Rather often you hear people present themselves in the Church World as Pastors, Priests, Bishops, Church leaders, Elders, etc.I have never heard anyone present themselves as St Paul used to present himself in his letters:
In Romans 1 he says: Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus ( NIV)
in NTE it says: Paul, a slave of King Jesus
Very seldom, or should I be so bold to say never are we presenting ourselves as Slaves or Servants.
The Greek Word for slave is "doulos". The new Testament is written in Greek, and almost every translation use the word servant instead of slave for "doulos".
How is that? I looked at a Greek new testament and I counted that word slave is used around 150 times. Perhaps the translators didn’t really like the word “slave” because of the connotations that word brought.
Slaves has no rights, they don't get paid, but on the other hand they are a part of the family. They don't have to worry about a lot of things. What to eat, when to eat, how to pay the bills etc. Mark here that I do not say that I love slavery...
One might think that the masters didn't care about their slaves in those days, but that's not the case.
The slaves became like a family member. They cared for their needs. in Matthiew 8: 5-6 we can read about the Roman centurion who sent a man to Jesus to help him heal his slave.
Further on in Matt 8:9 it says I “am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant ‘Do this,’ and he does it’”
So even here the translators use the Word servant instead for slaves for the Word "doulos".
We are slaves to Christ. It means that he owns us. We belong to him.
We surrender. We submit our will to His will...
The bible says we have to die to ourselves and live for Him...
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