Servants, be obedient to those who according to the flesh are your masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as to Christ, not in the way of service only when eyes are on you, as men pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with good will doing service as to the Lord, and not to men,
Show the surrounding paragraph
Ephesians 6:5-7 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Servants, be obedient to those who according to the flesh are your masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as to Christ, not in the way of service only when eyes are on you, as men pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with good will doing service as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, he will receive the same good again from the Lord, whether he is bound or free.
Parallel Translations
-
Servants, be obedient to those who according to the flesh are your masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as to Christ,
not in the way of service only when eyes are on you, as men pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,
with good will doing service as to the Lord, and not to men,
-
Servautes be obedient vnto youre carnall masters with feare and trimblinge in singlenes of youre hertes as vnto Christ:
not with service in the eye sight as men pleasars: but as the servautes of Christ doynge the will of God from the herte
with good will servinge the Lorde and not men.
Show all 3 translations
-
Seruants, be obedient vnto them that are your masters, according to the flesh, with feare and trembling in singlenesse of your hearts as vnto Christ,
Not with seruice to the eye, as men pleasers, but as the seruants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,
With good will, seruing the Lord, and not men.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (50)
- Colossians 3:22-23 (v6) Servants, obey in all things those who are your masters according to the flesh, not just when they are looking, as men pleasers, but in…
- Colossians 3:23 (v7) And whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men,
- 1 Peter 2:18-21 (v5) Servants, be in subjection to your masters with all respect: not only to the good and gentle, but also to the wicked. For it is commendable…
- 1 Thessalonians 2:4 (v6) But even as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News, so we speak: not as pleasing men, but God, who tests our…
- Galatians 1:10 (v6) For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? For if I were still pleasing men, I wouldn’t be a servant…
Show all 49 cross-references
- Titus 2:9-10 (v5) Exhort servants to be in subjection to their own masters and to be well-pleasing in all things, not contradicting, not stealing, but…
- 1 Corinthians 10:31 (v7) Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
- Ephesians 6:5-6 (v7) Servants, be obedient to those who according to the flesh are your masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as to…
- Colossians 3:17-24 (v5) Whatever you do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father, through him. Wives, be in…
- Psalms 86:11 (v5) Teach me your way, Yahweh. I will walk in your truth. Make my heart undivided to fear your name.
- Ephesians 5:17 (v6) Therefore don’t be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
- Philippians 2:12 (vv5–6) So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation…
- 1 Peter 4:2 (v6) that you no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.
- 2 Kings 5:13 (v7) His servants came near, and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had asked you do some great thing, wouldn’t you have done…
- Malachi 1:6 (v5) “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, then where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is the respect…
- Matthew 12:50 (v6) For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.”
- Ephesians 5:22 (v5) Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
- Genesis 31:38-40 (v7) “These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not cast their young, and I haven’t eaten the rams of your…
- Matthew 7:21 (v6) Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
- 1 Timothy 6:1-3 (v5) Let as many as are bondservants under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and the doctrine not be…
- 2 Kings 5:2-3 (v7) The Syrians had gone out in bands, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maiden; and she waited on Naaman’s wife.…
- Matthew 6:24 (v5) “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other.…
- Colossians 1:9 (v6) For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don’t cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the…
- Philemon 1:16 (v5) no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much rather to you, both in the flesh and in the…
- Hebrews 10:36 (v6) For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise.
- Hebrews 13:21 (v6) make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom…
- 1 Peter 3:2 (v5) seeing your pure behavior in fear.
- Genesis 16:9 (v5) Yahweh’s angel said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hands.”
- Genesis 31:6 (v7) You know that I have served your father with all of my strength.
- Matthew 8:9 (v5) For I am also a man under authority, having under myself soldiers. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and tell another, ‘Come,’ and he…
- Acts 10:7-8 (v5) When the angel who spoke to him had departed, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier of those who waited on…
- Romans 6:17 (v6) But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you…
- 1 Corinthians 7:22 (v5) For he who was called in the Lord being a bondservant is the Lord’s free man. Likewise he who was called being free is Christ’s bondservant.
- 2 Corinthians 1:12 (v5) For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of…
- Ephesians 6:24 (v5) Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love. Amen.
- 1 John 2:17 (v6) The world is passing away with its lusts, but he who does God’s will remains forever.
- Joshua 24:14 (v5) “Now therefore fear Yahweh, and serve him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, in…
- 1 Chronicles 29:17 (v5) I know also, my God, that you try the heart, and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly…
- Psalms 123:2 (v5) Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress; so our eyes look to…
- Jeremiah 24:7 (v6) I will give them a heart to know me, that I am Yahweh. They will be my people, and I will be their God; for they will return to me with…
- 2 Corinthians 11:2-3 (v5) For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. For I married you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But…
- Ephesians 1:1-23 (v5) Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you…
- Colossians 4:12 (v6) Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, salutes you, always striving for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and…
- Jeremiah 3:10 (v6) Yet for all this her treacherous sister, Judah, has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense,” says Yahweh.
- Matthew 6:22 (v5) “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light.
- Acts 2:46 (v5) Day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and…
- 1 Corinthians 2:3 (v5) I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.
- 2 Corinthians 7:15 (v5) His affection is more abundantly toward you, while he remembers all of your obedience, how with fear and trembling you received him.
- 1 Peter 2:15 (v6) For this is the will of God, that by well-doing you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:
49 distinct cross-references across this passage (50 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (25 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv5, 7 5. Servants, be obedient. His exhortation to servants is…
5. Servants, be obedient. His exhortation to servants is so much the more earnest, on account of the hardship and bitterness of their condition, which renders it more difficult to be endured. And he does not speak merely of outward obedience, but says more about fear willingly rendered; for it is a very rare occurrence to find one who willingly yields himself to the control of another. The servants (δοῦλοι) whom he immediately addresses were not hired servants, like those of the present day, but slaves, such as were in ancient times, whose slavery was perpetual, unless, through the favor of their masters, they obtained freedom, — whom their masters bought with money, that they might impose upon them the most degrading employments, and might, with the full protection of the law, exercise over them the power of life and death. To such he says, obey your masters, lest they should vainly imagine that carnal freedom had been procured for them by the gospel.
But as some of the worst men were compelled by the dread of punishment, he distinguishes between Christian and ungodly servants, by the feelings which they cherished. With fear and trembling; that is, with the careful respect which springs from an honest purpose. It can hardly be expected, however, that so much deference will be paid to a mere man, unless a higher authority shall enforce the obligation; and therefore he adds, as doing the will of God. (Ver. 6.) Hence it follows, that it is not enough if their obedience satisfy the eyes of men; for God requires truth and sincerity of heart. When they serve their masters faithfully, they obey God. As if he had said, “Do not suppose that by the judgment of men you were thrown into slavery. It is God who has laid upon you this burden, who has placed you in the power of your masters. He who conscientiously endeavors to render what he owes to his master, performs his duty not to man only, but to God.”
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv5–7 With careful reverence: for slavish fear is not allowable,…
With careful reverence: for slavish fear is not allowable, much less in Christian servants.
Now he ascendeth to the third part of a family, to wit, to the duty both of the masters and of the servants. And he showeth that the duty of servants consisteth in a hearty love and reverence to their master.
Read full note →
He mitigateth the sharpness of service, in that they are spiritually free, notwithstanding the same, and yet that spiritual freedom taketh not away corporal service, insomuch that they cannot be Christ’s, unless they serve their masters willingly and faithfully, so far forth as they may with safe conscience.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv5–7 5 Servants, be obedient to them that are your…
5 Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;
Ver. 5. Servants, be obedient] The centurion was happy in his servants: and no marvel, for he was a loving master. {See Trapp on "Mat 8:6"} And observe here that inferior duties are first described; because, 1. They are less willing to subject themselves. 2. They should be readier to perform duty than to expect it. 3. Hereby they shall win upon their superiors, who will lie the heavier upon them if there be strife who shall begin. (Bernard.)
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv5–7 Servants; these servants were generally slaves: Christian liberty doth…
Servants; these servants were generally slaves: Christian liberty doth not take away civil servitude.
Be obedient to them that are your masters; whether good or bad, as 1Pe 2:18, is expressly said.
Read full note →
According to the flesh; as to your outward state, not as to your souls and consciences.
