Why do you suppose Jesus never condemned slavery?

"Slaves, male and female, you may indeed possess, provided you BUY them from among the neighboring nations. You may also BUY them from among the aliens who reside with you and from their children who are born and reared in your land. Such slaves YOU MAY OWN AS CHATTELS, and leave to your sons as their hereditary property, MAKING THEM PERPETUAL SLAVES. But you shall not lord it harshly over any of the Israelites, your kinsmen."
Leviticus 25:44ff

Leviticus is the LAW.

Matthew 19
7“Why then,” they asked, “did Moses order a man to give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?” 8Jesus answered, “It was because of your hardness of heart that Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but it was not this way from the beginning. 9Now I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman, commits adultery.”…

Here is what Jesus says about the LAW:

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have come, not abolish them, but to fulfill them. Of this much I assure you: UNTIL HEAVEN AND EARTH PASS AWAY, NOT THE SMALLEST LETTER OF THE LAW, NOT THE SMALLEST PART OF A LETTER, SHALL BE DONE AWAY WITH UNTIL IT ALL COME TRUE."
Matthew 5: 17ff

Here is what Paul said condoning slavery:

"All under the yoke of slavery must regard their masters as worthy of full respect...Those slaves whose masters are brothers in the faith must not take liberties with them on that account. they must perform their tasks even more faithfully, since those who will profit from their work are believers and beloved brothers."
1 Timothy 6:1ff

"To slaves I say, obey your human masters perfectly, not with the purpose of attracting attention and pleasing men, but in all sincerity and our of reverence for the Lord."
Colossians 3:22

"You slave owners, deal justly and fairly with your slaves..."
Colossians 4:1

"Slaves are to be submissive to their masters. They should try to please them in every way, not contradicting them nor stealing from them, but expressing a constant fidelity by their conduct, so as to adorn in every way possible the doctrine of God our Savior."
Titus 2:9

"The general rule is that each one should lead the life the Lord has assigned him, continuing as he was when the Lord called him...Were you a slave when your call came? Give it no thought. Even supposing you could go free, you would be better off making the most of your slavery...."
1 Corinthians 7:17ff

In the Epistle, Philemon, Paul returns a slave (Onesimus) to his master (Philemon) and tells Philemon that although he (Paul) feels he has the right to command Philemon to free Onesimus, he would not do that, but would instead appeal to Philemon to do it on his own.

Anything else I can help you with about the Bible...just ask.

Frank Apisa wrote:

"Slaves, male and female, you may indeed possess, provided you BUY them from among the neighboring nations. You may also BUY them from among the aliens who reside with you and from their children who are born and reared in your land. Such slaves YOU MAY OWN AS CHATTELS, and leave to your sons as their hereditary property, MAKING THEM PERPETUAL SLAVES. But you shall not lord it harshly over any of the Israelites, your kinsmen."
Leviticus 25:44ff


Leviticus is the LAW.

Leviticus is Old Testament, which also allowed divorce. When Jesus was asked specifically about divorce, he said the following:

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Matthew 19
7“Why then,” they asked, “did Moses order a man to give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?” 8Jesus answered, “It was because of your hardness of heart that Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but it was not this way from the beginning. 9Now I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman, commits adultery.”…

Jesus also stopped them from stoning a woman for committing adultery. So it is not correct to say that Jesus condoned everything allowed by the Old Testament.

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Here is what Jesus says about the LAW:

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have come, not abolish them, but to fulfill them. Of this much I assure you: UNTIL HEAVEN AND EARTH PASS AWAY, NOT THE SMALLEST LETTER OF THE LAW, NOT THE SMALLEST PART OF A LETTER, SHALL BE DONE AWAY WITH UNTIL IT ALL COME TRUE."
Matthew 5: 17ff

So He didn't want Holy Spirit to become a rationalization for people who just wanted to abolish the law for political reasons. That's understandable.

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Here is what Paul said condoning slavery:

"All under the yoke of slavery must regard their masters as worthy of full respect...Those slaves whose masters are brothers in the faith must not take liberties with them on that account. they must perform their tasks even more faithfully, since those who will profit from their work are believers and beloved brothers."
1 Timothy 6:1ff

This is why I have said that what is described as 'slavery' then was more akin to what wage labor is now.

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"To slaves I say, obey your human masters perfectly, not with the purpose of attracting attention and pleasing men, but in all sincerity and our of reverence for the Lord."
Colossians 3:22

This is not condoning slavery. It is telling people who are enslaved how to live righteously within a subjugated position.

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"You slave owners, deal justly and fairly with your slaves..."
Colossians 4:1

Again, not condoning slavery but telling people who own slaves how to behave righteously as slave holders.

I have a friend who is vegan who asks, "humane slaughter?" when PETA recommends guidelines for more humane slaughter in the meat industry. From one perspective, all slaughter is inhumane and from another there is a more humane way to do it. If you would assume that PETA wouldn't prefer to abolish all meat consumption and thus animal slaughter completely, just because they prescribe guidelines for more humane slaughter, you'd be misinterpreting the reason for the guidelines.

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"Slaves are to be submissive to their masters. They should try to please them in every way, not contradicting them nor stealing from them, but expressing a constant fidelity by their conduct, so as to adorn in every way possible the doctrine of God our Savior."
Titus 2:9

So he's telling slaves to turn the other cheek, not condoning slavery.

