“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His slaves the things which must soon happen; and He indicated this by sending it through His angel to His slave John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the witness of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things which are written in it, for the time is near.” (Revelation 1:1–3 LSB)  https://accordance.bible/link/read/LSB#Rev._1:1

Does it offend us to be called slaves by God? Most Bibles use a different word to appease our sensibilities, but the original writing called the people of God slaves for indeed that is what we are. Fortunately for us our Master is good, benevolent, and kind. He also calls us priests and children so that we need not fear Him always nor sulk around wondering if we must perform further for His approval. Yet we need to embrace this role as slave for then we might obey more of His word and do more of His work. The church is on this earth for the sole purpose of building His kingdom upon the earth as it is in heaven. The Great Commission is the mission of every Christian until all the world becomes children of God and joins His labor pool as slaves. The chaos, fear, hopelessness, lawlessness we see in our society is the direct result of the slaves of God ignoring their work, idle at their assigned duties, absent from their post. The harvest is plentiful, and the workers are few, but this should not be. We have but a simple task which is to live as Jesus did while seeking and saving the lost teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded even as we ourselves do the same. Our vocation is to pay for this occupation and not for the accumulating of the world’s ways or status for self-indulgence. Those who work hard will bear fruit and be eternally rewarded. Those who fail to work will bear no fruit and become like the man who hid his talent and was rebuked by His Master. Woe to those who say Lord, Lord but do not do what He says. Blessing, honor, and eternal glory to those who are found faithful when the Master returns to claim His own.