CHAPTER 1 Master and Slaves

“Jesus is Lord” (1 Cor. 12:3).

That is the fundamental article of faith for all true Christians. It’s the first essential confession of faith every true Christian must make: “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). You cannot remove the lordship of Christ from the gospel message without undermining faith at its core.

Jesus’ own teaching and ministry always kept the issue of His lordship at the center. He never once shied away from declaring His authority as sovereign Master. He proclaimed it to disciples, to enemies, and to casual inquirers alike—refusing to tone down the implications of His demand for unconditional surrender. When Jesus called people to follow Him, He was not seeking companions to be His sidekicks or admirers whom He could entertain with miracles. He was calling people to yield completely and unreservedly to His lordship.

A Word about Words

The expression most often translated “Lord” in the English New Testament is the Greek word kurios. It speaks of someone who has power, ownership, and an unquestionable right to command. A nearly synonymous Greek term also sometimes translated “Lord” in the New Testament is despotes. That word (the root of our English word despot) describes a ruler with absolute power over his subjects.

Both words are used in reference to Christ as Lord in the New Testament. In John 13:13, for instance, Jesus took the title kurios for Himself: “You call Me Teacher and Lord [kurios]; and you are right, for so I am.” Jude 4 employs both words in parallel fashion: “Ungodly persons… turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master [despotes] and Lord [kurios], Jesus Christ.”

Both words belonged to the vocabulary of slavery in New Testament times. They describe a master who has absolute dominion over someone whom he literally owns. His subjects are duty-bound to obey their lord not merely because they choose to do so but because they have no rightful liberty to do otherwise. Wherever there was a lord (kurios) or a master (despotes), there was always a slave (doulos). One idea is essential to explain the other. That explains Jesus’ incredulity at the practice of those who paid homage to Him with their lips but not with their lives: “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46).

That Greek word doulos is used in Scripture to describe what it means to be a true Christian: “He who was called while free, is Christ’s slave [doulos]. You were bought with a price” (1 Cor. 7:22-23).

Doulos is not an ambiguous term. It suggests a very specific concept, which-while repugnant to our culture and our natural minds should not be toned down or backed away from. It is the main Greek word that was used to describe the lowest abject bondslave a person who was literally owned by a master who could legally force him to work without wages. In other words, a doulos was a person without standing or rights.

English Bibles tend to shield us from the full force of the word doulos because of an ages-old tendency among Bible translators to tone down the literal sense of the word-translating it as “servant,” or “bond servant” rather than “slave.”

But service and slavery are not really the same thing. A slave is someone who lacks personal freedom and personal rights-whose very existence is defined by service to another. This is total, unqualified submission to the control and the directives of a higher authority-slavery, not merely service at one’s own discretion.

For example, in Matthew 6:24, Jesus said, “No one can be a slave to two masters” (literal translation). That rendering is much stronger (and actually makes better sense) than what you will find in most versions: “No one can serve two masters.” An employee with two jobs could indeed serve two masters. But slavery—not merely service is what the word doulos and all its derivatives speak of.

The distinctive idea is ownership. We are not our own, for we have been bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:19-20). We have a Master who purchased us (2 Peter 2:1). To be specific, we were purchased for God with the precious blood of Christ (Rev. 5:9). This is the very essence of what it means to be a Christian: “For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Rom. 14:7-9).

Why Such a Revolting Concept?

In one sense, we can understand why Bible translators have tended to soften the implications of doulos. The word slavery conjures up so much negative imagery and so many strong passions that we instinctively shy away from it.

That’s not a modern development. Slavery was by no means a glamorous institution in first-century culture either. It was a fixture in Roman societies-perfectly legal, pervasive, and rarely challenged. Not all slaves were mistreated, but many were, and Roman-style slavery was notorious for its inability to curtail the terrible abuses that did occur. Slaves themselves, of course, had absolutely no control over whether they were well treated or oppressed. So even though slavery was widely regarded as a necessary component of the social and economic structure, the idea of being a slave was universally loathsome. No one wanted to be anyone’s doulos.

In that regard, Jesus’ portrayal of discipleship as slavery had no more appeal to the popular tastes or felt needs of His time than it does today. In fact, because most people in Jesus’ time were so familiar with real-life slavery, they had a much more vivid mental picture than we do of what Jesus was demanding when He called for absolute self-denial and surrender to His lordship. He was certainly not trying to appeal to a longing for self-esteem or make discipleship look enticing to the people of Galilee and Judea when He spoke about the cost of following Him. They understood far better than we do what a menial position He was calling them to. In fact, many people in the early church were slaves. That is why there are so many passages in the Epistles giving instructions about how slaves were to behave in order to reflect the character and holiness of Christ (Eph. 6:5-8; Col. 3:22; 1 Tim. 6:1-2; Titus 2:9-10; 1 Peter 2:18-20).

The Problem with a Feel-Good Gospel

The idea of the Christian as a slave and Christ as Master is almost totally missing from the vocabulary of contemporary evangelical Christianity. Not only is slave a bad word loaded with political incorrectness, but our generation also loves the concepts of freedom and personal fulfillment. People crave autonomy, and as the church has become increasingly worldly, the biblical truth of our duty to Him as our absolute Lord and Master has all but disappeared from the evangelical consciousness. The church in our generation has reduced all of saving faith and Christian discipleship to a thoughtless (but more politically correct) cliché: “a personal relationship with Jesus.” The ambiguity of the phrase reflects the destructive vagueness with which people have been handling (and mishandling) the gospel for the past several decades. As if Christ could be someone’s intimate friend without being that person’s Lord.

