ers Grove, Ill.: Apollos/InterVarsity, 1999), 112.
Today's Gospel: Good News or Bad?
an unquestionable right to command. A nearly synonymous Greek term also sometimes translated "Lord" in the New Testament is despotes. That word (the root of our English word despot) describes a ruler with absolute power over his subjects. Professor Murray J. Harris distinguishes the two terms this way: "Clearly despotes and kyrios largely overlap in meaning; both may be rendered 'lord' or 'master.' If we are to distinguish the two terms with regard to emphasis, kyrios signifies 'sovereign Lord,' and despotes 'absolute Lord.' "1
Both words are used in reference to Christ as Lord in the New Testament. For example, in John 13:13, Jesus took the title kurios for Himself: "You call Me Teacher and Lord [kurios]; and you are right, for so I am." And Jude 4, a text written by Jesus' own earthly half brother, employs both words in parallel fashion: "For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master [despotes] and Lord [kurios], Jesus Christ."
Both words are extremely powerful. They were part of the vocabulary of slavery in New Testament times. They describe a master with absolute dominion over someone else — a slave owner. His subjects are duty-bound to obey their lord's directives, not merely because they choose to do so but because they have no rightful liberty to do otherwise. Therefore, wherever there was a lord (kurios) or a master (despotes), there was always a slave (doulos). One idea necessarily and axiomatically implies the other. That explains Jesus' incredulity at the practice of those who paid homage to Him with their lips but not with their lives: "Why do you call Me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?" (Luke 6:46).
You may recognize the Greek word doulos because it is quite a common term in the New Testament. The word and its derivatives appear more than 130 times in the New Testament — frequently as a description of what it means to be a true Chris tian: "He who was called while free, is Christ's slave [doulos]. You were bought with a price" (1 Cor. 7:22 – 23).
Doulos is not an ambiguous term. It suggests a very specific concept, which — while repugnant to our culture and our natural minds — should not be toned down or backed away from. It is the main Greek word that was used to describe the lowest abject bond slave — a person who was literally owned by a master who could legally force him to work without wages. In other words, a doulos was a person without standing or rights. According to Kittel's definitive dictionary of New Testament expressions, words in the doulos group
1. Murray J. Harris, Slave of Christ: A New Testament Metaphor for Total Devotion to Christ (Downers Grove, Ill.: Apollos/InterVarsity, 1999), 112.