With fear and trembling; either with reverence and fear of offending them, and being punished by them, see Rom 13:4; or rather, with humility, as appears by Psa 2:11; 1Co 2:3; 2Co 7:15; Phi 2:12; compare Rom 11:20.
In singleness of your heart; sincerity, and without guile.
As unto Christ, who hath commanded this obedience, and whom ye obey in yielding it to your masters.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On v5 Observe here, 1. The general duty incumbent upon servants:…
Observe here, 1. The general duty incumbent upon servants: that of obedience to their masters, according to the flesh, that is, in temporal things only; obey your earthly masters in things pertaining to the world, leaving the soul and conscience to God only, who alone is the sovereign Lord of it. Christian liberty is not inconsistent with evil subjection; such as are God’s freemen may be servants to men, though not the servants of men; and, as servants, obedience is their duty in all lawful things.
Observe, 2. The qualifications and properties of this obedience, which is due and payable from servants to masters.
Read full note →
1. It must be with fear and trembling, that is, with fear of displeasing them; yet they must not act barely from fear, but out of love, both to God and their master.
2. It must be in singleness of heart, in great simplicity and sincerity of spirit, without guile, hypocrisy, and dissimulation.
3. They must eye their great Master in heaven, in all the services they perform to their masters here on earth, not with eye-service.
But how should servants have an eye to their great Master in heaven?
Ans. They should have an eye to the presence of their great Master, to the glory of their great Master, to the command of their great Master, and to the assistance and acceptance of their Master in heaven.
Learn hence, That our eyeing of God in all the services we perform, and making him the judge and spectator of all our actions, will be a singular help to make us sincere and single-hearted in all we do, and in all we design.
Again, 4. Their service must be performed with good-will, that is, with cheerfulness and delight, not grudgingly, unpleasantly, or from fear of punishment only; eyeing the Lord Christ in all that service they do for men.
Learn hence, That the meanest and basest services and employments, in the place and station which God sets us in, being done with right ends, is service done to Christ, and as such shall be accepted and rewarded by him: With good-will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men.
Observe lastly, The reward which the Holy Ghost propounds, as an encouragement to poor servants in their obedience to their masters, and that is, the assurance of a reward from God, whatever disappointment they meet with from men; knowing that whatever a man doth out of obedience to the Lord, a reward of the same shall he receive, whether he be a poor bond-servant, or a free man and master.
Note here, How the basest drudgery of servants, when performed in obedience to God, and with an eye at his glory, is called here a good work, and shall not fail of a good reward. Whatsoever good thing any man doeth: when a poor servant scours a ditch, or does the meanest drudgery, God will reward him for it; for he looketh not at the beauty, splendour, and greatness, of the work but at the integrity and honesty of the workman; the mean and outwardly base works of poor servants, when honest and sincere, shall find acceptance with God, and be rewarded by him, as well as the more splendid, honourable, and expensive works of their rich masters: the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv5–7 Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters,....…
Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters,.... The apostle enlarges on the duty of servants, as well as frequently inculcates it in his epistles; because, generally speaking, they were more rude and ignorant, and less pains were taken with them to instruct them; they were apt to be impatient and weary of the yoke; and scandal was like to arise from servants in the first ages of Christianity through some libertines, and the licentiousness of the false teachers, who insinuated, that servitude was inconsistent with Christian freedom: the persons exhorted are "servants", bond servants, and hired servants; who are to be subject to, and obey their "masters", of each sex, whether male or female, of every condition, whether poor or rich, believers or unbelievers, good or bad humoured, gentle or froward: such as are their masters
according to the flesh; or "carnal masters", as the Vulgate Latin version renders it; even though they are unregenerate men, and are in a state of nature, and only mind the things of the flesh, yet they are to be obeyed in their lawful commands; or "in things pertaining to the flesh", as the Arabic version renders it; in things temporal, which concern the body, and this temporal life; not in things spiritual and religious, or that belong to conscience, and which are contrary to them: or "according to your flesh", as the Ethiopic version renders it; signifying that they are only masters over their bodies, not their consciences; and that their power only extends to corporeal things, and can last no longer than while they are in the flesh; see Job 3:19; and obedience is to be yielded to them
Read full note →
with fear and trembling; with great humility and respect, with reverence of them, and giving honour to them, with carefulness not to offend them, with submission to their reproofs and corrections, and with fear of punishment; but more especially with the fear of God, being by that influenced and constrained to obedience;
in singleness of heart; with readiness and cheerfulness, without hypocrisy and dissimulation, and with all integrity and faithfulness:
as unto Christ; it being agreeable to his will, and what makes for his glory, and serves to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv5–7 Your masters according to the flesh - According to…
Your masters according to the flesh - According to the present state of things: afterward the servant is free from his master. With fear and trembling - A proverbial expression, implying the utmost care and diligence. In singleness of heart - With a single eye to the providence and will of God.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv5–7 Verse 5. Servants, be obedient] Though δουλος frequently signifies…
Verse 5. Servants, be obedient] Though δουλος frequently signifies a slave or bondman, yet it often implies a servant in general, or any one bound to another, either for a limited time, or for life. Even a slave, if a Christian, was bound to serve him faithfully by whose money he was bought, howsoever illegal that traffic may be considered. In heathen countries slavery was in some sort excusable; among Christians it is an enormity and a crime for which perdition has scarcely an adequate state of punishment.
According to the flesh] Your masters in secular things; for they have no authority over your religion, nor over your souls.
Read full note →
With fear and trembling] Because the law gives them a power to punish you for every act of disobedience.
In singleness of your heart] Not merely through fear of punishment, but from a principle of uprightness, serving them as you would serve Christ.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v5 Eph 6:5-8. Servants — Δουλοι, bond-servants; or he may…
Eph 6:5-8. Servants — Δουλοι, bond-servants; or he may include also those that were in the station of hired servants; be obedient to your masters — For the gospel does not cancel the civil rights of mankind; according to the flesh — That is, who have the command of your bodies, but not of your souls and consciences. Or, the expression may mean, who are your masters according to the present state of things: hereafter the servant will be free from his master; with fear and trembling — A proverbial expression, implying the utmost care and diligence; in singleness of heart — With a single eye to the providence and will of God; as unto Christ — With that sincerity and uniformity of conduct, which a regard to the honour of Christ, and his all-seeing eye, will require and produce. Not with eye- service — Serving your masters better when under their eye than at other times; as mere men-pleasers — Persons who have no regard to the pleasing of God; but as the servants of Christ — As those that desire to approve themselves his faithful servants; doing the will of God from the heart — Performing that duty to your masters which God requires of you; or doing whatever you do as the will of God, and with your might. With good-will doing service — Not with reluctance, but cheerfully, and from a principle of love to them and their concerns; as to the Lord, and not to men — Regarding him more than men, and making every action of common life a sacrifice to God, by having an eye to him in all things, even as if you had no other master. Knowing that whatsoever good thing — Whether for kind or degree; any man doth — Though never so poor and mean, in one station of life or another; the same shall he receive of the Lord — That is, a full and adequate recompense; whether he be bond or free — A slave or a free-man; whether he be the meanest servant or the greatest prince. For God is the universal guardian and protector of his people, and esteems men, not according to their stations in the world, but according to their behaviour in those stations, whether high or low.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv5–7 Servants - οἵ δοῦλοι hoi douloi. The word used…
Servants - οἵ δοῦλοι hoi douloi. The word used here denotes one who is bound to render service to another, whether that service be free or voluntary, and may denote, therefore, either a slave, or one who binds himself to render service to another. It is often used in these senses in the New Testament, just as it is elsewhere. It cannot be demonstrated that the word here necessarily means “slaves;” though, if slavery existed among those to whom this Epistle was written - as there can be little doubt that it did - it is a word which would apply to those in this condition; compare notes on 1Co 7:21; Gal 3:28, note. On the general subject of slavery, and the Scripture doctrine in regard to it; see notes on Isa 58:6. Whether the persons here referred to were slaves, or were those who had bound themselves to render a voluntary servitude, the directions here given were equally appropriate. It was not the design of the Christian religion to produce a rude sundering of the ties which bind man to man, but to teach all to perform their duties aright in the relations in which Christianity found them, and gradually to modify the customs of society, and to produce ultimately the universal prevalence of that which is right.
