Well, it’s not looking too good for wives, children and slaves, is it? Nor is it looking too good for the preacher who’s got to try to explain all this.
So I decided I needed a bit of extra help from the bloke who wrote this stuff:-
Dear Paul. We’re studying your letter to the Colossians at our church, and we’ve reached 3:18-4:1 – the bit about wives, children and slaves. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?…
Slavery is ‘a state of servitude by which a man is the property of another man.’ Thus defined, it is a violation of an individual’s fundamental rights as a human being, and tends to breed cruelty and exploitation.
Slavery probably originated about 10,000 years ago. Slaves were often people who had been captured in war, or were criminals or people who could not pay their debts.
Conventional wisdom runs as follows: slavery was tolerated uncritically by New Testament teachers such Paul, and allowed to continue unchallenged by Christians until the 19th century. …
I hesitate to contribute anything on this subject, discussion of which tends generate more heat than light. But perhaps if only to demonstrate that there is a way of seeking to be faithful to Scripture which does not amount to a homophobic rant, I offer the following.
I remember that when I was at school in the 1960s, our class was informed that about 10% of the population was homosexual. (Of course, with a class size of about 30, each of us silently wondered who those three boys were!). …
In our own relatively affluent culture, we need help to make godly choices about leisure and recreation. Time for some Puritan wisdom. The following quotes are from William Perkins:-…
The most common type of employment throughout the Roman Empire was slavery. Slaves – especially in the East of the empire – were often treated quite well. Some were farm workers or labourers. Others became architects, physicians, administrators, philosophers, writers and teachers. Household slaves had many rights. They could marry and earn money. They were virtually members of the extended families of their owners. But they were still slaves, and would have been tempted to be untrustworthy, dishonest and disloyal.…
Work occupies a significant place in many people’s lives. In some parts of the world there is little prospect of paid employment, because of civil war, famine or other forms of poverty. There are varieties of work: the shoeshine boy in Nairobi, the call-centre worker in Bangalore, the oil worker in Siberia, the child labourer in Beijing, the entrepreneur in Kiev, the barrister in London and the teacher in Memphis are all working. Some are oppressed and some are the source of oppression. …
1. Children need love, especially when they do not deserve it. (Harold Hulbert)
2. No man or woman ever had a nobler challenge or a higher privilege than to bring up a child for God, and whenever we slight that privilege or neglect that ministry for anything else, we live to mourn it in heartache and grief. (Vance Havner)
3. The cure of crime is not the electric chair, but the high chair. (J. Edgar Hoover)…
Arthur Holmes writes lucidly on work within a Christian world view. Here’s a precis:-
The technological revolution has affected the world of work in many ways: computerised accounting, sophisticated management techniques, systems analysis, advertising, and distribution networks all employ technology. But technology is amoral, and an amoral mentality can take over, with utilitarian considerations predominating. Profit, productivity, efficiency, or corporate growth can become not just important factors but over-riding goals.
This kind of mentality marred the industrial revolution. …
[Notes of a sermon preached at Holy Trinity Norwich some years ago. It differs from my usual expository approach by attempting to follow the narrative form of the passage itself, while reflecting (I think) careful exegesis and including applicatory points along the way. If I were asked to preach from this passage again today, I would be tempted to take a similar approach, while aiming to strengthen the practical implications and applications.]
Act 1, Scene 1 – In Which Ahab Wants Naboth’s Vineyard, 1 King 21:1-7
Ahab gazes out of his palace window. …
A recent article in the Guardian reports that ‘Britain has become a significantly more tolerant nation over the last 20 years, with increasingly liberal views on marriage, relationships and same-sex partnerships, according to research showing that the heterosexual married couple is no longer at the centre of UK life.’ Read the rest of the article here.…
