“For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear…”
(Rom 8:15, OAV)
Physical slavery, we suggested in the previous teaching, requires direct action from believers, who often look the other way when it comes to this evil and its various contemporary guises. But the Word also speaks, in no uncertain terms, of spiritual slavery. In fact, in Rom 8:15 Paul contends that there is a “spirit of bondage”, and one could easily point out that this is a manifestation of what he in 1 Cor 2:12 terms “the spirit of the world”. This counters the “Spirit of the truth” which the world cannot receive (John 14:17). We can thus delineate two opposing groups. Note how the column on the left links to the one on the right.
| spirit of the world (1 Cor 2:12) ↓ | Spirit of truth (John 4:17) |
| spirit of fear (2 Tim 1:7)↓ | “there is no fear in love”
(1 John 4:18) |
| spirit of disobedience (Eph 2:2)↓ | “in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart” (1 Pet 1:22) |
| spirit of bondage (Rom 8:15) ↓ | Spirit of adoption (Rom 8:15) |
| “slaves of sin …till death”
(Rom 6:16) |
“and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb 2:15) |
From the Word it is clear that the “spirit of the world’s strategy is that of untruth – “The devil … was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” (John 8:44).
The false reality that he offers, serves as a veil to blind humanity from the truth of Christ (2 Cor 4:4). This state of humanity, without hope and God in this world, obviously causes fear. Lev 26:35 describes this state as follows – “I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, the sound of a shaken leaf shall cause them to flee; they shall flee as though fleeing from a sword, and they shall fall when no one pursues.”
It necessarily then follows that these fear-driven people will offer themselves as “slaves to obey”, thus slaves of sin and death (Rom 6:16).
Spiritual slavery thus always leads to death.
- Sela: Are you in slavery of any kind? Ask the Holy Spirit to point it out.
- Read: Jos 20-24
- Examine how this has been fulfilled: Jos 21:45 (Tip: 2 Cor 1:20; 1 Kings 8:25; Acts 13:23; Eph 2:12)
