slaves of righteousness

Slaves of Righteousness
8-3-08
You have heard you are a servant, and a friend, but also a slave of obedience, which leads to righteousness (Rm 6:16). What is the difference between how a servant is treated, and how a slave is treated? And what is the difference between their service?
A servant’s master has regard for his life, making provision to sustain him while under service to the master. A good master will seek to better his servants who will, in turn, improve their service to him. And a servant is free. A slave has a harsher life, with an emphasis on performance. There is no freedom of choice, and no chance to better his life. Though some masters may be kind, or better their slave’s life, still the master owns the slave and determines the course of his life with a focus on what he, the master, can be benefited by.
In regards to sin, a person is a slave to whatever they are mastered by (Rm 6:16 &2 Pet 2:19). The master, sin, seeks a certain performance from those under its bondage. There is an obedience to the promptings of sin on the part of the slave, and thereby the slave cannot be free from the expectation of his master.
Righteousness is also something that a person obeys, coming under the slavery to its promptings. Neither sin, nor righteousness is something that can be reasoned with or put off. They are not in the category of friendship, in which a person would discuss the topic and gather information, making a decision later; nor are they in the category of servanthood, where a person would think on what is the best outcome for his master and how to best accomplish it with the skills he had acquired. Rather, obedience to sin and obedience to righteousness are choices, and the ensuing actions reflect those choices. The behavior of sin is its fruit, just as the behavior of righteousness is its fruit.
One of the hallmarks of slavery is punishment for disobedience. The master will deal severely with any deviation from his will. For the Master’s first course of action against sin, God has placed the punishment of unrighteousness in the slave’s hands. For one whose obedience to righteousness is accomplished, that one will punish his own disobedience (2 Cor 10:6). He will recognize the promptings of evil that come to his mind to seduce him to follow the steps to sin; evil desire, sin and then death (Jms 1:19). It is another master that seeks to draw the slaves of righteousness into sin by the thoughts of evil desire he brings (see 2 Cor 10:3-5 for our course of action against him). Those who are obedient to the Master who leads to righteousness, His thoughts being righteous, will fight the good fight, pulling down evil desires. His actions will bear the fruit of righteousness. He will not reason with the evil thoughts or consider in his mind which master to serve, for his success lies in the singleness of mind in which he serves righteousness. His obedience is complete, and he will catch any slip in his obedience, meeting it with repentance and restoration to obedience to the One he serves.
One who is unsuccessful in serving righteousness has not recognized the slave-relationship he is under. He reasons with the promptings to sin because he is familiar with his evil desire, and has not caused it to submit to the Word of God, his Master. Therefore he cannot be complete in obedience to righteousness. In time the first course of action, self-correction, will eventually give way to the second course of action; correction under God’s hand. This is more painful, but leads to righteousness (Heb 12:11). Yet a slave can be embittered under painful correction if he does not become conformed to the will of the Master Whose concern is for righteousness.
We serve a God who is good, Who has given us all things that we need for life and godliness (2 Pet 1:3). In asking us to become slaves of righteousness He is not asking us to do something impossible, for He has made provision for us. We need only to recognize that He has set before us a choice of whom to obey, and the ability to become more like His nature each time we obey righteousness. It is a battle of the mind, this act of choosing, but a battle worth winning, rendering our thoughts obedient to the One who can make us righteous. Amen.