spread the glad tidings of the gospel and walk into his sanctuary to worship. The hands are raised to offer the incense of prayer, to soothe the aching, to hold and support the feeble. Our eyes and ears are totally sold out to Messiah’s service, washed in the Savior’s love. Our heart- well guarded becomes a spring of life. The Lord finds sojourn and abides in us.

Prayer:

My Lord I owe you all my allegiance. I am indebted to you for the breath of life and salvation. I am under obligation to live for you and win souls to your fold. Inflame my enthusiasm to live for you and arrest all my selfish cravings. Make me a slave of honor to behold things as you see them, and to realize that this world is not my main reality. Amen.

Baba Roy-Amy