One of the cultural aspects of the Bible, which is very different to today’s culture, is slavery. It was their normal way of life, to have a slave, one or more. But the essence of a slave, is that they have no rights. They do what their master or owner, will tell them what to do. You were a slave. You had no choice in whatever you were asked to do, you did it. This thought, slavery, is very prevalent in the Bible. Jesus spoke of two masters; God or money. You either do and live as God orders you too, or else you live by what money tells you to do. For most, the biggest voice in their heart is money. So, let’s pair the types of slaves; that is master and slave. Mth 6: 24 –two masters God or money. Slaves- Righteousness Rom 6: 18 and sin Rom 6: 17. So, as our focus is slaves, we can be slaves to God, and to obeying God’s directives to us; or we can be slaves to money and all manner of wrong-doing. Endless. No point listing them all. When we transfer destinations, from darkness to light, we are also saying I am no longer a slave to the dark forces of the world. The evidence of the transference from Rom 6: 17 to Rom 6:18, is the key phrase; You wholeheartedly obeyed the teaching about Christ. This does not mean intellectual assent; it means real action, real obedience. Our slavery, to whichever master, is shown by our actions James 2: 18b. I would like to encourage you that your master is not who you say it is, but your life, attitudes and actions reveal who your master is. We cannot turn righteousness on and off on a Sunday morning. Righteousness is part of our life 7 days a week. Seven days a week, of fighting the old ways- win here and there, lose here and there; but it’s a fight. Righteousness is living the life of continual repentance and correction, yet forever going forward. Challenged every time we read the Bible. That is very different to being a slave of sin. Here the stories are the same. I surrender, without a fight, to what I want. I look after me. Never winning. Always losing. Getting to be worse and worse in nature and character; and always justifying our sins. It’s a dark world, being a slave to sin. Even before Jesus came, was introduced as our saviour, God said to Cain, sin is crouching at your door. You must master it. So, here we see the great difference. From being a slave to sin, we master sin. Sin no longer controls us. We control it. The challenge was there from the start. Control, master, your sin. Reminds me of you control your spirit 1 Cor 14: 32. We must learn to control all that is within us. Whether sin, whether righteousness; we must exercise control and authority over all, mind, mouth, thoughts. These are all so hard to do. But each mountain is climbed one step at a time. What is required is a start. A start to say- I want to change. I want to go from slave of sin, to controller of sin. I want to go from slave of sin to slave of righteousness. We must look at ourselves, and assess whose slave we are. To be a slave of righteousness, is much harder, more difficult than to being a slave of sin. That’s why Paul said…I beat my body..1 Cor 9:27. A real fight to be a slave to righteousness.
MCC Admin
24 Kislev 5782