Let's try this again. Slavery is in the news again, mainly because of curriculum in Florida prompting critics to allege excuses. or will allege that it excuses racism and slavery and bigotry and all the rest. For instance, in Jacksonville, Florida, Vice President Pamela Harris visited and claimed that the curriculum teaches middle school students that enslaved people benefited from slavery. And that is a claim that one CNN panelist called fabricated. Christian commentator Samuel Say, who is someone I would recommend to you, he's a very good commentator, pointed out the controversial section of the curriculum and wrote that this shouldn't be controversial at all. If you read the entire curriculum fairly, you'll see that it's actually a great overview of the history of black Americans. including how slavery shaped the kind of jobs black Americans had when slavery was abolished. You can't analyze the jobs black Americans had during Reconstruction without explaining that the kinds of jobs that they had were because of the kinds of skills they developed through slavery. And of course that is correct. I present this recent news not for the commentary, bless you, but because it is evidence that slavery is still very much a controversial issue here in America. It's filled with a lot of emotion, and it seems that if anyone provides some nuance to the issue, They are called a white supremacist, a racist, etc. If someone tries to ignore it, they are likewise accused of promoting systemic racism and a culture of hatred, etc. I say these things because I hope that you guys are not part of that crowd that would just have such knee-jerk reactions anytime someone brings something up. Now considering that there have been abuses to texts like this one slaves be obedient Scripture gets swept into these accusations The reader comes to this point says wait a minute slaves Well, yes, that is the word. That's the translation of the Greek word doulos. And that is an accurate translation. It's slaves, not bond servants. That's not a good translation, but rather slaves is the best translation. And the Bible, yes, seems to permit slavery. And that's hard for a lot of folks to swallow, and they understandably have an issue with this. This fact has been a sore spot for many British and American readers for generations. In fact, we see within the pages of Scripture, an even more shocking truth, Christians participated in the institution of slavery. And that's evident here. In fact, as evidenced in this very passage, both slaves and their masters coexisted within the Christian Church. How could that be? Now, we are bringing with questions like that our very American understanding of what slavery is. Before we get to understanding what slavery in the Bible was like, we need to back up and remember where we are in this part of the book. The first half of Ephesians, remember, is focused on the gospel, and it divides very neatly chapters 1 through 3. It's focused on the gospel. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 are focused on the more practical matters of life. And as we get into that, we see that the practical matters are informed by the theological matters. The gospel drives the practice of the Christian life. You can't understand how to walk a worthy walk, Ephesians 4, unless you understand Ephesians 1, 2, and 3 first. It has to start with the gospel. It has to start with the theology there. And when we get to places like that key verse in chapter 5 verse 18, do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation of being filled with the Spirit, that starts with the gospel. You don't have the Holy Spirit if you don't have the gospel. And so everything is being driven by the gospel and it starts there and then we get to the imperative It starts with the indicative of the gospel the statement of the gospel that that Jesus died for our sins and that Jesus is Has risen for new life for us and then we get to the to the imperative. Okay, you receive the Holy Spirit so now Be filled, be filled with the Holy Spirit. And as we understand the implications of being filled with the Spirit, we see in verse 19, starting with those participles, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making melody in your with your heart to the Lord always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and being Which that should be translated and being subject to one another in the fear of Christ So we said that those are the necessary consequences of being filled with the Spirit if you're filled with the Spirit then you have genuine spirit effects inside of the whole church. And then you also have spirit effects within our households as well. Husbands and wives, verses 22 through 33, we talked about husbands and wives who are filled with the spirit and how that affects marriages. Last time we talked about how being filled with the spirit and being in subjection to one another affects the parent-child relationship. And we saw that in verses 1 through 4 here of Ephesians 6. And then we get to verse five here, and really verses five through nine. And we can see how this being in subjection also is an aspect of being filled with the Spirit, not just on the part of slaves, but also on the part of masters as well. And we'll talk about that. But before we get there and talk about what we mean by all of that, a lot of people shut down at this point. They're