In today's SOAP covering 1 Timothy 6 the first section of this chapter deals with slavery.
1 Timothy 6
1 All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God's name and our teaching may not be slandered.
2 Those who have believing masters are not to show less respect for them because they are brothers. Instead, they are to serve them even better, because those who benefit from their service are believers, and dear to them. These are the things you are to teach and urge on them.
This begs the question, does the Bible support slavery?
To those who only view the Bible based on its english word translation, the thought would have to be yes becuase of these and other scriptures like it throughout the Bible. But is that really the case?
In Biblical days the Jewish people had a system that resulted in slavery. In fact, the system is the same today only we don't use the words, "slaves or slavery" even though those words would apply.
One way that someone would enter into slavery is through debt. When their debt was too great to an individual that they could not repay it, they would work off the debt. The Bible says, "the borrower is servant to the lender" (Proverbs 22:7) and in the case of Jewish society that is exactly correct. This is one reason why God instructs us to owe no man anything. Only then are you truly free.
Another way that someone would become a slave was to enter it wllingly. In Leviticus we read the process where people would sell themselves into slavery in exchange for a short-term loan that must be paid back within 49 years.
So a slave wasn't a peice of property based on race or something like what we experienced in America. Slaves were people who were in debt and the only way they could repay the debt was through slavery. So a slave in the Bible referred to someone who was in debt over their head.
I know many young adults in our country today that are slaves. Slaves to debt, slaves to fear, slaves to food, slaves to self. Slavery is not a new concept or an American only issue. What we did in America was take this idea to a whole nother level because we removed one of the key components of biblical slavery that most people know nothing about.
Leviticus 25
54 “ ‘Even if he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children are to be released in the Year of Jubilee,
The year of Jubilee occured every 50 years. An on this year, every slave was released. All debts forgiven. It was like a reset button on their society. The long term debt idea was a foreign concept to the Jewish people and to the Bible.
So when you read about slavery in the Bible, I hope this helps you to understand the context within which to view this controversial subject.
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