SLAVE

by John MacArthur

To be a Christian is to be a wholehearted follower of Jesus Christ. When we call ourselves Christians, we proclaim to the world that everything about us, including our very self identity, is found in Jesus Christ because we have denied ourselves in order to follow and obey Him. The New Testament commands believers to submit to Christ completely, and not just as hired servants or spiritual employees — but as these who belong wholly to Him. We are told to obey Him without question and follow Him without complaint. Christ is our master. We are His slaves, called humbly and wholeheartedly to obey and honor Him. He is our owner. We are His possession. His the King, the Lord, and the Son of God. We are His subjects and subordinates. Scriptures prevailing description of the Christian’s relationship to Jesus is the slave/master relationship. But do a causal read through your English New Testament and you won’t see it. The reason is simple; the Greek word for slave has been covered up by being mistranslated in almost every English version all the way back to the King James Version. Though the word slave (doulous in Greek) appears 124 times in the original text. It is only once translated correctly in the King James Version. Instead of translating doulos as slaves these translations consistently substituted the word servant in its place. There is a key difference between the two words–servants are hired while slaves are owned. Servants have an element of freedom in choosing whom they work for and what they do. Slaves have no freedom, autonomy, or rights. There is no such thing as absolute freedom for anyone. There is one being in the universe who is totally free. That is God. But all others are limited by or enslaved by someone or something. Leaving us with one meaningful question: who or what are you serving? We must either be slaves to sin or slaves to Jesus Christ. There is one wonderful thing to being a slave of Jesus Christ we can consider. It does mean you are totally free from the world and satan. I encourage you to make that choice today!