like, wait a minute. No, I guess I'm sorry. I can't get past the first word of verse 5 slaves. I Just can't get past that first word. They're slaves and a lot of folks just cannot or will not hear the good news of the gospel because they're so troubled to see slavery in the Bible Okay, I can understand struggling with understanding how a loving God would allow any kind of slavery. But what we're gonna see tonight, hopefully, is that there are different kinds of slavery out there. The American context of slavery is not the only context of slavery. So we have to answer some key questions as we think through this, and before we go any further with this text, because we have to understand what kind of slavery is the Bible addressing, and what is the context of the Bible? The Bible doesn't know of the United States of America, or the American colonies, I should say, or the British Empire at the time, or the transatlantic slave trade. It doesn't know about any of these things. It is speaking from a different worldview at that time. And so as we consider what slavery is, We're going to narrow this down to three questions, which I hope will help you think through this issue, and which will serve as an outline for us tonight. Why and where did slavery exist? Why and where did slavery exist? What stipulations did the Bible place on slavery? And why did God allow slavery to continue? Hopefully delve into those three questions. I know these questions may spark more questions, but hopefully this will give us a basic framework for thinking biblically about this issue. And so let's consider the first of these. Why and where did slavery exist? One of the difficulties we're faced with in understanding this is that we are studying the ancient world, not our world. So we have to leave our personal history behind for a few minutes. We'll get back to our history, we'll talk about what we learn in light of our history, but in any point of Biblical history, we have to leave behind our own experiences and get down into the text and see the experiences of the text. We cannot understand it through our own lenses. We have to understand what is the world of Scripture. What was the world that the author wrote to? What was the audience that the author was writing to? We have to understand these kinds of things, and we have to understand it with slavery as well. We're not talking about the American context, we're talking about the ancient world. This means that we have to put aside our more recent history on the matter. And as we do that, we're looking at a version of slavery which, again, was not ideal, obviously was not ideal, but it was also quite different than what we are used to seeing. First, slavery existed for many reasons. It's true that many were unwilling participants in slavery. Obviously, many were unwilling participants in slavery. as an institution. It's further the case that many abuses occurred there. The Romans enslaved the peoples that they conquered, for instance. They enslaved abandoned children And sometimes abuse was rampant with those children who were involved there. By the way, slavery has not ended in the United States or in the Western world. Slavery still exists. And unless we acknowledge the fact that there is real slavery, child trafficking, we're not going to be able to stop it. We have to recognize that first and foremost, but that's a topic perhaps for another day. Even while there were unwilling participants in slavery, there were also willing participants. in slavery. Really? Well, yes. Yes. Because it created a legal relationship which provided opportunities which would not otherwise exist for people. What do I mean? Well, for instance, I'll just give you an example here. There were many well-educated people who willingly chose to get into slavery and contribute to their households and to societies in general, by their choice to enter slavery. Like a trained physician, for instance. It's not like you just went to the local hospital. There weren't local hospitals, necessarily. But you could, as a trained physician, join on a household, perhaps a large household with a large family, a household that might have several properties, a household that might have many slaves on it, and you say, okay, this is actually a good opportunity for me because I now have guaranteed employment. There are going to be needs for my services. As people are out there plowing, they're going to get hurt. As people are doing karate, they're going to get hurt. And there are going to be needs for my services as a physician. Slave owners likewise sought such people out. And they might have sought out artisans. They might have sought out teachers for their children. And so there is a symbiotic relationship that was happening. People who were those starving artists, for instance, they had opportunities now. If they could get on with a household and produce things for a household and perhaps teach children, that were there. They had room and board. This isn't something where, you know, there's just a slave shack in the back and, you know, everyone was just shoved back there and you kind of had to fend for yourself. Nope, they got room and board because there was a sense of competition. Yes, once a person was a slave, you're bound to that household. but you wanted to attract more slaves. There was a sense of competition with this. And so many slaves