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any of you will be surprised to learn that my great grandparents were slaves in America. Usually, we think of African Americans as those who represent the descendants of early American slavery, but there were also other peoples who were kidnapped, taken from the land of their ancestors and forced into slavery in America.

My father’s mother was the child of slaves who were taken from the Spanish Island of Menorca and used to develop the area in Jacksonville, Florida known as Mayport, where the Mayport Navy Base is located.

As a free American, I couldn’t imagine being owned by anyone. My dad and his brothers and sisters have shared stories with me of how my great-grandfather would not be allowed in the front door of a restaurant, but had to go around to the back to be served from a window or back door.

Some of us may have never thought about it, but if you owe anyone a debt, then you are their servant until the debt is paid.

Dave Ramsey shares some myths and truths about loaning money to relatives and friends:

“Myth: If I loan money to friends or relatives, I am helping them.

Truth: If I loan money to a friend or relative, the relationship will be strained or destroyed. The only relationship that would be enhanced is the kind resulting from one party’s being the master and the other party a servant.”

Paul’s letter to the Philippians follows the typical Greco-Roman form, but Paul makes some changes that cause his letters (not only his letter to the Philippians) to be uniquely Pauline. In studying Paul’s letter to the Philippians, one important aspect to note is that Paul does not introduce himself as an apostle, but as a fellow-slave of Jesus (Fee Letter, p. 62).

Often the word “servant” is used to translate the Greek word of this passage, but the Greeks, among the believers in Philippi, would have understood it to mean nothing less than a slave. In Greco-Roman societies, slavery was not like the racial slavery that devastated America, but it was still slavery. First century slaves in the Roman world were not free to do as they chose; they were under obligation as humble servants who belonged to someone. They were in debt to someone, who owned them until the debt was paid.

As David Arthur DeSilva explains, “…slavery in the ancient world was based on practicalities of conquest, criminal proceedings, birth into a slave family or defaulting on debts.”

And though being a slave would seem to represent the deepest loss of dignity for any person, the Savior of the universe would come to the world in the form of a slave.

Paul and Timothy mimicked the attitude of Jesus by living as slaves. In Philippians 2:7, Paul writes that Jesus “made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a slave.”

The Septuagint’s use of the word δοῦλος (du-los) that is translated “servant” often refers to those who are called by God to be used for special and honorable service, such as Moses or David, but this letter from Paul, which has humility as its theme, would more than likely use the word to mean the less honorable role of someone owned by another (O’Brien The Epistle, p. 45). Paul and Timothy are not referring to themselves as honored representatives of God’s Kingdom, but as slaves of their Master, Jesus.

Paul, an apostle called by Jesus himself, and leader of God’s people, considers himself, along with Timothy, to be nothing more than a slave, owned by Jesus Christ.

As believers in Jesus, it is not our goal to be served, but to serve in honor of the one who owns us. We are in His service, serving in his household, and serving those whom Jesus calls his children.

In His dust,
Johnny

Writer: Capt. Jonathan Gainey was born in Jacksonville, FL in June, 1969. He has been married to Staci, the daughter of retired Salvation Army officers, for twenty years and they have four children ages 18, 16, 12, and 4. Jonathan was commissioned as an officer in June of 2002, and is currently serving in his third appointment in New Bern, NC, USA. He is working on a Masters of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and is the creator and manager of the Flocks Diner website, where his passion for learning and teaching is expressed and shared through writing and a weekly podcast.

Works Cited:

Gordon D. Fee The New International Commentary on the New Testament: Paul’s Letter to the Philippians (Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1995) p. 62.

Peter T. O’Brien The New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michiagan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. and U.K.: The Paternoster Press, Ltd., 1991) p. 45.

Dave Ramsey The Total Money Makeover (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2003, 2007) p. 24.