Pastor Bell's Words To Live By

Peter tells us to in his writing (Ch. 2) that we should suffer for the gospel as needs be and use Christ as our example. He also states that we should accept the positions of slave and master.  Obviously in the time of Peter slavery was part of the culture [culture can be defines as the way we do things here and now], and none of the gospel writer commented on the evil of slavery. They use the analogy of the slave as someone who obediently obeys their master to fulfil his purposes. So Jesus is referred as a slave because he suffered without retaliation to restore humanity back to God.

In our time however, the term slave has taken on a completely different meaning. The Trans-Atlantic slave trade redefined the levels of inhumanity that was inflicted by one human being on another for financial gain. Slavery, whether it is human trafficking or women being sold as sex slaves, is wrong.  If we take the writings of our brothers Peter and Paul out of context, we can fall into the trap of sanctioning slavery as the founding fathers of America and the Boers of Southern Africa did.  Peter encourages us to love one another, develop a tender heart and live in unity (3:8). We are not to repay evil for evil but to seek peace and to pursue it (3:11 taken from Psa. 19).

Peter spoke out of his context where slavery was an everyday occurrence; we can speak from our context where we should respect the dignity of each person irrespective of their ethnicity or belief system. Each individual must choose to become a ‘slave’ for Christ or to follow their own devices.

The harsh reality is this. If we fail to take into consideration the context when we use terms such as slavery, we can forget the underlying brutality that this terms represent and boldly declare that ‘I am a slave for Christ’. You may have the choice to call yourself that, but a true slave had no choice. A true slave had no means of self determination. No choice of where to sleep, what to eat or who to marry. During the period 1500 – 1800 slaves in the Caribbean were forbidden to marry. Hence illegitimacy is still rife among our community.

Today let us be obedient to the Spirit, but be careful how we use terms we read from scripture. As we contextualise our readings the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth.

Read 1Peter3