The Bondservant

In each of the references below, we can see that Paul, Timothy, Peter, Jude and John referred to themselves and other believers as bondservants. In the case of Paul and Peter, before they referred to themselves as apostles, they referred to themselves as bondservants of Jesus Christ.

Paul submitted himself willingly as a bondservant of Jesus Christ who Himself, during the days of His flesh, made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Himself the form of a bondservant before God exalted Him to a place far above all principalities and powers.

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant..." (Philippians 2:5-7).

"Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle..." (Romans 1:1).

"For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake" (II Corinthians 4:5).

"For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ" (Galatians 1:10).

"Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ..." (Philippians 1:1).

"Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ..." (Titus 1:1).

"James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ..." (James 1:1).

"Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ..." (II Peter 1:1).

"Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ..." (Jude 1).

"The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His bondservants--things which must shortly take place. And he sent and signified it by His angel to His bondservant John" (Revelation 1:1).

The word for "bondservant" in the Greek language is the word "doulos."

The Greek word "doulos" (δοῦλος) is used throughout the New Testament to denote servanthood, and primarily means that one is a slave. One who refers to himself in this way is saying that he is one who gives himself up completely to the will of another.

A Kingdom bondservant or a handmaiden is one whose service is used by Christ in extending and advancing His kingdom among men and women. A Kingdom bondservant does not live to please himself, or anyone other than his heavenly Master.

A bondservant is devoted to another to the disregard of his own personal interests. A bondservant is entirely at the disposal of his master.

Paul, Peter, James, Jude and John, in referring to themselves as bondservants of Jesus Christ are saying that their life is not their own. They have been bought with a price. Their life and their plans belong entirely to their heavenly Master and Lord, and that He has the right to employ them or to dispose of them as He chooses. A bondservant is one who subjects himself to another in the strictest sense of subservience to his Lord and Master.

I got to thinking about what it means to be a "bondservant" after the teaching of one of the members of the Fiji Healing the Land Team, Aminiasi Waqanivalu, who shared on this concept at the Canada Awakening Ministries' training for the healing of the land process in Canada. Here were some of the thoughts that he shared on being a "bondservant":

"He must be willing to have one thing on top of another put on him without being given any considerations. A hired servant expects something; a bondservant expects nothing.

"Having done everything required of him, a bondservant does not become selfish, and does not accuse others. A bondservant exists to serve. He has no rights. He receives no wages, and has no right to appeal.

"A bondservant has no ground for pride, or for self-congratulation. He must act and endure everything with meekness and humility, and after he has done his master's will, he must acknowledge that he is an 'unprofitable servant,' and has only done his duty (Luke 17:10).

"And if his master should choose to put his bondservant aside for whatever reason, and choose to work through somebody else, the bondservant must accept this willingly, and without complaining, knowing that he is completely subject to his master's will."

Knowing how people in authority abuse their position and mistreat their subjects, to many of us, this is a scary concept indeed. I thought that we were "created free and equal," and are supposed to be free of the control of others so that we can all reach our own full potential and destiny as a free-standing person who is motivated from within without the confinement of rules, regulations and external controls!

There is a paradox here in that every person is created in the image of God, and has equal dignity, worth, value and the right to choose. Has not God given to every human being a freewill? Does God not stand in opposition to any human being dominated by any kind of bondage or slavery or captivity? Do not the scriptures teach that "there is neither slave nor free..for you are all one in Christ Jesus"? (Galatians 3:28).

This reality is also truth, and if you put those truths together, you understand something of why truth must be understood as paradox, and does not always fit neatly into those rational polarizations of thought whereby we in the western world compartmentalize ideas, and then spend much of our lives debating and arguing about one polarity over against the other.

While the Corinthians were arguing and disputing about certain teachings of certain ministries and human leaders around whom they were polarizing, Paul stated, "Let no one boast in men. For all things are yours: whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or things present or things to come--all are yours! And you are Christ's, and Christ is God's" (I Corinthians 3:21-23).

