Section 4

Amazing! Where has Paul placed slavery? Just as circumcision brings no advantage and uncircumcision causes no harm, so neither slavery nor freedom does. And to make this even clearer, he says, “Even if you are able to become free, make use of it rather”—that is, rather remain a slave. Why would he tell someone who could be set free to remain a slave? Because he wishes to show that slavery does no harm and can even be of benefit.

I know that some understand the words “make use of it rather” as referring to freedom, so that the meaning would be, “If you can become free, become free.” But if Paul meant this, the expression would be quite contrary to the way he is speaking. He is consoling the slave and showing that he has suffered no spiritual loss; he would hardly then command him to become free. Someone might otherwise say, “What then? If I cannot become free, have I been wronged and placed at a disadvantage?” Paul does not mean that. Rather, as I said, wishing to show that becoming free adds nothing essential, he says, “Even if it is within your power to become free, remain a slave instead.”

Then he gives the reason: “For the slave who was called in the Lord is the Lord’s freedman; likewise, the one who was free when called is Christ’s slave.” In the things of Christ, he says, both are equal. You are Christ’s servant, and so is your master. How, then, is the slave a freedman? Because Christ has freed you not only from sin but even from the spiritual power of outward slavery while you still remain a slave. He does not permit the slave truly to be a slave, even while the person remains under slavery. This is the wonder.

And how is a slave free while remaining a slave? When he has been freed from the passions and from the diseases of the soul; when he despises wealth, anger, and the other passions of this kind.

“You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of people.” This word is addressed not only to slaves but also to free people. It is possible to be a slave and yet not be enslaved, and it is possible to be free and yet become a slave. How can a slave not be enslaved? When he does everything for God, when he does not pretend, and when he does nothing merely to be seen and approved by people. This is how someone who serves human masters can still be free. And how, in turn, can a free person become a slave? When he performs some evil service for people because of gluttony, greed, or the desire for power. Such a person is more enslaved than anyone, even if legally free.

Look at both cases. Joseph was a slave, yet he was not enslaved to people. For this reason, even in slavery he was freer than all free people. He did not yield to his mistress in the things she wanted, even though she owned him. She, on the other hand, was free, yet she was more enslaved than anyone, flattering and begging her own servant. But she could not persuade the free man to do what he did not choose to do. His condition, then, was not truly slavery but the highest freedom. What obstacle did slavery place in the way of his virtue?

Let slaves and free people alike hear this. Who was really enslaved: the one being begged, or the one doing the begging? The one pleading, or the one who disregarded her plea?

God Himself has set limits to the obedience owed by slaves. He has determined how far that obedience should go, and those limits must not be crossed. When a master commands nothing contrary to God, one should follow and obey; beyond that, no further. In this way the slave becomes free. But if you go beyond that limit, then even if you are legally free, you have become a slave. This is what Paul indicates when he says, “Do not become slaves of people.”

If this were not his meaning—if he were commanding slaves to leave their masters and contend for legal freedom—how could he also exhort them, “Let each person remain in the condition in which he was called”? And elsewhere: “Let all who are under the yoke of slavery regard their own masters as worthy of all honor,” and, “Those who have believing masters must not despise them because they are brothers, but serve them all the more because those who benefit from their service are believers and beloved.” When writing to the Ephesians and Colossians he gives the same instructions.

It is clear, then, that Paul is not abolishing outward slavery here. He is abolishing the slavery produced by wickedness, which can also seize free people—and this is the harshest slavery of all, even when the one enslaved by it is legally free.

What benefit did Joseph’s brothers gain from being free? Were they not more slavish than all slaves—lying to their father, speaking falsely to the merchants, and deceiving their own brother? But the truly free man was not like this. Everywhere and in everything Joseph remained truthful. Nothing could enslave him: not chains, not slavery, not his mistress’s desire, not life in a foreign land. He remained free everywhere. This above all is freedom: when it shines out even in slavery.