Christians against slavery
Luke 4: 14 – 21
Rev. Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 18 Feb, 2007

THROUGHOUT HISTORY, Christians have not only gotten on with preaching the gospel, but have also been leaders in social action. What can we learn from these past leaders?

Let’s look at just a few things that go back to Christian efforts over recent centuries.

17th Century: it was separation of church and state.

In the 18th and 19th Centuries, it was for reforms of policy in the colonies, for banning practices like sati — an Indian idea where a widow was burnt alive on her husband’s funeral pyre — for Local Government Reform, and, above all, the campaigns against slavery.

A lot went wrong after the First World War, but, until then, Evangelical Christians were one ot the two most effective forces for reform in the Western world. The other was the Utilitarians, a philosophical movement.

Today I want to look at the successful campaign against slavery, look at its roots, and look at its process, and look at what we can learn from it.

The Campaign

Slavery has existed throughout history, and many people have considered it quite ordinary.

But you know that Christians in particular began campaigning against slavery sometime around the end of the 18th Century. I’m sure you have heard about William Wilberforce and his campaign to abolish slavery.

Some people say that Christians supported slavery until about 200 years ago, and then began seeing it differently.

You are better–informed. You might know that the Quakers protested against slavery in the 1640s. They made it a rule: owning slaves was a reason for you to be removed from Quaker membership.

You have certainly heard that the Methodists took up the same idea and began preaching salvation to all who believe and liberation for slaves.

But what about before the Quakers? There was a lot of Church History before 1645AD.

The record before about 1070 AD is mixed, though it does seem that many Christians tended to consider slavery a bad idea.

Around 1070, Lanfranc, the Archbishop of Canterbury, tried to abolish slavery in England. He brought about a numer of social reforms, but wasn’t very successful with slavery.

On and off since that time, Church leaders tried to abolish slavery. Often local bishops excommunicated slave holders. But slavery kept coming back.

But the truth is that Christians were not consistent about slavery, they didn’t read their Bibles, and they let slavery flourish. On the other hand, there were always some Christians who struggled to find ways to discourage people from owning other people. However, the interesting thing is that, unlike the Romans, who had thinkers who deplored slavery, and the Muslims, who happily owned and traded slaves, Christians have been the most effective in ending the practice.

I have mentioned the Quakers and the Methodists. Do you want to know about Baptists? Most Baptists were poor people who didn’t own slaves. At best, they were small businessmen. However, they tended to join in with the general campaign against slavery.

Of course, throughout history, many believers have held slaves. The famous evangelist, George Whitefield, had slaves, and John Wesley criticised him for it. Wesley understood that the Bible doesn’t make a law against slavery, but makes slavery difficult to maintain, and discourages the attitudes which lead to slavery.

Exodus 23:12 provides that slaves are to have the same day of rest as free people, and anyone who makes his slave work on the Sabbath is to be punished.

There are special protections for Israelites. They can’t really become slaves in the fullest sense. God commands,

^{LEV 25:39} “ `If one of your countrymen becomes poor among you and sells himself to you, do not make him work as a slave. ⁴⁰ He is to be treated as a hired worker or a temporary resident among you; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee. ⁴¹ Then he and his children are to be released, and he will go back to his own clan and to the property of his forefathers. ⁴² Because the Israelites are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt, they must not be sold as slaves.

Every 50 years, all slaves were supposed to be set free. That’s the Jubilee Year. If you were an Israelite, and you became a slave to another Israelite, and it was only a month from the beginning of the Jubilee Year, you had to be set free. That was the law.

People like Gorge Fox, the Quaker, and John Wesley, the Methodist understood what the Bible teaches.

It’s like the old saying about poverty: give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach him to fish and he eats every day.

We can ban slavery, or we can transform the attitudes which permit slavery. People always look for ways around a ban; but a changed heart looks for ways to do better than what the law requires.

In the same way, William Wilberforce visited the old man, John Wesley, and asked Wesley what he, as a newly–elected Member of Parliament should do. Wesley told him, “Free the slaves!” And Wilberforce spent the rest of his life in that struggle.

Roots of anti–slavery

So let’s understand what ideas underly the anti–slavery thrust.

In Old Testament times, slavery was quite common. Run a search for the word, slave, in your Bible, and you will see many examples.

• Hagar, the mother of Ishmael, was an Egyptian slave of Sarah and Abraham.
• In Exodus 12:44, God gives instructions about how circumcised slaves can share in the Passover meal with free Israelites.
• In Exodus 21:20, there is some protection of slaves from cruel masters.
• Leviticus partially protects slave girls against being sexually exploited by their masters.
• The law also said that the Israelites must protect a slave who took refuge among them. He couldn’t be handed back to his owner.
• But Solomon enslaved foreigners living in Israel to make them work in his building programs.

To sum up, the ancient Israelites did keep slaves, but it was very hard for an Israelite to become a slave in his own country, and the restrictions and regulations for the keeping of foreign slaves discouraged slavery without entirely preventing it.