engaged in this willingly. And interestingly enough, many slaves owned slaves of their own to make sure that they were able to fulfill the services that their masters required. Now, all of this conflicts with our cultural understanding of slavery. Because we approach slavery as something as, well, we approach slavery understanding as slaves were a subjugated class. But this wasn't the truth in the ancient world. They were educated, once again. If you mute that, that'll stop back there. Many were educated. They were well compensated for their services. In fact, an inherent paternalism pervaded the practice where enterprising slaves could gain prestige and position through their masters as if their masters were their fathers. And so they would even take on the names of their masters. And you can even see this sometimes with the cemeteries, with the grave markers that were there. Even when slaves were manumitted or set free, they continued to carry the name of the households in which they had served previously. Slavery then was a social ladder for many people in ancient cultures. And when slaves believed the time was right, they could seek to become freemen. And the Bible even gives a little nod to that. In 1 Corinthians 7, 21 and 22, it talks about the fact that there are some who are slaves and that's fine. They can remain slaves, but if you can pursue freedom, go ahead and do that. But understand that if you're a slave, you're a free man in Christ. And if you're a free man, you are a slave to Christ. And so understand that there is a greater master above all. And we're going to talk about that next week in more detail. such the number of slaves far outpace anything we could know in the modern world. One commentary notes this. I don't have that on the screen, but I'll read it to you. It is noted, for instance, about Corinth, that at the peak of its power and influence, the city probably had a free population of 200,000, in addition to half a million slaves in its navy and in its many colonies. Across the Roman Empire, slaves numbered in the millions. Now, I'm not saying any of this to idolize a system. Because again, there were abuses that happened, and we don't want to say that that is a good thing to mimic. There were damages to human dignity which were happening. There were unwilling participants in this. I'm not saying that slavery is something that we need to bring back. I don't support that. But we should seek to understand that it existed in the ancient world, both in the biblical world as well as in the pagan world, and it existed because it provided opportunities for employment. Yeah, but those aren't good opportunities for employment. Perhaps not compared to some of the opportunities we have today. Although I do find it funny that a lot of younger people today refer to employment as slavery. Oh, I've got to go to work. I've got to be there at a certain time. And I've got to punch a clock and I have to do this work. And then I have to come home and then do it again in order to pay a mortgage and Pay for the lights and to pay for the food that I eat and all this that's slavery is People still consider work slavery today, so I'm not so sure what people are expecting today But there there has always existed slavery in the world And as I said, it continues to exist today. And because of the certain opportunities that it provided, it's probably why people like Thomas Sowell have often pointed out that slavery has existed everywhere in the world, including the biblical world. And it has. In fact, as we consider all of that, that's why we don't reject Christian authors who own slaves. There are those who want to do that, who want to cancel certain towering figures like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield on the simple basis that they participated in slavery. You know, it's not that simple. Christians came to this with a certain understanding. For instance, according to one biographer of Edwards, blacks were allowed full membership in Jonathan Edwards' church. This is in the early 1700s. And he spoke against the slave trade as an institution. Whitfield advocated for the opening of orphanages. And some say, yeah, but he brought slavery to Georgia. Georgia actually did not have slavery before Whitfield. That's true. And I'm not saying that what he did was right, necessarily. But what he argued for was the education of slaves the evangelization of slaves, and the eventual freeing of slaves. And by the way, he also opposed the slave trade. He didn't think it was right to go to Africa and take people and bring them here. And so there is some nuance there to their positions. And I'm not saying that they held the ideal position. The best of men are men at best, right? You know, our idols have feet of clay, right? And we have to understand that. We have to realize, yes, they had things that would disappoint us or held to positions that would disappoint us. But their positions also showed a particular nuance which was not present in the rest of the world around them. They held ideals which would have been considered progressive at the time. Wait, you allow blacks to just be members of your church? What? Other people didn't allow that. And so we have to understand where they had biblical views, where they were drawing biblical inspiration. And that did affect their view of slavery. Why is it that they argued against