Was slavery condoned in the bible
Yes...deal with it
Is discipline such as spare the rod spoil the child to set up the premise of punishment for incorrect behavior
Yes...deal with it
Who are you oh man to question God, to think your ways are better.
Mans ways are inherently self-seeking
Gods ways are there for our care and protection.
If we look at it with a mind of proper(IE: GODLY) discernment as opposed to a reprobate fleshly worldly self seeking make me happy first Im special type of discernement
One would easily see that the idea of slavery as was outlined in the bible was to set up the premise for Obedience. Obedience to the one in authority over you.
Obedience to the one who cares for you. The one who bought you at a price to save your soul.
The slave master relationship closely resembles the relationship between us and God. In case anyone hasnt noticed its also very similar to the relationship between man and wife as Christ and church.
Eph 6:5
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.
Eph 5:24
[SUP]
24[/SUP] Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
Eph 5:33
[SUP]
33[/SUP] However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Eph 6
7Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men,
8because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.
9And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.
Col 3:22-23
Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men
Notice the similarites in the order outlined within Gods principles.
God is very much a God of principle not doing things for no reason, he has a reason behind everything he instructs and asks of us.
We are made to follow to bring glory to him. (yes very much like a slave without questioning Christs authority hence the term slave to Christ)
Very much like woman was created for mans glory.
Look at the world today and ask if these priciples are being taught or if a more
"do what makes ya happy" (self seeking behavior which cause an abundance of internal issues as well as rebellious behavior toward God for fighting to die to the self is being taught)
Many people who have not had this shown to them in love or in a Godly manner may fight or rebel against the concept, understandable. Although also understand these are concepts set up for us here on earth to provide for us an everyday living example of how to serve our own father in heaven.
Order as opposed to chaos.
A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand
Who divides? (drives a wedge between us and God) satan and our own self simply for not adhering to Gods ways).
When we listen to the world it then becomes we who call ourselves followers who then divide Gods kingdom.
There can only be one head as Christ is the head of the church, we can only serve one master not two ( another way one could say it may be that it wasnt designed to be many chiefs and few indians)
One cares provides and protects for(God)
and in return the other serves(servant) to the one placed in authority over them.
So if God is the one who provides for us how can we even serve ourself thereby making ourself the other master aside from God alone.
There is never a place in the bible nor condoned by our God to be independant free thinkers of OUR OWN will.
If any disagree show me the scripture if you got it.
We are told the consequences for disobedience to the Lord.
Ive said it before and I'll say it again, so many look for their fluffy bunny Jesus, to have and to hold and to pet and thinking he's coming like the easter bunny to bring us treats no matter what, thinking were saved no matter what and he wouldnt hurt a fly because he loves us even if we embarass and deny his name.
Choosing our will over his is also denying his name in case any havent realised yet.
Because choosing our will is following the teachings of the earthly father whom we were first born to, the prince of this world, the devil.
Lets look at an occurence in Acts.......after Christ was here and returned to the father.
3Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?
4Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God.”
5When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died
Discipline for choosing ones own will, slave to sin?
Punishment? call it what you want but this was after Christs teachings
Next his wife
7About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.
8Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?”
“Yes,” she said, “that is the price.”
9Peter said to her, “How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”
10At that moment she fell down at his feet and died.
This happened supernaturally and instantly
Did Jesus ever say now that Ive come no one will ever be punished again?
Or did he say if you love me you will obey my commands.
Now Im not trying to preach hellfiure and brimstone but dont deny that its present. Dont let yourself be led by the blind.
Personally I think if many of us are still here and alive it is because of Gods mercy, still giving us a chance to follow and know him with all our heart mind body and spirit, since all of us at one point in our life were justly deserving of death, some even after claiming to know Christ.
We can call it punishment we can call it discipline, chastisement. One can word it however they like its all the same.
There is not one person on earth who has not been disciplined by God for following their will outside of and instead of his.
God wishes to issue blessing and he will correct out of love, but when that doesnt work dont you feel God is thinking ...well that person didnt respond well to that method so its spankin time or smack upside the head time. Whatever works.
Perhaps to the point of almost death, possibly loosing everything they know and worldly love, or what some may call a shock collar to wake a person up out of their rebellion to know and crystal clearly understand who is directly in charge and that they dont make the decisions against the one in authority over them.
Jesus says his burden is light, not a bad thing to be enslaved to, I have found this to be true, just listen to him and follow, its a simple concept.
When we choose our own way outside of Gods will we cause our own burden to become heavy.
How many times have we made a decision for ourself just because its what we want only for the whole thing to go up in flames.
On the other hand when in our decisions we follow being led by God as opposed to our self justifying emotions things go so smoothly it almost seems too easy.
I honestly dont understand why or how people can sit there and rehash the whole slavery thing as if they themselves had to endure some sort of slavery hardship of similar to what is outlined in the bible or what they seen in the movie "Roots".
As if they themselves have some issue to overcome when they didnt have to endure it. Who are they to talk?
You wanna hash out somthin hash out why we ...us....put Christ on that cross to suffer more than any dang slave, and ask yourself why you're still trying to make Christ your slave by thinking you make any decisions outside the will of your master.
Now taken from the perspective of Love
When we listen and follow accordingly we are taken care of, (Saved)
When we dont our own actions, our own behavior and our own will.... bring upon our own deserved Godly discipline
One of the main premises here is that its important to learn to accept our punishment for what we bring upon ourselves.
This could also be one of Christs messages within turning the other cheek for those with discernment.
In other words, if ur being disciplined and you know you deserve it, dont fight back and dont retaliate. Much the same as dont fight against God when he issues his own discipline. Accept it and ask what lesson he is trying to teach, why? To make us better, make us better for what? For him. For Others, for HIS will.
Those who try to escape that(which is actually trying to escape any responsibilty again a self serving selfish motive) only heap more judgement and Gods wrath upon themselves.
Many should understand that we are not only willingly a bond servant for life to Christ but he also called us his friends, which is more than a slave, he said a master doesnt tell a servant his business, yet he tells us his business.
John 15:15
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
But I dont think he starts telling us his business until we have first submitted to him in loving obedience and reverence to his authority willingly as a slave would to their master.
If anyone wishes to take a dim view to that they still have much to learn.
God isnt a dictator as men become when power and authority corrupts them, He is heaping abundantly with mercy and grace undeserving yet fair and just with his discipline when deserved.
Any burden would be when we are still a slave to sin doing the work of our earthly father the devil who we were first born to before being born again to a new father.
God cares for us and we do the work of our father in heaven just as Christ did when he was here.
Call it slave call it servant call it what you wish, I tend to view it more as respect out of love.
Its our job to respect him not us to demand he respect us when we are told God is not respecter of persons.
If we dont respect him as least that much, well...you fill in the rest, what's the outcome?