PAUL A BOND-SLAVE OF CHRIST.
IN speaking of Paul and his relation to Christ, Dr. P. J. Mahaffy says:— He was proud to call himself the slave of Jesus Christ, and he used the right metaphor when he called the unrighteous the slaves of sin. Among the many cognate metaphors which he uses, I shall conclude by noting one which has for me peculiar interest. At the close of his Epistle to the Galatians, he says: "Henceforth let no man trouble me; for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." What does this mean? Let me translate it for the reader more literally. "For I bear in my body the brand of my Master, Jesus Christ." The word Kyrios, rightly translated Lord, means in this connection the legal owner or possessor; the husband of the wife, the father of the child, the patron of his freedman. Stigmata is the common word for the brand or mark with which masters marked slaves, especially those who had run away, or showed signs of so doing. But there is much more to be said than this. In the very numerous records (on fragments of marble) of manumissions found at Delphi, and at other shrines in Greece, we have learned the legal process by which a slave gained his own liberty. He did not bring the master his earnings, and obtain his freedom with his receipt for the money. He went to the temple of the god, and there paid in his money to the priests. They then, with this money, bought the slave from his master, on the part of the god. He became for the rest of his life a slave of the god, which meant, practically, freedom subject to certain periodical religious duties. If at any future time his master or his master's heirs reclaimed him, he had the record of the transaction in the temple. But on one point these documents are silent. If he traveled, if he were far from home, and was seized as a runaway slave, what security could he have? I believe St. Paul gives us the solution. When liberated at the temple, the priest, if he desired it, branded him with the stigmata of his new master, Apollo. Now St. Paul's words acquire a new and striking application. He had been the slave of sin, but he had been purchased by Christ, and his new liberty consisted in his being the slave of Christ. Henceforth, he says, let no man attempt to reclaim me; I have been marked on my body with the brand of my new Master, Jesus Christ. Probably he referred to the many scars he bore of his persecutions. They were evidence, not only that he had served his new Master, but had endured suffering in that service.