Slavery

The reason we have poverty in America is because we abolished the institution of slavery. On the surface this sounds controversial. I’m not advocating that slavery be reinstituted but I am inferring that the institution was never abolished and we need to truly set people free. When a slave depends on someone else to free him he will look for another master once he is free. When a revolutionary frees himself he will be his own master. However, neither viewpoint produces true freedom. We are all slaves to someone or something.

A slave is always dependant on someone unless he learns to be independent. If I grew up a slave then as long as I think of myself in those terms I will always be in bondage. If I think differently about myself then I can be free from bondage.

Now replace the word slavery above with poverty. The principle is the same. We can use the words literally or metaphorically.

I was working with a young man who was having difficulty adjusting to being taken out of the home and relocated to a different town. He physically was living in a different place then he was mentally and emotionally. He would continue to have difficulty until he moved his whole person to his physical location. As it was, he sabotaged himself in relationships to where he liked no one and no one like him. It was all in his mind because he was a very likable guy.

I was a slave. Someone else set me free. I was unable to free myself. And sometimes in my mind I still live like a slave trying to free myself. But I’m already free. Free to live in freedom. Free to do what is right. Free to live without resentment (which is bondage) to my former master. Free to love. Free to grow into maturity. I’m not free to harm or to be selfish or to use my freedom to sin. But I have been set free.

In Galatians 5 Paul contrasts the bondage of the Law and freedom in the Spirit. Freedom is a life of dependence/walking through faith on the Spirit. It is “faith working through love.”

For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. v. 17

When I am mentally and emotionally struggling to live up to a standard I cannot meet, I will be in bondage. The Law never set anyone free. The Law has never given me one second of freedom.

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. v.18

My bondage to the flesh is replaced with motivation from the Spirit. The Spirit is a real person that is capable of handling my carnal desires – the control of the flesh. Prior to verse 17, Paul says

walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. v. 16

Surrounding his comments about the flesh and Spirit war (which sounds like the flesh is stronger) are comments about how to live in freedom from the flesh, that is, how the war has already been won.

Paul further contrasts the deeds of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit and then concludes his talk on freedom with a reminder that we belong to Christ. His readers would understand belonging differently than we do. Some of them would have literally belonged to someone else with all the implications of being a slave. Their context was one of slavery. They would have instilled in their programming that they were not their own.

Our programming on the other hand is one of independence. We think we belong to ourselves and even worse others belong to us. We take ownership instead of being owned. Jesus belongs to me. I try to fit Him into my box. I try to get Him to do my bidding.

Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions
and desires. v. 24

Being belonged precedes being crucified. It is difficult to crucify the flesh when I try to make Jesus belong to me. When I recognize and accept that I am a bond-slave to Jesus the flesh will not be a problem and I will truly be free.