But as we shall shortly observe, His only true friends were those who did what He said (John 15:14).

Slavery to Christ is not a minor or secondary feature of true discipleship. This is not merely symbolic or illustrative language. It is exactly how Jesus Himself defined the “personal relationship” He must have with every true follower (John 12:26; 15:20). And that fact is stressed throughout the New Testament.

For example, the opening words of several New Testament epistles include their various authors’ confessions that they were but slaves of Christ (Rom. 1:1; Phil. 1:1; Titus 1:1; James 1:1; 2 Peter 1:1; Jude 1; Rev. 1:1). Every true disciple in the apostolic church understood this truth completely, because if all the apostles confessed that they were Jesus’ slaves, those under the apostles’ oversight certainly had to be slaves of Christ as well.

As a matter of fact, the fundamental aspects of slavery are the very features of our redemption that Scripture puts the most stress on. We are chosen (Eph. 1:4-5; 1 Peter 1:1; 2:9); bought (1 Cor. 6:20; 7:23); owned by our Master (Rom. 14:7-9; 1 Cor. 6:19; Titus 2:14); subject to the Master’s will and control over us (Acts 5:29; Rom. 6:16–19; Phil. 2:5-8); and totally dependent on the Master for everything in our lives (2 Cor. 9:8-11; Phil. 4:19). We will ultimately be called to account (Rom. 14:12); evaluated (2 Cor. 5:10); and either chastened or rewarded by Him (Heb. 12:5-11; 1 Cor. 3:14). Those are all essential components of slavery.

What Would Jesus Say?

Jesus Himself introduced the slave metaphor in the New Testament. He frequently drew a direct connection between slavery and discipleship. In Matthew 10:24, for example, he said, “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master.” He demanded that His followers deny themselves completely. He instructed them to be ready to die for Him. He called for them to relinquish all their normal priorities-including family, friends, personal plans, ambitions, and everything else in this world. Their whole lives were explicitly and irrevocably placed under His authority. His lordship was total and nonnegotiable. Those were His terms, and would-be disciples who tried to dictate different terms were always turned away (Luke 9:59–62).

Not Mere Slaves, but Slaves Who Are Friends

Perhaps the key passage on Jesus’ demand for implicit obedience is one we have already alluded to briefly-John 15:14-15: “You are My friends, if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.”

It is vital to understand that Jesus was not suggesting that obedience makes someone His friend as if His favor could be earned through service. He was saying, however, that obedience is a singular proof that someone is His friend. Implicit obedience to His commandments is the necessary, expected, and natural fruit of genuine love for Him. It is also therefore the telltale mark of authentic saving faith. Again, a necessary inference is that someone who does not do what Jesus says is not a friend of His at all. He was describing as clearly as possible a master-slave relationship.

Look at the context. Jesus clearly explains why He makes a differentiation between mere slaves and friends: “The slave does not know what his master is doing.” In other words, a slave’s obedience is implicit, unhesitating; and he is not owed any explanation or rationale from the Master. He is to obey whether he understands why or not.

But Jesus had kept nothing secret from His disciples. His purposes were fully known to them: “all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you” (v. 15). They were therefore much more than mere slaves to Him. They were His friends as well, privy to His thoughts and purposes (cf. 1 Cor. 2:16). In a similar way, every ruler would have friends among his subjects to whom he might reveal personal matters, but they were still his subjects.

Friendship with one’s lord or master does not nullify the authority inherent in the relationship. He was still their Lord, and they were still His douloi. In other words, as friends, they were not His “buddies” in the sense of being casual chums or peers with Him in the relationship. He remained their Lord and Master, and they belonged completely to Him. In other words, Jesus’ disciples-though friends, totally devoted to their Master in love—are still slaves, marked by their obedience.

Slavery and True Liberty

Understood correctly, then, the gospel is an invitation to slavery. When we call people to faith in Christ, we need to stress that fact in the same way Jesus did. On the one hand, the gospel is a proclamation of freedom to sin’s captives and liberty to people who are broken by the bondage of sin’s power over them. On the other hand, it is a summons to a whole different kind of slavery: “Having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness” (Rom. 6:18). As the apostle Peter wrote, “Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God” (1 Peter 2:16).

Both sides of the equation are vital. There is a glorious freedom in being the slaves of Christ, because “if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). On the other hand, being a true follower of Christ means the end of human autonomy.

No message can rightly be called the gospel if it glosses over or denies those truths. Jesus Himself called sinners to give up their independence, deny themselves, submit to an alien will, and abandon all rights in order to be owned and controlled by the Lord. By confessing Jesus as Lord (kurios), we automatically confess that we are His slaves (douloi).

There is also no legitimate way to adjust Jesus’ message to make it sound appealing to people who admire Him but are not prepared to obey Him.

As we work our way through some of the most important chapters of Jesus’ life, ministry, and public discourses, you will see that He consistently made His lordship a prominent theme. It is the unifying idea in the story of redemption, the song of the redeemed, and the reason for the gospel in the first place, “that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10-11).