Be obedient to them - This is the uniform direction in the New Testament; see 1Pe 2:18; 1Ti 6:1-3; notes 1Co 7:21. The idea is that they were to show in that relation the excellence of the religion which they professed. If they could be made free, they were to prefer that condition to a state of bondage 1Co 7:21, but while the relation remained, they were to be kind, gentle, and obedient, as became Christians. In the parallel place in Colossians Col 3:22, it is said that they were to obey their masters “in all things.” But evidently this is to be understood with the limitations implied in the case of wives and children (see the notes on Eph 5:24; Eph 6:1, note), and a master would have no right to command that which was morally wrong.
Read full note →
According to the flesh - This is designed, evidently, to limit the obligation to obedience. The meaning is, that they had control over “the body, the flesh.” They had the power to command the service which the body could render; but they were not lords of the spirit. The soul acknowledged God as its Lord, and to the Lord they were to be subject in a higher sense than to their masters.
With fear and trembling - With reverence and with a dread of offending them. They have authority and power over you, and you should be afraid to incur their displeasure. Whatever might be true about the propriety of slavery, and whatever might be the duty of the master about setting the slave free, it would be more to the honor of religion for the servant to perform his task with a willing mind than to be contumacious and rebellions. He could do more for the honor of religion by patiently submitting to even what he felt to be wrong, than by being punished for what would be regarded as rebellion. It may be added here, that it was presumed that servants then could read. These directions were addressed to them, not to their masters. Of what use would be directions like these addressed to American slaves - scarce any of whom can read?
In singleness of your heart - With a simple, sincere desire to do what ought to be done.
As unto Christ - Feeling that by rendering proper service to your masters, you are in fact serving the Lord, and that you are doing that which will be well-pleasing to him; see the notes on 1Co 7:22. Fidelity, in whatever situation we may be in life, is acceptable service to the Lord. A Christian may as acceptably serve the Lord Jesus in the condition of a servant, as if he were a minister of the gospel, or a king on a throne. Besides, it will greatly lighten the burdens of such a situation, and make the toils of an humble condition easy, to remember that we are then “serving the Lord.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv5–6 Your carnal; temporal masters, whether Christians or heathens. (Witham)
Your carnal; temporal masters, whether Christians or heathens. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v5 c. Servants and Masters
c. Servants and Masters
(Eph_6:5-9)
Read full note →
5Servants,12 be obedient to them that are your masters [to your masters] according to the flesh,13 with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto [to] 6Christ; Not with [or in the way of] eye service, as men-pleasers; but as the servants of Christ,14 doing the will of God from the heart; 7With good will doing service, as15 to the Lord, and not to men: 8Knowing that whatsoever16 good thing any man doeth [each one shall have done], the same shall he receive17 of the Lord, whether he be bond [bondsman] or free. 9And, ye masters, do the same things unto [towards] them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also [their Master and yours]18 is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The precept for Servants; Eph_6:5-8. a. The precept, Eph_6:5. b. Closer definition, Eph_6:6-7. c. Praise and promise, Eph_6:8. Comp. Col_3:22-25.
Eph_6:5. The precept. Servants, οἰ δοῦλοι.—In this context this means the domestics, the serving members of the household, as. Eph_6:3 : “as the servants of Christ,” shows, and Eph_6:8 : “whether bond or free,” requires; it includes here the free servants also (Bengel, Stier, Bleek), does not refer to slaves alone (Meyer, Schenkel).19 Thus this section gains its continued validity and importance for all relations of subordination, that of subject and citizen also (Grotius: eadem est ratio in republica et in familia). The passage says nothing for or against slavery. See Doctr. Notes.
Be obedient, ὑπακούετε.—Thus the Apostle places the servants on an equality with the children, in the same dependence upon the masters, who are the parents to the children.
To your masters according to the flesh, τοῖς κυρίοις κατὰ σάρκα.—Thus the masters are designated as bodily (Luther) according to Rom_1:3; Rom_9:3; Rom_9:5, where the last phrase denotes external, temporal, earthly relations. There is also thereby involved at the same time the δεσποτεία πρόσκαιρος καὶ βραχεῖα (Chrysostom) and the limitation of freedom in external relations (Calvin).20
The obedience is more closely defined: with fear and trembling, μετὰ φόβου καὶ τρόμου.—Comp. Php_2:12; 2Co_7:15; 1Co_2:3. This is sollicita reverential, which has in mind as regards the masters the copied majesty of God, remembering the judgment and recompense before Him. [So Hodge], It does not refer then to anger and rebuke and punishment (Bengel), nor is it to be weakened into tender, anxious conscientiousness (Olshausen, Meyer, Schenkel). [So Alford, Ellicott. Eadie remarks: “The Apostle in the following clauses hits upon those peculiar vices which slavery induces, and which are almost inseparable from it: indolence and carelessness.”—R.].
To guard against every misunderstanding there is added: in singleness of your heart, ἐν ἀπλότητι τῆς καρδίας ὑμῶν.—This not only consists in considering the one interest of the master (Harless), but like 2Co_8:2-3; 2Co_11:3, includes willingness and the opposite of πανουργὶα, excluding all untruth. [This phrase sets forth the element (ἐν) of the obedience, as the last phrase expressed its accompanying features. “Singleness” is an apt rendering of the word, which marks that openness and sincerity of heart which repudiates duplicity in thought or action. On the classical use of the word see Harless; comp. Trench, Syn. II. § 6.—R.] Quoniam pessimos etiam quosque pœnæ timor coge-bat, Christianos servos ab impiis discernit affectu (Calvin). It is all to be done: as to Christ, ὡς τῶ Χριστῶ, tamquam (Erasmus), not sicut (Vulgate) Christo; Eph_5:22. [“He being the source and ground of all Christian motives and duties” (Alford). “As common and secular inducements can have but small influence on the mind of a slave, so the Apostle brings a religious motive to bear upon him” (Eadie). It may be added that if this motive could be brought to bear on the class to whom the exhortation of the Apostle most directly applies in these days when “the workingman’s question” is so much discussed, the solution of that question would be less difficult.—R.]
Eph_6:6-7. Closer definition. Not with [or in the way of] eye-service as men-pleasers, μῆ κατ̓ ὀφθαλμοδουλείαν ὡς ἀνθρωπάρεσκοι.—The first phrase, as the opposite of “in singleness of your hearts,” denotes the mode, method, maxim of the service (Stier).21 Paul uses the plural in Col_3:22 : ἐν ὀφθαλμοδουλείαις. Theodoret explains the word as τὴν οὐκ εἰλικρινοῦς καρδίας προσφερομένην θεραπείαν, ἀλλὰ τῶ σχήματι κεχρωσμένην. Œcumenius also remarks: μὴ ὅταν πάρεισιν οἱ δέσποται καὶ ὁρῶσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀπόντων αὐτῶν. The reference is not simply to compulsion, but the appearance of faithful service is designated. They are really “men-pleasers,” they wish to please men alone, who can only see what is before their eyes; thus they use their master’s human weakness to their own advantage. The studium placendi hominibus is expressly rejected from the Christian point of view.
The antithesis follows: but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.—The first phrase is opposed to: “as men-pleasers,” the second, which characterizes the servants of Christ,22 to: “with eye-service.” The servants of Christ naturally do the will of God, which is also the will of Christ (Joh_10:30; Joh_5:30), and that too “from the heart,” without discontent with their service or murmuring in their service; this necessarily distinguishes them from others, even from those who may be doing the will of God.23
Eph_6:7. One thing more is added, which completes the last designation: with good-will doing service, as to the Lord.—Μετ̓ εμὐνοίας δουλεύοντες marks the personal dependence on the masters, in which they serve them (Luther, [E. V.]: “with good-will”), so that they serve them, “as to the Lord,” tanquam domino, i.e., Christo. This is rendered emphatically prominent by the antithesis: and not to men, καὶ οὐκ ἀνθρώποις.—On this account “from the heart” is not to be separated from “doing” (Eph_6:6) and joined to “doing service” (Chrysostom, Jerome, Bengel, Harless, Stier), which in that case would unnecessarily receive two adverbial qualifications. [So Lachmann, De Wette and Alford (who makes a good defence), but the other view is maintained by Tischendorf, Meyer, Ellicott, Hodge and Eadie. Ellicott, however, defends the view of Harless (against Meyer), that ἐκ ψυχῆς seems to mark the relation of the servant to his work, μετ̓ εὐνοίας pointing to his relation to his master.—R.] Still less is “with good-will” to be joined with what precedes and this verse rendered: Let yourselves think that you serve the Lord and not men (Luther). Thus the precept of Eph_6:5 has been more closely described and a return made to it.
