In Christ, people’s social positions are relativized. A believer who is a slave should consider himself a freedman, and a believer who is free should consider himself a slave.
In Roman society, a freedman (a freed slave) still owed loyalty to the master who had set him free. The master, on his part, became the freedman’s patron. Christ has freed us from the tyranny of sin (Romans 6:17–22), making us his own. We can view our relationship to him as that of a freedman to his patron (1 Corinthians 7:22a), or as that of a slave to his new master (1 Corinthians 7:22).
22 For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ.