36 Bible Verses about Slavery, Spiritual

They replied to him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves to anybody. So how can you say, "You will be set free'?" Jesus answered them, "Truly, I tell all of you emphatically, that everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the household forever, but the son does remain forever. read more.
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed!"

Therefore, do not let sin rule your mortal bodies so that you obey their desires. Stop offering the parts of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness. Instead, offer yourselves to God as people who have been brought from death to life and the parts of your body as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin will not have mastery over you, because you are not under Law but under grace.read more.
What, then, does this mean? Should we go on sinning because we are not under Law but under grace? Of course not! Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thank God that, though you were once slaves of sin, you became obedient from your hearts to that form of teaching with which you were entrusted! And since you have been freed from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness.

What should we say, then? Is the Law sinful? Of course not! In fact, I wouldn't have become aware of sin if it had not been for the Law. I wouldn't have known what it means to covet if the Law had not said, "You must not covet." But sin seized the opportunity provided by this commandment and produced in me all kinds of sinful desires, since apart from the Law, sin is dead. At one time I was alive without any connection to the Law. But when the rule was revealed, sin sprang to life, read more.
and I died. I found that the very rule that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity provided by the rule, deceived me and used it to kill me. So then, the Law itself is holy, and the rule is holy, just, and good. Now, did something good bring me death? Of course not! But in order that sin might be recognized as being sin, it used something good to cause my death, so that through the rule, sin might become more exposed as being sinful than ever before. For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am merely human, sold as a slave to sin. I don't understand what I am doing. For I don't practice what I want to do, but instead do what I hate. Now if I practice what I don't want to do, I am admitting that the Law is good. As it is, I am no longer the one who is doing it, but it is the sin that is living in me. For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but I cannot carry it out. For I don't do the good I want to do, but instead do the evil that I don't want to do. But if I do what I don't want to do, I am no longer the one who is doing it, but it is the sin that is living in me. So I find this to be a principle: when I want to do what is good, evil is right there with me. For I delight in the Law of God in my inner being, but I see in my body a different principle waging war with the Law in my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin that exists in my body. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is infected by death? Thank God through Jesus the Messiah, our Lord, because with my mind I myself can serve the Law of God, even while with my human nature I serve the law of sin.

After all, we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, and misled. We were slaves to many kinds of lusts and pleasures, spending our days in malice and jealousy. We were despised, and we hated one another.

Promising them freedom, they themselves are slaves to depravity, for a person is a slave to whatever conquers him.

The Messiah has set us free so that we may enjoy the benefits of freedom. So keep on standing firm in it, and stop putting yourselves under the yoke of slavery again.

Now what I am saying is this: As long as an heir is a child, he is no better off than a slave, even though he owns everything. Instead, he is placed under the care of guardians and servant managers until the time set by the father. It was the same way with us. While we were children, we were slaves to the basic principles of the world. read more.
But when the appropriate time had come, God sent his Son, born by a woman, born under the Law, in order to redeem those who were under the Law, and thus to adopt them as his children. Now because you are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts to cry out, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if you are a child, then you are also an heir because of what God did.

For you have not received a spirit of slavery that leads you into fear again. Instead, you have received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba! Father!"

Therefore, since the children have flesh and blood, he himself also shared the same things, so that by his death he might destroy the one who has the power of death (that is, the Devil) and might free those who were slaves all their lives because they were terrified by death.