Eph_6:8. Basis and promise. Knowing, εἰδότες. [Ellicott: “seeing ye know.”]—Thus Paul refers the servants to their faith, to the certain confidence: that whatsoever good thing each one shall have done, the same shall he receive of the Lord.—Ὅτι ὅ ἐάν τι ε͂καστος is grammatically clear: ἐάν often is=ἄν in relative clauses (Winer, p. 291) and ὅ—τι is tmesis (Bengel); ἕκαστος is not to be extended to both masters and servants; the context (“whether bond or free”) limits it to those addressed; each one of you. [This view assumes that “bondman or free,” refers to two classes of servants, but the more commonly received opinion includes the masters under the latter term, thus giving the verse the character of a general proposition. This is the more obvious reference, and has the advantage of giving an easy transition from the exhortation to the bondman to that to the free man (masters, Eph_6:9).—R.] In ποιήση ἀγαθόν the verb stands first with emphasis; something depends on the doing; the will of God must be done by you, as well as on you. [The rendering: “shall have done,” brings out best the relation to the time of recompense, i.e., the Second Advent of the Lord.—R.] ‘Ἀγαθόν, “good,” is only what takes place for Christ’s sake, in love and obedience to Him. Τοῦτο is the “good,” which the servant has done, and which παρὰ κυρίου κομίσται, “he shall receive of the Lord.” The verb is joined with μισθός, 2Pe_2:13; with ἐπογγελίαν, Heb_10:36; Heb_11:39; and with similar expressions, 1Pe_1:9; 1Pe_5:4; it means: sibi auferet, reportabit (Erasmus), recipiet (Vulgate) [E. V.: receive], from the Lord, from Christ in the Judgment. [Alford: “ ‘This in full,’ ‘this exactly,’ he shall then receive in its value as then estimated, changed, so to speak, into the currency of that new and final state.”—R.] Thus the complete recompense is marked (τὴν ἀνταπόδοσιν τῆς κληρονομίας, Col_3:24).—Whether he be bondman or free, added quickly without a verb; it is better to supply: fuerit (Erasmus), than sit (Meyer and others). [Ellicott: “Whatsoever be his social condition here, the future will only regard his moral state.” Comp. the citation from Chrysostom in Alford.—R.] From this it cannot be inferred that Paul had not conceived of the cessation of slavery before the Second Advent.
The precept for Masters and its basis, Eph_6:9. a. Positively; b. negatively; c. basis.
Eph_6:9. And ye masters, καὶ οἱ κύριοι, who are thus recognized, just as “and ye fathers” (Eph_6:4).—The positive precept: do the same things towards them.—Τὰ αὐτὰ ποιεῖτε refers back both to “the will of God from the heart, with good-will” (Rueckert), and to “submitting yourselves to one another” (Eph_5:21); as the former should serve (δουλεύειν), so the latter should rule (κυριεύειν). He does not require a δουλεύειν from the masters (Chrysostom). Amor officia servilia et herilia moderatur (Bengel). “Towards them” denotes the equal footing, as was already required in Deu_15:12; Lev_25:42-43; Job_31:13-15, and enlarged in Christ. [Eadie: “The Apostle had stooped to the slave, and he was not afraid to speak with erect attitude to the master. The language is general, and expresses what Calvin well calls jus analogum,—R.]
The negative precept: forbearing threatening.—Ἀνίεντες, placed emphatically first, is according to Act_16:26; Act_27:40 : to leave off, cease from; τὴν ἀπειλήν (Act_4:17; Act_4:29; Act_9:1) they should not only moderate; for the singular docs not mean a single threat, but threatening, minatio (Vulgate). [“Your usual, too habitual threatening” (Meyer, following Erasmus; so Alford and Ellicott). The last named author says: “St. Paul singles out the prevailing vice and most customary exhibition of bad feeling on the part of the master, and in forbidding this naturally includes every similar form of harshness.”—R.] Deposita fere a dominis sævitia erat, suscepta fide; nunc etiam minæ remittendæ, ne ostentent servis potestatem suam ad terrendum (Bengel). Thus Paul defines the action of the masters according to their disposition; in different forms of action the same disposition. Æqualitas naturæ, et fidei potior est. quam differentia statuum (Bengel).
Basis: Knowing that their Master and yours is in heaven, εἰδότες ὅτι καὶ αὐτῶν καὶ ὑμῶν κύριός ἐστιν ἐν οὐρανοῖς. [See Textual Note7].—“Knowing” (as in Eph_6:8) “that their Master and yours” conceives of both masters and servants as standing on an equality before Him, who helps the latter to their rights and will and can give the former their due. He “is in heaven,” omnipotens, (Bengel); before Him earthly power does not appear, is of no value; in His time He comes from heaven as Judge (1Th_4:16; 2Th_1:7). Hence: neither is there respect of persons with him, καὶ προσωποληψία οὐκ ἔστιν παῤ αὐτῶ:—The substantive (Rom_2:11; Col_3:25;24 Jam_2:1) is used by Paul in every case with reference to the Judgment. This is decidedly excluded, and the phrase suggests what one may expect to receive from Him (παῤ αὐτοῦ, Eph_6:8). Comp. Wis_6:5-9; Gal_2:6.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Paul takes occasion elsewhere also to speak of the relations of service and the state of slavery (1Co_7:21-24; Col_3:22-25 : 1Ti_6:1-2; Tit_2:9-10), as does Peter (1Pe_1:18-25), without condemning these relations. But sympathizing, in a specially detailed manner, the Gospel instructs those who serve, having for them an affectionate heart, an interesting discourse, a consoling word. It does not without further delay declare the slaves free, but it makes them free from within. Paul sent back to Philemon his escaped slave.25 In the Church the master remains a master and the slave a slave. The Apostles see in the service of the bondmen, and in the position of servants, though established by wrong and deformed by sin, the fundamental traits of master and servant, as these are established by God. What the ancients already knew, that the slaves participated in the dignity of humanity and had the rights of humanity as well as their masters (Seneca: servi sunt? imo homines; servi sunt? imo contubernales; servi sunt? imo conservi, si cogitaveris tantundem in utrosque licere fortunæ), that was not first taught by Christianity. But it brought to masters and slaves one Redeemer, in whom both are brethren (Gal_3:28; Phm_1:16); it wrought upon the disposition from the inner life of faith, so that at once the burden was lightened in Christian families, and in the course of centuries the relations were altered and the state of slavery was done away. Still “it must not be overlooked that Paul’s mode of viewing the already present relation of freedom and slavery cannot be used to justify slavery introduced by Christians, the enslaving of free men, the slave-trade,” etc. (Meyer). The most modern form of slavery, the Helotism of industry, cannot be viewed in the same way as something existing and historical; it remains a disgrace on which Christianity must prove, whether it is antiquated or retains its eternal powers.
2. The care of the Apostle in teaching servants is for every preacher as well as for the Church an earnest exhortation to take up the oppressed.
3. Servants, subordinates, subjects must, irrespective of the example and conduct of their masters, demean themselves according to the commandment and direction of God. Benevolentiam, quæ in servo est, ne asperitas quidem heri exstringuit, ut in catellis (Bengel).—[The general principles underlying this section are applicable to all relations of employer and employee. The latter is warned against eye-service, exhorted to faithful labor “as in God’s sight,” bid look to a higher recompense than the temporal wages, because serving a higher master; the former is reminded of the equality before God, how position does not avail before Him, and of the duty to Him involved in the duties of an employer. How many then may study these words with profit. Comp. Colossians, p. 79.—R.]
4. The following applies to the masters: ut Dominus vos tractavit, ita vos traciate servos; aut ut vos tractatis servos, ita ille vos tractabit (Bengel).
