Paul. Galatians and the end of slavery

In Galatians 3:28, Paul writes:

28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

One of the major themes in Galatians is that Christ sets us free from slavery so that we can be sons of the living king. Slavery describes our condition before conversion. We are slaves because we are under the rule and control of another. For all of this, this means that we are slaves to sin, Satan an d death. Jewish believers had also in effect been slaves to the Law.  Now, all in Christ Jesus are heirs of the promise to Abraham and all are free. This truth unites us and removes the barriers that divided between gender and race as well as other social hierarchies meaning that there is no division between slave and free anymore.  Slaves and masters are co-heirs in Christ and are equal before the throne of grace.

These words contributed to the logic for the abolition of slavery. In fact, the growth of the church was in its early days a great victory blow against all forms of oppression so that the abolitionists in the 18th century argued that they were united with the tradition of the early church and that it was the slavers who had reintroduced a trade that had already disappeared. 

Whilst Paul did not call for political action, it was clear from his teaching that he saw slavery as a practice that should disappear in the light of the Gospel.  As well as the larger theme of Galatians and the specific statement here, there is other evidence of this including:

  1. He includes “man stealers” in his list of those who if unrepentant would be excluded from God’s kingdom. This word brilliantly describes those who kidnapped and traded other human beings for profit.
  2. He instructs Philemon to receive back Onesimus, his runaway slave as a brother (Philemon 1:16).
  3. In Ephesians 6:5-9, he does two things, first he says that there is pay or reward for work. If earthly masters do not provide it, then we will receive it from Christ He also tells masters to treat their slaves in exactly the same way that slaves are to treat them. In other words, the relationship moves to a mutual one from a hierarchical one.

These clues about Paul’s views fit into the wide theme of oneness in Christ Jesus, we all belong to God’s people now because we are brothers and sisters in Christ. God’s people, Israel were not, according to the Law to give and take each other as slaves. It was possible to become someone’s bondservant to pay off a debt but that was for a fixed period of time. Israelites did not own other Israelites because they were brothers.  This is of course the basis for Paul’s appeal to Philemon, his slave was now his brother.     This point was crucial for the evangelical abolitionists. How could you own as a slave someone who you wanted to hear the Gospel.  You risked having a conflict of interest, wanting them to come to Christ but recognising this would end your ownership of them.

There are a few applications from this point. First, if Galatians 3:28-29 challenges social hierarchies, then there are implications for social class in the church. Secondly, so much of the slave trade has been race based and has had lasting structural and systemic consequences. We will want to recognise and respond to this as Christians. Thirdly, sadly slavery is difficult to remove and today the problem of modern day slavery through trafficking remains a major problem. As Christians we should care about justice in this area.

We will want to live our lives in relation to the question of slavery by demonstrating that we grasp what the Gospel has to say about the freedom that Christ has purchased for us.