Now before the Passover Festival, Jesus realized that his hour had come to leave this world and return to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. By supper time, the Devil had already put it into the heart of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray him. Because Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into his control, that he had come from God, and that he was returning to God, read more.
therefore he got up from the table, removed his outer robe, and took a towel and fastened it around his waist. Then he poured some water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to dry them with the towel that was tied around his waist. Then he came to Simon Peter, who asked him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" Jesus answered him, "You don't realize now what I'm doing, but later on you'll understand." Peter told him, "You must never wash my feet!" Jesus answered him, "Unless I wash you, you cannot be involved with me." Simon Peter told him, "Lord, not just my feet, but my hands and my head as well!" Jesus told him, "Whoever has bathed is entirely clean. He doesn't need to wash himself further, except for his feet. And you men are clean, though not all of you." For he knew who was going to betray him. That's why he said, "Not all of you are clean." When Jesus had washed their feet and put on his outer robe, he sat down again and told them, "Do you realize what I've done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right because that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you must also wash one another's feet. I've set an example for you, so that you may do as I have done to you. Truly, I tell all of you emphatically, a servant isn't greater than his master, and a messenger isn't greater than the one who sent him. If you understand these things, how blessed you are if you put them into practice!

But Jesus called the disciples and said, "You know that the rulers of the unbelievers lord it over them and their superiors act like tyrants over them. That's not the way it should be among you. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. read more.
That's the way it is with the Son of Man. He did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many people."

Jesus called his disciples and told them, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers among the unbelievers lord it over them, and their superiors act like tyrants over them. That's not the way it should be among you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be a slave to everyone, read more.
because even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many people."

Have the same attitude among yourselves that was also in the Messiah Jesus: In God's own form existed he, and shared with God equality, deemed nothing needed grasping. Instead, poured out in emptiness, a servant's form did he possess, a mortal man becoming. In human form he chose to be,read more.
and lived in all humility, death on a cross obeying. Now lifted up by God to heaven, a name above all others given, this matchless name possessing. And so, when Jesus' name is called, the knees of everyone should fall, wherever they're residing. Then every tongue in one accord, will say that Jesus the Messiah is Lord, while God the Father praising.

But now that you have been freed from sin and have become God's slaves, the benefit you reap is sanctification, and the result is eternal life.

"No one can serve two masters, because either he will hate one and love the other, or be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and riches!"

"No servant can serve two masters, because either he will hate one and love the other, or be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and wealth!"

From: Paul, a servant of Jesus the Messiah, called to be an apostle and set apart for God's gospel,

Whatever you do, work at it wholeheartedly as though you were doing it for the Lord and not merely for people. You know that it is from the Lord that you will receive the inheritance as a reward. It is the Lord Messiah whom you are serving!

From: James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. To: The twelve tribes in the Dispersion. Greetings.

Live like free people, and do not use your freedom as an excuse for doing evil. Instead, be God's servants.

From: Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus, the Messiah. To: Those who have received faith that is as valuable as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus the Messiah.

Consequently, brothers, we are not with respect to human nature, that is under an obligation to live according to human nature. For if you live according to human nature, you are going to die, but if by the Spirit you continuously put to death the activities of the body, you will live. For all who are led by God's Spirit are God's children. read more.
For you have not received a spirit of slavery that leads you into fear again. Instead, you have received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, we are heirs heirs of God and co-heirs with the Messiah if, in fact, we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

I don't call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn't know what his master is doing. But I've called you friends, because I've made known to you everything that I've heard from my Father.

Our ancestor Abraham was justified by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar, wasn't he? You see that his faith worked together with what he did, and by his actions his faith was made complete. And so the Scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." And so he was called God's friend.

So Jesus told those Jews who had believed in him, "If you continue in my word, you are really my disciples. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." They replied to him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves to anybody. So how can you say, "You will be set free'?"read more.
Jesus answered them, "Truly, I tell all of you emphatically, that everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the household forever, but the son does remain forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed!"

Tell me, those of you who want to live under the Law: Are you really listening to what the Law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and the other by a free woman. Now the slave woman's son was conceived through human means, while the free woman's son was conceived through divine promise. read more.
This is being said as an allegory, for these women represent two covenants. The one woman, Hagar, is from Mount Sinai, and her children are born into slavery. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to present-day Jerusalem, because she is in slavery along with her children. But the heavenly Jerusalem is the free woman, and she is our spiritual mother. For it is written, "Rejoice, you childless woman, who cannot give birth to any children! Break into song and shout, you who feel no pains of childbirth! For the children of the deserted woman are more numerous than the children of the woman who has a husband." So you, brothers, are children of the promise, like Isaac. But just as then the son who was conceived according to the flesh persecuted the son who was conceived according to the Spirit, so it is now. But what does the Scripture say? "Drive out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman must never share the inheritance with the son of the free woman." So then, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman but of the free woman.

