Read through the counsel to slaves and slave masters in the following passages: Ephesians 6:5-9; Colossians 3:22-25; Colossians 4:1; 1 Corinthians 7:20-24; 1 Timothy 6:1-2; 1 Peter 2:18-25. How would you summarize this advice?

It is startling to hear Paul address Christian slave masters and to imagine Christian slaves and their Christian slave master seated together in the house churches of Ephesus. Slavery in the Greco-Roman world could differ from the later version in the New World in significant ways. It was not focused on a single ethnic group.

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Urban, household slaves were sometimes offered opportunities for education and could work as architects, physicians, and philosophers. Freedom sometimes occurred for these household slaves after a limited period of service, though most slaves never gained their freedom. In an attempt to acknowledge such differences, a number of recent Bible versions translate the Greek term doulos (“slave”) in Ephesians 6:5-8 as “bondservant.”

Regardless, slavery at any time, in any culture, in any circumstances, is an inexcusable evil, and God will judge, and condemn, slaveholders according to His infinite justice—and for that we can be thankful.

The cry of ex-slave Publilius Syrus is haunting: “It is beautiful to die instead of being degraded as a slave.” Given the full range of these realities, the translation of doulos as “slave” is to be preferred (NIV, NRSV), especially since these slaves are living under the threat of their masters (Ephesians 6:9).

Slavery was an ever-present evil in Paul’s world. He addresses it, not as a social reformer but as a pastor who advises believers how to deal with current realities and to cast a new vision centered on the transformation of the individual believer, which later could have wider implications for society at large: “His vision was not for manumission of slaves in the Roman Empire. Rather his view was about something other than legal manumission, that is, a new creation sibling-based fellowship on the basis of adoption as children of God. . . . For Paul the social revolution was to occur in the church, in the body of Christ, at the local level, and in the Christian house church and household.”—Scot McKnight, The Letter to Philemon (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 2017), pp. 10, 11.

<–Monday Wednesday–>

Amen!(0)

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/tuesday-slavery-in-pauls-day/

The book of Ephesians does show us “How to Follow Jesus in Trying Times”: 
Hymn 623 – I Will Follow Thee, My Saviour, so that our actions will always speak louder than our words.

 All the way through this week’s study we find it is supreme to
Give Of Your Best To The Master – Hymn 572.

 Our “Advice to Children” is to follow Jesus: 
Hymn 543 – Jesus, Friend Of Little Children and teach them to 
Trust And Obey – Hymn 590. This will then, with God’s abundant blessings, present 
Happy The Home – Hymn 655 when God is there.

So, dear people, be encouraged to go forward and
“Lift up the trumpet and loud let it ring, Jesus IS coming again” – Hymn 213.

To learn unknown hymns, you will find the accompaniment music for each one at: https://sdahymnals.com/Hymnal/

Another great resource is for when there is a hymn you wish to sing but can’t find it in your hymnal. Go to https://www.sdahymnal.org/Search and in the search bar type a special word in that is in the hymn. I am sure you will be amazed at the help you will be given.

 2 Timothy 2:15 KJV – “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/11-practicing-supreme-loyalty-to-christ-singing-with-inspiration/