G. K. Chesterton and Paradox

G. K. Chesterton was one who recognized that while truth was not subjective, it was far from simple, and is therefore best portrayed by paradox. A narrow rationality cannot explain or express the complexity of truth.

As my daughter Stephanie wrote in a university paper entitled, Progress Redefined: G. K. Chesterton and the Need for Orthodoxy for her "History of Western Civilization" class, "When one claims the existence of objective truth, opposition necessarily arises. Speaking one truth almost ways means contradicting oneself by the opposite (which is most certainly also true)."

The Hebraic mind is willing to let opposite polarities of truth that seem to contradict one another hang, whereas the Greek mindset wants to limit truth to one paradigm of thinking only. One with this mindset spends his whole life debating, arguing, and attempting to take one side of the truth against another.

G. K. Chesterton's device of paradox enabled him to say several things at once, and avoid the contradiction of leaving some aspect of truth out. Some parts of truth are indeed a mystery which our mind is still in the process of understanding. Part of our problem is with verbal and linguistic inadequacy to communicate fully the meaning of spiritual truth.

A Hebraic mind will not point out the ridiculousness of a paradox, but will arouse the wonder of it. In this post on what it means to be both a bondservant and a freeman, I am using paradox to express neglected aspects of truth in the western culture.

What the western culture is fast losing is the knowledge that all true freedom works within a moral framework. The freest societies are those who based their laws on the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule.

Postmodern man sees every moral generalization as oppressive to individual freedom and autonomy, with little regard for community. G. K. Chesteron took on George Bernard Shaw in his book, Heretics, and challenged his assertion that "the golden rule is that there is no golden rule."

According to Chesterton, "The objection to this is simply that it pretends to free men, but really restrains them from doing the only thing that men want to do. What is the good of telling a community that it has every liberty except the liberty to make laws? The liberty to make laws is what constitutes a free people...

"The saying that 'the golden rule is that there is no golden rule," can, indeed, be simply answered by being turned around. That there is no golden rule is itself a golden rule, or rather it is much worse than a golden rule. It is an iron rule; a fetter on the first movement of a man."

Societies that are not governed by "a rule of law" ends up up being governed by "the will of power," and the strong end up oppressing and ruling the weak. That being said, what the Christian worldview offers us is so much more than simply being governed by "a rule of law."

The mature Christian life is based not on an external law based on force, but an internal law based on consent, the law of love. "Love is the fulfilling of the law" (Romans 13:10).

However, because we are born self-centred and egocentric, it takes a training, a discipline, a process of discipleship to equip us to move from our selfishness to a life that serves others by love as we submit to the law of Christ from within. His presence frees us to do what we ought, and to esteem others more highly then ourselves. This is the road to true greatness.

In the western world, we look on a bondservant as a loser, as a nobody, as having no reputation. In a sense, that is true. But as G. K. Chesterton stated in his book Heretics, "The man who said "Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he shall not be disappointed,' put the eulogy quite inadequately and even falsely. The truth is, 'Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he shall be gloriously surprised.'

"The man who expects nothing sees redder roses than common men can see, and greener grass, and a more startling sun. Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he shall possess the cities and the mountains; blessed is the meek, for he shall inherit the earth."

The Other Side of the Coin

So the paradox of this truth on being a bondservant is in the words of Jesus, "No longer do I call you bondservants, for a bondservant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you" (John 15:15).

To the Romans, Paul wrote, "For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by which we cry out, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together" (Romans 8:15-17).

A bondservant works for no wages, but a son receives the inheritance, and everything that his father has belongs to him. Far from being a "bondservant" who has no inheritance, Paul is here saying that we are sons of God through Christ, and if we are sons, we are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ of all that God has.

What many of us with a western mindset of individual autonomy, independence, and a license to do whatever we want whenever we want have failed to note, however, is that Paul introduces this passage on our inheritance as sons with this preface in verse 14: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God" (Romans 8:14).

