But if the servant declares, I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free. The seventh-year release was not compulsory — the servant could choose to remain. The stated reasons are relational: I love my master, my wife, my children. The law recognizes that love can create voluntary bonds that a freedom law cannot simply dissolve. The servant who loves his master and family above his freedom is making a theological choice as much as a practical one. John 15:13 says greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends — the servant who lays down his freedom for love of those he serves enacts the same principle at a smaller scale. The love-motivated permanent commitment is the seed of the voluntary self-giving that the New Testament will make central.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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