The Servitude of Faith - Part 2

The Servitude of Faith – Part 2

James 1:1a “James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ….”

Being a bondservant, though foreign to our contemporary context, was a very common social and cultural reality in the First Century. From our egalitarian, Twenty-first Century frame of reference, we see the term only from the slave’s view point of which none of us has any firsthand knowledge. We imagine, however, that it was all bad, abusive, without any freedom or personal respect.

The critical element in the bondservant’s life was not the institution of slavery but the person and character of the slave’s master. True, the slave had only what liberty the master permitted, and the personal life of the slave was what the master provided. The element that made one slave’s life different from another was the individual slave’s master.

With the Lord Jesus Christ as his Master (capital “M”), James made a very clear and descriptive statement of his life and his place in it. Here are some of the points to consider:

• Liberty – Being bound to Christ Jesus, James was set free from sin (Rom. 6:17-18) and from the Law (Rom. 7:6). As with James so also for me, that new liberty both permits and binds me to be obedient to righteousness. I have the liberty to do what I would if I had the ability to make truly wise and good choices.
• Authority – A slave has no authority of himself, but when he acts on the command or behalf of his Master, he has all the authority of his Master at his disposal (Matt. 28:18).
• Respect – A slave as an individual apart from his Master has and deserves no personal respect. His only claim is for the respect of his Master. So the treatment a slave receives from the people of this world is not actually directed toward him personally but is their treatment of the slave’s Master.

My Master and my Lord, if James Your own brother after the flesh and Paul the most noble and brilliant mind of man can without hesitation or reservation call themselves your slaves, where does that place me in the practice and family of faith? Obviously, Your greatest servants are your most self-denying and complete slaves. I confess, O Lord, that I cannot even begin to understand the practical nature of true slavery of faith, but I am willing to learn. I have no worth to offer Thee for any effort You may devote to my training, but I am willing to submit to whatever You deem necessary to wring some drop of usefulness out of me.