the slave trade? Because they understood that the Bible put certain stipulations in place. Why is it that they argued against the harsh treatment of slaves? Because they understood that the Bible had certain stipulations in place. And that brings us to the next point. What stipulations did the Bible place on slavery? Scripture did permit the practice of slavery in Israel in God's holy nation. However, His word created laws unlike laws anywhere else in the world at the time. Certain protections there. Whereas other nations in the millennia before Christ treated slaves as animals, God's people treated them with a certain sense of human worth. Well, what do I mean for instance first God forbade the practice of man-stealing Man-stealing is a term in the King James. I just love it. I think it's the perfect term here Of course in some translations, it's kidnapping But the idea of man-stealing perfectly captures, forgive the pun, the idea of what is happening in much of the slave trade, right? You're taking a person, a full-grown person, and you're stealing them. You're taking them from their homes. God actually commanded the death penalty both for the individual who stole the person and the individual who bought the person if You were found in possession of someone who had been stolen from his land You were also put to death as well as a person who went and stole him and that's Old Testament for those who think that there's no grace in the Old Testament law Exodus 21 16 he who kidnaps a man whether he sells him or he is found in his possession shall surely be put to death And of course, in the New Testament, we see this as well. In 1 Timothy 1.10, that he made the law, that God made the law for such lawless individuals as those who would engage in kidnapping or man stealing. Of course, we could apply this to child trafficking or to female trafficking or to anything else. Of course, we're not just talking about men. We are talking about all manner of the taking of individuals. Why? Because that lowers human worth. And if you take a man, for instance, from a tribe in Africa, that man was probably out hunting for his family. Now you've not only taken that man from his family, you've condemned the family to death or to any number of dangers if there's no one else to take care of them. So this point alone condemns much of the slave trade that happened both in the ancient world as well as in the transatlantic slave trade. God forbade the practice of man stealing. Second, the Lord commanded the personal well-being of slaves. Really, he commanded the personal well-being of slaves. For instance, he says if masters of slaves injured their slaves, the masters must then set them free. What kind of injuries are we talking about? He says in Exodus 21 26 and 27 if a man strikes the eye of his male or female slave and Destroys it He shall let him go free on the account of his eye and if he knocks out a tooth of his male or female slave he shall let him go and free on the account of his tooth. You injure a slave, let's say that slave is there working off a debt to you, you need to now consider that debt paid. That slave is now free. There's no justification for a master in Israel to mistreat his slaves. In fact, he would be commanded by God under the law to set such a one free. And in doing this, the Lord guarded the unfortunate souls who were being mistreated by sinful masters. We can imagine how the Lord's words would have transformed slavery here in America. There are a lot of times when slaves were mistreated here. Sometimes it was done against the law Sometimes it wasn't sometimes it was they tried to keep it under the radar But this this is a protection that the Lord has given as well as what we read next here the Lord commanded the protection of escaped slaves He commanded the protection of escaped slaves and The Lord says you shall not hand over to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you. He shall live with you in your midst in the place which he shall choose in one of your towns where it pleases him. You shall not mistreat him. You don't return the escaped slave. Why might a slave escape from a master? is he's being mistreated, right? I had to get away. He's hurting us, he's killing us. All right, stay with me. And it was that simple. It was that simple. And we had a case like that here in America and the Supreme Court handed down that dreadful proclamation about Dred Scott, right? Lord was there protecting people who escaped. Think about the Apostle Paul, when Onesimus came to him, and he knew that he had fled from Philemon. What did Paul do? Oh, now wait a minute, you're an escaped slave, you need to go back. Here, I'm calling the Roman guards so that they can take you away, take you back to your master. No, he let him stay with him. Now in the case of Onesimus, I think there was some evidence that he had actually stolen. And that's why he escaped. He had stolen some money and he was getting away because of that. But then through Paul, he became a Christian and decided he wanted to repent. And then he of his own volition returned to Philemon. And that's when Paul wrote Philemon that letter. A lot of folks do not like the letter to Philemon because it seems to allow for slavery. But really, there's a deeper message going on there if we understand what the Bible has to say about slavery. The Lord commanded the protection of