The Master and His Slaves

2 Peter ii. 1

Denying the Lord that bought them.

SPHERE were three great stains on the civilisation of A the world into which Christianity came: war, the position of woman, and slavery. With the two first of these we have nothing to do at present, but the relation of the New Testament to the last of these great evils naturally connects itself with the words before us. That relation is at first sight very singular. There can be no doubt that the atrocious system of slavery is utterly irreconcileable with the principles and spirit of the Gospel-It dies in the light of Christianity, like some foul fungus that can only grow in the dark. And yet there is not a word of condemnation of it in the book. The writers of the New Testament found that evil institution which makes the slaves chattels and their masters fiends in full force, and they said nothing against it Paul recognises it in several of his letters, regulates it, gives counsels to Christians standing to each other in the extraordinary relation of owner and slave; sends back the runaway

XIX.] THE MASTER AND HIS SLAVES. y>$

Onesimus to his master, and shows no consciousness of the revolutionary force of his own words, “In Christ Jesus there is neither bond nor free.” Whether he foresaw the effect of the gospel in breaking every yoke or no, the fact remains that Christianity at its beginning ran no tilt against even the most execrable social iniquities, but was guided by the wisdom which said, “Make the tree good, and its fruit good” The only way to mend institutions is by mending individuals. Elevate the tone of society by lifting the moral nature of the units, and evil things will drop away and become impossible. Other ways are revolutionary and imperfect

In like manner, this same wicked thing, slavery, is used as an illustration of the highest, sacredest, noblest relationship possible to men — their submission to Jesus Christ With all its vileness, it is still not too vile to be lifted from the mud, and to stand as a picture of the purest ind loftiest tie that can bind the souL The apostles glory in calling themselves “slaves of Jesus Christ” That title of honour heads each epistle. And here in this text we have the same figure expressed with Peter’s own energy, and carried out in detail The word in our text for “Lord,” is an unusual one, selected to put the idea in the roughest, most absolute form. It is the root of our word “despot,” and conveys, at any rate, the notion of unlimited, irresponsible authority. We might read u owner” with some approach to the force of the word.

Nor is this all One of the worst and ugliest features of slavery is that of the market, where men and women

ft and children arc sold like cattle. And that has its parallel too, for this Owner has bought men for His.

Nor is this all; for, as there are fugitive slaves, who “break away every man from his master,” and when questioned will not acknowledge that they are his, so men flee from this Lord and Owner, and by words and deeds assert that they owe Him no obedience, and were never in bondage to Him.

So, then, there are these three points brought out in the words before us: Christ’s absolute ownership of men; fat purchase on which it depends; and the fugitives who deny his authority.

I. The strong expression of the text asserts Christ s absolute ownership. If a word had been sought to convey the hardest possible representation of irresponsible, unlimited authority, bound by no law but its own will, the word in our text would have been chosen. Such authority can never be really exercised by men over men. For thought and will are ever free. To claim it would be blasphemy, to allow it would be degradation. But such an authority, in comparison with which the most absolute that man can exercise over man is slight and superficial, this peasant of Nazareth claims, and not in vain. Proud hearts have bowed to his authority, and through the centuries the whole being of thousands upon thousands has gloried in submission — utter and all-embracing — to Him. “What manner of man is this,” it was said of old, “that even the winds and the sea obey Him?” But the question opens a deeper depth of wonder, and a higher stretch of power: “What manner of man is this that even the hearts and wills of men obey Him?” His autocratic lips spake, and it was done, when He was here on earth — rebuking disease, and it fled; the wild storm, and there was a great calm; demons, and they came out; death itself, and its dull cold ear heard, and Lazarus came forth. To material things and forces He spake as their great Imperator and Commander, saying to this one” Go,’* id he went, and showing his Divinity, as even the pagan centurion had learned, by the power of His word, the ‘rare utterance of His will

But His rule in the region of man’s spirit is as absolute and authoritative, a,nd there too “His word is with power.” The correlative of Christ’s ownership is our entire submission of will, our complete acceptance of the law of his lips, our practical recognition that we are not our own. Loyola demanded from his black-robed militia obedience to the general of the order so complete that they were to be “just like a corpse,” or “a staff in a blind man’s hand.” Such a requirement made by a man is of course the crushing of the will, and the emasculation of the whole nature. But such a demand yielded to from Christ is the vitalising of the will and the ennobling of the spirit To give myself up to Him is to become not “like a corpse” — but to be as alive from the dead. We then first find our lives when we surrender them to Him.

The owner of the slave could set him to any work he thought fit So our Owner gives all His slaves their several tasks. As in some despotic eastern monarchies fee sultan’s vrx re pleasure makes of one slave his vizier,

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308 THE MASTER AND HIS SLAVES. [SKR1C

and of another his slipper-bearer, our King chooses one man to a post of honour, and another to a lowly place; and none have a right to question the allocation of wort What corresponds on our parts to that sovereign freedom of appointment? Cheerful acceptance of our task, whatever it be. What does it matter whether we are set to do things which the vulgar world calls “great,” or things which the blind world calls “small? “They are equally set us by Him to whom all service is alike that is done from the same motive, and all that we need care about is to give glad obedience and unmurmuring honest work. Nobody knows what is important service, and what not We have to wait till another day far ahead, before we can tell that. All work that contributes to a great end is great; as the old rhyme has it,” for the want of a nail a kingdom was lost.” So, whatever our tasks, let us say,” Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?

