1 Timothy 6:1 All slaves should show full respect for their masters so they will not bring shame on the name of God and his teaching. 2 If the masters are believers, that is no excuse for being disrespectful. Those slaves should work all the harder because their efforts are helping other believers who are well loved.
At first, we might read these words and think “How horrible!!! Paul is supporting the system of slavery!” But that is not the point of these remarks. Paul is a realist who understands that slavery is part of the culture throughout the known world at this time. Rather than engage in a senseless fight against slavery, Paul is more concerned with advising slaves who have become Christians on their behavior. Now the question comes: What behavior will bring the most honor to the name of Jesus Christ? If a slave is surly and opposes a master or mistress at every turn, there is no way the master or mistress will ever become interested in Jesus. At the same time, if the slave serves whole-heartedly and lovingly, the master or mistress might want to learn about Jesus. And what if the master or mistress becomes a Christian? Then everything the slave does is helping another Christian.
But how far would someone go to evangelize slaves? Listen to the story of the Moravians.
Unitas Fratrum (Unity of the Brethren) is the formal name of the group often referred to as the Moravian Brethren or Moravian Church. They were one of the very first Protestant groups in the world, originating from Jan Hus and the Bohemian Reformation of the 15th century in what is now the Czech Republic.
Fleeing religious persecution, they fled to Saxony in 1722, and some of them were given permission to settle on the land of a nobleman named Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf, a Lutheran Pietist who had a large estate outside of Berthelsdorf.
The Moravian Protestants who settled there, together with Zinzendorf, established a church and named their settlement Herrnhut (The Lord’s Watch). One characteristic of their new community was continuous prayer, done in shifts by different people. This continuous prayer at Herrnhut went on uninterrupted for 100 years.
What is particularly significant about the Moravian church at Herrnhut is that they were a missionary church. They were the first large-scale Protestant missionary group, and they were the pioneers of the modern missionary movement.
During the eighteenth century alone, the Moravians established mission outposts in the Virgin Islands (1732), Greenland (1733), North America (1734), Lapland and South America (1735), South Africa (1736), and Labrador (1771).
Their all-consuming purpose was to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth, a passion that was evident in their proportion of missionaries to laypeople, by some estimates a ratio of 1:60.
Some of the very first Moravian missionaries went to the Caribbean island of St Thomas. They went there in order to minister to the slaves on the island, even selling themselves as slaves in order to get access.
The Moravians had learned that the secret of loving the souls of men was found in loving the Savior of men. On October 8, 1732, a Dutch ship left the Copenhagen harbor bound for the Danish West Indies. On board were the two first Moravian missionaries; John Leonard Dober, a potter, and David Nitschman, a carpenter. Both were skilled speakers and ready to sell themselves into slavery to reach the slaves of the West Indies. As the ship slipped away, they lifted up a cry that would one day become the rallying call for all Moravian missionaries, “May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering.” The Moravian’s passion for souls was surpassed only by their passion for the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. (https://nickcady.org/2017/07/21/they-sold-themselves-into-slavery/ )
It is that kind of passion for Jesus Christ to which Paul is referring here. Remember that becoming a Christian is already scandalous. Now Paul is advising that slaves should not worry about escaping slavery but should be more concerned with the quality of service they offer.
We might brush right by these two verses, assuming they have no application for us. But if we are followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to be servants. Jesus said of himself that “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to gives His life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28)
Philippians 2:3-7 tells us, “3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. 5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. 6 Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.”
No matter what we might think we have sacrificed for the cause of Christ, Jesus has given infinitely more. We can draw people to Jesus or alienate them, depending on our behavior. May God help us so that we will have the same attitude as Christ Jesus!
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to follow hard after You and to copy Your example as a servant, not worrying about how others treat us but rather about how we treat others. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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