SLAVE

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, …

Romans 1:1-4 (ESV)

SLAVE

Why does Paul see himself as a slave? The desire to be free is innately wired into every human alive. Freedom of thought, freedom of expression, and freedom to make life decisions are all natural inclinations of the human experience. No one was ever created to be enslaved but to enjoy the Creator and his creation. Enslavement began after the Fall in the garden when Eve and then Adam decided to doubt God instead of taking him at his word  (Gen. 3:15). God’s intent for his crown of creation was clearly the full expression of freewill, even the freedom to reject the Creator. Yet, even so, what the first couple did not understand is that freedom came with a price.

Scripture tells the reader that humans are unique in that they are fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps. 139:14). The fact that man is unique to all of creation, and has been given the capacity of complex reasoning, sets him (her) apart from all other creatures in the created order. Although we were meant to be free and not enslaved, we cannot escape the reality that we were designed and created by a superior and ultimate Being. Human design has limitations and requires a set of instructions to operate at optimal functionality. What this means is that true freedom will have strings attached.

Everything that we think and do will reflect who is controlling our lives. Humans were designed to communicate with their Creator, however, in order to exercise freewill, humanity had to be presented with options. Mankind was created to work with dignity and respect in congruence with the Creator and with each other. Nevertheless, the enemy of humanity has been hard at work to disrupt this harmony ever since humans were created. This is where enslavement came to be. Humans will either accept Yahweh as their guide to right living where true freedom is realized, or they will choose to be their own god and become a slave to the whims of the world.

Man’s Idea of Slavery

Slavery has serious negative connotations in the modern world and rightly so. Due to man’s sin nature, there has frequently been the propensity to want to rule over another human being. In essence, to take another individual’s freedom away from them by force, intimidation, deception, or coercion. History is filled with credible examples of slavery in the form of forced labor and psychological abuse. The Judeo-Christian Scriptures reveal how the Hebrews were enslaved and treated poorly while living in Egypt (Exod.5:15-17).  There are also instances, however, where people were allowed to work themselves out of a position of servitude. This is known as an indentured slave. This type of slavery at least gave hope to the individuals who found themselves in a position of servitude for their survival. They knew that they would eventually work their way to freedom.

People were never meant to be a cog in someone else’s wheel. They were meant to be allowed to express their God given creativity as part of the beautiful tapestry that God creates in human history and His interactions with us.

God’s Idea of Slavery vs. Man’s Idea of Slavery

 When Yahweh was forming the nation of Israel, the chosen leaders and the Hebrew people were expected to operate under God’s Law and direction. They were considered to belong to Yahweh and would be protected under his wings (Deut. 32:10-12). Jewish heritage frequently referred to Moses as Yahweh’s slave (2 Kings 18:12; Ps. 105: Mal. 4:4; Josephus Ant. 5.39). This title was not meant as a derogatory slur on Moses, it was seen as a position of honor. To be considered as the LORD’s slave there was a sense of pride in the Jewish nation who recognized the God of Israel as superior to all other gods, as they chose to live under the Law that He set forth and not that of the other nations and their gods. Take note. that this was a conscious choice by Moses and those who came after him, including those who follow the way of Christ today. It was not imposed by force.

Later in history, during Greek rulership and into the era of the Roman Empire, slavery was seen as undesirable and undignified. People had more freedom as the world became increasingly sophisticated. At that time in history, there was a sense of pride and dignity in being a freeman.[1] The distinction between slave and free eventually became deeply rooted in Roman society.[2] In fact, as the Roman Empire grew, they required more people to become citizens and incentivized the option to pay one’s way out of the position of slavery into the status of a freeman. Becoming a free person was a noble pursuit and encouraged people to become productive citizens who would contribute to Roman Rule through the payment of taxes.

Position of Honor

At this same time in history in the Middle East, however, servant language continued to have some positive overtones, if the individual was someone who worked for the king or an important person in the government it was seen as a position of honor.[3] Likewise, to be a servant of the God of Israel was also seen as a virtue. The more pious of the Jewish population still saw themselves as under Yahweh’s Law, which was referred to as the Law of Moses (Lk. 1:38). It is helpful to note that the New Testament is filled with servant language as Jesus was specifically seen as God’s chosen servant (Matt.12:15-21).

Considering these first-century views of servitude, it is not out of context that Paul would frequently claim the status of a bondservant (Gk. dulos) even though he is also a Roman citizen with status in the secular society (Acts 16:37-39) and amidst his peers in the Jewish Religion. The Greek term used many times by Paul connotes the status of one as property of another, a bondservant.  The focus of his self-introduction in Romans is meant to set the tone for the work that Jesus, the Son of God, had accomplished on the cross. The servant status shows devotion and dedication to Yahweh’s final Messiah. That is because Jesus’s work on the cross paid the debt that we could never pay to free us from permanent bondage to sin (Rom. 6:15-17).

Dulos, bond servant, was a title that represented the way that Paul viewed himself. He wore the title like a badge of honor, as it signaled to the world that he belonged to Yahweh. The language that Paul uses in Romans chapter one equates Jesus with Yahweh as he recognizes Jesus as the final Messiah promised to Israel.[4]  Paul clearly saw the connection between God’s intent to use the remnant of the nation of Israel to represent the Kingdom of God to the entire world (Exod. 19:5-7; 1Pet. 2:8-10). The world was filled with people following false gods and living in bondage to the patterns of the world around them (Rom 12:1-3), Paul’s was a message of freedom from the emptiness of chasing after false idols that dominated the secular realm as he offered the alternative of finding freedom in attaching oneself to the Creator of the universe as an ambassador for His Kingdom.

Two Choices

There are only two kingdoms in the world in which we all live. There is a kingdom controlled by the whims of mankind, of self-servitude, and bondage to sin, where Satan rules over the unsuspecting. Then, there is a kingdom of God, of self-control, and a willing bondage to the Creator of the universe. One kingdom leads to death of the soul and eternal torment, and the other leads to a soul that continues to flourish with the promise of eternal life and the fulfillment of which all of humanity were created to originally live.

All those who profess to be Christians should live as bond servants to the LORD, because the Christ paid the price for our freedom from demonic strongholds in this world. Strongholds that demand our attention while we live in the flesh (1 Cor. 6:11-13). These are strongholds that will eventually lead to death. Jesus, however, redeemed all who accept his rulership and understand that he saved humanity from eternal separation from their life source, the Creator.

Paul recognized and signaled to others that all who accept this gift of salvation have been spared from eternal torment because of the cross. God fully intends to finish the work that he started with His crown of creation and history clearly reveals his intervention with man.

We cannot serve two masters (Luke 16:13). Our choices matter on this earth.

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

Luke 16:13

[1] James D. G. Dunn, Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 38A, Romans 1-8, ed. Ralph P. Martin and Lynn Allan Losie (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1988), 8.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains Louw – Nida, https://ref.ly/logosres/louwnida?ref=LouwNida.87.76, accessed August 28, 2026.

[4]  Dunn, James D. G., Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 38A, Romans 1-8, 8.