Slavery

In Peter's First Letter in the New Testament he tells slaves to obey even harsh masters. I thought that he was being soft on slavery, but as pondered it I realize that he has another agenda. Christ suffered harsh punishment unjustly. He was innocent. He did right and got beaten and then crucified. So to be punished unjustly is to follow Christ. To suffer unjustly without complaint is to follow Christ. That would take a whole lot of transformation for me to be able to live that way, much less suffer with that attitude. But then no one ever said transformation would be easy. Maybe true freedom is to not have your emotional response to a situation be controlled by another. A slave can be treated unjustly. The slave can respond in kind, and be treated even worse. The slave can go inward and feel hatred, self-pity, want revenge and let all those feelings have their way in him till it eats away the soul. Freedom however, might mean that the slave can forgive, and even pray for the master. Only Christ followers will have a choice.