Slavery 101

I received a comment on my last Romans post that stimulated my thinking. This is the kind of thing that I experience when participating in an inductive study with other people and I enjoy that immensely. I wish that I could do that again; it has been years since I have enjoyed those experiences with others. Anyway, this forum has been a weak substitute in the meantime for expressing my plodding discoveries in the book of Romans and the comment from Josh stimulated my curiosity to look deeper into the real meaning of the idea of slavery as talked about in Romans 6.

The verse that I am focusing on for this is Romans 6:16. The way it reads in the translation I am currently studying is “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?” (Romans 6:16 NAS95)

I really like the rendering of this text from the Bible in Basic English which reads, “Are you not conscious that you are the servants of him to whom you give yourselves to do his desire? if to sin, the end being death, or if to do the desire of God, the end being righteousness.” (Romans 6:16 BBE)

Josh mentioned that he looked up the Greek word for slavery which is “doulos” and wondered how that fit into what God is trying to reveal about our relationship to Him. That prompted me to look up the word as well which, as usual, flushed out a great deal of very interesting implications as I wandered through the various definitions both of the original word and the words that form its roots. I also did the same kind of trace on the word translated “present” or “yield” which is the precursive action that we do to choose which kind of slavery we will end up in. That too yielded rich results.

I suspect that this subject could grow and deepen indefinitely which I could not exploit to its full capacity here, but I would like to take a good bit of time to do some in-depth exploration of this aspect of salvation and see what God wants my heart to learn and experience in the process. I invite your participation in this. After all, if I and everyone around me have no alternative but to be in total servitude to one master or another, it seems quite reasonable at the very least to explore what that relationship is going to look and feel like and what outcomes it will produce in our lives for our future. That only seems reasonable so we can make a more informed choice of which master we want to link up to.

So the two words that I am looking at here describe, first the means by which we choose and then a description of the situation in which we will live after our choice. Maybe in this post I will simply focus on the facts and try to clarify the intellectual meanings and definitions surrounding the words. That is the first step in healthy inductive study and is very important for laying a good foundation for further, deeper heart work.

The first word I would like to look at is the Greek word “paristemi”. I scanned through the various translations that I have available in my computer to see what different options they used to translate this word into English. The words used are yield, present, offer, give, surrender. This gives a good flavor for what the Greek word means but I found some very stimulating surprises when I went one level deeper and looked at the meaning of one of the roots of this word. It comes from two words, “para” and “histemi”. “Para” seems to be a rather generic preposition that gives movement to the word. But when I looked at “histemi” I uncovered a treasure chest of meaning with far-ranging implications for this study. Here is a condensation of Strong's definition for this word:

“to stand (transitively or intransitively), which properly denotes an upright and active position,: – abide, appoint, bring, continue, covenant, establish, hold up, lay, present”

The word “covenant” particularly caught my interest here after the life-changing teachings I recently received about what are involved in covenants, what they mean and the powerful implications surrounding them. What I am beginning to see here is a choice involving entering into a covenant relationship with someone who will then become the dominating force in our life. They will become the model into which we will be shaped in our covenant relationship with them.

This leads me to the next word “doulos”, translated into English as “servant” or “slave”. Strong's defines it this way: “a slave (literal or figurative, involuntary or voluntary; frequently, therefore in a qualified sense of subjection or subserviency): – bond(-man), servant.”

What I also found fascinating here is when I checked the root word for this which is “deo”. That word means “to bind (in various applications, literally or figuratively): – bind, be in bonds, knit, tie, wind.”

Given the many things I have been learning lately about attachment bonds being at the deepest foundational roots of the human brain, I am beginning to see that being bonded is not an option for us as humans – only who or what we become bonded to is an option. And while it is true that the bonds we have in the present were all primarily formed by our family surroundings, culture and upbringing to this point, Paul is stating here that we now have a choice to establish new bonds that can radically override and replace our old bonds if we choose to offer our deepest self to a new Master. This offer involves entering into a covenant relationship with the very One who designed us originally and craves the opportunity to restore us to that original design far beyond our wildest imaginations. This will happen by having all of our fear-bonds replaced with love-bonds that are far stronger and better suited to make us thrive.

When we choose this “slavery” to our Creator and Designer, we are choosing to be knitted, tied, intertwined at the heart level with the greatest Lover in all the universe. And how do we choose this? One of the definitions for describing the word translated “present” is “abide”. That reminds me of John 15 where Jesus laid out very explicitly what this servant/master relationship would look like – abiding. Repeatedly Jesus talked about abiding in us and us abiding in Him. This is the real model of “slavery” that we are looking at here in contrast to the dominating, fear-based, controlling, exploitive, force-oriented kind of slavery that is ultimately the only alternative to this. We may be conned into believing that we are free and can enjoy life independent of a covenant relationship with our Creator, but in the long-term it will become very painfully obvious that selfishness and independence only disconnect us from the only source of life there is. And like a computer disconnected from a power source the only option left is pain and death.

Well, I am verging on writing more than my heart is producing which is always a hazardous function at best. I need to think about these things today and let them soak deeper into my mind and heart as I ponder them, hopefully with others. God has a way of bringing many things to my attention to enhance what I am learning after giving me a subject like this, so I am looking forward to what is coming.

Shabbot Shalom.

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