The slave’s hut, and little patch of garden ground, and few bits of furniture, whose were they — his or his master’s? If he was not his own, nothing else could be his own. And whose are our possessions? If we have no property in ourselves, still less can we have property in our property. These things were His before, and are His stilL The first claim on them is our Master’s, not ours. We have not the right to do what we like with our own. So, if we rightly understand our position, we shall feel that we are trustees, not possessors. When, like prodigal sons, we “waste our substance,” we are unfaithful stewards, also, “wasting our Lord’s goods.”

Such absolute submission of will, and recognition of

Christ* 8 absolute authority over us, our destiny, work, and possessions, is ennobling and blessed. So to bow before a man would be degrading were it possible, but so to bow before Him is our highest honour, and liberates us from all other submission. The king’s servant is every other person’s master. We learn from historians that the origin of nobility in some Teutonic nations is supposed to have been the dignities enjoyed by the king’s household — of which you find traces still. The king’s master of the horse, or chamberlain, or cupbearer, becomes noble. Christ’s servants are lords, free because they serve Him, noble because they wear His livery and bear the mark of Jesus as their Lord.

VL The text brings Into view the purchase on which that ownership is founded.

This master has acquired men by right of purchase. That abomination of the auction-block may suggest the better “merchandise of the souls of men,” which Christ has madet when He bought us with His own blood as our ransom.

That purchase is represented in two forms of expression. Sometimes we read that He has bought us with His “blood j M sometimes that He has given “Himself” for us. Both expressions point to the same great fact — His death as the price at which He has acquired us as His own.

There are far deeper thoughts involved in this statement than can be dealt with here, but let me note one or two plain points. First, then, that is a very beautiful and profound one, that Christ’s lordship over men is built upon His mighty and supreme sacrifice for men. Nothing short of His utter giving up of himself for them gives Him the right of absolute authority over them; or, as Paul puts it, “He gave himself for us,” that He might “purchase for himself a people.” He does not found His kingdom on His Divinity, but on His suffering. His cross is His throne. It seems to me that the recognition of Christ’s death as our ransom is absolutely essential to warrant the submission to Him which is the very heart of Christianity. I do not know why any man who rejects that view of the death of Christ should call to Him, “Lord! Lord!” We are justified in saying to Him, “0 Lord, truly I am thy servant,” only when we can go on to say, “Thou hast loosed my bonds.”

Then, consider that the figure suggests that we are bought from a previous slavery to some other master. Free men are not sold into slavery, but slaves pass from one master to another, and sometimes are bought into freedom as well as into bondage. Hebrew slavery was a very different thing from Roman or American slavery — but such as it was, there was connected with it that peculiar institution of the Goelp by which, under certain circumstances, if an Israelite had sold himself into slavery, he could be redeemed. As the law has it, “One of his kinsmen may redeem him.” So our Kinsman buys us back from our bondage to sin and guilt and condemnation, from the slavery of our tyrant lusts, from the slavery to men’s censures and opinions, from the dominion of evil and darkness, and making as His, makes us free.

He that committeth sin is the slave of sin. If the Son therefore make you free, ye shall be free indeed

IIL Our text also brings to view the Runaways. We do not care to enquire here what special type of heretics the apostle had in view in these solemn words, nor to apply them to modern parallels which we may fancy we can find It is more profitable to notice how all godlessness and sin may be described as denying the Lord. All sin, I say, for it would appear very plain that the people spoken of here were not Christians at all, and yet the apostle believes that Christ had bought them by His sacrifice, and so had a right over them, which their conduct and their words equally denied.

How eloquent that word” denying n is on Peter’s lips. Did the old man travel back in memory to that cold morning, when he was shivering beside the coal-fire in the high priest’s palace, and a flippant serving-maid could frighten him into lying? Is it not touching to notice that he describes the very worst aspect of the sin of these people in the words that recall his own? It is as if he were humbly acknowledging that no rebellion could be worse than his, and were renewing again his penitence and bitter weeping after all those years.

All sin is a denial of Christ’s authority. It is in effect saying,” We will not have this man to reign over us.* It is at bottom the uprising of our own self-will against his rule, and the proud assertion of our own independence. It is as foolish as it is ungrateful, as ungrateful as it is foolish.

3ia THE MASTER AND HIS SLA VES. [serm. xix.

That denial is made by deeds which are done in de* fiance or neglect of his authority, and it is done too by words and opinions. It is not for us to bring such a grave charge against individuals, but at least we may exhort our readers to beware of all forms of teaching which weaken Christ’s absolute authority or which remove the very foundation of His throne by weakening the power and meaning of His sacrifice.

Finally, let us beware lest the fate of many a runaway slave be ours, and we be lost in trackless bogs and perish miserably. Casting off His yoke is sure to end in ruin* Rather, drawn by the cords of love, and owning the blessed bonds in which willing souls are held by the love of Christ, let us take Him for our Lord, who has given himself for our ransom, and answer the pleading of His cross with our glad surrender. Then shall He say, “I call you not servants but friend*”