The power of the slave 1 Corinthians 9 April 1, 2010
The initial question has to be who am I ? What is my place, my role not simply to Christ who I my savior but to the people around me ? Who am I in relation to my call, in response to my positioning in the kingdom of God and his people? Who am I in this world ?
This qestion has to be asked of every leader and of every believer as well.
n many ways the writer here (Paul) uses slavery as a metaphor, easy enough to grasp in the socio-economic climate of that day. But ar more difficult to grasp when we read these words in modern times. Because we have no real concept of slavery.
I first notice this difficulty in Romans 8, because he uses the slave metaphor in the negative as it relates to a pre christian or non christian state. In this passage slavery is characterizes that which believers have been delivered from. He declares rather candidly and succinctly “for ye have not received the spirit of bondage to fear but ye hav received the spirit of adoption. This why I had such a great deal of trouble with the slave metaphor or symbol because here salvation is depicted as the deliverance from slavery and yet in 1 Corinthians he uses the slave metaphor as something to be proud of .
A view to this slave metaphor can even b fond in the words of Jesus , in Matt 21 Jesus us the word translated doulous which paul later uses , describing both himself and the prophets of old who represent God. The bare the Master’s identity and authority ad they carry on his work. o affront them is to affront the master, the owner, the one that has sent them. That’s why I teach people often to be careful how they talk to other’s ad how they handle the servants of God. Be careful how they judge them and treat men and women of God. Paul is so emphatic that he later asks the serious question “who art thou, that judgest another man’s servant”. To this end there is great power for those of us who serve God, power inherent in what we do and hose name we do it in.
For those of us who would serve the Lord, the Church and the Kingdom of God we must understand that the designation of slave came with a price .; Because the slave’s activities were supposedly pursued with a view to fulfill the interests of the owner and master with no prospect of self-interest. In other words what we do is not for us but what we do is for another. Now in order to fulfill this task appropriately we have to sacrifice our feelings, our thoughts our defenses and sometimes our own will because it’s not about you or me, NO.
We do not call ourselves, nor ar we called or ourselves, we are called by someone else and we are called o serve for someone else and we are called to serve to someone else.
Yes we have aspirations and inspirations to do more and go higher but these should always lead us to a place where we desire to serve more intensely and passionately as a servant.
Slavery is commonly defined as someone living for the benefit or profit of another. So there has to be a call to lose oneself as part of this definition.
I am not sure how we developed into a Kingdom of God where we have these pseudo celebrities, these rock star preachers who are viewed as important as God. When ever people come to see the man or the woman and not to fall into the presence of God there will always be problems.
Popularity, fame, money, recognition, reward, acclaim all of these work against the idea that we are servants.
If the agenda ad plan of the servant is inexhaustibly linked to the agenda and plan of the Master then the power and gifts of the servant are irreversibly linked to the power of the master.
This is the power of the servant.
This is the power of the doulous.
This is the power of any man or woman who would serve God.
The power of God is the power of the slave.
awordgiver
