Sermon Tone Analysis

! Slave – Our Fundamental Christian Identity (Titus 1:1)

/Preached by Pastor Phil Layton at Gold Country Baptist Church on April 13, 2008/

www.goldcountrybaptist.org

I told you last week we will be going through this book of Titus in the weeks and months ahead, we will be going through this book each week in a detailed fashion.

Titus may be a little book, but it has big truths.

It has an enormous message that was critical for the churches it was written to then, and a massively important message that our church needs to hear just as much in our day.

In verse 4, Paul mentions Titus who is the original recipient of this letter that bears his name in our Bible.

Verse 5 gives us the purpose or reason why Titus had the assignment he did, to set the church in order and to establish biblical leadership and ministry.

We’ll get to learn about Titus himself in a future lesson and get a proper introduction to what this book is about and why it was written.

But for today, we’re not going to look at the recipient of this book.

We need to introduce the author first and how he introduces himself in verse 1, which contains a monumental lesson for us.

*"**Paul, a slave of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness," (Titus 1:1, /Holman Christian Standard Bible/) *

 

We’re not going to get beyond the opening verse today, in fact we won’t even exhaust the first half of the first verse, because there is a truth here that has been consuming my attention and my spirit and thinking, a vital truth that will not let me go, a truth that is one of the most important and also one of the most underemphasized and even unknown truths for a Christian’s understanding of self.

Titus 1:1a is our text today: *Paul, a slave of God* (/we’ll stop there/)

 

These first 5 words of this book are:

-         very similar words to how many of the NT books begin

-         words we have read over in our translation numerous times

-         words we often skip over in our familiarity with them

-         words that are so basic and elementary that we don’t even pay attention to them but we quickly move to the rest

-         words that were a standard expression for how Christians introduced and viewed themselves and each other

I pray that God will open our eyes this morning to NOT miss the import of what is being said here, and that we will not look on these words the same way again.

All Scripture is inspired, every word is God-breathed and profitable, and deserves our attention.

And some words or truths in particular can revolutionize the entire way you think, can turn upside-down or right-side-up your understanding of the whole of scripture.

They can change your life and the way you read the Bible and live the Christian life.

For me, God’s glory is one such truth, the understanding of what that word “glory” entails in scripture is a paradigm-shifting mind-transforming ministry-shaping all-consuming eye-opening soul-satisfying truth that is the motive behind everything God does and I pray it will be the passion and aim for everything I do in life.

Another word in the Bible that can turn your whole world upside down is “sovereignty” – like the word “glory” it is very familiar to Christians but when God opens your eyes and heart to understand and apprehend and comprehend truly what that means and just /how /sovereign God is and that GOD IS GOD, when you by grace grasp what that means for Him to be absolute ruler and in charge of every molecule in the universe, and that His sovereign plan extends to man’s salvation and includes man’s sin and will, from eternity past to the present and future, all things done by creatures and creation are in His hand and used for His glory and the good of His children … that changes everything!

That opens up a whole new world in your understanding of God and His Word and like the truth of His glory you begin to see it on virtually every page, in places you never noticed it before when you just casually read your Bible.

It transforms your everyday trust in a truly Almighty God.

In the first 5 words of this book of Titus, we encounter another word that can rock your world and life in a similar way.

It’s not a new word, not a big word; it’s a word we’ve all read many times, but perhaps have never dwelt on or meditated on the depths of.

THE WORD IS “SLAVE” – SLAVE.

/“Paul a *slave* of God”/

 

Of course we know who Paul is.

He is the converted rabbi Saul who once persecuted the church, even there calling for the death penalty of men like Stephen, but who by God’s sovereign saving grace was chosen and rescued and converted when God opened his eyes (spiritually as well as literally after being blinded by God’s glory).

Paul was his Roman name, the new name he assumed thereafter rather than his Jewish name from his former life.

We’re very familiar with Paul.

We’re also very familiar with and have a good understanding of what the word “God” means in this verse and who He is, at least I pray you know God this morning.

But a word and concept that I’m afraid that almost all Christians misunderstand or miss altogether is this fundamental self-identity as a slave.

I have only recently begun to understand this myself.

John MacArthur gave a gripping message on this at Shepherd’s Conference which he really was more awakened to recently after decades of teaching God’s Word (he has a chapter on this in the revised version of his book /Gospel According to Jesus/).

Part of the problem is that most translations shield us from it:

-         The KJV has “Paul a *servant*” (& ASV, NIV, RSV, ESV)

~*at least ESV has footnote “or slave”

-         The NKJV & NASB uses the word “bondservant” here which at least distinguishes it from the normal word for servant, but it really doesn’t make clear or consistent the original meaning translated “slave” elsewhere

-         Only a few translations have the literal “Paul a *slave*” (HCSB, NET, NAB, NLT, Goodspeed, Jay Adams, Wuest)

 

The Greek word is /doulos /(D-O-U-L-O-S).

The noun appears about 130x in the New Testament, and if you count other words from the same root, it appears over 150x.

The Greek language had 6 other words that could refer to types of “servants” but /doulos /was not one of them.

ALL the original language lexicons and ancient sources say this word /doulos /always refers to a slave, it’s a slave.

-         NOT a servant who is a volunteer or an employee

-         NOT someone who is paid, but someone /paid for, owned/

One standard Lexicon (Grk dictionary) defines /doulos /as ‘one who is a slave in the sense of becoming the property of an owner’[1]

 

The /Complete Word Study Dictionary /defines this word as

‘A slave, one who is in a permanent relation of servitude to another, his will being altogether consumed in the will of the other (Matt.

8:9; 20:27; 24:45, 46).

