(July 16, 2011 at 11:32 pm)Nick_A Wrote: 5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.
Those second two quotes you posted may be referring to spiritual slavery, but if the one above is, then why does it say to obey your earthly masters?
Also, these are the verses preceeding this one.
Quote:6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
6:2 Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise;
6:3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
It goes from telling children to obey to telling slaves to obey. Nowhere is there any indication that these verses mean anything except commanding people to be subservient to those the bible believes you should obey. You are trying to shoehorn this verse into the same context as the other ones, but this one is clearly not talking about 'inner slavery.' It is giving guidelines for how certain people should behave, not spiritual guidance.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
