Americans cringe when confronted with the words “servant” and “master” because we filter our understanding through America’s horrible history with slavery. I will first remind you that the Apostle Paul was not taking a political position on servitude in these verses; he was addressing how to act in a relationship that existed, right or wrong, within the home. Probably the best statement on Paul’s view of slavery is found in his letter to Philemon where he writes about the runaway slave Onesimus: “If you count me as a partner, receive him as myself” (Phi. 1:17). Secondly, servitude does not fit a one-size-fits-all mold. A person could be a bond-servant due to his master’s country taking his countrymen captive (as the Assyrians and Babylonians did to Israel.) Slavery could also occur when a person owed another money and, in order to pay off the debt, the debtor would work off his debt as a servant.
The reality is the servant/master relationship was not only present in the cultur ...