So sonship here refers to those who are led by the Spirit of God rather than by their flesh. The truth is that unless an infant or a small child learns to become self-controlled by learning to submit to the will of somebody older and wiser, they would use unlimited freedom without training and guidance in a way that would destroy themselves. We must learn to be led by the Spirit, and not by our autonomous mind or independent thinking.

A small child does not have the maturity to administer an inheritance without squandering it. An immature son would waste his father's inheritance like a prodigal. It would ruin him.

And so, when Paul says to the Galatians, "You are no longer a bondservant but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ" (Galatians 4:7), it is important to notice that again, he introduced and prefaced those remarks with the following words:

"Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a bondservant, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father" (Galatians 4:1, 2). There is a time, as the son becomes mature, that he receives the reward of the inheritance. It is a time appointed by the father, not the child.

Until then, the son needs to learn obedience, be trained and disciplined to make wise choices. Some choices would bring disaster if we were left in a rebellious and self-centred state. Even Jesus, as a Son, had to learn obedience. We need to be taught to obey so we don't have to learn everything from scratch.

"Though he was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered" (Hebrews 5:8). Today, the western world lives in a narcissistic, selfish culture of "meism" that demands personal rights centred around the self, instead of respecting human rights around something or someone greater than ourselves. Without having learned obedience, we will insist on "our rights" first and foremost, and that will destroy us.

Lots of Choice. Little Freedom.

In the National Post newspaper of June 9, 2008, Lorne Gunter wrote an article entitled, "Lots of choice. Little freedom." He documents how that the material plenty offered by our consumer culture hides a creeping erosion in the liberties that truly matter.

He writes, "Apparently, the political happiness of we who live in the Western liberal democracies is flat-lining--or even declining--despite all the choice and affluence we enjoy."

He refers to William Gorten, the author of the paper, "Too much of a Good Thing: Freedom, Individualism, Autonomy and the Decline of Happiness in the Liberal Democracies." He postulates that "the causes of this stagnation or decline may be attributable, directly or indirectly, to core values of liberalism--namely freedom of choice, autonomy and individualism."

"There's the assumption that human beings make the best choices for how to lead a happy life," noted the professor from Alma College in Michigan. and yet, "we haven't seen increases in happiness that you would expect to see.

"There's been a big spike in depression in all the Western liberal democracies over the last 50 years--and this is while gross domestic product per capita has been increasing. An abundance of choice may actually make people unhappy."

Social conservatives have argued for years that too much personal choice leads to social deterioration. Family values break down when the traditional family model--mom, dad, kids--is devalued by government's sanctioning alternative choices such as common-law and same-sex families. Individualism undermines the sense of community, connectedness and bonding between the gender and the generations.

Those who see affluence as the enemy will tend to see the problem as people having too much money, too much consumer choice. Their "solution" would be to try to inculcate the socialist ideal of establishing a sense of equality needed to advance civil society by taxing away the rich to use the proceeds supposedly for the "common good."

As somebody once said, however:

"You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
You cannot build character and courage by destroying men's initiative and independence.
And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves."

The thing about trying to define human freedoms that are set out in documents like the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982) while ignoring the Charter's preamble referring to "the supremacy of God and the rule is law" is that these freedoms are based upon and sanctioned by state compulsion for their legitimacy.

Benjamin Disraeli once said that an Englishman did not need a lot of laws, because he was prepared to do the proper thing of his own accord. Now our statutes fill scores of volumes. Every aspect of our personal, family, professional and social lives, regardless of how minute, is subject to government oversight.

Meanwhile, experts are puzzled about why there is a growing dissatisfaction with government. Perhaps it is because freedom isn't failing us. We are unhappy because we are no longer free.

We are being offered bread and circuses to satisfy and amuse us, while nearly all of the freedoms that truly matter are being taken away.

