# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Mai 1863_S142
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

142 The Old Lutheran Teachers on Slavery.
(Continued.)

Friedrich Balduin, professor at Wittenberg, died 1627, writes on 1 Tim. 6:1—2:

The Apostle begins with the servants, of whom he treats frequently in his letters, especially in those he wrote to Asiatic congregations, such as the Ephesians, the Colossians, and Timothy. Five causes moved him to this. 1. Because in Asia there were very many servants, who nevertheless stood in better repute than others; hence Agesilaus, the king of the Lacedaemonians, used to say that while the free men among the inhabitants of Asia were wicked, the servants were good. Now if these were converted to the Christian faith, they had to be so instructed that they would know that their station, though despised in the world, was nevertheless pleasing to God, if only they themselves faithfully carried out what belonged to their office. 2. Because the servants of the Hebrews could become free after six years of servitude, Exod. 21:2; so that the Christian servants might not demand the same of their masters, they are commanded by apostolic authority to be subject to their masters — a ground which Augustine gives in the 77th Question on Exodus. 3. Because there were already at that time people who misunderstood the apostolic teaching on Christian liberty; for what the Apostles taught concerning spiritual liberty, which consists in freedom from sin, death, hell, and other spiritual enemies, these interpreted as political liberty, as though Christians were bound to no masters, nor to any authority. This teaching was therefore necessary, because the Gospel does not abolish political orders — a ground which Chrysostom touches on in his commentary on this text, in the 16th Homily. 4. Because the offense of the heathen had to be met, so that they would not further abhor the Christian religion should they see the servants living without restraint. For the heathen were accustomed to judge doctrines not by words but precisely by works and life, says Chrysostom in the fourth Homily on the Epistle to Titus. 5. Because the manner of life of the servants themselves requires repeated instruction of this kind. For, as Chrysostom adds in the same place, it is held for certain among all peoples and everywhere that servants are, for the most part, shameless, impatient, unruly, cunning, and little fit to receive the teaching of virtue — not indeed on account of their nature, but because of their company and because of the neglect of their lives; for in what concerns morals, they tend to be neglected by their masters. For these reasons, then, the Apostle frequently reminds the servants of their duty.

In our text, however, he prescribes for them two rules: the one concerns such servants as have unbelieving masters, the other those who have