“Masters, grant to your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a Master in heaven” (Colossians 4:1). Paul is speaking of the treatment of slaves to the Roman-era believers in Colossae. Centuries after the Law was given, slavery was still present. In fact, it was worse than ever.

In the time of the New Testament, slavery was much more brutal and inhumane than in the ancient near east at the time of the Exodus. It was much more common and much crueler. One would think that Jesus and the New Testament writers would do what the law failed to do, outlaw slavery.

But as we have seen in Exodus 21, God regulates slavery rather than outlaw it. Regulating something doesn’t mean that God approves of it. He regulated divorce, but He also said, “I hate divorce” (Malachi 2:16). Human beings enslaved one another, and spouses divorced each other, but in the words

of Jesus, “But from the beginning it has not been this way” (Matt. 19:8). As with divorce, God had an ideal for mankind from the beginning before the fall. For marriage, that ideal was one man and one woman married for life. For all people, His ideal was all people created in the image of God, and so were to be treated that way. This would preclude slavery out of hand. But sin…

Maybe the words of Paul in Colossians don’t go far enough for you. But at the time they were revolutionary. Masters were directed to show justice and fairness. Why? Because they too, were servants of a Master: God in heaven. In the Greco-Roman world, slaves were intrinsically inferior to free people. Aristotle referred to slaves as “living tools.” Their value was ranked just above animals. And whatever they had in life, or didn’t have—they deserved.

This was the culture Paul was speaking into. To instruct masters to be just and fair to slaves was extraordinary.

This is further illustrated in the parallel passage in Ephesians 6:7-8: “With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free. And masters, do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.”

Here, Paul gave a startling revelation for the time. Christian slaves and masters shared one Master, God in heaven. This they had in common: they were both servants of God through Christ their Savior. They were spiritual brothers, and that spiritual status was more important than any social status.

How did this come about? We see in Galatians 3:28 that the cross of Christ did away with distinctions between people. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Ethnic, social, and gender distinctions are erased in the Gospel. However, this does not mean the differences disappear entirely. A Jew does not become a Greek, a man does not become a woman, and a slave does not become a freeman—just by becoming a Christian.

These distinctions were barriers that kept people from fully experiencing God’s blessings. Once saved, they still remained in the state in which they were called. But the outcome of the Gospel is that all who have faith in Christ are one in Christ. This new identity brings a complete unity that was impossible on human terms and still is.

So why didn’t the early church rise up and free the slaves? We can’t know for sure, but we can trust in the sovereignty of God, in which case we know He always has a higher purpose. Here are three reasons. One is practical, one we know from Scripture, and the other we may surmise from history.

First, if the early church rose up politically against Rome, they would undoubtedly have been crushed.

If New Testament writers had made slavery an issue, it would have been a huge one. By some accounts, nearly half of the people on the Roman Empire were slaves. Christianity would have become known as an abolitionist movement, not a Gospel movement. The church would have been eradicated, and the Gospel extinguished. Yes, God could have given a victory over the Roman Empire. But the battle of the Gospel was not about slavery, it was, and is a spiritual battle, not against flesh and blood but against Satan and death; it’s about sin. If it had become a battle for the emancipation of slaves, the Gospel would have taken a back seat.

Second, God’s ultimate purpose in all things has always been His glory.

As is the case throughout the Scripture and attested in our own lives, God always uses suffering for His glory. Why did God allow the suffering in slavery? Why does He allow any suffering? He could do away with all suffering, but He has a higher purpose, which is His glory.

Additionally, His purpose is not our happiness or comfort. It is our holiness. His ultimate goal for his people has never been freedom from slavery, freedom from illness, freedom from financial worry, freedom from a bad boss. His purpose is our growth in each of these. His aim is our holiness—freedom from sin! That freedom is available to us regardless of the circumstance, regardless of social position. God did not do away with slavery. But neither did He do away with cancer, hurricanes, smallpox, divorce, bankruptcy, or war. But He will.

Until He does, we are to live in this world as “aliens and strangers” looking for a better hope. “For the law made nothing perfect. On the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God” (Hebrews 7:19). That hope, of course, is our freedom in Christ—obtained today, but realized fully in the life to come.

There is ideal freedom which we will enjoy with Christ in His kingdom. Until that time we struggle against sin in this world that continually asserts its will to enslave us once again. But we are free to be slaves of righteousness. Christ is glorified as we struggle in His power against all the “enslavements” of this world.

Third, we see that God used the Gospel to outlaw slavery in the world where the Gospel had taken hold.

One would expect the teachings of the Bible to oppose slavery. Indeed they did. The principles of justice, fairness, and equality that appear in both the Law of the Old Testament and the teachings of the New Testament were the seeds of the abolition of slavery. God takes the long view, and in time the church spread, and with her, the principles of justice, fairness, equality, and freedom had an effect on the nations where Christ was preached and believed.       

In fact, the outlawing of slavery throughout the world was primarily at the hands of Christians. William Wilberforce in England and the abolitionists in America were instrumental in outlawing slavery in the Western world.

Wilberforce was a man of deep faith, who upon his conversion committed His life to serve God. As a politician, he was dedicated to applying the teachings of Christ to his service. This led him to work tirelessly for 20 years to successfully abolish slavery in the British Empire

In America, one of the often-overlooked details of the Abolitionist movement was that it was mostly Christian. Lincoln is credited with freeing the slaves, but the Abolitionists worked for some 30 years to free the slaves, being motivated by their faith.

A Christianized Europe and the United States would eventually abolish slavery. The leaders in both cases (Wilberforce and American abolitionists) fought the battle as Christians who saw slavery as sin.

So we can see that the seeds of emancipation were sown in the Old Testament Law, in the words of Jesus (“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed”), and in the teachings of the New Testament. Those seeds eventually bore the fruit of freedom as God’s people saw the injustice of the sin of slavery.

Christ did not come to establish a new political nation, He came to set up a kingdom that would one day do away with every other kingdom on earth.

When Christ returns, our Master in heaven will then be our Master on earth.