Business Card
Paul, a bond-servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, Titus 1:1 NASB
Bond-servant/apostle – No doubt by now you know that the translation “bond-servant” is softened to make it more palatable to our ears. The word is doulos, the lowest type of slave in the Greek world; a slave without any rights, effectively a piece of property owned by the master. We all know that this imagery is the intended human side of the relationship with the Master. What he chooses to do with us is entirely up to him.
But notice the second line of Paul’s business card. Apostolos—one sent out. More than merely a messenger, this is a person who goes with the authority of the Master, as his representative in word and deed. In other words, when Paul determines that he will take on the role of the doulos, Yeshua determines that he will be given the role of apostolos. Both lines on the card are important. In fact, one without the other is a travesty of the faith. We must first determine our relationship before he can determine our role.
Do you want to be commissioned for a role in the restoration of creation? Are you looking for real purpose, satisfying meaning, a reason to keep going? Do you wish to represent the Creator as His chosen envoy? Then the first line on your business card must be a statement of your attitude toward YHVH. For Paul, it’s doulos. Doulos is a title for absolute dependence. It is precisely the opposite of our desire for freedom. TDNT makes the point.
Greeks have a strong sense of freedom. Personal dignity consists of freedom. There is thus a violent aversion to bondage. Service may be rendered to the state, but by free choice. Slavery is scorned and rejected. This explains the fierceness with which the Greeks fought for political independence. The only slavery Plato will allow is to the laws. The laws, however, represent the goal of humanity, so that slavery to law is in no way derogatory. Aristotle shows a similar scorn for slavery; for him slaves have no part in the state or true service to it.[1]
Doulos is a choice to live an un-free life, to be at the beck and call of the Master for whatever task he might assign. The irony is that as we give up our right to freedom, we find meaning. When we pursued our own ends, the world crumbled in our hands, but when we gave up that pursuit, we discovered the life we desired.
Paul’s business card is ironic in the deepest sense. Is yours?
Topical Index: doulos, apostolos, bond-servant, slave, freedom, Titus 1:1
[1] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. TDNT (1985) p. 183.
Being human in the physical world makes us slaves to the “laws of nature” which are YHWH’s laws.
A slave to “the law” / Torah and a slave to YHWH (in the manifestation of Geburah), is it not one and the same?
What is freedom? The Greeks saw life as being expressed in ideal forms. There is not a whole lot of difference that I can see between that view of reality and the one that the orientals had where everyone was tied to fate. In both worlds, choice was not working well. Tied to what-is; tied to already-here. One step behind reality. Oh! That would be what the Bible calls “death”. Nope. No freedom anywhere in sight for sinners. No wonder they longed for it so much.
Longing for freedom. We were created to be free; free from sin and its results, that is. Free from death. Free from a world where you were at the butt end of consequences and choices past, too. Free to be who you are really are. Free to worship. Free to be functioning and sane and effective and happy, too. BUT, because (and to the extent that) people cannot see sin for what it is, they are shadow-boxing with the enemy. When you cannot see the problem (sin) the answer (love) may be hitting you in the face but because you are not free (from the problem, of course) you have no way to implement the solution.
It is inconceivable to think that people cannot see where they are messing up, but without the Law; no, further, without a willingness to be taught by the Law, they are blind. If consequences are hitting you right and left and you cannot for the life of you see where they are coming from, you will start blindly guessing who the enemy is, and you are going to get the guess wrong. How am I ever going to guess that I am my own problem? People long for freedom for that is how we were created, but only the Law is able to identify what freedom is.
I have dear friends and acquaintances who claim to love God with all their hearts, but consider the Law non-applicable in their lives. I see them sick and confused and crying out all day long because life is just beating them up, but you can’t talk to them about WHY, because they have been told that they are already free.
What is freedom? We are just not going to get the answer to that question right until we can answer the question “what is slavery?” Who would ever be able to guess in the flesh that it is our own wrong choices that are keeping us limited? Only those who would be considering that the Law held the answer to the question “what is freedom?”
GOOD WILL AMBASSADORS
So says our business cards.
In truth, we are willful slaves to His will, by the grace of His calling.
And no, we’re not asked to pass out our business cards.
We are, however, meant to be seen as He wills us to be seen.
I have gladly given up my freedom to pursue the ways of this broken word system in order to be bound to the will, way and purposes of YHVH. The kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world’s system are to me simultaneously coexisting but mutually exclusive. Bondage in one is freedom to the other. As a slave to Messiah I am free from the disfunctions inherent in this world. This choice defines for me my walking in the kingdom of YAHWEH. As I inhabit his realms of wonder I reflect his light, I suppose that makes me an embasador, or “a light on a hill”. See Isaiah 30:15-23 for how this works into a reality..
“Signal on a hill” Isaiah 30:17 nas.