2 Kings 11-12, 2 Chronicles 24, 1 Timothy 6
1 Timothy 6:1-2
1 All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God’s name and our teaching may not be slandered. 2 Those who have believing masters are not to show less respect for them because they are brothers. Instead, they are to serve them even better, because those who benefit from their service are believers, and dear to them. These are the things you are to teach and urge on them.
This is one of those head-scratching passages. I understand the part of the slave respecting his master and working even harder for him, but how do you explain the perspective of a “believing master” holding slaves. How can someone who subscribes to the teaching of Jesus keep another human as a slave?
Well, here’s my analysis, such as it is. I wonder if Paul is using “slavery” in the Old Testament context, where poor people essentially sold themselves into slavery with a rich person or a landowner for a period not exceeding six years – because in the seventh year all slaves were set free. The slave was essentially trading freedom for a steady job, housing, food, etc. So Paul may be referring in this passage to people who have voluntarily become slaves (as voluntary as economic conditions allow, anyway), and those who have agreed to care for the slave.
I may be way off, but that’s what I think it refers to anyway.