An Interview With a Slave

Written by Amy Foster

How do you define freedom? This post looks at a fictional story to demonstrate the real difference between slavery and freedom.

“Worker droid No. 174,” said the man from earth, “your colony collects resources from a small quarry planet, correct?”

“Yes,” replied the robot.

“How do you like the work?”

“It is what I was created for.”

“But do you like it? Are the worker droids programmed to have such opinions?”

“Yes, our creator designed us with free will. I apologize for being unclear; I like the work.”

“Are there any of you who don’t like it?”

“There were. They left a long time ago. I don’t know why they weren’t content.”

“You said your kind was programmed with free will. Maybe the droids who left wanted something more from life than just mining quarries. Maybe they wanted freedom.”

“Mining quarries is what we were created to do. It’s the only way we can be happy.”

“But you are still a slave. You work endless shifts without pay under a master who tells you what you can and cannot do.”

“Yes.”

“How can you be happy when you have no freedom?”

“This is what’s best for us. We lead fulfilling lives. Why wouldn’t we be happy?”

The man from earth returned home, angry from his encounter with the droid. What stupid machines, content with such limited lives and loyal to a restrictive master. If man had such a master, he would have rebelled long ago.

After the interview, the man from earth was exceptionally proud to call America his home. People could be whatever they wanted to be there. No one could dictate their lives. That was his definition of freedom.

Worker droid No. 174 watched earth’s surface light up with the explosions of war and crime.

“Someone was sent to interview a droid from the colony. Who was he?” No. 173 asked.

No. 174 replied: “A slave.”

Who was the slave?

Most would conclude that those who try to follow God’s way are like robots serving a harsh creator. Overall, most consider God’s laws to be bondage.

But what did the droid in the story mean when he called his interviewer a slave? The man from earth didn’t serve a master. Or did he?

John 8:34 tells us, “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.” The man from earth unknowingly had picked for himself the harshest master—Satan, the ruler of this world (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). This whole world is in bondage to Satan and his way of life that brings pain, violence and sorrow.

Like many today, this man thought he was free because he lived his life without anyone telling him what to do. That’s exactly what his master wanted him to think! He didn’t know that “the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jeremiah 10:23).

So, the man from earth was the slave all along. But that’s only part of the answer.

Two masters

We can only be slaves of sin or slaves of righteousness (Romans 6:18, 20). Because “no one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24).

We read in 1 Corinthians 7:22 that whoever “is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord’s freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is Christ’s slave.” When we come to the knowledge of God’s truth, repent and are baptized, we are set free from the bondage and penalty of sin (which is death) and willingly serve a loving master who bought us with His own blood.

As our creator, God knows what’s best for us. His commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5:3). They are instructions for how to live life as God designed it to be lived.

However, most are sadly like the “man from earth.” They are obliviously enslaved by sin, for which the penalty is death (Romans 6:23).

So, back to our question—who was the slave? The droid or the man? The answer is both! We can’t change the fact we’re slaves; but we can choose who we’ll serve—our Creator (like the droid) or the devil (like the man).

Weigh your options and pick your master.

For further insight into this topic, read: