A slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. (John 8:35)
Slavery has become a dull term to us; it doesn’t incite in us the type of indignation that is appropriate to its’ character. The picture above should do the trick.
This monument was built in Zanzibar in 2011 as a commemoration of the slave trade in that region. Slaves were auctioned near the site of this monument for many years.
Looking at an image like this should piss you off! And I don’t care what your ethnicity is; we should all hate slavery. Human beings were not created to be chained up like animals: human beings were created to be free!
Hating slavery is not about hating a people group (like white people). Hating slavery is about hating a spiritual reality that is as dark and demonic as the devil himself. Hating slavery is about hating the things that bring us into bondage. And sometimes hating slavery is about hating things that bring us great benefit.
Moses, the author of Hebrews tells us, one day decided that he would no longer be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. So he chose rather to suffer shame with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. By faith he forsook Egypt . . . and here is the rub. Moses’ faith led him to abandon the palace and flee to the desert. He gave up the luxurious thing in order to embrace great difficulty and great trial . . . because he woke one day and realized that he had been just as much a slave in the palace as his people had been in the field.
Hating slavery led Moses to abandon his palace of comfort.
There are far more palace slaves in the church today than there are field slaves. Palace slaves are slaves of pleasure. They don’t think they’re in bondage because they actually like what they’re doing; the massa is good to them. A palace slave is not just a house slave; house slaves only go into the house to serve. But a palace slave get’s served in the house.
But what palace slaves don’t understand is that although they live in the house, they don’t abide there forever. The pleasures of sin can only be enjoyed for a season. In the end, the proverbial wool is pulled from their eyes and they see that the very thing that brought them pleasure was all the while tightening the chains around their necks and dragging them off like the rest of the slaves.
Slaves don’t abide in the house. Sons abide in the house . . . and sons abide there forever! We must hate slavery and love sonship, and in order to do this, we must hate the things that bring us into slavery and love the things that bring us into sonship.