Generally one serving, bound to serve, in bondage (Rom.

6:16, 17) … involuntary service, e.g., a slave as opposed to a free man.’[2]

An analytical lexicon says /doulos /was used: ‘of being in a servile condition /enslaved, performing the service of a slave/; figuratively, of unquestioning obedience, in either a good or bad sense /subservient, enslaved, subject/ (RO 6.19) (1) generally, as one who serves in obedience to another’s will, /slave … /opposite [of the word for] (/freeman/) and … (/citizen/) … [and the verb form meant] literally, as requiring absolute obedience /enslave, make/ someone /a slave/ (AC 7.6); figuratively /gain control over/ someone; with … one who gives up personal rights for the sake of others /make oneself a slave, submit oneself to/ (1C 9.19); passive /be enslaved, be subject to/ (GA 4.3); /be under obligation, be bound to/ (1C 7.15)[3]

 

The most authoritative lexicon (BAGD) tracing all the ancient Greek usage of /doulos /and defines the word as undisputably meaning slave or ‘/slavish, servile, subject/ … /in slavery to … subservient …/ (‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl.

and early American times [s.

Murray, New (Oxford) Engl.

Dict.

s.v.

servant, sb., 3a and b]; in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished’[4]

 

None of the Greek writers or writings used /doulos /to refer simply to a servant, interestingly it’s only some English and American times and translators that wrongly use “servant” instead of “slave”

 

Sadly the original KJV always mistranslated the word simply as “servant” and /never/ translates it accurately as “slave” - never

NKJV does use “slave” 30x out of 130 and “bondservant” 17x for when one of the NT writers refers to himself as a /doulos/

ESV has “slave” 44x in the NT

NIV translates “slave” 57x

NASB has “slave” the most of major translations, 104x of 130

But only a few translate it consistently and accurately as “slave” everytime (HCSB, NET, Goodspeed, Jay Adams NT, Wuest’s)

Kittel’s 10 volume TDNT takes up an entire shelf on the wall – it’s the massive definitive work on ancient Greek words.

It says:

‘All the words in this [/doulos/] group serve either to describe the status of a slave or an attitude corresponding to that of a slave … The meaning is so unequivocal and self-contained that it is superfluous to give examples of the individual terms or to trace the history of the group [!].

Distinction from synonymous words and groups … is made possible by the fact that the emphasis here is always on “serving as a slave.”

Hence we have a service which is not a matter of choice for the one who renders it …he has to perform whether he likes or not, because he is subject as a slave to an alien will, to the will of his owner.’[5]

If the meaning of /doulos /is so universally recognized by all the technical sources as meaning slave and not servant, why the inconsistency in the English versions?

Why do almost none of the translators use “slave” when Christians write about themselves being /doulos/ of God or /doulos/ of Christ?

The better modern translations will use “slave” when it clearly addresses actual physical slaves or slavery, or when it clearly refers to some kind of bondage to an inanimate reality.

But when it refers to a personal relationship, very few translators are willing to translate it as “slave.”

And in so doing, they marginalize and minimize and obscure a vital and fundamental N.T. image of who we are.

According to one website, when one chairman of a major translation was asked about the choice of “servant” instead of “slave” for /doulos, /he said that it was shameful and difficult because of the history of slavery in America.

It’s true that slavery is not a pretty part of America’s past up to 150 years ago, but when the N.T. writers describe Christians as slaves it wasn’t a pretty part of /their present lives in the 1st century/.

We know its shameful servile non-flattering image from our history textbooks – the N.T. readers knew it first hand from their actual experience.

The word has never been a flattering or dignified title.

If we find it hard to swallow that we are nothing more than slaves of Christ because we’re thinking of its humiliating harsh reality from a few generations ago, imagine how hard this truth was for NT Greek audiences to embrace right in the midst of real slavery!

I’ve heard of another conversation with one of the scholars of a modern translation where he was asked “what did you do with the word /doulos/?”

The guy hung his head and said “servant.

We had a lot of discussions and we all know it means slave, but that’s offensive.”

Offensive?

There’s a lot of things in the Bible that are offensive.

Christians identifying themselves as lowly servile slaves of their Lord may not pump up our ego, it may not be flattering, it may not be politically correct, but it’s biblically correct, and yes, it’s supposed to be very offensive to you and your pride.

Listen, this word was extremely offensive to the Greek world when it was written, this was not a politically correct word, this was not an easy concept for the Greeks to swallow, and this is exactly the word that the Christians used to describe their identity in the Lord.

The Roman world in the area of the New Testament had over 10 million slaves – in some places the population was a slave to every two freemen.

Some masters were good and loving, but everyone knew that the /title of slave/ was not dignified - it was a demeaning disdaining degrading lowly position to both free Jews and Greeks.

The Kittle article goes on tell us:

‘The Greek finds his personal dignity in the fact that he is free.

Thus his self-awareness stands out sharply from anything which stands under the concept [/doulos /where] human autonomy is set aside and an alien will takes precedence of one’s own … What is repudiated is service after the manner of the /doulos/, who not only has no possibility of evading the tasks laid upon him but who also has no right of personal choice, who must rather do what another will have done, and refrain from doing what another will not have done … Hence the Greek can only reject and scorn the type of service which in inner or outer structure bears even the slightest resemblance to that of the slave.’[6]

Some Jews in ancient times were known to begin their prayers as “I thank you God that I am not a slave.”

They viewed slaves as lower levels of humanity, ethically inferior in OT times and Jewish practice.

To the Rabbis, the word “slave” was one of the worst insults you could hurl at another, and you could excommunicate someone who called his neighbor a slave.[7]