A natural objection
would be raised by those who were slaves (who may very well have had slaves of their
own, which should probably be taken into consideration when hearing what comes
next from Paul), which could be “What if our master is a believer? Should
he not be forced to free us?” It may be the case that the church met in
the very household of a believer who was also a slaveholder. Undoubtedly,
Paul would let the Spirit have its work (one could hear Paul’s words to
Philemon about avoiding compulsion), with this heard in his response to the
theoretical objections: “But those who have believing masters must not show
them less respect because they are brothers. Instead they are to serve
all the more, because those who benefit from their service are believers and
dearly loved” (1 Timothy 6:2).
With these words
there is a reminder that Paul, in general, is far more concerned with that
which benefits the body as a whole, rather than that which benefits individual
believers, which this being quite easy to discern from his letters to the
Corinthians and the Romans (not as a source of proof texts, but as communications
that reveal the heart of the Apostle). Again, this will require love,
self-sacrifice, and preferential treatment on behalf of the slave.
This is quite the
role-reversal in that day, for it would usually be the master, in the position
of patron and benefactor to those that are his slaves, that were looked to as
those with the opportunity to be generous and magnanimous. Here, Paul has
effectively reversed those roles, and it is now the slave that is in said
position and is therefore in a position to accrue honor. One should not
look to this culturally reversing element as a justification for the extension
of slavery, but as an element of the last becoming first and the first becoming
last, and as something of an in-breaking of the power of the kingdom of the
Creator God.
Beginning with the
sixth verse of the sixth chapter, Paul writes “Now godliness combined with
contentment brings great profit. For we have brought nothing into this
world and so we cannot take a single thing out either” (6:6-7). Had this
study not already revealed that Paul has dismissed Stoicism, effectively
countering its philosophical stance with the hope of the Resurrection (as
embodied in Jesus), one may be tempted to hear a resonance of Stoic thought in
these words from the Apostle.
One is better served,
however, to hear Paul from within the honor and shame competition of the
culture. Though, as has been said before, it would not necessarily be the
case that honor was equated with wealth, this would largely hold true. So
here one finds a way of thinking that militates against the valuation of honor,
and the goods that become associated with an every-increasing cache of public
honor, with a reminder of that which is truly valuable. In the end, that
would be working to increase the public honor of the one that was made to be
Lord and Christ.
Contentment, as
opposed to Stoic apathy, runs contrary to the ceaseless competition for public
honor; and as should be well known, godliness, in imitation of the Lord, not
only causes one to become unconcerned with public honor, it also causes Jesus’
followers to seek out the places and people and situations and activities that
will redound to the accrual of shame. With shame being the equivalent of
death, and generally to be avoided at all costs (as was the going concern of
the culture), the believers’ going “down” into shame (though paradoxically it
is an elevation in the eyes of the covenant God) can be looked upon as the
equivalent of going down into death---going to the cross with Jesus and being
crucified with Him.
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