The world has become progressively more “puffed up.” We have considered ourselves more highly than we ought to think. We have become so concerned with our rights, our comfort, our recognition, our independence, and how we are treated. Even within Christianity, we can begin to approach God with this same mindset. We ask what God can give us, what He can do for us, how He can make our lives better, and what we deserve from Him.
But that is almost the opposite of the language Paul uses. We have forgotten something fundamental about what it means to belong to Christ:
We are His servants.
Paul repeatedly describes himself as a servant, a slave of Christ. The disciples call themselves servants. And Jesus Himself uses the language of servants and masters when describing our relationship with God.
In the Biblical world, a slave belonged to his master. His life was not his own. His time was not his own. His labor was not his own. His role was determined by the one to whom he belonged. When his master gave him an assignment, the expectation was that he would carry it out.
We see this kind of household servitude throughout Scripture. Sarah had Hagar, her Egyptian servant, and instructed Abraham to take Hagar and have a child through her. Rachel and Leah likewise gave their servants Bilhah and Zilpah to Jacob to bear children on their behalf. These women were servants within their households, and their lives were subject to the authority of those who owned them.
I am not saying that we should return to slavery. I am not saying that human slavery is good. Scripture itself places obligations upon masters, provides protections and release for certain servants, condemns kidnapping and slave trading, and repeatedly reminds Israel that they themselves had once been slaves in Egypt.
However, what I am saying is that we have become so accustomed to thinking of ourselves as autonomous individuals that we can fail to understand the force of Paul’s words when he calls himself a slave of Christ.
Paul did not think of himself as an independent person who happened to follow Jesus when Jesus’ commands aligned with his preferences. He writes:
“Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God.” (Romans 1:1)
He says the same thing in Galatians:
“For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.” (Galatians 1:10)
And again in Philippians:
“Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ…” (Philippians 1:1)
Paul viewed his life, freedom, and mission as entirely belonging to Christ. And that is where this becomes uncomfortable for us. Because Scripture does not merely say that Christ is our helper, our advisor, or someone we invite into our lives. Scripture says that we belong to Him.
Paul writes:
“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20)
You are not your own. Those are difficult words in a culture built around self-ownership.
And Paul says it again when discussing slavery and freedom:
“For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord’s freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is Christ’s slave. You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.” (1 Corinthians 7:22–23)
The person who belongs to Christ is simultaneously described as His servant and His freedman. We have been freed from sin, but that freedom does not mean becoming our own master. We have been freed to belong to Christ.
And the One who bought us is not a cruel master seeking our destruction. He is our Creator and our Redeemer. The One to whom we belong is the One who made us and the One who gave Himself for us.
So if we belong to Him, what does that actually mean?
It means that His commands are not suggestions that we can accept or reject according to our preferences. A servant does what his master commands.
Jesus makes this point in Luke 17. He asks:
“And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’? But will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not.” (Luke 17:7–9)
What Jesus is describing would have been completely ordinary in the world of a servant and master. The servant has been given work to do. He goes into the field and works. When he comes back, his responsibilities are not finished simply because he is tired. He prepares his master’s meal, serves his master, and only afterward eats himself.
Jesus then applies the lesson directly to us:
“So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’” (Luke 17:10)
Jesus is not calling His disciples worthless. He is teaching them that obedience does not put God in their debt. We do not serve Him and then demand recognition because we have fulfilled our duty.
Obedience to God is the duty of those who belong to Him.
That is what makes the Christian life so different from the mindset of entitlement that surrounds us. We can become so accustomed to asking what we deserve that we begin to ask the same question of God. We serve, and then we expect recognition. We sacrifice, and then we expect comfort. We obey, and then we expect God to reward us according to our timeline.
But a servant does not serve because the master owes him something. A servant serves because he belongs to the master.
And Scripture takes this even further. Peter writes directly to servants and tells them:
“Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:
‘Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth’; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness–by whose stripes you were healed.” (1 Peter 2:18–24,)
This is an extraordinarily difficult passage for our modern ears.
Peter does not limit submission to situations in which the master is good and gentle. He specifically says “not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh.” And he connects this kind of patient endurance to Christ Himself.
That does not mean that God calls evil good. It does not mean that every form of human oppression should simply be accepted without resistance. Scripture contains laws protecting the vulnerable and condemning those who kidnap and enslave others. Peter’s point here is about the response of a Christian who suffers unjustly: rather than responding to suffering with retaliation, revenge, or hatred, the believer follows the example of Christ, who “when He was reviled, did not revile in return.”
Christ suffered unjustly, yet He entrusted Himself to the One who judges righteously. And Peter tells us that this is the example we are called to follow.
Paul understood this kind of voluntary service as well. He writes:
“For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more.” (1 Corinthians 9:19)
Paul was free, yet he willingly made himself a servant. His freedom did not make him less willing to serve. It made his service voluntary.
And this is where the Biblical picture of servitude becomes especially interesting. Under the law given to Israel, a Hebrew servant was not to remain in servitude forever. Exodus 21:2 says:
“If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free and pay nothing.” (Exodus 21:2)
Deuteronomy 15 gives the same command:
“If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you.” (Deuteronomy 15:12)
The servant had a right to leave.
But then God gives us something remarkable. He provides a way for the servant who does not want to leave.
Deuteronomy continues:
“And if it happens that he says to you, ‘I will not go away from you,’ because he loves you and your house, since he prospers with you, then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant you shall do likewise.” (Deuteronomy 15:16–17)
Why would someone choose to remain when he had the right to leave?
Because he loved his master. He could leave, but he did not want to. He had experienced his master’s household and decided that he would rather remain with the one he loved than walk away into freedom.
And I think there is something profound here about what God desires from us.
God does not merely want external obedience. He wants willing obedience. He wants us to love Him so deeply that our submission to Him is not merely something forced upon us, but something we willingly embrace.
“I will not go away from thee; because I love thee.” That is the heart of a servant who loves his master.
And this helps us understand why Paul could speak so freely about being Christ’s servant. Paul was not describing a miserable existence in which he desperately wanted to escape from God. He was describing a life in which he had willingly surrendered himself to the One he loved.
Christ had purchased him, and Paul wanted to belong to Christ.
In fact, Christ Himself gives us the ultimate example of this kind of humility. Paul writes:
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:5–8)
The One who was in the form of God took the form of a servant.
The Creator became the servant.
The One who possessed all authority humbled Himself and became obedient–even unto death.
And Paul does not present this merely as an interesting fact about Jesus. He tells us to have the same mind:
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5)
This is the mind we are supposed to have. Not constantly asking, “How am I being treated?” “What do I deserve?” “Why should I have to do that?”
But asking:
“What does my Master ask of me?”
Because I am not my own.
I have been bought with a price.
I belong to Christ.
And I love my Master.
And when our service is finished, may we hear the words spoken by our Lord:
“Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord.” (Matthew 25:21).
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