escaped slaves. It appears even if they escaped for the wrong reasons. Because it's better to protect them. Fourth, the Lord protected slaves against generational servitude The Lord protected slaves against generational servitude on the year of Jubilee the Lord said That the children of Israel were to set free slaves and to forgive debts He commanded in Leviticus 25 10 You shall thus consecrate the 50th year and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you. And each of you shall return to his own property and each of you shall return to his family. You know, human nature would demand that if you had a slave because he owed a debt to you, that you would keep him and you would squeeze every red scent out of him, right? That would be human nature, sinful human nature. But no, the Lord doesn't allow that. He says, even if it is a debt so great that it would take generations of slaves to pay it back, On the 50th year, that man, that woman, they go free. And they go back home with their debt forgiven. It's a year of jubilee. It's interesting. I was teaching this in the jail. And I did teach this in the jail. I stopped at this point and asked if the year of jubilee was a set date on the calendar. And it was. I said yes. And the person asked me, well, what would happen if someone borrowed just one month before the celebration of Jubilee? And I responded, well, the person would still be forgiven because it didn't matter how old or how young the debt was, it was still forgiven on the year of Jubilee. And I said, this is a picture of undeserved grace that is extended to all of us in the gospel. Our debts are paid. We may owe a lot more than we can pay off, but the Lord forgives them. And we are to do the same. I continue to say that we have a great debt before God, and some are greater and older than others, but everyone trusting in Christ finds the jubilee that Jesus Christ remits all of those debts in the cross. Another inmate at that point responded that the gospel is good, but he wouldn't be caught lending money right before the year jubilee. I said, okay, I understand that. But of course, as we consider the gospel, many would say, okay, yeah, I understand that God was providing protections here, but how is it that a good God is allowing this? How is it that God is allowing slavery to exist? That brings us to our third question for the evening, our final question. Why did God allow slavery to continue? Well, to put this simply, We don't know. We don't know why God allowed it to continue rather than saying it needs to stop. There are a lot of theories out there. One is that God doesn't want us necessarily to be revolutionaries and to create anarchy. And the Christian message going out and saying, OK, all the slaves are free now would have created anarchy in the ancient world. That certainly would not have been an optimal position to be in, and it would have painted Christians as enemies of the state for all the wrong reasons. But the Lord does grant us some truths in scripture which will help us to understand this a little bit more, and of course that may be a possibility. But here are three points I think that we should consider when considering this question. First, the kind of slavery practiced by believers served as a polemic or an apologetic against the unbelieving world. It was unlike what other people practiced when they practiced slavery. When we're considering the pagan world surrounding the Old Testament, or even in the New Testament era, there were cultures that treated their slaves very differently than God prescribed, very poorly in fact. As one study notes, slaves were considered mere property and could be abused and even killed by their masters with no resulting investigation by the state. In the church, wealthy slave owners and their slaves broke bread together at the Lord's table as equals. No doubt some slaves were gifted spiritual leaders and ministered the word to people far above them on the social ladder. And if I'm not mistaken, history records that Onesimus became an overseer, an elder at the church there with Philemon. And so whereas Philemon was the master of the slave, Onesimus went into the church and he then served as the elder of the church. The elder overseeing Philemon. Now, you're not gonna see a situation like that in a pagan context. in the Christian context that makes sense. There are different spheres of authority and you can have a spiritual leader in one sphere and you can have a civil authority in another sphere. We can understand that in Christ, but you can't understand that within a pagan world, within a pagan concept. Such a situation the kind of slavery that Christians practiced, actually helped to spread the Christian message. The slaves saw that the Christian masters were actually good and beneficial. They wanted to be yoked up to Christian masters. Many pagans mocked the idea of the biblical social structure that God had created, but others converted because they saw the God of Scripture providing answers to the human condition that no one else did. And this was something that even pagan masters started to see, hey, this is actually a better way. Other elites would see the same thing. And this helps people. They saw the vapid nature of their own false religions and how it had resulted in the societal decay that was around them. And they saw that the Christian message was one of