The True Basis of Freedom

The apostle Paul had some real insight when he acknowledged that each and every one of us is a slave, a bondservant. We will either be slaves to sin, to controlling habits, and to addictions, or we will be a bondservant of a righteousness and a right standing of God that frees us from those controlling things, and frees us to become sons with rights to a massive inheritance.

"Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as bondservants to obey, you are that one's bondservants whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death of of obedience leading to righteousness?" (Romans 6:16).

While touting our freedom to do whatever we want, we have no clue or inkling about the degree to which our minds our being controlled by movies, by the mass media, or by advertisers who are bombarding us with messages that are incomplete and one-dimensional. Beer commercials showing the scene at the party do not show the inebriated guy after the party who runs over his best buddy. The commercials don't go there.

We are not as free as we would like to think we are. Drugs, sex, and other passions, if they are uncontrolled and not kept within boundaries, lead us down a pathway where we lose control of ourselves and end up doing things we had once thought we would never do. We justify ourselves by either blaming others, or making excuses, or saying, "The devil made me do it!"

Our physical bodies and appetites make for a wonderful servant, but a beast of a master. God created our bodies and they are good. Only they were never designed to be in control of us, but to be into subjection to our spirit, and to our real desire to live a life of freedom that does not centre around the self.

The Bible does not teach the supression of desire, or that all personal desires are to be extinguished as Buddhism does. In Buddhism, suffering can be ended by attaining dispassion, and extinguishing all forms of clinging and attachment. In such thinking, desire is the cause of all suffering.

The Bible talks about God fulfilling rather than frustrating the desires of our heart, but they need to be fulfilled appropriately in God's way and in His timing. There is a time of waiting, of training and of discipline involved in order for desires to be legitimately and righteously fulfilled in a far fuller way than self-centred lifestyles could ever do.

Unbridled desire and personal pleasure make a good slave, but a poor master. When our primary focus is on instant, personal self-gratification, the results can be destructive to both us, and to others around us. It leads to unhealthy lifestyles and decisions that we later regret.

And so the Bible talks about the need to become a "bondservant" to righteousness so that we will be trained and disciplined as we are led by the Spirit, often through times of testing where He is training us to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil.

Those who overcome grow into mature sons of God whom He can trust, and who will not be destroyed by the massive reward of the inheritance that is ours, an inheritance that includes "all things" (I Corinthians 3:21, 22) and "the nations to the uttermost part of the earth" (Psalm 2:8) as "joint-heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:17)

The fact is, either we will be a bondservant of sin leading to death, or of righteousness leading to life (Romans 6:16). Paul put it this way, "For he who is called in the Lord while a slave (bondservant) is the Lord's freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is Christ's slave (bondservant). You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men" (I Corinthians 7:22. 23).

To put it another way, you can be confined to a physical prison, and still be a free man on the inside, whereas you can also be free on the outside, but a slave to sinful passions and lusts on the inside. We all have to decide whose bondservants we will become.

The Bible and Slavery

Some sceptics make much of the fact that the Bible seems to condone slavery, even though it is so very unjust when humans who themselves are not subject to God become masters. Wherever slavery was a part of the culture, the Bible does not talk about initially changing the culture so much as as changing the heart, and applying the need for the love of Christ to rule in whatever situation we are in.

That is what brings transformation, or inside out change into a culture. Simply changing the government, or externally changing the laws, or fomenting revolution never produce true, permanent, lasting change for the better. We need to learn to overcome from within wherever we are, or in whatever lot we may have in life.

The Bible is based on the premise that God is in ultimate control, and that it is the humble who will ultimately be exalted, and that it is the meek who will ultimately inherit the earth. It is those who mature as sons of God, and who become peacemakers, that God will give the reward of the inheritance.

The gospel will elevate the quality of life in any culture, but the change comes from the inside out, not from the outside in. The issues of life proceed from the heart, not from the external environment (Proverbs 4:23).

