As long as I can remember, I've heard Christians teach "how Christians should behave in the workplace" lessons from the Epistles' instructions to slaves and masters. I really cannot count the number of times I've heard someone say, "We don't have slavery today, but these verses apply to employees and employers too."
Do they? I've never heard anyone quote 1 Corinthians 7:21 in connection with being an employee. I keep wondering how that would apply. Would that mean something like, "If you are employed, and you have an opportunity to be unemployed, take it?" Possibly that would mean something like, "If you have an opportunity to be self-employed, take it." But I prefer the first reading, to be honest. I mean, there are some days...
Still, it's remarkable how quickly people forget their let's-apply-this-to-employees rule of interpretation when they get to 1 Corinthians 7:21. I can't recall anyone ever bringing it up. That seems dishonest.
I'm not saying there's nothing to be learned from reading through the instructions to slaves and masters in the Epistles. I'm not even saying that there are no applications to be made to employees. I am saying that a need to find some sort of application to ourselves in the text every Sunday is fundamental error, and will lead to all sorts of trouble.
As a very simple example, let's start with Galatians 4:1ff. Are we really to believe that an underage child is, "no better than an employee?" Would we take anyone seriously who said something like that?
The fact is that Scripture very carefully distinguishes free men and women from slaves, and it does so with purpose. Christ hasn't set us free to be slaves (Galatians 5:1). Scripture doesn't confound employment with slavery, and neither should we. It's unrighteous.
At the root of many evangelical errors is the notion that there must be a modern-day equivalent for everything in the Scriptures. If we take that perspective, we end up wreaking all sorts of havoc with the context of each verse. All Scripture is breathed by God, but not all applies to me. There is something to be learned from all of it, and in all of it. But a desperate attempt to read myself into Scripture will lead into chaos.
Here's an idea, if we must read ourselves into those master-and-slave verses, why not do it from the perspective that we are God's slaves? That has the advantage that it's expressly taught in Scripture (Romans 6:19, Romans 14:4, 1 Corinthians 7:22). And it might be interesting to see how Christ is the perfect Master (and, for that matter, the perfect Slave). And it might be useful to consider Paul's own life as a "slave of Christ Jesus" (Romans 1:1).
The Scriptures are written around Christ (John 5:39–40), not around me. Trying to find a way to "apply this to our lives" is frequently just code for finding a way to put ourselves at the center.
4 comments:
I agree. Was it DL Moody who said, 'all the bible is for us but all the bible is not about us'?
“The scriptures are written around Christ”.
The prayer of Paul in Colossians 1 is a good example of this. Paul prays that the Colossians might be filled with the knowledge of His will. What is His will? It centres around His dear Son:
In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers:
all things were created by him, and for him:
and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
And he is the head of the body, the church:
who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead;
that in all things he might have the preeminence.
For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
and, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
Where do we come in? In verse 21 - and you! We are included in the purpose of God but we are not the purpose of God!
“Christ personally is not only the truth, but He is the centre round which all truth circles. From Him all truth radiates, and therefore, no matter what may be the subject in the Word of God we desire to learn, we are certain to learn it more truly, and deeply, and, I believe, more accurately too, if we view it in its connection with, and relation to, the Person of Christ, rather than by dwelling on the way that truth may affect ourselves, or relate to ourselves.” (WTP Wolston)
Thanks, Mark. I'm reading a book at the moment about slavery in early Christianity, and it's a real eye-opener. Apparently slaves could not legally be fathers, and could not legally have a father. Slave "marriages" had no legal standing and existed at the mercy of the owner.
To see then that eg Ephesians was written to slaves (and to children!) is a very moving thing.
Slaves had no rights over their own bodies, and "married" or not, their master could use them in whatever humiliating or violating way he wished. But God has called them "saints." Their status as God's holy ones can never be changed by the degrading uses to which the master puts his slaves.
They have a master in heaven who has already redeemed them - set them free from slavery. And that master tells the masters in the church to treat their slaves as he has treated them - for those who have been redeemed should be redeeming others too.
It's a really thoughtful book.
cg
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