Slaves for Christ.

I was going to do this myself, but I came across this and thought it did a far better job than I would have, so here it is! (from http://newleaven.com/2008/04/04/why-doulos-wasnt-given-a-fair-treatment/ )

For cultural reasons most translations have opted for either “servant” or “bondservant” for the Greek doulos. When one chairman of a major translation was asked about the choice of “servant” instead of “slave” for doulos, he said that it was shameful and difficult became of dark history of slavery in America.

What about slavery in the New Testament world? A rabbi would pray, “Thank you Lord that you didn’t make me a slave.” The stigma was there too, yet the Spirit breathed out doulos for the believer’s relationship to Messiah, Jesus Christ.

So these translations translated doulos “slave” when it is obviously referring to the New Testament world of slavery (Eph 6:5). But those same translations equivocated and choked when it came to the Spirit’s use of the kyrios/doulos relation to refer to the Lord’s relationship to those he has redeemed with his blood—kyrios/douloi—He is our Lord and we are His slaves.

A kyrios purchased a doulos from the slave market and made that doulos his. This concept is at the heart of the New Testament. Jesus our kyrios has purchased us believers and made us his (1 Cor 6:19, 20; 1 Pet 1:18, 19).

Only the HCSB has faithfully and consistently translated doulos and its cognates as “slave and so on.”