Was the Apostle Paul Pro-Slavery?
Who was Paul?
Except for Jesus, the most influential figure in the initial growth of the Christian church was a tentmaker and Jewish official originally known as Saul of Tarsus. At first committed to persecuting followers of Jesus Christ, Saul of Tarsus would himself commit his life to following Jesus Christ.
According to the New Testament book of Acts, Saul underwent a divinely ordained name change to Paul, and became a prolific and fervent witness for the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. His efforts eclipsed those of the other apostles – so much so that the book of Acts, which begins as a history of the early church, quickly turns into a biography of Paul.
The apostle’s influence wasn’t confined to his missionary and church-building efforts. He began an extensive letter-writing campaign to 1st century A.D. congregations spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Many of these letters have been preserved and included in what we know as the New Testament – a body of literature Christians regard as divinely inspired Scripture.
The stakes then are high. Did Paul, speaking presumably under the inspiration of God, endorse slavery? If so, what does that say of the Bible, of Christianity, and of God?
Slavery in Paul’s Time
Paul’s missionary efforts and letters were largely directed to the Greco-Roman world, since he felt called to reach out to the “Gentiles” (those outside the Jewish race). Therefore, the part of the world Paul worked in was deeply immersed in Greek and Roman culture. And since the Romans borrowed and assimilated Hellenistic culture into their empire, Paul’s mission field was essentially a Greek one.
According to Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia, “Slavery was an essential component throughout the development of Ancient Greece. Most of the ancients considered it not only essential, but quite natural: neither the Stoics nor Early Christians called the practice into question.”
Slavery was such a common part of everyday life in the Greco-Roman world of the 1st century A.D. that few questioned it. As Wikipedia points out: “No author of antiquity calls the existence of slavery into question; at most they admit that certain slaves may have been unjustly enslaved.”
It was such a part of everyday life that Paul refers to it several times as a metaphor or example to show how believers should relate with God. For example, when commenting on the freedom people often claim in the face of God’s grace, Paul asks:
What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? (Romans 6:15-16, KJV)
In other words, by choosing to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord, you are “yielding yourself” as a “servant to obey” Jesus as your new Master. So, in a sense, Paul is endorsing slavery. Christians are to be as slaves to God.
Many of the other apostles pick up this same theme, often referring to themselves as slaves or servants. It was an analogy to which everyone in the 1st century could relate.
Paul on Slavery
Nevertheless, what does it say for Paul’s honor and nobility as well as his credibility as an apostle that he spoke so approvingly of the institution, even when a human context was clear? Should not an apostle of God take the time to condemn slavery, even if he does choose to use it as a spiritual metaphor?
Paul, however, makes no effort to condemn the institution of slavery. On the contrary, he urges followers of Christ to work around it and within it. To Timothy, he writes: “Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.” (I Timothy 6:1, KJV). In other words, Christian slaves need to honor their masters, so they can bring credit to Jesus in their testimony.
In a letter to Titus, another of his protÃ?©gÃ?©s, Paul tells him to “exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things.” (Titus 2:9, KJV)
However, Paul’s telling servants to obey and honor their masters is not necessarily the same as telling masters to go out and buy more slaves. It most certainly doesn’t constitute an endorsement of pre-American Civil War slavery of the 18th and 19th centuries or the human trafficking taking place today in Sudan. It is simply ludicrous to hold Paul responsible for the many types and manifestations of slavery that followed the writing of his letters by hundreds, even thousands of years.
Paul’s Greater Cause
Nevertheless, even if one interprets Paul as endorsing slavery in general terms, such a person is missing the larger point of Paul’s message.
For one thing, it’s often overlooked that Paul did exhort masters to treat their servants kindly (Colossians 4:1, Philemon).
More importantly, though, the theme of the New Testament is that Jesus transcends everything. Compared to Christ, nothing else is critical. The writer of Hebrews (who remained anonymous, but many suspected was Paul) reminds Christians that they are “pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13).
According to Paul, Christians should not get too comfortable with this earth. We aren’t going to be here for long. Peter echoes this same theme, calling followers of Christ “pilgrims and strangers.” (I Peter 2:11)
Since Christians are to be “slaves to God” (Romans 6:22) and to consider themselves as “pilgrims” passing through (Hebrews 11:13 and I Peter 2:11), they should not become focused or obsessed with fighting for social and economic equality while on this earth, but rather should focus on proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
This is a very hard principle for 21st century people to reconcile with. We see the world around us and all its injustice – and we want to fix it. We want to right the wrongs. And we have the stirring example of great men like Abraham Lincoln, Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. showing us the way.
But the apostles would maintain that evil and suffering are a part of this world. These things will always be a part of this fallen world. If we become so preoccupied in righting the wrongs in this world, we lose sight of the next one.
This world we live in now is a fallen one. There has been pain, evil, and suffering from the very beginning. And it will continue until the end. Jesus Christ Himself said as much. Referring to the poor and downtrodden in particular, Jesus said that “you would have the poor with you always” (Mark 14:7). While He certainly encouraged His followers to help the poor – in fact, He did this repeatedly – He wanted them to realize that poverty and want are realities in this present world.
Christians don’t escape these unpleasant realities. It’s bad for both followers of God as well as those who reject Him. After all, the writer of Hebrews tells us that the great heroes of the faith suffered everything from “cruel mockings and scourgings” to “bonds” (that’s slavery) and “imprisonment.” Some were “stoned,” others were sawed in half or killed by the sword. (Hebrews 11:36-37) Being a follower of God didn’t always mean a rosy life. Many devout followers of God suffered great evil and cruelty, and the Bible doesn’t hide this fact.
If one accepts the central truth of the Bible, that person can’t escape the fact that God subjected His own Son (a part of Himself – even you embrace the Trinitarian doctrine) to great suffering.
So, it is true that Paul didn’t invest time and effort in crusading against slavery, a practice deeply entrenched in the Greco-Roman world. Given the fact that Paul himself was almost stoned to death, chained frequently in dungeons, and beat repeatedly, it’s not that he was unsympathetic to those who suffered at the hands of others. He simply had a greater cause in mind – one that transcended everything else.
The only way a person can really understand the Bible’s stance on slavery is to understand the Bible’s stance on the cause of Christ – a cause greater than slavery, war, hunger, evil, and suffering and one that will ultimately right all the wrongs and to which ultimately every knee will bow.
