OF SERVANTS AND SLAVES

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The mass lectionary this past week invited us to reflect on Chapter 6 of Paul's Letter to the Romans, and the notion of "servant" or "slave."

For just as you presented the parts of your bodies as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness for lawlessness, so now present them as slaves to righteousness for sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness. ... But now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit that you have leads to sanctification, and its end is eternal life. (Rom. 6:19-22)

The original Greek word that Paul uses for "slave" is doulos, which can also mean "servant," depending on the context. For me, and, I suspect, most Americans, the words "slavery" and "slave" evoke powerful negative images of the dehumanizing horrors visited upon black men and women in our country. Teaching in the inner city, I see every day the effects of that poisonous legacy playing themselves out in the minds and lives of African-American kids and their families today. So, "slave" is not one of my favorite words. But Paul's concept of doulos, whether "slave" or "servant," is worth a few moments of attention. 

In the verses immediately preceding the ones quoted above, Paul writes this:

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, although you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient from the heart to the pattern of teaching to which you were entrusted. Freed from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness (Rom. 6:16-18).

He is very clear: We humans are not autonomous creatures. We are going to be subservient; but we have two options. We can either be slaves of Christ, or slaves of our passions. A few comments on  the noun doulos and its adjective form doule might be helpful. In Paul's day, to be a doulos meant being totally obedient to whatever the master willed, dedicated to doing what one was commanded; the adjective form meant "subservient, pertaining to a state of being completely controlled by someone or something."

At the moment, our headmaster is waging a war on cellphone use by students in school, accusing the kids of being addicted to using their phones. I think we could say that they are in "a state of being completely controlled by someone or something." In a word, they have becomes "slaves" of their phones.

Paul is inviting us to choose to get free from our servitude to sin, and to choose instead to become "servants of righteousness," completely controlled by Christ, totally dedicated to doing his will. This kind of servanthood is the opposite of dehumanization, because it means become fully ourselves, fully human, as God created us to be.

Do you think Paul may be on to something when he says that we are all destined to be subservient to something, either to Christ or to created things and passions? He seems to be saying that if you think you're completely autonomous, going through life totally free of any outside forces, then you're deluded: You're going to be subservient to something or someone, unless, of course,  you are God. (In which case, thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read this post.)

Paul begins the Letter to the Romans by introducing himself as "Paul, a doulos of Christ Jesus" (Rom. 1:1). Let's ask Paul to intercede for us that we may become, with him, faithful servants of Christ.