Something that has been on my mind is the lack of understanding of how slavery came to be. It is easy to point to slavery that used to be practiced in America and absolutely it was completely born in sin as slavery was a byproduct of sin to begin with. Yet for today’s purpose, I would like to not look at it solely from an American perspective but from an older perspective.
I would like to say that from the the bible the first man was sold into slavery by his disobedience to his creator. In the beginning God created man in his image, and I don’t know what today would look like had Adam not sinned. I know there would be no death. There would be no hard labor from the moment we are born; learning how to labor until eventually working until we die. Essentially God created labor to be slavery for men. For women because Eve was deceived, she was taken into slavery to her husband. He didn’t do this as an absolute because he wanted this to be the way it is, but as an example of how Adam sold himself into servitude to sin. After which he had no ability to separate himself from this bondage.
To understand slavery itself, the bible talks of how even as slaves we receive wages for our services. People still have to eat, drink, be clothed. Anyone who knows anything about morale, knows a happy servant is a more productive servant. More often than not though, humanity itself being fallen, abused ownership of human beings all the same as anything else. We see how man has abused the companion he gave us, women. In the beginning we were to be equals completing each other. Under sin man abused his purpose with women, until the rejection of this system of marriage as a contract to each other, as man made it a single sided contract. Man took ownership over his fellow man and abused it to the point of rejection of this system of ownership. I would argue that we are still slaves to corporations and endless capitalism. We can no more quit without fear of how we will feed ourselves or fear of homelessness altogether. Even socialist know that programs designed to benefit the society must be sustainable by labor and some form of capital gain. Wealth and greed still enslave us today. Some are better at fair practices than others but we still see the way greed causes the hard working not to pay off. Truth be told the middle class which is ever so shrinking are materially rich both in the eyes of the less fortunate and eyes of God. Humans have no ability to regulate fairness within any system and it is better to be honest with this truth.
Regardless we are still creatures of slavery as we are born into sin. Though we are free to marry as we please, we counterfeit the contract that God, not men, laid out for men and women. Which isn’t true or binding when not approached within the definition laid out by God. Which is why there are so many open relationships in the LGBT community. It is just not a tangible contract with any spiritual meaning. It is not binding spiritually therefore their is not as much attachment. Why do we see jealousy between man and woman relationships that aren’t in marriage? Because this contract is not merely fleshly but spiritual. We are spiritual beings trapped in flesh, creating spiritual contracts that we don’t know that we are creating to each other. This said, we must understand that this slavery to freshly desires is of equal condemnation in the eyes of God. It doesn’t matter whether you are heterosexual or homosexual, if you defy the way God has created us to be we are in fact acknowledging that we are slaves to sin and must obey our master to do such sinful desires. This is why when the world says that we are born either straight or gay, it is truth. Not that we can use this truth before God as an excuse. For truth condemns us. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can purchase us back from chains to sin, which Satan himself holds.
This is another point I would like to point out. A few weeks ago I read an article on a woman who joined a Satanist church that “doesn’t worship or do the will of Satan”. Yet if we know who gave Eve the temptation to sell herself and her husband into slavery, we can truly understand that he is the slave owner who controls our desires, and his will is everything from true mediocrity to active outright rebellion toward God. All of which is opposite of God’s will but that which is good in the world within the non believer is only because of the way light moves those with not so hardened hearts to do better. Yet the more we reject God’s gift the harder we become and the easier it is to do Satan’s will. That said God being Satan’s creator, and the true writer of the law, has the true authority to purchase us from the bondage of sin which Satan holds over us. True pure faith we receive this purchase. Therefore we have no boast over those who practices sins we perceive as worse, or whether they are truly worse in the eyes of God himself they equally condemned us to everlasting separation.
With this knowledge that we are not truly free; that we are to be slaves to God’s will, not to sin. Denying our own desires that are still ingrained within our minds. We can love those who are still imprisoned to sin within themselves. Our freedom in Christ allows us to be angry and not sin. It allows us to enjoy creation and the pleasures thereof such as food, drink and sexual desires with out sin. For some of us though its is easier to be taken out of Egypt than Egypt to be taken out of God’s people. As Egypt was another image of slavery to the flesh. Some still have scars that prevent us from enjoying freedom from sin as much as others. This is why we must both be mindful of those who still suffer, who give up more freedom to maintain service to God’s will, and not become bitter to those who can better enjoy the freedom he gives others. It is not always the action that is the sin but the way we go about it that is sinful. This is why we are warned not to be judges of people. We condemn ourselves in such judgment and create a division on top of a divide already in place. But instead we are to love and guide each other. Sometimes that means speaking truth, all of the time prayer. Sometimes it mean walking away not in disgust but love. Not slamming the door on the way out but parting gracefully the door wide open to one another as believers. Also with as much grace for those who don’t believe, as Christ died for you and them with hopes to allow his blood to purchase our souls back from damnation all the same.
I hope your Saturday has been as blessed as mine. I do not boast anything as knowledge, peace, grace and all gifts from God are given not based on my righteousness. It is based on faith, not that I have been faithful but because he is faithful. On this as we believed in him so that he could give us our measure of faith, we can move with love. On these two things he grants us our salvation, on these two things alone he can show through us himself not ourselves. Not that we loved him first, but that we received his love and can love him with all of our hearts, and love ourselves not for what we have been but what he is molding us into. Then we can love our neighbors as we love ourselves because of the possibility that our new light may remove the years of hardness built upon by sins by us and done to us. God can forgive and heal any sin committed by us and to us. All we have to do is believe and repent, obey and let go. He will do the work.
The Path Less Traveled 