While the Bible does not directly condemn slavery, it does require a heart change for both masters and slaves. The working out of biblical teaching will produce a more egalitarian society wherein "we are all one in Christ" where "there is no respect of persons" (Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 3:25).

The Bible certainly contains warnings about the practice of slavery (Amos 1:6; Revelation 18:13), and advocates a "covenant of brotherhood" (Amos 1:9). Correspondingly, the Old Testament Law did regulate Israel's treatment of slaves (Exodus 21; Deuteronomy 15).

Repeatedly, the people were instructed not to rule over a fellow Israelite harshly (Leviticus 25:39-43; Deuteronomy 15:12-18). If a master harmed a slave, the law provided that the slave could go free (Exodus 21:26, 27), and the killing of a slave called for a penalty (Exodus 21:20).

Against the social and national backdrop of other nations, slaves in Israel were given some consideration and were to be treated humanely. There was also the right of redemption, where freedom could be purchased back. This pictures what Christ did for all humanity when He paid the price to free us from the slavery to sin.

Under Jewish law, no Hebrew was to be the permanent slave of another Hebrew (Exodus 21:2; Leviticus 25:39-46; Deuteronomy 15:12). If a slave desired to continue with his master, he would have a mark made in the ear to signify that he had chosen to remain a slave because he loved his master (Exodus 21:5, 6).

Similarly, when one comes under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and finds that He is not a harsh taskmaster, but a friend and a brother (John 15:15; Hebrews 2:11, 17), he willingly choose to become His bondservant forever! As we allow His Holy Spirit to write the laws of God on our hearts, and on our inward parts, it becomes an absolute delight and a joy to serve Him out of love, not out of fear.

David could say that he served God, not out of duty, but out of delight. "I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart" (Psalm 40:8). "I will delight myself in Your statutes...Your testimonies are my delight and my counsellors...I delight in Your law (Psalm 119:16, 24, 70).

The man is blessed, happy, fortunate, to be envied, who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, but whose "delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night" (Psalm 1:1, 2). "Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart...The meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace" (Psalm 37:4, 11).

In the meantime, we are in training. Even unjust authorities will eventually come to the understanding that they are ultimately accountable to Somebody greater than they are. They are not God. Much of the world is right now in a situation where they are not finding justice from the authorities of this world. Yet what we sow in this present age is what we will reap in the age which is to come.

In the present age, our hearts are being prepared to handle the riches and greatness that will be the portion of the meek who rule and reign with Christ in the age which is to come. Our hearts are being tried and tested, and our reactions to others reveal our hearts.

Are we a bondservant of man, or of Jesus Christ? If we do our very best to obey civil authorities and rulers as unto Christ, we become mature sons and daughters of God. We learn humility, we learn obedience (like Christ) through the things that we suffer. We are being trained to be able to handle our future inheritance as sons without it ruining us.

So it is a paradox of life that for every person to become free, they must first of all become a bondservant. They will end up being a bondservant regardless, either to sin, or to God.

And it is to those who are led by the Spirit, those who become mature sons and daughters, that God offers the "reward of the inheritance." Even if we are in a position of being asked to submit to earthly rulers who are unreasonable and unfair, we are to submit to them (unless they require us to sin) as if we were doing it unto Christ, our true Master, who is also our Friend and our Brother.

On the other hand, earthly masters and rulers are to note that they had better treat human beings under them as a brother, for they are also accountable to a Master in heaven with whom there is no respect of persons. In this light, the New Testament admonitions begin to make sense.

"Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ. Not with eyeservice as menpleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill doing service as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.

"And you masters, do the same things to them, giving up threatening, knowing that your own Master also is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him" (Ephesians 6:5-9).

"Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not in eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. and whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ.

"But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality. Masters, give your bondservants what is just and fair, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven" (Colossians 3:22-4:1).

To an earthly master, Philemon, Paul appealed on behalf of his slave, Onesimus. His appeal was "that you might receive him forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave--a beloved brother..." (Philemon 15, 16).

