The Greeting

Bondservant, apostle, set apart

Romans 1:1

Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,

Paul considered himself and declared himself a bond-servant of Christ.  A bond-servant was one who was not just a regular employee that could quit working for their master at will.  The bond-servant was considered the property of a Roman citizen, holding no right to leave their place of service.  When asked what Paul's legacy was, F. F. Bruce (Manchester University of England) said:

>I believe his main legacy is his law-free gospel, his affirmation that the grace of God, which he declares is available on equal terms and manifested in an equal degree among human beings of every kind. When he says that “in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free person, neither male nor female” [Galatians 3:28], he is saying that distinctions of those kinds are simply irrelevant where the gospel is concerned, and where Christian witness, life, and fellowship are concerned.

Paul often wrote of our freedoms, freedom from sin, freedom from the law that bound the old testament because that law had been fulfilled by the sacrifice Jesus performed, freedom for mankind to approach God without an intermediary.  For Paul to declare himself a bond-servant of Christ implies a willing choice to enter into eternal service for Christ on Paul's part.  This is evidence of seeking after Jesus with his whole heart.  We can do no less if we wish to serve Jesus.  Our salvation does not hinge on our works, rather the dedication of our hearts to serve our master.

In Matthew, chapter 6, it is written that man cannot serve two masters, for if he does he will hate one and love the other.  This means that we must choose which master we are to serve, and then throw ourselves into that service with our whole being, for to do less is to invite destruction.  The chaos that comes from trying to straddle the fence of service is enough to bring a callous disregard to our hearts for the one we serve, ultimately causing us to deny our hearts to one we would serve, destroying the relationship with the master.  Paul's first words to the church of Rome are to identify himself as wholly committed to the cause of Christ in his decision to be a slave to Christ's will, not through being forced into that situation, but by Paul's choice alone.  What powerful evidence of the verse in John 3 'He must increase, but I must decrease.'

This decrease, this choice of service lives in the testimony of Paul's being 'set apart for the gospel of God'.  When something is set apart, it is deigned a special purpose, a service above the mundane and the ordinary.  The idea of being set apart implies that an overarching will has previously and with foreknowledge considered useful for the special purpose.  Who does that setting apart?  God.  Through His perfect will, he sieves out the mundane and ordinary from the special, the appointed.  We too are set apart in God's plan.  We have a purpose in His will.  What is that purpose?  We find that out through prayer and supplication to His will.  We find that out through service and fellowship, understanding the unique identity we were formed with and seeking out God's will for our life by choosing to serve one master:  Jesus Christ.