Catchy title, no? I haven’t been blogging much lately because I’ve been preparing posts for over the summer when I’m gone and I’ve also been a bit busy!
I’ve been thinking about slavery a lot lately. My thinking has been prompted by reading the following verses:
“Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:16-23
I’ve been thinking: a slave has no choice of whether or not to obey. A slave MUST obey his master no matter what. We have been bought with a price and do not belong to ourselves. We belong to Christ. Recently, when there have been times when I’ve been tempted to sin, I think of these verses and say to myself, “A slave has no choice; he must obey.” It’s been such a help and reminder to me to be holy and righteous to think of myself as a slave!
Of course, there are rich rewards to this kind of slavery: the gift of eternal life with God!
Scribblings of a Sojourner 