We so often sing in the Christmas Carol, O Holy Night!, these perceptive lines:

"Truly He taught us to love one another; His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother; And in His Name all oppression shall cease."

Until that day when "all oppression shall cease", we are in training to exercise authority wisely, so that in the Kingdom of heaven, there will be no abuse, no injustice, no tyranny. If we believe that God is the Judge of all, we can afford to give up our rights, commiting ourselves, as Jesus did, "to Him who judges righteously" (I Peter 2:23).

It is in this context that Peter says, "Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully...For to this you wre called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow in His steps" (I Peter 1:18, 19, 21).

In Christ, whoever is a man's bondservant is the Lord's freedman, and whoever is free in the natural is also the Lord's bondservant.

I can now begin to understand why the underground church continues to flourish in China. Dorothy Sun tells the story of how her father was tortured during the Cultural Revolution under Mao tse Tung, and she was so angry about the injustice of it all, she was determined to lash back at the authorities.

Her father told her that this was not the right way to look at things. He said that "if we endure patiently, the Lord is really going to bless us." He understood that overcoming suffering is the way to glory, and our trials only serve to reveal what is in our own hearts. Yet there will be justice, because God will ultimately give to each one according to their own work, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

The moment we look to men and women who have no fear of God for justice, or take justice into our own hands, we tend to only increase the injustice. Jesus said, "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven..." (Matthew 5:11, 12).

The world system around us will turn up its nose at this, and say that it is only a pipedream. The alternative vision is to believe that it is the tyrant and the harsh who will inherit the earth instead of the meek, the gentle and the humble. And that particular worldview will continue to oppress people as the powerless seek to topple the powerful, only to oppress others themselves once they achieve power.

As Lord Acton so rightly noted, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Present-day Application

In the kingdoms of this world, the only way to bring unity and community is through the exercise of power, and the suppression of freewill. In the Kingdom of heaven, we are beginning to see (and will see it increasingly in the age which is to come), that the citizens of God's Kingdom can build community and togetherness without suppressing freedom!

This can only happen in the spirit of Christ. The challenge is to build communities which are both unified and free.

The Hutterites have made a noble experiment to produce community, and I think that in many ways that they have something to say to our western culture which we do not see in our independent, individually autonomous culture. I believe that they have something precious, something valuable, something needed, and those of us who have not produced community have no right to judge them.

Nor am I at all meaning to imply that those who work without being paid wages on the Hutterite colonies are in the category of slaves. Most of them are there by their freewill, and they have also learned some things about submission to authority that is not always fair that I think can well position them to become mature sons and daughters of God more than those who live in an individualistic society.

The problem remains one where one human being who is not God, or a small clique who are not God, have the decision-making power as to how the money will be spent that the whole community produced. This has led to situations that many would say is a violation of human rights, and unfair. However, it is not unjust for those who look to the Kingdom of heaven for their ultimate compensation, and for the reward of their inheritance.

Recently it has been on the news that a former Hutterite colony member, Junia Waldner, is suing her former colony for unpaid wages, claiming that she worked hard on the colony for years with little monetary compensation.

Court documents said that she is looking for compensation from when she began working on the colony when she was eight years of age until she left the colony fourteen years later in 2006. She worked in the garden, kitchen and butcher shop, carrying heavy baskets of corn and lifting turkeys. She was paid three dollars a month. The colony says that is sufficient because all of her living costs were taken care of.

Most human rights tribunals would have to agree that from an earthly viewpoint, this former Hutterite colony member has not been treated fairly. The question is, "Would it be better for her to look on her years of employment on the colony as a service unto Christ, and look to Him for the reward of the inheritance, or should she look to human courts for justice?"


