Slavery falls short of God’s perfect world. If there was no sin, there would be no slavery. God does not condone slavery. In the future kingdom when Jesus comes again, there will no longer be slavery, killings, pain or death.
However, in the ancient world, having slaves was a sign of power and wealth. Many of the wealthy were unwilling to give that up. Even in more modern times, in the United States for example, legal slavery was not outlawed until recently, and it took a war and more to do so.
Thousands of years ago, God took His own people (the Israelites) out of slavery and punished Egypt for having enslaved them (Exodus 6:6-8).
“You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.” (Deuteronomy 5:15)
Old Testament Laws
From God’s own action in freeing the Israelite slaves, we know that God is against slavery. Although in the Old Testament, God did not outlaw slavery, He put laws around what could be done.
Some people might ask, “If God is against slavery, then why did God not outlaw slavery outright?”.
Jesus answered a similar question when people asked Him why the Law of Moses allowed divorce when God hates divorce (Malachi 2:16). Jesus said, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way” (Matthew 19:8). So also from the beginning, in God’s perfect creation, there was no such thing as slavery.
Because people’s hearts were hard, God did not abolish slavery, but He gave laws restricting what could be done.
- God outlawed kidnapping, and the buying and selling of kidnapped slaves. “Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.” (Exodus 21:16)
- God punished those who killed slaves. “When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged.” (Exodus 21:20)
- God protected slaves from being maimed. “When a man strikes the eye of his slave, male or female, and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free because of his eye. If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let the slave go free because of his tooth.” (Exodus 21:26-27)
- God instituted freeing Hebrew slaves in the seventh year. “When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing.” (Exodus 21:2)
- God encouraged having hired servants rather than slaves. “If a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to you that he sells himself to you, you shall not subject him to a slave’s service. He shall be with you as a hired man, as if he were a sojourner; he shall serve with you until the year of jubilee.” (Leviticus 25:39-40)
- God protected runaway slaves. “You shall not hand over to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you. He shall live with you in your midst, in the place which he shall choose in one of your towns where it pleases him; you shall not mistreat him.” (Deuteronomy 23:15-16)
Even though in the Old Testament, God allowed buying and selling slaves because of people’s hardness of hearts, God did not want slaves to be treated harshly.
New Testament Commands
In the New Testament, it is clear God wants everyone to be treated in a manner worthy of the calling of Christ.
- God makes everyone equal before Him.
- “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)
- “Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him— a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.” (Colossians 3:9-11)
- God wants earthly masters to treat their servants well.
- “Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.” (Colossians 4:1)
- “With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free. And masters, do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.” (Ephesians 6:7-9)
- Paul wrote a letter to a Christian slave owner about a runaway slave, and it became a book of the Bible. Paul urged Philemon to receive the runaway as he would receive the apostle Paul himself:
- “I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my imprisonment, who formerly was useless to you, but now is useful both to you and to me. I have sent him back to you in person, that is, sending my very heart, whom I wished to keep with me, so that on your behalf he might minister to me in my imprisonment for the gospel; but without your consent I did not want to do anything, so that your goodness would not be, in effect, by compulsion but of your own free will. For perhaps he was for this reason separated from you for a while, that you would have him back forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. If then you regard me a partner, accept him as you would me. But if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge that to my account…” (Philemon 1:10-18)
- The Bible encourages becoming free from slavery, and says we should not be slaves of men.
- “Were you called while a slave? Do not worry about it; but if you are able also to become free, rather do that. For he who was called in the Lord while a slave, is the Lord’s freedman; likewise he who was called while free, is Christ’s slave. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.” (1 Corinthians 7:21-23)
So as can be seen, God does not want people to be slaves of other people. God takes us back to His original intent, which is to serve one another in love and “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you” (Luke 6:31).
Read Philemon in the Bible.
See more answers to Frequently Asked Questions.