It is simplistic to argue that the Bible explicitly commends or permits slavery. The Mosaic code speaks of slaves as being such for 7 years, at the end of which the slave was freed. If the slave wished to stay with his master, then the master could if he wished pearce the slave's ear with an awl which made him a slave for life.(Our nation's beginnings included the use of Indentured servants by some folks who worked usually for a period of time no greater than 7 years to pay for their passages to the New World, an acknowledgement of the Hebrew system by our Puritan forebears)
The NT did not condone slavery per se but rather taught that slaves should remain subject to their masters even though they had become Christians. It did teach however that in Christ all were one, "There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, all are one in HIM"!
So much for scriptural approval...The whole of the Bible speaks of the available freedom from the SLAVERY from sin.... thru Christ Jesus!
I didn't say commend, I said condone. The Bible regulated slavery, which means it allowed slavery to exist and orders that slaves to be obedient. It never condemned slavery as modern society does.
Slavery by Man ends at death,
while the slavery by Sin continues after death!
Thus...
1 Corinthians 15:54-55
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."
"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"