Already the colony is rolling up its sleeves and fighting back. They have hired a lawyer to challenge the charges. My own perspective is that the Colony's right to pursue a community lifestyle without paying wages to their members will likely prevail against the individual's right to compensation. If the ruling is otherwise, it will have grave consequences for the Hutterite's traditional way of life.


If one sees oneself as a bondservant of Jesus Christ, we have no rights but to submit to human leaders as unto the Lord, as long as they do not require us to sin, knowing that of the Lord we will receive the best wages, and the best reward in the light of eternity, and of the eternal Kingdom of heaven.



I do not want to come across as a judge in this case. God only knows the hearts of all, and all that others have come through. I can understand entirely why this former Hutterite girl would feel that an injustice has occured, and indeed it has if one thinks only in terms of this life.

For whatever it is worth, I would question whether human courts or human rights tribunals are the best way to go about things here. I hope and pray that if I was in that place, I might find grace to look to Christ for the reward of the inheritance rather than to get into a bitter dispute that will end up wounding all sides. I would venture that it is better to look for the eternal inheritance which is incomparably more precious and valuable than even fourteen years of wages which are only of temporal value.

In the kingdom of heaven, it is not like socialism, where there is the equal distribution of unequal earnings, but each one will get a return on his or her investment of time and finances. Whatever we give, we will receive back--good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over (Luke 6:38).

We see much evidence of that truth already in this life, but we will see it much more clearly in the age which is to come. We always reap in greater abundance to the amount of seed that we sow.

Conclusion

When I was a boy, there was a popular song in which the lyrics said, "Make the most of time, while you're in your prime, gather ye rosebuds while you may."

In another poem, Robert Herrick reminded young women that natural beauty is fleeting.

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may for ever tarry.

This makes perfect sense if all of our hope is in this life, or in the immediate, or in the present, with no thought that present choices do determine future destiny. As G. K. Chesterton so aptly said, "Great joy does not gather the rosebuds while it may; its eyes are fixed on the immortal rose which Dante saw. Great joy has in it the sense of immortality."

The world system says that the best years of life are in one's prime, and so we encourage youth to sow their wild oats in youth, and then life goes downhill from there. To the contrary, God's Kingdom is entered "through many tribulations" (Acts 14:22), but life gets better as we overcome, and the ultimate end is glorious.

We can endure almost any trial if we know that there is a purpose in our sufferings, and that God is working a character change in us, bringing us out of our selfishness into His Kingdom of love. And no matter what we go through, we are motivated by the assurance that the best is yet to come!

It was this worldview that motivated Moses, when he became of age, to "refuse to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasure of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward" (Hebrews 11:24-26).

We will never run the race and endure the cross unless and until we, like Christ, see "the joy that is set before us" (Hebrews 12:2) at the goal, the finish line, when we mature to become like Jesus. Moses "endured as seeing Him who is invisible" (Hebrews 11:27).

The heroes of the faith, the martyrs, and all who bore life's trials with meekness and endurance did so because they saw something that natural eyes did not see. That prize, that reward was veilled from the natural view of things, and those who live by their natural senses are also living by faith that this present world is all that there is to live for.

A nobler vision, however, was captured by a poem written by George Matheson, which summerizes beautifully the message on this article entitled, The Bondservant:

Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free

Force me to render up my sword, and I shall conqueror be.

I sink in life's alarms when by myself I stand;

Imprison me within Thine arms, and strong shall be my hand.

My heart is weak and poor until its master find;

It has no spring of action sure, it varies with the wind.

It cannot freely move till Thou has wrought its chain;

Enslave it with Thy matchless love, and deathless it shall reign.

My power is faint and low till I have learned to serve;

It lacks the needed fire to glow, it lacks the breeze to nerve.

It cannot drive the world until itself be driven;

Its flag can only be unfurled when Thou shalt breathe from heaven.

My will is not my own till Thou hast made it Thine;

If it would reach a monarch's throne, it must its crown resign,

It only stands unbent amid the clashing strife,

When on Thy bosom it has leant, and found in Thee its life.