Booger McLovin

In the ancient world, especially in the regions the Bible describes, it is believed that over half the population lived in some form of slavery or servitude. Slavery in the Bible’s context was very different from the race-based chattel slavery of the American South during the 19th century.

In biblical times, slaves were predominantly:

Captured invaders thrust into bondage through war. Voluntary servants seeking safety and provision under someone able to care for them when they had no other means to survive.

God’s Desire for Humanity

From the very beginning, God’s desire for humanity was freedom, dignity, and harmony under His rule. In the Garden of Eden there was no master and slave, only man and woman walking with God. Slavery arose because of sin, becoming embedded in human society as people sought power and security at the expense of others.

Jesus made God’s heart clear when He said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind… You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37–39). There is no command in all of Scripture that teaches the opposite. Every law, prophecy, and instruction is built on loving God and loving one another.

Mosaic Laws: Protection and Dignity

When God gave the Law to Israel, He spoke into a world where slavery was universal. His commands did not create slavery. They limited it, reformed it, and protected the vulnerable.

Under the Law of Moses:

Set Free After Six Years – “If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall leave as a free man without payment” (Exodus 21:2).

Protection from Abuse – “If a person strikes the eye of his male or female slave and destroys it, he shall let him go free on account of the eye. And if he knocks out a tooth of his male or female slave, he shall let him go free on account of the tooth” (Exodus 21:26–27).

The examples of the eye and tooth were not limits but representative cases. In Hebrew legal tradition, these examples established a principle: any permanent injury inflicted by a master required the slave’s freedom. This made physical abuse both illegal and costly, giving slaves in Israel far greater protection than in any other ancient culture. No Returning

Escaped Slaves – “You shall not hand over to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you” (Deuteronomy 23:15–16). Equal Rest and Worship

– Slaves rested on the Sabbath (Exodus 20:10) and joined in the nation’s worship and feasts (Deuteronomy 16:11).

To be a slave in Israel under the Mosaic Law was far greater life-wise than being enslaved in any other ancient culture. They had legal rights, religious inclusion, and the assurance of eventual release.

The Path Toward Freedom

God did not instantly abolish slavery in the ancient world. Such a sudden shift could have caused societal collapse in a culture entirely dependent on it. Instead, He planted principles that would grow to dismantle it from the inside out.

Jesus taught, “Treat people the same way you want them to treat you” (Luke 6:31), and “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).

Paul applied these truths directly:

“There is neither slave nor free… for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). “Masters, grant your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a Master in heaven” (Colossians 4:1). Regarding Onesimus, a runaway slave, Paul wrote, “No longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother” (Philemon 1:16).

When Scripture Was Twisted to Defend Slavery

In later centuries, corrupt men used the Bible to justify race-based slavery, not by teaching the full counsel of God, but by deliberately removing context. They knew that if people read the actual commands about freeing slaves, protecting them from abuse, and treating them as brothers in Christ, the system would be exposed as ungodly.

One of the most chilling examples is the Slave Bible produced in the early 19th century for use in the British West Indies. It contained only about half of the Old Testament and just 10 percent of the New Testament. Passages that spoke of God’s deliverance, human equality, or the hope of freedom were stripped out entirely. The Exodus story, where God delivers His people from slavery, was removed. Commands such as “Masters, give your slaves what is right and fair” (Colossians 4:1) and “In Christ… there is neither slave nor free” (Galatians 3:28) were nowhere to be found.

This was not biblical teaching. It was manipulation designed to control an illiterate population by denying them the full truth of God’s Word.

Why God and Jesus Did Not Simply Abolish Slavery Outright

Many ask, “Why did God or Jesus not just blatantly abolish slavery?” The answer lies in God’s way of overcoming evil. If good is to truly triumph over evil, it must change hearts, not simply overthrow systems in a way that allows evil to return in another form.

In a world where slavery was deeply embedded in the economy and politics, an immediate abolition could have crushed the early church under violent backlash before it could grow and transform society with the gospel. Instead, God chose the way of love, planting unshakable truths that would outlast empires and consume evil from within.

As Paul wrote, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21). By working through love, justice, and transformed hearts, the gospel slowly dismantled slavery in every society it touched.

From Scripture to Abolition

When the Bible is read in full, without selective censorship, it undermines slavery at its very foundation. That is why Christian reformers such as William Wilberforce in Britain and the abolitionists in America used Scripture to argue for its end. The gospel’s call to love God and love one another eventually drove the moral movements that abolished slavery in much of the world.

Christianity’s Broader Impact

The story of slavery’s decline is only one example of how Christianity reshaped the moral landscape of the world. Historian Tom Holland, a secular scholar, argues in his book Dominion that many of the values we take for granted today, such as human equality, compassion for the weak, and the sanctity of life, are direct fruits of Christianity’s influence.

In the ancient world, cruelty, exploitation, and dominance were considered virtues of power. Christianity turned that worldview upside down, exalting humility, service, and self-sacrificial love as the highest ideals. The very belief that slavery is morally wrong is itself the result of a Christian moral revolution. Without the gospel’s influence, the ancient mindset that “might makes right” would still reign unchallenged.

God’s Ultimate Goal

Slavery was never God’s ideal. His will is for every person to know Him and love one another as He has loved us (John 13:34). In His eternal kingdom, there will be no chains, only redeemed people from every nation, tribe, and language worshiping together in perfect freedom (Revelation 7:9–10).