(January 14, 2017 at 2:12 pm)Cecelia Wrote: Maybe instead of saying "Slaves obey your earthly masters" Jesus should have said "Slave owners release your slaves!". Much like with Paul saying "A woman should not be permitted to teach" should have said "Women and Men should be seen as equals." But you know... I'm sure it was all very confusing.
Jesus also said to turn the other cheek when someone slaps you. That doesn't mean he thinks it's ok for ppl to slap others. His message here is about being humble and loving/forgiving our enemies. And again, his usage of slave could very much have meant what we would call servent.
He said the most important commandment was to love others as ourselves and treat others as you would have them treat you. That kind of trumps any idea that Jesus would be pro slavery, as we understand it. Ppl can still use the passage you referred to as an excuse to own slaves, and they did, but they'd be deliberately ignoring jesus' most important commandment.
"Of course, everyone will claim they respect someone who tries to speak the truth, but in reality, this is a rare quality. Most respect those who speak truths they agree with, and their respect for the speaking only extends as far as their realm of personal agreement. It is less common, almost to the point of becoming a saintly virtue, that someone truly respects and loves the truth seeker, even when their conclusions differ wildly."
-walsh
-walsh