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"The general rule is that each one should lead the life the Lord has assigned him, continuing as he was when the Lord called him...Were you a slave when your call came? Give it no thought. Even supposing you could go free, you would be better off making the most of your slavery...."
1 Corinthians 7:17ff

This is about spiritually counseling people who are enslaved, not condoning/promoting the institution of slavery itself.

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In the Epistle, Philemon, Paul returns a slave (Onesimus) to his master (Philemon) and tells Philemon that although he (Paul) feels he has the right to command Philemon to free Onesimus, he would not do that, but would instead appeal to Philemon to do it on his own.

Christians are not supposed to exercise revolution by force but by winning over sinners to righteousness. So when it says, "although he feels he has the right to command him to free . . ." that implies that it is right to free him and not that it's right for him to go on being a slave.

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Anything else I can help you with about the Bible...just ask.

Can you see now that these passages you cite are not to condone slavery, although they deal with various ethics and spiritual issues regarding slaves and slavers?

So you are saying Jesus was a liar when he said he was not here to change the law.

As for the other nonsense...

...you are so far in denial...I feel sorry for you.

Jesus obviously did not condemn slavery...and the reason he did not seems to be that the god he worshiped said there was nothing wrong with slavery.

LF said so too, but I am not the one who condone slavery, nor am I saying much on behalf of our good buddy Jesus, who can very speak for himself, I would think. No, if someone is condoning slavery -- which goes against basic human rights -- by equating it with more benign forms of labor contracts, it's you guys.

If you say that slavery is not so bad or not so different from modern forms of exploitation, then my answer is by all means walk the talk, and try it out for yourself. Then you will be speaking from experience. Otherwise you are being crassly condescending towards generations upon generations of slaves by belittling their suffering from a position of privilege.

Or am I to understand that you were not talking personally, but about certain other categories of people, supposedly unable to rule themselves?... Of a darker complexion perhaps? Is that what you're saying?

When Jesus told the rich man that if he wanted to be perfect he would have to give up all his possessions, He was setting an impossibly high standard of righteousness, which was nonetheless a true standard. 

who is saying "that slavery is not so bad." 

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When Jesus told the rich man that if he wanted to be perfect he would have to give up all his possessions, He was setting an impossibly high standard of righteousness, which was nonetheless a true standard. 

It's not at all impossibly high. Many people have done it through the ages. And he didn't tell the guy to free his slaves anyway, so it's not relevant.

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who is saying "that slavery is not so bad." 

Those who equate it to wagged labor or say it's not that different.

trying to divide sin into lesser and worse sin.

Jesus was never interested in economics, and not into economic policy. He was not a reformist, he thought the world was ending, which is probably why it didn't matter to him.

Note that to "give up" is different from "to free". If I give up something, i give it to someone else.

21Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

22When the young man heard this, he went away in sorrow, because he had great wealth.

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trying to divide sin into lesser and worse sin.

Of course. What else is morality about?

You're implying that Jesus validated slavery in some way.

There's no support of any system. There is forgiveness for all sin, but that is not for the purpose of supporting any system in particular.

Here's the problem: if you say that it's only a sin to prioritize possessions, when what Jesus said was for the man to give all his possessions to the poor and follow Him, then you're trying to find a way to comply so that you won't be a sinner;

In the case of Euro enslavement of Africans, we have this idea that the Africans captured were innocent victims of their captors/traffickers, but in the ancient world there was an idea that people became slaves through debt or criminality or war or some other situation where their own personal failure would have left them no choice but to beg for their lives, and then a slave master would have been saving their lives by giving them work to do in exchange for food, etc.

I was talking about how 'love thy neighbour as thyself' plays out in relation to actual slavery.

I’m assuming you were never taken involuntarily into an army, controlled 24/7, had to work under the most hazardous conditions and forced to kill other people who you knew Literally nothing about.

This happens in every kind of country, from lawless third world, to the 'civilized' USA.

You ******* bleeding hearts have no intellectual or emotional foundation to your pathetic ethics and artificial sensitivities.

Please report this post.

Edit. Consider this addressed to all.

To give a donkey to the poor is not the same thing as to free the donkey. Try and pretend you understand basic concepts, will you?

Forgiveness itself is based on assessing the extent and degree of a fault or sin, so it does not contradict anything I said. It is important yo be able to distinguish between small problems and big problems. To equivocate large and small sins is not Christian. Rather, it is evil.

I'm not equivocating large and small sins.

I’m assuming you were never taken involuntarily into an army, controlled 24/7, had to work under the most hazardous conditions and forced to kill other people who you knew Literally nothing about.
This happens in every kind of country, from lawless third world, to the 'civilized' USA.
You ******* bleeding hearts have no intellectual or emotional foundation to your pathetic ethics and artificial sensitivities.
Please report this post.
Edit. Consider this addressed to all.

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I'm not equivocating large and small sins.

Yes you were, and you were wrong. No amount of blah blah blah will change that.

Instead of arguing with me about what I mean, you should try to understand it. 

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Instead of arguing with me about what I mean, you should try to understand it. 

That describe you better than me. Jesus never said: "Big sin, small sin, same stuff, all forgiven, go right ahead and sin in peace." That seems to be your interpretation of his teaching, but it is wrong.

Romans 6:1
Dead to Sin, Alive to God
1What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer?…