5. The Judgment of God finally awards strict recompense. [“The Christian doctrine of reward is too often lost sight of or kept in abeyance, as if it were not perfectly consistent with the freest bestowment of heavenly glory” (Eadie).—R.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
God’s service and the master’s service.—Eye-servants and God’s servants.—Those who serve are a necessary evil for the masters, who are unable by themselves alone to take care of their own, rather than the employers for the servants, who often first learn of them something of order, cleanliness and skill.—Ernest the Pious once said: Masters and mistresses can never answer to God, if they keep their domestics away from church-service.—Starke: Those who murmur and growl in the services, as though weary of them, murmur against God Himself.—Servants can lay up for themselves in continued service a blessing or a curse: a blessing if they faithfully serve in the fear of the Lord, a curse, however, if they act falsely and faithlessly.—A pious serving-man, whose fidelity and industry is not perceived by his employers, and whose wages are improperly withheld or cut down, is known by God, who will give him the best reward.
Rieger: Compulsory measures, severity and cunning are of no avail. They only make the servants more crafty.—A servant has often nothing in the world but his good name; and anxiety about this can easily lead one into eye-service; but with singleness of heart better progress is made in this direction.—Eye-service spoils the heart, wasting those powers, which would remain united in the fear of the Lord and preserve from weariness also.
Heubner: The higher Master frees from slavery. The Lord regards all; servants and slaves are as well-known to Him as masters and princes. Before Him the heart alone gives rank, and even the most trifling services, if rendered with an honest heart, receive their reward. What a transformation the Lord’s Judgment will bring about! How much the serving class has to thank Christianity! It has made a freer feeling in service and better masters, and effected all this without a violent subversion of relations.—The rough and coarse master makes rough and coarse servants, the gentle master makes gentle servants. The master should not have an imperious, despotic feeling, but a ministering one.
Passavant: This is true, and those who stand high and rule in the world, cannot bethink themselves of it too earnestly and humbly: Before God we are all alike, all of one origin, one nature, one sin—and all partakers of one grace, one redemption, one glory.—You look for so many virtues and perfections in your maid or man; with such conditions do you think you would be worthy or capable of being man or maid-servant?
Gerlach: Obedience to the bodily master should constantly be directed toward Christ.
[Eadie: “And with respect to servants of every denomination, equity requires that we treat them with humanity and kindness; that we endeavor to make their service easy, and their condition comfortable; that we forbear rash and passionate language; that we overlook accidental errors, and remit trivial faults; that we impose only such labor as is reasonable in itself and suitable to their capacity; that our reproofs be calm and our counsels well timed; that the restraints we lay upon them be prudent and salutary; that we allow them reasonable time for refreshment, for the culture of their minds, and for attendance on the worship of God; that we set before them a virtuous example, instil into them useful principles, warn them against wickedness of every kind, especially against the sin which most easily besets them; that we afford them opportunity for reading and private devotion, and furnish them with the necessary means of learning the way of salvation; that we attend to the preservation of their health, and have compassion on them in sickness; and, in a word, that we contribute all proper assistance to render them useful, virtuous, and happy” (from Lathrop, Ephesians).—R.]
Footnotes:
[12]Eph_6:5.—[Literally “slaves;” but as Braune accepts a reference to free servants, and since in any case the injunction has a wider application, the E. V. need not be altered (against Alford). See Exeg. Notes.—R.]
[13]Eph_6:5.—[Lachmann (א. A. B., a few cursives and fathers) places κατὰ σάρκα before κυρίοις, but Tischendorf and recent editors regard this as a conformation to Col_3:22.—R.]
[14]Eph_6:6.—[The article before Χριστοῦ (Rec., D.3 K. L) is omitted by recent editors on the authority of א. A. B. D.1 F, etc.—R.]
[15]Eph_6:7.—[The Rec. (with D.3 K. L.) omits ὡς, but it is well sustained and generally accepted.—R.]
[16]Eph_6:8.—[The reading of the Rec.: ὅτι ὁ ἐάν τι ἕκαστος, is accepted by Griesbach, Scholz, De Wette, Meyer, Tischendorf, Ellicott and others, not so much on external authority (K. L., most cursives, Syriac versions, fathers), as because the very great number of various readings can be best accounted for by regarding this as the original reading. See Ellicott and Meyer, on this point. The second reading in point of preference is that accepted by Lachmann, Rückert Wordsworth: ὅτι ἕκαστος ὁ ἐὰν ποιήσῃ which is found in A. E. (D.1 F. G., ἄν); many cursives, Vulgate. B. has ὅτι ἕκαστος ἐάν τι, accepted by Alford; א. has the easiest reading: ἐὰν ποιήση ἕκατος, while we find in cursives and fathers, ὁ ἐάν τις, ἐάν τις, ἐάν τι, ὁ ἐάν, between ὅτι and ἐκαστος, besides ἅνθρωπος instead of the latter word. The theory of Meyer is simple: The received reading was the original one; but the transcriber passed directly from ὅτι to τι, hence the reading: ὅτι ἕκαστος ποιήση; then came the corrections as above, the greater number tending to prove that ἕκαστος should come last, as in the Rec.—The acceptance of the inverted reading of Lachmann or Alford would require this rendering: “that each man if he shall have done any good thing.”—R.]
[17]Eph_6:8.—[The Rec. has κομιεὶται, with א.1D.3K. L., most cursives, fathers, but κομίσεται is now generally preferred on the authority of א1 A. B. D.1 F. The other reading is regarded by many as taken from Col_3:25, where however the same variation occurs.—The article before κυρίου (Rec, K. L., cursives) is generally rejected, not occurring in the best uncials.—R.]
[18]Eph_6:9.—[The variations are numerous, but καὶ αὐτῶν καί ὑμῶν accepted by Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, Ellicott, Meyer, Harless, because it has good support (A. B. D.,1 versions and fathers) and best accounts for the occurrence of the other readings. א1 has ἑαυτῶν, while six other variations (in position or through omission) occur. The Rec. (ὑμῶν αὐτων) is poorly supported, hut probably arose early, as a correction, the reference to the slaves being misunderstood; partial attempts at restoration led to changes in position (see Meyer).—The idea presented, that of a common Master, seems to be better preserved by omitting the word both, which, a literal translation would insert before theirs.—R.]
[19][Nearly all English and American commentators accept the exclusive reference to slaves, bondmen (Conybeare); and with good reason, since the word means “slave” over against a hired servant (Luk_15:17; Luk_15:19), and since the greater proportion of servants in those days were slaves. Eph_6:8 may be quite as readily urged in favor of the exclusive reference. Still the passage has, and was designed to have, a continued validity, which is better indicated by retaining the word “servants.”—R.]
[20][On the distinction between κύριος and δεσπότης, which Paul uses in 1Ti_6:1; Tit. 2:21, see Trench, Syn. 28; it is neglected here probably because the former word was to be used again (Eph_6:7) in a higher sense, as indeed κατὰ σαρκα implies. The deduction from the latter phrase, that spiritual freedom was left intact is generally accepted, though it is doubtful whether the phrase itself implies this.—R.]
[21][The preposition marks the norm of the action; Ellicott: in the way of; Alford: in the spirit of. The substantive is one of Paul’s coining, occurring only here and in Col_3:22. Ellicott says: “the more correct form is ὀφθαλμοδουλία. (D. E. F. G. L. א.),” but does not put it in his text.—R.]
[22][Rueckert makes the first phrase subordinate to the second, removing the comma after Χριστοῦ (so Tischendorf, ed. 7; against recent editors generally); but this destroys the obvious antithesis.—R.]
[23][Eadie, Hodge and Alford render: “the slave of Christ,” but this is a harsh expression; Ellicott: “bond-servants.” The idea of purchase and possession is probably implied.—R.]
[24][In Col_3:25, the same thought occurs in the former part of the exhortation, with a slightly different reference therefore. See Colossians, pp. 78, 79.—Meyer and Alford cite Seneca, Thyest. Eph 607: “Vos, quibus rector maris atque terræ jus dedit magnum necis atque vilæ, Ponite inflatos tumidos-que vultus. Quicquid a vobis minor extinescit, major hoc vobis dominus minatur; Omne sub regno graviore regnum est—R.]
[25][The reader is referred to the remarks of Dr. Hackett, Philemon, pp. 29 ff., and the extracts there given on the subject of Christianity and slavery. On the general principles which this section implies most commentators agree; and these principles did abolish slavery in the early Christian centuries. Unfortunately there are times when and places where these principles, while theoretically accepted, do not operate toward the desired result; then God’s Providence does quickly and retributively what men would not let His Gospel do. Still emancipation is not necessarily Christian freedom. The Gospel method begins within; the other lays upon Christ’s Church the responsibility of so teaching the truth that the “truth may make free” those suddenly released from bondage. That is but the beginning of freedom.—R.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv5–7 Servants--literally, "slaves."
Servants--literally, "slaves."
masters according to the flesh--in contrast to your true and heavenly Master (Eph 6:4). A consolatory him that the mastership to which they were subject, was but for a time [CHRYSOSTOM]; and that their real liberty was still their own (Co1 7:22).
Read full note →
fear and trembling--not slavish terror, but (See on Co1 2:3; Co2 7:15) an anxious eagerness to do your duty, and a fear of displeasing, as great as is produced in the ordinary slave by "threatenings" (Eph 6:9).
singleness--without double-mindedness, or "eye service" (Eph 6:6), which seeks to please outwardly, without the sincere desire to make the master's interest at all times the first consideration (Ch1 29:17; Mat 6:22-23; Luk 11:34). "Simplicity."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv5–7 c. Servants and Masters, Eph_6:5-9.
c. Servants and Masters, Eph_6:5-9.
5. Servants—See note, Luk_7:2. Alford thinks the word should have been translated slaves, but Macknight more nobly rejoices that the word servants is used, as including generically both bondservants and employees. Paul so exalts the motives on which the servant should act, as well to suit both the bondsmen by compulsion and the bondsman by an agreement to furnish service.
Read full note →
According to the flesh—As Christ is your master according to the spirit.
Fear and trembling—Not in terror of the masters, but as unto Christ, as the Corinthians received Titus, 2Co_7:15; and as we should all work out our own salvation.
Php_2:12.
Unto Christ—Not as to a human master, who has, indeed, no natural right to your service, but unto Christ; to whose name it is due that you should be a true and honest servant. So employees of all kinds, whether domestics, clerks, or workmen, should serve their employers with conscientious feeling that in serving them truly they were serving Christ.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv5–6 5–9. The Christian Home: Servants and Masters
5–9. The Christian Home: Servants and Masters
5. Servants] Bondservants, slaves. Cp. Col_3:22-25; and see 1Co_7:21-22; 1Ti_6:1-2; Tit_2:9-10; Philemon; 1Pe_2:18-25. The Gospel nowhere explicitly condemns slavery. But both O.T. and N.T. state principles which are fatal to the extreme forms of slavery familiar in the Roman world, forms which allowed no rights whatever, in theory, to the slave. And the Gospel, in the act of proclaiming the complete spiritual equality of slave and freeman, revealed a principle which was sure ultimately to discredit slave-holding even in its mitigated forms. See Bp Lightfoot’s Introduction to the Ep. to Philemon, and the pamphlet (by Prof. Goldwin Smith) quoted there, Does the Bible sanction American Slavery?
Read full note →
We may observe further that the great Gospel doctrine of the believer’s “slavery” to his Master, Christ (cp. e.g. 1Co_7:22), when once made familiar to the conscience and will, would inevitably tend to a peculiar mutual rapprochement between Christian masters and slaves while the institution still legally survived, and would do infinitely more for the abolition of slavery than any “servile war.” Prof. G. Smith well observes, “Nothing marks the Divine character of the Gospel more than its perfect freedom from any appeal to the spirit of political revolution” (Does the Bible, &c., p. 96). With impartial hands it not only sanctions, but sanctifies, subordination to constituted authority (Romans 13), and meanwhile ennobles the individual, in respect of all that is highest in the word liberty, by putting him into direct and conscious relations with God.
The Gospel won many of its earliest converts from the slave-class. This is less wonderful, when the vast number of slaves is remembered. The little territory of Corinth alone contained nearly half a million slaves.
In the present and similar passages the primary reference to slavery will, of course, be remembered. But there is a secondary and permanent reference to ordinary service, of all varieties.
according to the flesh] With the implied thought that they were not the masters of their bondmen’s spirits, and that the bondmen were themselves, spiritually, the slaves of Christ. So Col_3:22.
with fear and trembling] With earnest, conscientious care and reverence. For the phrase, and this as its meaning, cp. 1Co_2:3; 2Co_7:15; Php_2:12.
singleness of your heart] The honest desire to do right for its own sake, or rather for the Lord’s sake; as against the self-interested seeking for praise or promotion. Cp. for the word rendered “singleness,” Rom_12:8; 2Co_1:12 (perhaps), 2Co_8:2, 2Co_9:11; 2Co_9:13, 2Co_11:3; Col_3:22.
unto Christ] Cp. Rom_14:7-9; a suggestive parallel.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv5–7 (5) Your masters according to the flesh.—This phrase (used…
(5) Your masters according to the flesh.—This phrase (used also in Col_3:12) at once implies the necessary limitation of all human slavery. It can subjugate and even kill the body, but it cannot touch the spirit; and it belongs only to the visible life of this world, not to the world to come. The slave is a man in spiritual and immortal being, not a “living tool” or “chattel,” as even philosophy called him.
With fear and trembling.—The phrase is a favourite one with St. Paul. (See 1Co_2:3; 2Co_7:15; Php_2:12, in all which cases it is applied to the condition of man as man under the weight of solemn responsibility before God.) It recognises the “spirit of bondage unto fear” (Rom_8:15) necessarily belonging to all who are “under law,” i.e., under obedience to the will of another, as enforced upon them by compulsion; and this fear, moreover, is viewed as showing itself in “trembling” anxiety to obey. So St. Peter commands (1Pe_2:18), “Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward;” and it is to be noted that he describes the suffering herein implied as a fellowship with the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph_6:21-24).
Read full note →
Singleness of your heart, as unto Christ.—The phrase “singleness of heart,” is here used in its proper sense, from which all others (see Rom_12:8; 2Co_8:2; 2Co_9:11; 2Co_9:13) may be derived. It means having but one aim, and that the one which we profess to have, with no duplicity of reservation or hypocrisy. Such singleness of heart cannot be given perfectly to any merely human service, because no such service has a right to our whole heart; hence St. Paul adds, “as unto Christ,” bidding them look on their service as a part of the service to Him who can claim absolute devotion.
(4 c.) In Eph_6:5-9 the hardest form of subjection, that of slaves to masters, is dealt with, still under the same idea that both are “in Christ.” The slave is the servant of Christ in obeying his master, the master is a fellow-servant with his slave to the same Divine Lord. We notice on this particular subject a remarkable emphasis, and a singular closeness of parallelism between this Epistle and the Epistle to the Colossians; probably to be accounted for by the presence of Onesimus with St. Paul at the time, which would naturally press on him some special consideration of the relation of Christianity to slavery. Accordingly St. Paul’s general attitude towards slavery will be best considered in the Epistle to Philemon (which see). Here it will be sufficient to note that while the institution, unnatural as it is, is left untouched, the declaration of a common fellowship in Christ enunciates a principle absolutely incompatible with slavery, and destined to destroy it.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv5–7 Bond-servants, obey your masters according to the flesh. There…
Bond-servants, obey your masters according to the flesh. There were many slaves in the early Church, but, however unjust their position, the apostle could not but counsel them to obedience, this course being the best for ultimately working out their emancipation. The words of Christ were peculiarly welcome to them "that labor and are heavy laden;" and, as we find from Celsus and others, the early Church was much ridiculed for the large number of uneducated persons in its pale. With fear and trembling. Comp. 1Co_2:3; Php_2:12, from which it will be seen that this expression does not denote slavish dread, but great moral anxiety lest one should fail in duty. It was probably a proverbial expression. In the singleness of your heart, as to Christ. Not with a got-up semblance of obedience, but with inward sincerity, knowing that it is your duty; and even if it be irksome, doing it pleasantly, as though Christ required it, and you were doing it to him.
Vers. 5-9.
Read full note →
Duties of servants and masters.
I DUTY OF SERVANTS. Recognized as constituent members of the Church, and, however little esteemed by man, as greatly regarded by God. In Christ all are brethren, for all are brothers of Christ, therefore of one another.
1. The duty of servants is obedience. Qualities of the obedience.
1. With fear and trembling (see Exposition);
2. in singleness of heart;
3. as unto Christ and not to men;
4. not with eye-service, but as servants of Christ;
5. doing the will of God from the heart;
6. with good will.
7. The reward of good service. Whatsoever good you do, you shall receive of the Lord; he will repay you. We are apt to be jealous of this doctrine. It seems to undermine free grace. But no; salvation is wholly of grace; but one feature of grace is that, when you receive it and act on it, it begets, as it were, another gift of grace. If by grace the servant obey in the Lord, a further act of grace will follow; the obedience rendered will be rewarded and blessed. Better this surely than any amount of earthly reward! "God is not unrighteous to forget" the faithful work of those who remember him above all other.
II DUTY OF MASTERS.
(1) Do the same things to them, observe their rights and do as you would be done by;
(2) forbear threatening. Reasons for this.
(a) You have a Master also, One in heaven, who oversees all you do;
(b) there is no respect of persons with him. One of the great problems of the day is how to impregnate the relations of master and servant with the Christian spirit, and carry into effect the aim of such passages as this. We do not refer particularly to domestic service, for a servant, by entering a house, becomes in a sense a member of the family, and is thereby bound to fall in with the family order. The difficulty lies mainly with the case of large bodies of men working under a single employer. The problem is too intricate to be discussed here. But both masters and men need to beware of offending Christ by a bitter and unreasonable spirit. Occasions for glorifying God by the manifestation of a noble Christian spirit may become occasions for letting out the selfishness of the carnal heart. Yet, complicated though the question is, it is probable that the true solution would be reached by all Christian men if the spirit of this text were carried out, if both masters and men tried to do all as to the Lord and not to men, and to esteem his approval the very highest reward to which they could look.
Vers. 5-8.
Duties of servants.
It is interesting to reflect that the New Testament devotes more space to the instruction of servants than to the instruction of either parents or children, husbands or wives. The servants, or rather slaves, were a large and interesting class in the cities of Asia Minor, often greatly more numerous than freemen, and very many of them had embraced the gospel with great heartiness. There were obvious reasons for a studious minuteness in the counsels given to such a class.
I THEIR DUTY IS SUMMED UP IN THE SINGLE WORD "OBEDIENCE." Christianity does not rudely strike at existing relations in life, but seeks to improve and sanctify them. In its appeals to slaves as well as to masters, it sowed the seed-corn, small as a grain of mustard seed, which grew into a harvest of emancipation in the ages which were to see the full power of the gospel. Obedience was therefore the duty of slaves, or servants, in all things", (Col_3:22) that is, in all things included within the sphere of a master"s rightful authority, not contrary to the Law of God, or the gospel of Christ, or the dictates of conscience. It is set forth first in a negative, then in a positive form.
1. Negatively. Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers." This word is coined by the apostle for the occasion. Eye-service is either work done only to please the eye, but which cannot bear to be tested, or it may be good work done only when the master"s eye is upon the worker. This was a vice peculiar to slavery. But it enters into all forms of service. Dishonest work is to be avoided quite as much as dishonest words. An acted lie is as dishonorable as a spoken one. There must be no mere perfunctory discharge of human duties.
2. Positively.
(1) With fear and trembling." Not from regard to the lash of the master, but with an anxious and tremulous desire to do our duty thoroughly. Obedience is to be yielded "with all fear", (1Pe_2:18) that is, with the fear of incurring the just rebukes of their masters, and as fearing God". (Col_3:22)
(2) In singleness of heart, as unto Christ." In simplicity and sincerity of spirit, without dissimulation or hypocrisy. There is a great temptation to duplicity in those subjected to another"s will, especially if the service is irksome or unreasonable. Let there be a single desire to do your duty.
(3) With good-will doing service," not grudgingly, or murmuringly, or by constraint, but with cheerfulness and alacrity, "seeking to please them well in all things," that they may obtain their good will. (Tit_2:9)
II THE MOTIVES TO SUCH OBEDIENCE.
1. The command of God here addressed to all servants.
2. The Lord"s mastership, for they are "the servants of Christ," and are "doing service as to the Lord, and not to men." Here is the constraining force of the Lord"s love. How this motive sweetens, sanctifies, ennobles work! The work is done, not for wages, not by constraint, but "unto the Lord," and therefore becomes part of our worship. It is thus that the Lord has married the work of earth to the worship of heaven.
3. The rewards of this service: "Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive,.., whether he be bond or free." Whatever disappointment may mix itself with the service of men, the Lord will have a rich reward in store for the faithful worker. He is not unrighteous to forget your labor of love, for "of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance". (Col_3:24)
4. The honor of the gospel. His Name and his doctrine will be blasphemed by a contrary spirit (1Ti_6:1; Tit_2:10)
5. The example of Christ himself. He "took upon him the form of a servant;" for "he came not to be ministered unto, but to minister." He always did the things which pleased God, and has set us an example that we should follow in his steps. T.C.
Vers. 5-9.
The Christian treatment of slavery.
The treatment of slavery by Christianity is one of the most interesting of themes. Because Christianity did not preach a servile war, that is, did not propose emancipation by force, it was imagined that it was a conniver in the selfish plot against the liberties of man. But Christianity confines itself to spiritual means. It is by a spirit that it regenerates mankind. Force and mechanical appliances may subserve its purposes, judgment may have to take place in consequence of men"s selfishness and sin, but the instrumentalities of Christianity are not carnal, but spiritual, and so mighty through God to the pulling down of the diabolic strongholds. It can be shown that the Mosaic legislation, as well as the Divine judgments in Old Testament times, were hostile to slavery. But we are now concerned with Paul"s policy about slaves. Suppose, then, that he had advocated revolt and immediate emancipation. The slaves would have been separated from their masters, and a chasm created between them which would not have been filled for generations. Christianity would have been the disintegrater instead of the unifier of mankind, and the evils of separation would have been excessive. Was it not better to infuse a new spirit into service and masterhood? Was it not better to carry both into a Divine light, and so secure the master and slaves dwelling together in unity? Christianity consequently told master and slave how they were each related to the one Master in heaven, and so made them one. The actual emancipation has been the outcome of the Christian spirit.
I BOND AND FREE WERE TOLD ABOUT A COMMON MASTER IN HEAVEN.
(Vers. 7-9.) The slave was thus asked to look past his earthly master to his heavenly. He might be possessed by a master on earth, but a Master in heaven told him he was not his own, but bought with a price, and so bound to serve him with his body which was God"s. This lifted life at once to a new plane and infused into service a religious spirit. The Christian slave became the conscious property of Jesus. But at the same time, he felt that this slavery to God was "perfect freedom," that to be God"s "slave" was to be at the same time his "freeman." He was thus spiritually emancipated. Again, the master was given to understand that he had a Master in heaven, and was the slave of God. Hence his spiritual life gave to him the ideal of what authority is when its spirit is love. Lovingly dealt with by God above, he had a model of masterhood evermore set before him, and his own relation to his slaves was of necessity modified thereby.
II THEY WERE ASSURED THAT HE WAS NO RESPECTER OF PERSONS.
(Ver. 9.) Here a blow was struck at the caste prejudices of the time. Here persons were lifted into the light of eternal justice and seen in their native equality. Now, if God took no account of personal distinctions so as to draw any line between bond and free, if the distinctions dwelt on by men were of no account with him, the truth tended to annihilate the distinctions. Here was a great Leveler before whom high and low, rich and poor, bond and free, were absolutely undistinguishable. It is this primary truth of all men having equal rights before the Supreme which has led in time to all men having equal rights before enlightened law, as for example in Britain, and which has secured the emancipation of men from meaning, less distinctions. The method taken by Christianity has thus been to bring unmeant distinctions into the light of God"s countenance, and when men realize that he disregards them, they are sure to see eye to eye with him in the end. It is by reason, not by force, that the emancipation is accomplished.
III THEY WERE ASKED TO SERVE EACH OTHER FOR THE HIGHER MASTER"S SAKE. Mutual service for God"s sake was the ideal set before masters and slaves by the gospel. For God himself became incarnate," not to be ministered unto, but to minister." He came to show that "it is better to give than to receive." He came to consecrate service, to glorify devotion to another"s welfare. When masters and slaves learn this, their relations will contract a cordiality, and be mutually helpful in a degree impossible otherwise. The gospel has thus quenched Tyranmes by the dazzling light of Gods unsuspected justice. There was wisdom in the arrangement. Another policy would have disorganized society and brought evils greater than existed. Onesimus goes back to Philemon to be a son in his house rather than a slave, and to help his master in his progress home to the common Master in heaven. Patiently waiting in his spiritual freedom and doing his part, he can assure himself that the political emancipation will be realized in due season. R.M.E.
