Christ's Slave

Paul is very direct when he states that to do that which is right after finding redemption is to become a slave to righteousness (Romans 6:18), something all people should strive to be, for it is not only obligatory, but it is also within everyone's reach (Deuteronomy 30:11).  With some early Christians living as literal slaves--and pagan civilizations were prone to practice the predatory, unbiblical forms of slavery--he says elsewhere that "he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord's freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ's slave" (1 Corinthians 7:22).  All who turn to God and Christ, for they are not identical beings as evangelicals pretend, become in one sense the opposite of whatever their cultural standing is at that time.

Someone who comes to God while they are a servant to humans, whether justly or unjustly (and there are very clear, emphasized distinctions between the two in Mosaic Law), is indeed free in a manner greater than any social hierarchy allows for.  Inversely, someone who commits to Christ in repentance while he or she is a free person in their society is now to be a slave to God, to Christ, to righteousness (again, see Romans 6:15-18), and by logical extension to all of the philosophical truths that make this possible.  There is submission of the greatest kind to be found in bowing to reason, to God and Christ, and to morality, and there is freedom of the deepest kind to be found and enjoyed in wholehearted devotion to such things.

Slavery and freedom are mingled together here as a committed follower of Yahweh and Christ is both bound to that which is good and also liberated from that which is evil, as well as from the final consequence of evil in the second death.  Whichever social status a person is in, there is a contrasting way in which they can relate to God.  Both forms of relating are always taken on by Christians to some extent even if they have not realized this fully or at all.  No matter the circumstances of just or unjust servitude a person might be in whenever they come to God, they are in every case not slaves to another person in any kind of ultimate sense (1 Corinthians 7:23).

There is surrender to God and there is also freedom in surrendering to God.  Paul admits that it is worthwhile to gain one's societal freedom if one can (7:21), though failing to do so in no way affects the simultaneous freedom in and "slavery" to God.  In ancient Jewish society, Yahweh acknowledged the human rights of slaves in many ways as early as Exodus 21, demanding the death penalty for slavery initiated by kidnapping (21:16) and requiring that slaves be released if injured through abuse (21:26-27).  Slavery to Christ and to the Father who sent him is likewise not a forced, exploitative position; it is one to be voluntarily embraced and that entails, as Jesus puts it in John 10:10, life "to the full."