1 Peter 2 & Ephesians 6: The Disobedient Slave

We often assume that slaves obeyed their masters without question in the first century Roman society. But if that was the case, why did both Paul and Peter encourage slaves to obey their masters? Were Christian slaves worse than others? It seems absurd. But a better question yet is, why did Paul and Peter also encourage slaves to disobey their masters?

Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps (1 Peter 2:18-21, NIV)

Why were these slaves beaten, unless they had refused to obey? And why did they refuse to obey?
Because they didn't want to do evil.

For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do-living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you (1 Peter 4:3-4 NIV).

We have a tendency to think slaves aren't quite as human as we are, wherefore we can't imagine a slave choosing to be beaten for his refusal to sin; slaves were born to obey, for better or worse. But hear what Peter has to say:

Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God (1 Peter 2:16, NIV).

We are all free in Christ! Or as Paul put it, 

For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord's freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ's slave (1 Cor 7:22-23 NIV)

We are free to serve God, for in the Kingdom no one is a slave to another human; we are all slaves of Christ and of righteousness (Rom 6:18).

Somehow the idea that slaves lived to please their masters alone is etched into our minds, but Paul had another thing in mind.

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor (anthropareskos) when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free (Eph 6:5-8, NIV)

The second part of anthropareskos, ("human pleaser") found in verse 6, pareskos is found in Galatians 1:10:

"For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please (pareskos) men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ." (KJV)

The phrase "slave of Christ" is at the heart of the disobedience of the slaves. A slave cannot serve two masters; she must choose which one to obey. A slave of Christ chooses to serve Jesus, and only Jesus, even if it means he must suffer unjustly. More than one first-century slave did.

This last thought brings us to 1 Peter 3 and Ephesians 5: if slaves were encouraged to disobey their earthly masters for the sake of the kingdom, why do we assume Paul and Peter told freeborn Christian women to obey their husbands in all things? Is a wife lower than a slave? If all Christians are free from the tyranny of the will of another human, why do put married women back into the slavery of having to fear another human? More than one wife has suffered unjustly in the hands of an unbelieving husbands, but why should she suffer in the hands of a believing husband?

In the instructions Peter gives to the slaves, he asks them to remember the example of Jesus who suffered unjustly. But this begs the question, if Peter reminded the slaves to live as Christ lived when calling them to suffer for the kingdom of God, why does Paul compare the husband to the same Christ when calling them to exercise authority over their wives? And why does Paul compare the wife to the church if women were created to submit considering the church didn't exist before sin.

All Christians are called to imitate God and live the life of love (Eph 5:1-2). Now, this call to imitate (mimetes) God brings us back to 1 Peter:

And who is he who will harm you if you become followers (mimetes) of what is good? (1 Peter 3:13, NKJV)

A follower of God lives the life Jesus lived. Peter didn't limit the example of the suffering Jesus to slaves, he asked also the overseers to remember the example of the Shepherd, and the sufferings of Christ, and forsake the exercising of authority over the laity. Instead, he asked both overseers and the laity to submit to one another and be clothed with humility (1 Pet 5:1-5).

Now the question is, why did Paul not see the example of the suffering Jesus in the same light as Peter and call husbands to submit to their wives, just as the slaves and overseers submitted to their masters and the laity? Or perhaps he did, for Paul did write, "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ" (Eph 5:21 NIV).

The example of Jesus is one of servanthood, one of suffering for the sake of that which is good, refusal to do evil and refusal to obey those who do evil, one of mutual submission and pleasing others as means of edifying and building up, not as an excuse to do evil. To this we were all called, because Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow in his steps (1 Peter 2:21 NIV).