hope for them and for society at large. And so it helped people, both slave and free, to consider their own position before God. And that actually brings us to the next point. Slavery pictures the bondage that we all share in sin. This is a picture that God uses over and over again. And again, sometimes, as John MacArthur has pointed out in his book, Slave, our Bible translations shield us from this. It talks about bond servants. The word doulos means slave. And it's not just talking about service like like oh, I'm just someone who does service to someone else No, it means I am a I am a slave of that person Well, guess what? We are slaves of sin. We have to recognize that we've already seen this in the book of Ephesians Ephesians 2 1 you are dead in your trespasses and sins scripture says We are children of wrath, even as the rest, Ephesians 1, 2, 3 says. To put it another way the people of the flesh are in bondage to their sin both Romans 7 14 and Galatians 4 3 makes this point that people are in bondage to Their sin you think you're free But you're not you think you're your own person with free will who's exercising your life as you want it Invictus right I'm the captain of my own soul Nope You are in bondage to your sin Your passions your lusts they drive you and you can't escape them Just as false teachers are slaves of corruption 2nd Peter 2 19, right Now what do we see in Christ 1st Peter 1 Verses 18 and 19 describes a reality that Christ redeems us. What is redemption? That is a slave market term where a slave is purchased by someone for a price. The price, in this case, is the blood of Christ. It's not silver. It's not gold. It's the precious blood of the Savior. He has bought us from the slave market of sin, and now we are slaves not to sin, but to Christ. That's the picture that's given to us. We have to see that within the aspect of slavery. Slavery does give us a picture of all this, that there is something better in Christ, that we can be set free from the slavery of sin, and that it is, slavery is, an essential image of discipleship. It is an essential image of discipleship. Christians are those who are purchased by God, as we've already noted. In this text in Ephesians, a text which we're obviously not really digging into tonight, and Lord willing, we will tomorrow, or not tomorrow, tomorrow in my pastoral schedule, which is next Sunday, we will dig into this, Lord willing. What do we see in verse six of this? Oh, we see that we are slaves of Christ Whoo slaves of Christ If you thought that the word slave being in the Bible was a problem I've gotten objections to that. How can you say slaves of Christ? I Well, that's what the Bible describes. Yeah, but I don't want to be thought of as a slave of any man. Well, I understand that. I don't want to be thought of as a slave of any man either. The truth is, I'm a slave of sin if I'm not in Christ. But if I'm in Christ, I've been purchased by Christ from the slave market of sin, and therefore, definitionally, I'm a slave of Christ. At least in Christ, I have freedom from sin. Because sin is a much harsher taskmaster. In another place, it talks about being a slave of Satan. No, no, no. I would much rather be a slave of Christ. He's a much better master. We've already noted that in places like Philippians 1.1. Paul calls himself a doulos, a slave of Christ. Oh, wow. And he calls other Christians, like Epaphras, and the elders within the church in Colossians 4, 12, 2 Timothy 2, 24, slaves of Christ. The concept of slavery helps us understand the kind of submission that we should have to our Lord and Master. We should be practicing this kind of submission to our Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, after all, we call him Lord. In fact, we find in Christ our example. Philippians 2 verses 1 through 11 describes the fact that he did not see the kind of glory he had as something to be held on to, but he took on the form of a doulos, the form of a slave. And then He goes on and says that we should have the same mind as Christ. I've heard about the collar that a lot of ministers wear. This is not an advocation for the collar, but it is an interesting idea. The reason why a lot of pastors wear the collar, you know, is because it's a reminder that they are slaves to their congregation. They wear the slave collar for the congregation. That's an interesting thought. Some people would say, oh no, I don't like that thought. I want to be free. Maybe you shouldn't be a pastor then, if you want to be free from that. But I would say that's something that, a thought that we should all share. We should all see others as more important than ourselves. We're slaves one to another. That doesn't mean he calls us to be slaves of men just for the sake of man-pleasing, or even in the case of literally, you know, I need to now become someone's indentured servant. No, he's not necessarily calling us to that. If you're already free, don't seek to go into bondage, 1 Corinthians 7.23. But we are to see ourselves as first loving the Lord through our obedience to him and second loving our neighbors through our service to them. And in that order, understanding this, we will begin to grasp that we are bought with a price by the Lord and that he is transforming us and he's transforming our wills. This is discipleship. This is Christian discipleship. Now, of course, slavery isn't the only