Verse one of chapter
six also introduces yet another counter-cultural element. As one is careful
to understand that the slavery mentioned herein is not the race-based slavery
with which most in the western world are familiar, but more likely the
debt-based (or subjugation-based) slavery that was prevalent in the world of
Paul, one reads “Those who are under the yoke as slaves must regard their own
masters as deserving of full respect” (1 Timothy 6:1a). Though some take
Paul to task here for not simply condemning slavery, which would have been the
ultimate counter-cultural move (and ultimately counter-productive at that point),
or for not ordering Christian masters to release their slaves, this is really
not the issue at hand. At the same time, this was probably not a
sensibility possessed by the tiny church at this point.
Slavery was a social
institution that provided stability, while also providing life’s basic
necessities for the one forced into slavery, along with a mechanism for the
erasure of debts and the achievement of a state of freedom. It was not
necessarily a permanent situation, and it was not necessarily a state that was indiscriminately inflicted upon a class of people. Slaves could and did become free
men. Some slaves would hold slaves of their own, who had become indebted
to them. Slavery, in some cases, was preferable to freedom, especially if
freedom meant going without food, clothing, and shelter. If one wants to
see Paul’s treatment of the issue of slavery, an observer would need to look to
his letter to Philemon (in which Paul sends a believing, runaway slave back to
his believing master, who were both going to be a part of the same body of
people that worshiped Jesus as Lord).
In the case of Timothy,
and with his words, Paul is being quite counter-cultural. Inside the
church, it was well understood that there were no class-distinctions, and that
all were equal. Outside the church, however, was a different story.
Clearly, with the words of the first verse, Paul is addressing an issue with
Timothy involving slaves that were part of the church body, whose masters were
not a part of the church body.
This is quite a bit
different than the picture painted by the letter to Philemon, or for that matter,
that of the circular letter that has come to be called Ephesians, or the letter
to the Colossians. Both of these letters, along with the letter to
Philemon, offer instructions to both slaves and masters, though the
“instructions” in Philemon (Paul presents them as requests, as the letter is
quite rhetorical in nature) are primarily directed to the recipient. Such
is absent from this letter to Timothy. Paul deals only with the response
of slaves to their masters.
The encouragement to
“regard their own masters as deserving of full respect” would represent quite
the change of pace in that day, as most slaves, as can be imagined, probably
treated their masters with a grudging respect. Naturally, it is not
difficult to surmise that this would have been quite the counter-cultural
witness, which provokes Paul’s additional statement that “This will prevent the
name of God and Christian teaching from being discredited” (6:1b). The
Christians had enough issues with being called atheists, while also being viewed
as seditious and disruptive of social order and harmony, so the last thing that
was needed was to sow seeds of disruption and potential recalcitrance in this
area as well.
In addition, this
conferring of respect, in light of the knowledge of the humanity that the
Creator God truly expected, in which situations of master and slave did not
exist, would certainly be an act of love, self-sacrifice, and preferential
treatment that could only be explained by the activity of the Spirit of that
God through believers. Again, this is not to sanction the social
arrangements, but rather, to “prevent the name of God and Christian teaching
from being discredited.”
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