{"id":1367,"date":"2012-09-16T11:45:17","date_gmt":"2012-09-16T15:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayspirituality\/?p=1367"},"modified":"2016-10-19T08:28:40","modified_gmt":"2016-10-19T12:28:40","slug":"slavery-and-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2012\/09\/slavery-and-the-bible.html","title":{"rendered":"Slavery and the Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bible readers almost have to be mental contortionists to glimpse the poignancy and spiritual power of what we call Scripture. I\u2019m not talking about the poignancy of melodrama or the power to control others, but the tenderness and might of yielding to divine Life, Truth, and Love. Readers must have a stamina and agility to bend and expand with wisdom. for example, how do we read about slaves and masters when we know slavery is illegal?<\/p>\n<p>Paul told the Ephesians, \u201cSlaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ\u2026Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and your is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.\u201d (Eph. 6, ESV)<\/p>\n<p>Although illegal slavery has still yet to be stopped in the world, the laws of the lands recognize the unreasonable profanity of committing humanity to slavery of any kind.<\/p>\n<p>So, do we ignore every verse encompassing slavery in the Bible? Do we throw the Bible away as irrelevant and stupid? Or, can we adjust our position and glean an insight?<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve often associated the human body as a slave to the human mind. I can usually tell my body what to do and when. And, the body is agreeable. Most of the time. During those times when the body rebels against its directive from the mind, I refer to the Bible and push consciousness to accept a body and mind that are respectful, sincere in heart, obedient to Christ, Truth, unthreatening, and impartial. My consciousness takes on a new spirit and I discover healing.<\/p>\n<p>From <em>21<sup>st<\/sup> Century Science and Health, <\/em>\u201cWe need to become familiar with original Bible texts and be willing to give up human beliefs, especially interpretations established by hierarchies or instigated by the worst passions of mortal beings. Familiarity with texts opens the way for divine Science to be understood and makes the Bible the map of life where the healing steps of Truth are clearly pointed out<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bible readers almost have to be mental contortionists to glimpse the poignancy and spiritual power of what we call Scripture. I\u2019m not talking about the poignancy of melodrama or the power to control others, but the tenderness and might of yielding to divine Life, Truth, and Love. Readers must have a stamina and agility to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":429,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,5,7,1],"tags":[615,617,616,614,613],"class_list":["post-1367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community_world","category-christian-science","category-at-work","category-smorgasbord","tag-bible-and-slaves","tag-master-bible","tag-masters-of-body","tag-mental-slavery","tag-stop-slavery"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Slavery and the Bible - Everyday Spirituality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2012\/09\/slavery-and-the-bible.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Slavery and the Bible - Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bible readers almost have to be mental contortionists to glimpse the poignancy and spiritual power of what we call Scripture. I\u2019m not talking about the poignancy of melodrama or the power to control others, but the tenderness and might of yielding to divine Life, Truth, and Love. 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