Adonay means “God the Master,” which got me thinking about what a “master” is from a human perspective. There are a variety opinions, but I was drawn to the fact that “master” is a word that mostly has negative connotations for most modern people, especially in America.

I was able to think of three contexts in which I think “master” is used to describe a relationship. Unfortunately, none of these were good, or in any way how I think Christians are supposed to view the relationship between themselves and God

1. Slaves
   • In the English speaking world, the word “master” was what slaves were compelled to call their owners. Broadly speaking, the goal of slavery, in general, was to exploit the labor of the slaves for economic gain for the owner. The slave gained nothing from the relationship, except enough food and shelter to keep them alive. Maybe.
   • A Christian’s relationship with God is very different. God doesn’t need anything from us. He’s not exploiting our labor so he can relax and sip martinis on the beach. When a Christian is commanded to do something by God, it’s for the benefit of God’s Kingdom, but also for the benefit of the Christian. It’s not always immediate on the Earth, but God remembers obedience for all eternity. (Matthew 6:19-21)
2. Servants
   • I can’t verify the historical accuracy of this trope, but in modern culture servants traditionally addressed their employers as “master”. This relationship is very different from slavery, since ownership is not implied. Many servants went home at the end of the day, but even live-in butlers and maids would have time where they were not ‘on-the-clock’, and thus able to do what they wanted. In general, employers also weren’t really concerned with what their servants did on their own time, as long as it didn’t reflect badly on them.
   • This is still not a good model of a Christian’s relationship with God. In this case, the employer is completely uninterested in the servant beyond what they can provide, and the servant clocks out at the end of the day without any accountability to their master when they are off the clock. But God cares about Christians and our growth. (Ephesians 4:22-24) Christians are also never ‘off the clock’. They are always accountable to God.
3. Apprentices
   • Apprentices were people who would spend years of their lives contracted to a mentor they addressed as “master.” The apprentice worked for nothing but room and board for a certain number of years, but in exchange the mentor was obligated to teach them a useful skill and help them grow into a tradesman. Unfortunately, the contracts were often quite abusive and one sided. Some mentors would have several different apprentices, giving them only the bare minimum of mentoring and leaving them doing boring work while refusing to let them graduate.
   • The biggest flaw in the apprentice system was that the so-called “master” could abuse the system. Not all of them did, but as the system became more entrenched, it became more common for these abusive relationships to develop. In contrast, Christians have a perfect, just master who is never tempted into exploitation. (Jeremiah 29:11 & Ephesians 2:10) Christians can trust that their master will always be giving commands for the right reasons.

None of these examples uses the word “master” in a way that properly exemplifies a Christian’s relationship with God, and the connotations the word brings up can cause confusion. It’s important to remember that a Christian’s relationship with God is different than any relationship humans can have with each other. Thus, any use of the word “master” applied to a human relationship is going to miss some aspect of our relationship with our creator.