Moral Slavery

Moral slavery is a state in which a person strives to keep God’s law and refrains from violating it not from love of God or from heartfelt aversion to evil, but from fear of punishment for breaking the law; and, little concerned with reforming his heart, strives to keep the law only outwardly. This state is especially characteristic of those people who, poorly understanding or wholly ignorant of the nature of Christian religion, regard God as a strict Judge and Master, forgetting that He is also a merciful Father; and therefore do not love Him but only tremble, thinking to escape His wrath through observance of religious ceremonies, in which they place the essence of their faith, become attached to them excessively, but neglect true virtues.