1st Peter 2:18-25

In 1st Peter 2:18-25, Peter addresses a sad reality of fallen human society - slavery. Slavery was too established as a fact of life for Peter to suggest its overthrow. As Peter writes his letter to the saints in Asia Minor, many of those the Lord has saved and brought into his church are slaves. At the time Peter wrote, upwards of one in five, or about 12,000,000 people in Rome lived in slavery.

We are likely to find Peter’s instruction to Christian slaves to be somewhat shocking. We wonder why the New Testament never cries out for the abolition of slavery, and we are even more dumbfounded when Peter instructs slaves to humble submission to their masters—even to unjust masters! Is the Bible pro-slavery? We’ll find it’s not that simple.