THE RIGHT AND

PRIVILEGES OF
CHRISTIAN SLAVES.
TEXT: Philemon 15-16.

MEMORY VERSE: And you shall

know the truth and the truth
shall make you free.(John8:32).
Therefore if the son makes you
free, you are free indeed
(John8:36)
LESSON OBJECTIVES:
The main objective of this lesson
is to examine the old and the
New Testaments to establish
the view expressed on slavery
as implied in Pauls plea for
Timothy. In this regard we
explain in detail for the
students understanding the
following:
1) Examine in detail how slaves
are regarded in the Levitical
laws and the actual treatment
of slaves.
2) Examine the rights and
privileges of slaves in light of
New
Testament
with
particular reference to the
plea for Onesimus by Paul
that Philemon should look
upon Born-again Onesimus
as more than a slave.

3) To compare and contrasts

the sinner and the slave as
viewed
by
the
Old
Testament and the Gospel of
Grace.
INTRODUCTION:
In light of the definition of
democracy defined by the
greatest democracy in the
world all men are created equal
and are endowed with certain
inalienable right among which is
the pursuit of happiness,
freedom of expression and
association etc. Paradoxically,
this is negated by the practice
of slavery by all peoples of the
world
throughout
human
history. This is probably due to
the primordial instinct for
survival which is behind all
profit motives it drives man to
exploit man. It was the remote
cause of the American civil war.
The goal of this lesson which
was one of that of Paul in
bringing up the matter with
Philemon in his for Onesimus is
to examine in detail the concept
of slavery in the context of Bible
doctrines and the impact of
slavery on the course of human
history.
SUBJECT MATTER:
[1] Regard for slaves under
Levitical laws: The Levitical laws
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make provision for slaves and

treat the children of Israel
differently (Lev25:41-45)
[A] Case for Children of Israel:
i) No Israelite who sells himself
under necessity of poverty shall
be compelled to serve as slave
(Lev25: 39)
ii) He shall serve only as a
servant and sojourner until the
year of Jubilee (v40).
i)
At jubilee he shall return to
fathers possession with
his children(v41)
ii)
You shall not rule over
them with vigor for they
are my servants I brought
from Egypt (v42)
[B] Case for owning Slaves by
Israel:
i) As for your male or female
slaves whom you may have
from the nations that are around
you, from them you may buy
male or female slaves. (v44)
ii) The children of Israel may buy
the children of strangers who
dwell among them and their
families born while dwelling
among them and may acquire
such as property (v45).
iii) Such slaves could be passed
from generation to generation
[C] Case against being owned as
Slaves by others:
i) If by reason of poverty an
Israelite should sell himself to a
rich sojourner or family of such

he should be redeemed at the

earliest opportunity.(v47)
ii) Redemption could be by his
brother, uncle, nephew or by
himself if able(v49)
iii) The price of his release shall
be according be according to
the number of years, from the
years he was sold until the year
of jubilee; it shall be according
to the time of hired servant for
him.(v50)
iv) The redeemer shall reckon
with the purchaser of the
servant from the year he sold
himself to the purchaser to the
Year of Jubilee, and the price of
his release shall be adjusted
according to the number of
years. The time he was with his
owner shall be counted as the
time of hired servant. (v50)
v)
a) If redemption comes
many
years
before
Jubilee he must refund in
proportion to the years
what is due to his
purchaser amount of
overpayment
for his
acquisition.(v51)
b) If years remaining to
Jubilee at time of redemption
are few, then refund to
purchaser shall be in proportion
to outstanding years (v52)
c) As a hired servant he should
deal with him for the rest of the
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time to Jubilee and should not

be harsh with him (v53)
vi) if he is not released as
indicated above he should be
allowed to go free in Jubilee
year with his children (v5355)
[D] Case of captivities of Israel:
The obvious question arising
from the foregoing is: why did
the children of Israel go into
captivities when the Levitical
laws frown on the Israelites
enslaving one another but
permit Israelites to own slaves
from the other nations? If we
go through the records of the
captivities we discover that it
was the apostate Israel that
went to captivities and usually
after long warnings through
Gods prophets. On the other
hand Levitical laws provide
for the perfect will of God in
this regard. The apostate Israel
disregarded
the Levitical
injunction that if they defiled
the promised land the way
the people flushed out for
them by God did they too
would be vomited by the
land(Lev18:22-30).
The
destruction of Sodom and
Gomorrah typifies how God
intervened in the affairs of
men to check defilement. We
can easily infer from that

Levitical law requirement that

sojourn into apostasy is
succumbing to the lure of the
enemy and hence going into
the captivity of sins which is
more devastating than the
captivity by man for it robs
the apple of His eye of the
rights and privileges He
conferred on them.
[E] Case for Runaway Slave:
The
law
stipulates
in
Deuteronomy that when a
slave runs away from the
master he should not be
forced to go back to the
master: Deut23:15-16: You
shall not give back to his
master the slave who has
escaped from his master to
you. He may dwell with you
in your midst in the place
which he chooses within one
of your gates, where it seems
best to him, you shall not
oppress him. This sums the
attitude of God to slavery;
God prefers that everybody
be allowed the natural
freedom
with
which
everyone is born than to be in
bondage to any other. That is
the motive of the law
enunciated as quoted above.
Although Paul would seem to
be going against that provision
in sending Onesimus back to
Philemon the intention in so
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doing was to establish the fact

that the freedom conferred
by grace supersedes that
provided by the law quoted.
Indeed, if the son makes you
free you are free (John8:36);
why should anyone send you
back into slavery. This
underscores the plea of Paul
that Philemon should grant
Onesimus the status of a son
rather than that of a slave.
[2] New Testament view of
Slavery:
[A] Onesimus as slave of
PhilemonPaul pleaded that
Philemon
should
regard
Onesimus as more than a slave
since he had become a
brother in Christ and he had
accepted him as a son in the
way all Christians have
become
children
of
God(Philem15-16)
i) By the view expressed
above by Paul the nonChristian could be slaves, but
not the true Christian; ii) the
new birth confers on the
Christian the right and
privileges of the Common
wealth of Israel. This is in tune
with the truth of the statement
you shall know the truth and
the truth shall make you free.
(John8:32)
[B] Christs View of Slavery: It
is from the discussion of

freedom by Christ that we can

infer what his view of slavery
was like during his sojourn
here on earth we can only
infer from His reference to
freedom and the slave of sin:
i) Christ referred to the sinner
as the slave of sin (John8:34)
ii) Son abides in the house,
but not the slave{John8:3536)
iii) He came to proclaim
liberty to the captives (Is61:1)
[C] Comparison of the Sinner
and Slave: Christ in comparing
the sinner and the slave
demeans slavery and elevates
the position of the free
person as follows:
i) The sinner is in bondage
and the slave is in bondage
too (John8:34)
ii) The truth will set the sinner
free when he accept it
(John8:32), but it is money
that sets the slave free,
iii) The sinner has no claim to
the right and privileges of the
son; even so the slave has no
access to the inheritance of
the master unless he becomes
son through good long
service;
iv) Finally impenitent sinner is
due for final death or
damnation,but the slave is not ,
except for freedom at Jubilee.
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