Experts have estimated the number of slaves in our present world at 27 million. This makes the current number of slaves in our world higher than at any previous time in history! One stronghold of slavery is the country of Mauritania, located in the Sahara desert of Africa. It’s estimated that nearly 20% of the population of this country, or nearly 600,000 men, women, and children, still live in slavery. Slavery has been the rule for many centuries in this country. Abject poverty and a frightening ignorance of the outside world are so rampant here that many who are slaves don’t even realize it. They simply accept the lack of freedom for themselves and their families, because it is the way it has always been and the way it must always be.
Does it surprise you that people can live their entire lives as slaves and not even know it? It shouldn’t. It goes on in the spiritual realm all the time. Many people in this world have sold themselves into slavery and don’t even know it. Slavery is defined as a person held in servitude as the physical property of another. By rejecting the knowledge of God, many people have unwittingly put themselves under the power of God’s enemy, Satan. Some he controls through desires and lusts; others he controls through the spiritual sin of pride. They don’t need to make any kind of conscious decision to be his slave. All they have to do is live at a distance from the God who loves them. Satan’s goal is to keep as many souls as possible under his deadly influence. If they die never having come to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they will remain under his power forever.
A terrible poverty towards God and a frightful ignorance of God’s truth make it possible for many people to be enslaved by sin. However, God doesn’t want anyone to continue to live apart from Him until they perish. He wants them to come to Him by faith for salvation. “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).
God doesn’t want you to go through life carrying the heavy load of sin, which is, and always will be, slave labor. Just because you have had a sinful past doesn’t mean you can’t escape the slavery of sin in the future. Come to Jesus Christ, the Saviour of sinners, and find the wonderful freedom God wants you to have!
Find out how to be free from the worst possible debt in Two Ways to Deal With a Debt.