Previous post: Part 1: Introduction
English translations tend to use “lord” when referring to God but “master” or “ruler” when referring to men. This creates some confusion in the minds of readers since the average reader will not be aware that the two words refer to a single concept and so they will often miss the connection between the two. I saw this recently in the Sermon on the mount. Look at the two examples below:
You cannot be the slave of two masters! You will like one more than the other or be more loyal to one than the other. You cannot serve both God and money. (Mat. 6:24, CEV)
Not everyone who calls me their Lord will get into the kingdom of heaven. Only the ones who obey my Father in heaven will get in. On the day of judgment many will call me their Lord. They will say, “We preached in your name, and in your name we forced out demons and worked many miracles.” But I will tell them, “I will have nothing to do with you! Get out of my sight, you evil people!” (Mat. 7:21-23, CEV)
The words in boldface are translations of the same word kurios. To be accurate we should say that the first example is the plural form κυρίοις while the others are singular. But all the same these are essentially the same word. As English speakers we have an intuitive idea of what a master is. A master in most of our minds is principally the owner of slaves. That is a pretty close depiction of the New Testament conception of kurios. But I believe our understanding differs from those of the first century simply because they had a more intimate acquaintance with this concept. In addition to associating the term kurios with owning of slaves, a Greek speaker of the first century would have associated this term with other concepts as well:
- A kurios is wealthy
- A kurios is the head of a large household
- A kurios is in charge of others
- A kurios is responsible for the welfare of his slaves
There are all sorts of implications for us as followers of Jesus when we think of him as our kurios. These include:
- Because Jesus is our kurios, we are his slaves
- Because Jesus is our kurios, he is responsible to take care of us
We tend to internalize that first concept without the second. We are willing to concede in general terms that Jesus is our master although we probably metaphorize this more than we should. Jesus is our master! His will determines our destiny not our own. We are owned by him and our energy is devoted to serving him for his benefit. Ouch! When I think about my own life and activities this makes me feel like a very rebellious slave!
The second truth is equally important. When Jesus is our master he controls our lives and actions but he also takes upon himself the welfare of his slaves. We are his to command. But we are also his to be clothed, and fed, and provided for in every way. This is the secret to understanding Jesus’ teaching about serving two masters. It is not merely a case of being a slave to money, but rather choosing the preferred option which is to be under the care of our benevolent kurios.
And the second passage quoted above should chill our souls. Jesus is talking to us. You can call him “Lord” or “Master” or whatever you want but you can be guilty of not hearing his commands and obeying him. All our service can turn out to be “self-service” and we find out at the Judgement Day that we were never serving the Lord at all.
I invite you to prayerfully consider the issue of what “Lord” really means to us today. My prayer is that during the course of this series we may all learn to serve our Master more faithfully.
2 responses so far ↓
Peter Kirk // January 8, 2007 at 4:39 pm
Thanks for this.
I wonder if we don’t accept “Because Jesus is our kurios, he is responsible to take care of us” so easily because in our rather remote concept of slavery masters didn’t take care of their slaves well. That was certainly often true of slaves in America and the Caribbean. But I think that in the ancient Greek and Roman world slaves were highly valued and generally, if not always, rather well cared for by their masters. So perhaps we need to adjust our concept of slavery before making too much of it in our New Testament exegesis.
I am also a bit concerned about your final warning. If we have indeed been bought (redeemed) by Jesus, we are his slaves and will not be disowned on Judgment Day. This warning is for those who claim that he is their Master but have never actually submitted to him. But it does not imply that our salvation depends on our continuing good works.
Apollonius // March 22, 2007 at 1:54 am
To the contrary, I think we should listen to what
Jesus really had to say, rather than parroting the gimmick theology spouted by so-called evangelists who promise certain salvation for anyone who’ll just come down the aisle and kneel at their feet. I am very much afraid that these phonies are precisely the wolves-in-sheep’s-clothing of whom our Lord warns us.
It is up to the Son of Man alone to determine who belongs to Him and who does not. To say otherwise is to set yourself up over and above our Lord and master, as if you knew better than He.
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