These verses display how the New Testament teachings are not all what they are cracked up to be. Breaking it down, starting off with the first verse: "Slaves, obey your human masters with fear and trembling; and do it with a sincere heart, as though you were serving Christ". This verse has an interesting message; that message is that Jesus is equated to being a slave master. It instructs people to not only obey their slave masters with "fear and trembling", but to do so while having "a sincere heart". This is the sort of mentality that is found all over the Bible. The idea that fearing something is equal to showing respect and love towards it — in reality it is the opposite. When normal people are fearful of something, they typically grow to dislike it (fear is not meant to be enjoyable). Fear (feels bad) is on the opposing end of the spectrum to love (feels good). Those that think fear brings respect and love, are blissfully ignorant to reality (which is probably why God is portrayed as being a fatherly figure). When a person fears another person, they obviously will be less inclined to be honest with them. This shows which side the writers were on, writing scripture to keep slaves in-line; if they could not instill enough fear to make them obey, certainly the idea of a god would be scary enough.
Slaves, obey your human masters with fear and trembling; and do it with a sincere heart, as though you were serving Christ. Do this not only when they are watching you, because you want to gain their approval; but with all your heart do what God wants, as slaves of Christ. -Ephesians 6:5-6
On to the next verse: "Do this not only when they are watching you, because you want to gain their approval; but with all your heart do what God wants, as slaves of Christ". This verse attempts to draw parallels between slave masters and Christ — entitled to similar love and respect. They want slaves to not only behave, but to love their slave masters, just like they love Christ — naturally the writers would view themselves as godlike — which is not the least bit arrogant (sarcasm). This verse also describes slavery as beings a thing which "God wants". If only we had obeyed what God wanted, slavery would still exist in the United States — how nice would that be?
Proverbs 22:7 The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender... There is wisdom and warnings to be found in the books even if you're unsure about who wrote it. -Occupy the internet
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