What, then, does this mean? Should we go on sinning because we are not under Law but under grace? Of course not! Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thank God that, though you were once slaves of sin, you became obedient from your hearts to that form of teaching with which you were entrusted! read more.
And since you have been freed from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in simple terms because of the frailty of your human nature. Just as you once offered the parts of your body as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater disobedience, so now, in the same way, you must offer the parts of your body as slaves to righteousness that leads to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were "free" as far as righteousness was concerned. What benefit did you get from doing those things you are now ashamed of? For those things resulted in death. But now that you have been freed from sin and have become God's slaves, the benefit you reap is sanctification, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in union with the Messiah Jesus our Lord.

Although I am free from everyone's expectations, I have made myself a servant to all of them to win more people.

For we do not preach ourselves, but rather Jesus the Messiah as Lord, and ourselves as merely your servants for Jesus' sake.

For you, brothers, were called to freedom. Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity to gratify your flesh, but through love make it your habit to serve one another.

"Who, then, is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has put in charge of his household to give the others their food at the right time? How blessed is that servant whom his master finds doing this when he comes! I tell all of you with certainty, he will put him in charge of all his property.read more.
"But if that wicked servant says to himself, "My master has been delayed,' and begins to beat his fellow servants and eat and drink with the drunks, that servant's master will come on a day when he doesn't expect him and at an hour that he doesn't know. Then his master will punish him severely and assign him a place with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

The Lord said, "Who, then, is the faithful and careful servant manager whom his master will put in charge of giving all his other servants their share of food at the right time? How blessed is that servant whom his master finds doing this when he comes! I tell you with certainty, he will put him in charge of all his property. read more.
But if that servant says to himself, "My master is taking a long time to come back,' and begins to beat the other servants and to eat, drink, and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he doesn't expect him and at an hour that he doesn't know. Then his master will punish him severely and assign him a place with unfaithful people.

"Similarly, it is like a man going on a trip, who called his servants and turned his money over to them. To one man he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, based on their ability. Then he went on his trip. "The one who received five talents went out at once and invested them and earned five more. read more.
In the same way, the one who had two talents earned two more. But the one who received one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground, and buried his master's money. "After a long time, the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The one who had received five talents came up and brought five more talents. "Master,' he said, "you gave me five talents. See, I've earned five more talents.'

So he said, "A prince went to a distant country to be appointed king and then to return. He called ten of his servants and gave them ten coins. He told them, "Invest this money until I come back.' But the citizens of his country hated him and sent a delegation to follow him and to announce, "We don't want this man to rule over us!'read more.
"After he was appointed king, the prince came back. He ordered the servants to whom he had given the money to be called so he could find out what they had earned by investing. The first servant came and said, "Sir, your coin has earned ten more coins.' The king told him, "Well done, good servant! Because you have been trustworthy in a very small thing, take charge of ten cities.'

"Suppose a man among you has a servant plowing or watching sheep. Would he say to him when he comes in from the field, "Come at once and have something to eat'? Of course not. Instead, he would say to him, "Get dinner ready for me, and put on your apron and wait on me until I eat and drink. Then you can eat and drink.' He doesn't praise the servant for doing what was commanded, does he? read more.
That's the way it is with you. When you have done everything you were ordered to do, say, "We are worthless servants. We have done only what we ought to have done.'"

For the creation is eagerly awaiting the revelation of God's children, because the creation has become subject to futility, though not by anything it did. The one who subjected it did so in the certainty that the creation itself would also be set free from corrupting bondage in order to share the glorious freedom of God's children. read more.
For we know that all the rest of creation has been groaning with the pains of childbirth up to the present time.