On the other hand, the laws and regulations constantly stipulated that the Israelites had been foreigners and slaves in Egypt, and had to treat their slaves fairly because the Israelites should know what it was like to be a slave.

In New Testament times, slavery was much less common, but still occurred.

Peter cut off the ear of the High Priest’s slave. However, there is no indication that the apostles or anyone else in Jesus’ band owned slaves.

Jesus praised slaves instead of insulting them, as many did. He often used slavery as an example for how his disciples should live:

^{MATT 20:25} Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. ²⁶ Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ²⁷ and whoever wants to be first must be your slave — ²⁸ just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Peter proclaimed that the era of equality had come for slaves, when he preached on the Day of Pentecost,

^{ACTS 2:18} Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.

The word translated servants is better translated, slaves. Even female slaves, who were the lowest of the low in the ancient world, would equally receive the Holy Spirit!

Jesus preached in the Nazareth synagogue about liberation:

 ^{LUKE 4:18} “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

If you release the oppressed, that definitely includes slaves.

In the early church, Paul says,

^{GAL 3:26} You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, ²⁷ for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

When a runaway slave came to Paul for rescue, Paul wrote to his owner,

^{PHILEM 1:12} I am sending him — who is my very heart — back to you. ¹³ I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel. ¹⁴ But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that any favour you do will be spontaneous and not forced. ¹⁵ Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back for good — ¹⁶ no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a man and as a brother in the Lord.

¹⁷ So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. ¹⁸ If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me. ¹⁹ I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back

In other words, “I respect your property rights. I realise you have suffered a loss, but don’t forget that this man is my brother in Christ, he is your brother in Christ. Think about what it means to enslave your own brother!”

Lessons to learn

There were several prongs to the Quaker and Methodist campaigns.

The first thing is that they looked back to the Bible, the understood what it was saying to them in their day, and they took a firm and principled stand against slavery. They enforced the rule: no slaves for Quakers or Methodists.

Second, when they preached, they preached against slavery. They wove their campaign into their evangelism. Every Methodist preached the gospel of slavation through Jesus and something against slavery. God judged slave–holding together with drunkenness and wife–beating, and Jesus came to forgive and to cleanse and defeat such evils.

Third, they campaigned specificially against slavery. They would rent a hall, they would gather a crowd, and they would talk to the people about slavery.

The final prong was worked out in Parliament.

While the campaigns were going on, William Wilberforce and his supporters campaigned in parliament for a bill to outlaw slavery. Wilberforce was a Christian who couldn’t see that many servants in great houses in England were only half–a–step above slaves. He told the poor to stay in their place and submit to authority, even if it was harsh and unjust.

Those are unbiblical attitudes.

But he understood about slaves, he had Christian supporters who prayed with him against slavery, and he fought throughout his life until the very end. He died knowing that his bill was going to Parliament and had the numbers — at last — to go through.

What should we do — and how?

Today we face many other issues.

David Hicks. Was he planning terrorism? We don’t know. But five years at Guantanamo Bay waiting for a fair trial — that’s definitely wicked! The British Government brought back its captives from Guantanamo, because they knew that the US system couldn’t give them a fair trial. Why is David Hicks still there?

As Christians, we must have a commitment to justice. How should we campaign for justice for Hicks?

Whaling. Countries like Japan eat whale meat, and are destroying whale populations.

Are Christians supposed to care for the environment? God told Adam and Eve to rule over the creation. Ruling involves care and management. Should we campaign for whales?

Nuclear power. John Howard is pushing for nuclear power because he says it is clean energy which does not spew CO₂ into the atmosphere. He doesn’t mention the financial benefits to Australia from Uranium mining.

But how do we dispose of nuclear waste? There is no solution yet. What about the water that nuclear plants demand? — far more than coal fired plants require.

How do we campaigning for better solutions, for solar, for wind, for tidal power, for wave power? How do we push for less power–hungry technologies?

What do we think about a tax regime which pays rich people to drive big BMWs, and taxes people who use trains and buses?

There are so many issues!

So how do we do it?

• We read our Bibles and we understand our times.
• When we see something that needs change, we take it seriously.
• We change our behaviour. If we don’t lead the way, who will follow?
• We might even need to discipline those who don’t comply.
• Then we preach about it. We make it a social issue. We talk about the morality of the situation, and how people must change so that the Kingdom of God is revealed.
• We campaign specifically.
• Finally, we take it to the authorities.

God will do something if we really stand for right. Don’t take on some half–baked campaign that sounds nice: dig deeply and discover the reality. Deal with that.

When we Christians campaign for social issues out of Biblical concern, people will want to hear the gospel we preach, because it will be clearly good news — it really will change people’s lives, and not just their thoughts!

May Jesus perform miracles through us all.

AMEN

© Peter R. Green 2007. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. Portions also copyright The Bible, NIV (Zondervan Ltd.)