How the Gospel Shapes Our Experience of Authority
ALL HUMAN AUTHORITY IS UNDER CHRIST
At this juncture of the household code, the ancient and contemporary household composition contrasts sharply. The immediate context of Paul’s words here and the gospel-shaped principles for exercising and experiencing authority, are set in the relationship between slaves and their masters. Before we make the jump to apply them to our modern workplace, we need to grasp the situation into which these words were initially spoken. But far beyond a history lesson, or even an intellectual wrestling with what the Bible has to say about the institution of slavery, the reality that Paul is aiming at in this passage is simultaneously timeless as well as the very thing that has spurred on the abolition of slavery in time. This is the reality of the gospel which teaches us that every Christian is a slave to Christ. Being reconciled to him, we experience a reconciliation to one another which eroded the system of slavery from the bottom up. Being reconciled to him, we’re freed from our slavery to sin and self and get to serve a Master who is committed to the good of those who are his. There’s no one like Jesus and there’s no better life than one lived for him.