Sticking Up for Paul: Part 3

In the last two posts, I’ve discussed two major complaints about the Apostle Paul:his seeming arrogance and his disempowerment of women in church leadership. In this post, I want to address the final of the big three: Paul’s words about slavery.

The Household Codes appear in Paul’s letters to the Ephesians, Colossians, and Titus. They all instruct slaves to be obedient to their masters. These texts describe the suffering of slavery as an opportunity for slaves to prove their imitation of Christ. These texts consider slavery in the Greco-Roman world to be an unchangeable aspect of human society.In fact, Titus 2:13 describes this reality of slavery as what happens “while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior.” In other words, slavery is part of the world awaiting full redemption.  

When we look at how Paul ultimately considers the issue of slavery theologically, it has no place in the future ofGod’s people. In both the letter to the Galatians and to the Colossians, Paul writes, “You have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!” (Col 3:10-11; Gal 3:27-28)   

Those opposing and exclusive designations—slave and free—are the world’s doing, not God’s. So, whilePaul concedes that slavery is a reality of life in the Roman Empire that must be navigated by people in the church, when Paul describes a world according toGod’s design—that which is fully “in Christ”—he does not see some people being free and others being slaves.

Finally,Paul writes an entire letter solely concerned with the relationship between a slave and master within the context of the church body: the little letter toPhilemon. Paul (along with Timothy, his cowriter) writes to Philemon who owns a runaway slave named Onesimus. Onesimus ran away to Paul and has been with Paul while he is in jail.

Paul uses a blend of language: straightforward and subtle, intimate and public. On the one hand, he writes that Philemon has the chance to voluntarily do a “good deed” (v. 14). But Paul has also referred to his request for Onesimus’s freedom as Philemon’s “duty” that demands obedience (v. 8). One Christian freeing a fellow Christian is not therefore a nice option, but a Christian responsibility. In other words, there is clearly one right decision to be made:to free Onesimus.

Moreover, the letter to Philemon isn’t just to Philemon! It is addressed: “ToPhilemon our dear friend and co-worker, to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house” (v.1-2). The fate of Onesimus and his relationship to Philemon is not considered a private matter of property but a theological matter that concerns the church. And there is only one outcome the church should even consider.

As you can see, and as with the other complaints about the apostle, the real offense of Paul is in how we read him. If you read him thoroughly and with an eye on his ultimate goal—the unity of the church and its faithful witness to the gospel—you can discern edification and encouragement. If we read him to determine who we can exclude or exploit—definitely the opposite of Paul’s goal for the church—we can weaponize the text for just that purpose.

The aim of this series of posts is to invite us to discern what we have heard aboutPaul from what we’ve heard from him. Read through the Pauline letters, each one from the beginning and all the way through. Listen for the passionate desire for unity and faithfulness that lies underneath the specific thoughts and phrases. Don’t stop at the words; listen for the meaning. Then decide how theApostle from long ago might still speak truth today.

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