The contrast is sharp, startling and offensive. And Paul says it is the heart of all Christian thinking. What God has done in Jesus Christ is set all humanity free (from whatever has held them in bondage)…free that is to be slaves to one another in love.

I remember when I first preached on this passage. Over and over again I emphasized that we in the Christian family need to be slaves to one another…in love.  I thought it was a great sermon. Then, while standing at the door of the church, an elderly black couple walked by me. They said politely, “Thank you for coming.” They had not said, “Beautiful sermon, pastor. Such an important message.”  It caused me to think. The drive home from church was about an hour long.  I thought, “Maybe my saying ‘We must be slaves to one another in love’ was a bit naïve. Who I am to talk about ‘slavery’ as if it were some spiritual ideal? For those whose ancestors lived through the devastating reality of slavery in this country, ‘slavery to one another in love’ just was not good news.”  That was over ten years ago.  I still think of that moment looking into the faces of that elderly couple and the look in their eyes causing me to open up to the gospel as something radically offensive.  By spiritualizing the gospel I believe I had lost the “abrasive” and offensive nature of the gospel proclamation.

Slavery was the reality of the Greco-Roman world in which Paul had gone forth to proclaim the good news of the crucified Jewish Messiah.  In some places over 60% of the population lived in slavery. The society was sharply divided. You were in either in (free) or out (enslaved). You were either a person…or nothing.  Paul new the radical offensiveness of telling the recent converts to belief in Christ that God had delivered them from slavery…(Yeah!)…so that they could be slaves of one another… (Huh?). Mutual slavery. Volunteer to take the lowest place in society.  For those who understood the reality of slavery, this was an insult.  They relished Paul’s message of radical freedom. They lived into their radical freedom. So much so, that Paul had to qualify his gospel: Yes, God has emancipated you spiritually!!  But this doesn’t mean that you can mistreat your own bodies or take advantage of your neighbor. Follow my example: I am a slave of Christ. You are called to be the same…with all the offense that that state of being means.

As Americans we treasure our supposed freedom.  It is the hallmark of our self-understanding as a nation.  We are free from tyranny. It is our inalienable right. We question the limiting of our freedoms at all cost (whether that concern the freedom of ‘hateful’ speech, the right to bear arms without considering consequences, the right to drive oversized, gas-guzzling vehicles, the right to ignore the neediest members of society). Many of those who bray most loudly about personal freedom also, inexplicably, call themselves “Christian.” And yet they (we) ignore the most offensive call of the gospel: limiting our personal freedom in order to serve our neighbors as if we were slaves.  This is what Christ chose to do (read Philippians 2:5-7 “Have this same mind in you that was in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God,…emptied himself, taking on the form of a slave.”)

Now this form of slavery isn’t some excuse to live out a co-dependent, self-deprecating inferiority complex.  Nor is it a call to justify the degradation of one gender at the expense of another.  This is a call to mutuality.  If all are slaves of one another, then no one is abused.  It does, however, give us the opportunity to live out a radical form of love that is energized by God’s Spirit.  In order to live out this offensive call we must rely on the Spirit of Christ which bears fruit in us and through us.  Otherwise, without this life-imbuing Spirit, all our efforts to “serve” would exhaust us and leave us empty.  We could not endure the humiliation of living as “slaves” to every neighbor who comes along. The call of the gospel might offend our personal sense of dignity and freedom, but it is not punitive.  The call of the gospel sets us into a new relationship: all of us are freed slaves, made into a new family who remember the horrors of the former life of bondage, and who have sworn, by God, to serve one another mutually, allowing love to restore us when we fail to live out this calling as we should.

The abrasive nature of the gospel should offend us. If it doesn’t, then perhaps we have over-spiritualized it. Look into the eyes of someone who has known real suffering, true disappointment, and soul-crushing injustice. Jesus looked into the eyes of all humanity and knew that loving, godly, grace-inspired action in this world is messy.  The early Christians heard his love as the heart of the gospel proclamation: “For freedom Christ has set us free!  Now, through love, serve one another as slaves. Amen. End of sermon.”