To be a slave to love is not to be a slave at all because there is no slavery in true love. When we are possessed by it we are, paradoxically, set free. This truth is important to remember when we read in the Scriptures about being slaves or “bond-servants” (Doulos in the Greek) to Christ. It is only love that compels us to give ourselves totally to Him, and in the giving is our liberation.

The word “slavery” has a nearly universal negative connotation in the 21^st Century. When we think of it here we are naturally drawn to our corporate memory of the enslavement of blacks that existed in our country prior to the Civil War. It is a part of our past as a nation that we rightfully find morally repulsive. As a result, in regards to personal liberty in the worldly sense, we have been consciously at the forefront of securing it for others, both at home and abroad, for much of our history since then; most of the time this has been a good thing. 

The problem that stems from our glorification of morally legitimate civil liberties is that we have a tendency to assume that any giving up of our personal “sovereignty” to another will harm us. We chafe at the idea of belonging to another unless it is on equal terms. This frame of mind and heart is also present among many Christians. We have been conditioned by the radical individualism of our culture, often without even being consciously aware of it.

The result is professed Christians who keep God at a safe distance (some of us who sing the hymn “I Surrender All” while simultaneously knowing in our hearts that what we ought to be singing is more like “I Surrender Some!”) The idea of voluntarily making Him the true Lord and Master of every aspect of our lives deeply disturbs us. It runs contrary to our desire to not ever be a “slave” to any one, at any time.

So is there hope for we modern Western Christians? Are we condemned to consciously  keep the rightful Owner of our souls at arm’s length and possibly forfeit our relationship with Him altogether? Not necessarily. The answer comes in knowing the attributes of God or, more specifically, one: His infinite love for us.

I would venture to say that most, if not all, true Christ-followers have experienced firsthand the reality of this love. These are the moments when we have viscerally come to know what our Savior did at Calvary, why and for whom. Such moments are beyond description. Perhaps the best way to relate these times of exultation is to say that we have been touched by the love of God, a love we have never known from anyone else, nor ever will. Ten seconds of the received love of Christ is enough to undo us, to make us realize that we have been fools to want anything other than Him, the One who perfectly pursues the best possible outcome for our lives with a singular passion, the Lover of our souls.

At such moments “slavery” to such a god does not feel like bondage, it feels like the greatest thing we could ever imagine. We find ourselves wanting it, desperately. We know that we were made to receive this love and give it in return. We were made to enjoy it, to enjoy Him, forever.

These moments may be fleeting, but they whet our appetite for more and as we learn to seek Christ with all our hearts such moments continue to come, pointing the way towards a final consummation on the day we stand before Him. We fall progressively deeper in love with our God and we really do come to surrender all to Him in love. We want to be His “slaves” because that is one of the ways we can love Him in return, by becoming truly His in every way. We surrender our lives to Him, not with reluctance, but with surpassing joy and suddenly slavery doesn’t seem like anything so much as blessed union with our Beloved, our heart’s deepest desire.

The biblical phrase “a slave of Christ” becomes not a curse, but an expression of the greatest thing we have ever experienced. We are now liberated to dwell in His love in the deepest sense and in our “slavery” we have become profoundly free of all the things that kept us from that love.

And this is the truest freedom of all.