“As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you.” Leviticus 25.44

Our understanding of and hatred for the institution of slavery is colored by the American experience of the 18^thand 19^thcenturies. There we saw human slavery – which is never to be preferred – at its worst, and we are right to deplore that system and all its many abuses, just as we are right to deplore the trafficking in human beings which flourishes around the world today to an even greater extent than it did during the early years of our nation.

It might be thought – and, indeed, some have argued – that the Bible sanctions the practice of slavery. That would be only half-true. The Law of God permitted the people of Israel to purchase and own slaves from among the surrounding nations. These were generally from subject peoples whose plight in life was to be treated like chattel and worked to death by their pagan masters. For an Israelite to purchase a slave from, say, an Assyrian was to do that slave a great favor, for it would have been to liberate him from the idolatry, capriciousness, and violence of a pagan culture into the relative freedom of the Law of God.

We recall that the times in which God’s Law was given were far different from our own times. We must try to understand and apply God’s Law today in ways consistent with the teaching of the whole counsel of God, and not in a simplistic or naïve manner. In the days the Law was first given, wars between nations typically ended with the violent destruction or enslavement of the vanquished, and those whose lives were spared probably would have wished they had not been. In Israel those who lived as slaves would have had certain protections and privileges under the Law of God, especially of being protected against cruelty and violence (Ex. 21.20,26, 27). Further, they would have been contributors to a culture and society which, as it flourished under the promises and blessings of God, would have redounded to the benefit of all members of the society, including slaves.

As we shall see, the Apostle Paul understood that, with the coming of the Kingdom of God, the state of the institution of slavery would be forever changed. And it would fall to generations of Christians following Paul to make that change a reality.

The Law of God, as originally given, must not be understand as the last word on the institution of slavery. It is, rather, the first word on the subject, and, as such, it is a word of grace, portending more grace to come.

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