picture in the New Testament of the new believer. To further compare our discipleship to the institution of slavery, a master would sometimes manumit or set free his slave by adopting the slave as a son. And guess what, we are also described in scripture as adopted sons and daughters of the Most High. So we're not just slaves, we are adopted children. And in scripture, we read, therefore, you're no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir through God, Galatians 4, 7. And so slavery is not the only picture we see. We also see the doctrine of sonship, of adoption. We're brought in. So our Lord is a benevolent master who loves and cares for us so much that he wants us to become his children. And we are that. We who trust in Christ are that. The concept of slavery is still, it transforms our personal walk with the Lord. It helps us to see things. Sometimes the Bible gives us one image because we need to have that thought in mind. There are certain people who are just kind of out there. They, you know, like children sometimes. We wander around, right? And we need to learn some discipline. Sometimes we need to hear. that we are slaves. But then at other times, we're feeling beaten down. We're feeling a lack of love. We need to understand we're not just slaves. We're no longer slaves. In fact, we are sons and daughters of the king. And that helps us as well. In Philemon 16, Paul urged Philemon to accept his slave Onesimus back. but, quote, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother. Slavery to Christ ultimately leads all believers of all stripes together in the affirmation of texts like Galatians 3 28 Which says there is neither Jew nor Greek there is neither slave nor free man There is neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus And I hope that those are the kinds of thoughts that you need to see as we get into verses five through nine here of Ephesians 6. We will see that there is a blessedness in these verses for those who are in slavery. And I would say there's an application today for those who are in positions of employment, but we will get into that next week again, Lord willing. As we read Ephesians 6 and other passages on slavery, it's vital that we understand them in the correct historical context. Ours is not the correct historical context because we violated all of the principles that God laid out. We violated all of the stipulations. Those who engaged in slavery and did so unrepentantly, they violated all these principles. We have to understand that God had a different way. But perhaps the question that lingers is this, what about the transatlantic slave trade? What about American history? I hope you'll see that God would condemn it. God would condemn it. And God did condemn it. Because in his providence, a whole civil war was fought. Not just on the issue of slavery, but largely on that issue. And I would say there was an answer given. A clear answer that rang out. It's wrong. And it had to stop. It had to stop. Not everyone had the best intentions at heart. Not everyone had the correct thinking that they needed in the moment. But the Lord and his providence brought an end to an evil institution. And I hope he continues that process and brings an end to other evil institutions which are happening today. Not just child trafficking, not just human trafficking, but also abortion and other things which are claiming far more lives. than colonial slavery ever did. We've seen scripture's answer to this. God's word forbade kidnapping. It protected human dignity and well-being. It protected runaway slaves. It condemned generational servitude. Point by point, the Lord condemns what we've seen in our more recent history, and the slavery he allowed was far, far different. Now, of course, there are still many who are troubled by the existence of slavery in Scripture. and also in Christian circles. Christians, too, perhaps are living north and south of the Mason-Dixon line. They have dealt with it in varying degrees of biblical consistency. That's a topic for another day, but even so, it's worth noting that the only culture which abolished slavery was a culture that was informed by biblical truth. It wasn't a pagan culture. It wasn't an atheist society. It was a biblically informed culture. And yes, some Christians were somewhat inconsistent in their application, although they did call for better practices, for reforms in slavery, things which were considered progressive at the time. Maybe it wasn't going far enough. Then you had Christians who argued for his absolute abolition. Men like John Wesley, men like William Wilberforce, men like John Newton. They called for the abolition of slavery because they saw the evils up close of slavery and they said it's got to stop. Even when we consider certain cultural forces, like the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, we are considering forces which were making an argument which was fundamentally Christian. It was a Christian society which ended slavery. And so we have to understand that when we are looking at the Bible, we are seeing in scripture a message that does lead to human freedom and human flourishing. It doesn't lead to oppression, it leads away from it. That's the message of Christ. That's the message we proclaim. The historical legacy is that God used his people to bring a wicked practice to an end. And praise God for that.