Slaves of God

I started reading a book called "Slave" the other day. It has been a great reminder to me of a great teaching in the Bible. While many of us read the words "A servant of God" or "A servant of Christ" in the Bible, a better way to translate this would be slave instead of servant. God wants us to understand this picture. We belong to Him. He owns us. After all, He did pay for us! And the slave's greatest task is to obey and please His master in everything. But being God's slave is not a bad thing. It is an awesome thing. One reason is because if we were not God's slaves we would be slaves to sin. Now that we belong to Him we are free from our slavery to sin.
Whoever we are slaves to defines who we are. Thus, if we are God's slaves, our identity is found completely in Him. And the wonder of it all is that, while we are the slaves of God, He also calls us His friends. So, I say with Paul, "I am a slave of Jesus Christ!"