Slaves of Christ?

So I'm heavily engaged in the 'Christians and alcohol' debate and a good brother throws in the analogy of slavery - the analogy being that, just because God doesn't specifically address something as wrong, we can and should still glean principles from Scripture which point to it's wrongness. In theory I agree with such premise, but I'm still working through my thoughts regarding a hard and fast Biblical condemnation of slavery - but that's for another blog. It did, however, serve to start the 'cogs' of my brain. Didn't Paul refer to Christians as slaves? I quote vs. 16 and 17 from Romans Ch. 6 as follows: "Do you not know that, to whom you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, his slaves you are whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness. But thanks be to God that, though you were slaves of sin, you have obeyed from the heart that form of teaching into which you were delivered. And having been freed from sin, you were enslaved to righteousness." So I got to thinking, what are some of the 'characteristics' of being a slave? I have come up with the following: (1) slaves do not 'own' themselves; they are owned by someone else. Does that work in my 'Christian slave' analogy? I think so. Didn't Paul say, "...you are not your own? You have been bought with a price...." (I Cor. 6:19b & 20a). So, then, as a Christian, I have no personal rights, right? If, in fact, I am a slave of Christ evidenced by the fact that I've been 'bought with a price', then I belong to Christ - not myself. Okay - not too difficult to understand 'theoretically', but what about the practical implications? How should that affect my everyday life? Well, first and foremost, I think it means a relinquishment of my 'rights'. I can't say, "This is how 'I' want to worship" or, "'I' want this or that". My first consideration MUST be, what is Christ's desire for me? Isn't that the attitude expected of slaves? What does my master desire? I'm personally not a big fann of the WWJD bracelets, but I think the premise is close. The relevant question is not, "what would Jesus do", but rather, "what would Jesus have me do"? And the answer will ALWAYS be - do that which puts others ahead of yourself. (2) slaves are dependent on their 'masters' for their sustenance. I know we 'say' that we are dependent on God for our needs, but do we really recognize that all that we have is because of the grace of God? James says, "every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above" (Ja.1:17) But, if we are slaves, even the good things given us by God are not ours 'for our own pleasure'; they are ours to use as our 'master' would have us use them. Whether the 'stuff' we have is money, toys, tools, houses, etc. They are not given to us to fulfill our selfish desires, but rather, that we may learn selflessness through the giving away of that which God has given us. (3) slaves expect no 'compensation' for their work. We are so often in need of forgiveness for our arrogance. We confess that all that we are and all that we have comes from God, and yet 'expect' accolades, promotions, recognition, and commendation - not to mention any monetary benefits we think we 'deserve'. As long as our attitude is one of "well, I've done such and such for you God - what are you going to do for me in return?", or "Look what I've done - I 'deserve' this or that", then we fail to have a 'slave' mentality toward Him who 'owns' us. All that we do should be in appreciation for what Christ has done for us - bought us with the ultimate price - with no expection of selfish reward.
So the analogy works pretty good so far, but what about the passages which deal with Christian freedom and Christian liberty? Aren't those somewhat at odds with this notion of being a 'Christian slave'? John 8:32 says, "and you shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free." Does this fit in with our 'Christian slave' analogy? Maybe. You see, before salvation, we are told that we are 'slaves of sin' - not only in Rom. 6, but here in John 8 as well - "everyone who commits a sin is a slave of sin" (v. 34). So the freedom that the 'Truth' (or Christ) brings, then, is freedom from slavery to sin. I think Luther called it the 'bondage of the will'. Before salvation, we are slaves to our own fallen nature - with many of the same 'traits' that I've already mentioned. We are dependent on our lusts, we are subject to the desires of our lusts, we are owned by our lusts. But Christ 'set us free'. Okay, free FROM the 'bondage of our will', but free TO what? Free to be a slave to someone else? Well, ....yes. I had - up until I began to 'chew' on this slavery thing, always contended that the freedom 'to' was the freedom of choice that a Christian has - as opposed to one who has not been spiritually 'regenerated'. Before regeneration, as the doctrine goes, we will 'always choose wrong' - we don't have the ability to choose righteousness. But after regeneration, we have the 'choice' to choose between righteousness and sin - as testified by Paul in Rom. 6. BUT, the more I 'chew' the slavery cud, the more I'm convinced that while we have 'choice' in an absolute sense, in a practical sense, we really don't. I think maybe that the freedom that Christ was talking about was the 'freedom' to become selfless. Does that make sense? Before knowing the 'Truth', we ALWAYS choose the selfish road. Oh, some of our actions and thoughts may seem altruistic, but 'me, myself, and I' are always at the root of the decision. After the 'Truth' has 'purchased' us, we are given the capacity to 'follow Christ' - i.e. we now have the 'freedom' to do good and righteous things. You see, my paradigm of 'freedom' was skewed. While I don't use my liberty as 'license', I believed that I had the 'freedom' to do such. If, however, I am a slave to Christ, I really don't have that freedom. My master does not approve of choices I make that serve ME. My master desires me to make choices that serve others - and now, becuase I know the 'Truth', I have the 'freedom' to make those choices. So, my friends, I now continue this journey called life with a significant paradigm shift regarding who I am - I am a slave to Christ.

Grace and peace to all,

Post Tinebrae Lux