Vers. 5-9.
The duties of servants and masters.
I DUTY OF SERVANTS. "Servants, be obedient unto them that according to the flesh are your masters." The Revisers have shown good judgment in retaining "servants" here, and putting "bond-servants" in the margin. For though" bond" (the same word) is in the eighth verse distinguished from "free," yet the thought requires a modification of the meaning. It would be pedantic to translate in the sixth verse "bond-servants of Christ" (or elsewhere, "Paul a slave of Christ"), for slavery is the idea we exclude from the service of Christ. And this wider use of the word is favored by the word not being used for" masters" which conveys the idea of despotic authority. Further, the principles laid down have no exclusive reference to slaves. They are such as would have had force if this perverted form of service had never existed. It is right, then, to use a word which covers all forms of service. It is true that (owing to the carrying out of the apostolic principles, and generally the influence of Christianity) times have very much changed. There is almost nowhere now bondage on the one side and absolutism on the other. The relations between masters and servants are of a freer nature, and depend on reasonableness on both sides. This being the case, it is to be desired, not that self-interest or class-interest should rule these relations, but the principles here laid down by the apostle.
1. The grounding of the duty. "With fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ.
(1) The master is representative of Christ. Four times are servants reminded of this. The apostolic exhortation is saturated with it. A very unworthy representative the despot of the household or slave-holder (in the very conception of the thing, apart from personal qualities) was. But the apostle does not stigmatize him as a usurper, a pretender, and call upon the slaves to rise and cast off his despotism. Strange to say (having him principally in his mind), he regards him as legitimately filling the place of Christ. That is to say, underneath all that slave-holding (whatever it was) there was still a representation, a true representation, of the authority of Christ, before which the slave was to bow. And that was going to the root of the matter. It was more decisive and penetrative than if he had asked them to be reconciled to the evil of their position on the ground that Christ had suffered greater evil when in the world. He refused to regard the relation as disannulled by the accident of despotism; in the master according to the flesh (whoever he might be) he saw a real representation of the authority of Christ, and he called upon them to render obedience unto him as unto Christ. All cannot be masters. For disciplinary purposes, some are servants and some are masters, and some both servants and masters. In the early and Middle Ages there were men who were carried away with a frenzy of obedience. Those words, I am among you as one that serveth," seemed to put a bad mark on the master state, and to mark out the servant state as not only the safer, but the grander, more Christlike state of the two. And so they put themselves under superiors, begged in Christ"s name to be ruled, and thought they approached Christ when they performed the most menial duties. It must be understood that the state which with Christ carries the blessing is that (whether of master or servant) which is not self-sought, but in which Christ sees fit to place us.
(2) The appropriate disposition toward the master as the representative of Christ. "With fear and trembling." The slave was to fear and tremble before his master, not because that despotic master of his was able to put him in chains or to take away his life, but because he represented an authority above backed by boundless power, which was able to deal with him, and would righteously deal with him, for neglected duty. That being the ground, the duty remains unmodified. The workman is to fear and tremble before his master, the domestic is to fear and tremble before her mistress, not because the master or mistress is better born, or has more wealth, or has a title (for in that there is little to cause fear and trembling), but because he or she represents an authority in heaven that in no case is to be trifled with. "In singleness of your heart." That is to say, the servant must give the reality, and not the semblance of service. And the only ground on which this can be thoroughly secured is by regarding his service as done unto Christ.
1. Fault to be avoided. "Not in the way of eye-service, as men-pleasers." The word translated "eye-service" seems to have been of the apostle"s own coining, and is strikingly descriptive. The eye-servant is one who takes the rule of his action from the eye of his master. His object or motive (as expressed in the word "men-pleasers") is to get credit for whatever he does. Such a person may work with a will when he thinks of the master"s eye being upon him, and expects that it will be put to his credit. Even in such a case the principle is wrong. It would lead him to "scamp" his work when he thought that his master"s eye was not on him, and that he would not be made to suffer for it. Could it be secured (which it cannot be) that the master"s eye was always on the servant, and that the servant always got credit for what he did, yet work done on such a principle (whatever it may be in political economy), from a Christian point of view is radically wrong.
2. Positive excellence to be sought.
(1) In relation to work. "But as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart." The servants of Christ must apply the principles of Christ to their work. According to the teaching of the apostle, a servant"s thought is not to be this how little work he can get off with; nor this, in the first place (though it is an important consideration) what is the will of his master; but this what is the will of God, i.e. what does God expect of him in amount, in excellency, to be rendered to his master. Having found out this, he is to do his work, not in the spirit of drudgery, but with a true, it may be an ardent, love for it, as it is here put "from the heart." To do the will of God in this way may sometimes require not a little Christian courage. In these days there are trade-unions, combinations among the workmen, with the view of protecting their rights. Though unobjectionable in principle, yet (like other combinations) they may sometimes be dominated by selfishness, and act tyrannically. And a Christian workman may be in the position of choosing between the will of God and incurring the opprobrium of his fellow-workmen. If he is worthy of his master"s Master, he will not, to please his fellow-workmen, give stinted, heartless work, but he will brave the consequences of doing his duty, saying, "I must obey God rather than man.
(2) In relation to his master. "With good will doing service, as unto the Lord, and not unto men." A servant may not be able altogether to approve of the treatment he receives. What is exacted of him (and what he cheerfully renders, as being the will of God) may be unjust. Nevertheless, as a Christian, he is to keep up good feeling toward his master. He is always to respect him because of his position. More than that, he is to have "good will" toward him, that good will which (as the angelic doxology shows,) is so much of the essence of the gospel. And he is not merely to have good will toward him as a man, but good will also toward him in the particular relationship in which he is placed to him as his master. And he is to have this good will toward him, not on worldly grounds, nor on purely rational grounds, nor on purely theistic grounds, but specially on Christian grounds. "As unto the Lord," and not unto a master by himself or out of relation to the Lord. That is to say, he is to bear good will toward his master as being (by no figure of speech, but in very fact) the Lord"s representative, and thus, it may be said, for the Lord"s sake, and further, that the Lord"s ends in the relationship (so far as he is concerned) may be served.
3. Encouragement to duty. "Knowing that whatsoever good thing each one doeth, the same shall he receive again from the Lord, whether he be bond or free." The slave, or bondman, here referred to (and very common then) was considered to be entitled to nothing. His earthly receivings were very meager, unless in lashes when he came under the displeasure of his master. The apostle, then, is to be understood as holding out to him this encouragement (for he names him particularly, that there may be no mistake), that, if he did his work in a Christian manner, then he would be a receiver, equally with the free man he would be a receiver, if not on earth, yet in heaven; he would receive from the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He who saved his soul as well as that of the free man, and put both on the same platform of privilege, would see to it that no smallest piece of work done to an earthly master for his sake (overlooked here) would go unrewarded in heaven. And the same thing is to be said of the free servant; for he also is particularized. It is true that if he is guilty of eye-service, if he "scamps" his work, that will be put against him in heaven, and there will be a day of reckoning for his evil thing, for his bad work; his life-work has lost in quality, in measure by it, and his reward will most unmistakably be curtailed it will be so much the less for that idling of his master"s time, that soulless work, that grudge in his heart to his master (for upon such things as these shall judgment be passed, by such things shall destiny be affected). But if, on the other hand, a servant, even in the humblest position, grasps his opportunity, and seeks to be regulated in his work by the will of God, and cherishes good will to his master, then, in encouragement (as before in principle), he is made independent of such a variable element as a good or a bad master, his getting his rights or his not getting his rights; he can feel that he has to do with a Master with whom there is no inequality, and who will see to it that whatsoever good thing he doeth, what he does unobserved or what he does under the menaces of his fellow-workmen, shall be rewarded.
II DUTY OF MASTERS.
1. Positive statement of duty. "And, ye masters, do the same things unto them." Though they stand differently in the relationship (servant to master and master to servant), they are to do the same things, the regulative principles being the same.
(1) In relation to work. As the Christian servant is to be regulated by the will of God" in the work rendered, so the Christian master is to be regulated by the will of God in the work required. There is that which (in the Divine balances) is fair between them. It cannot be got at by selfishness on the one side and selfishness on the other, which is often made a trial of strength. If harmony is to be attained, it can only be by both, with Christian disinterestedness, agreeing to bring themselves (in what is required and what is rendered)to the Divine standard.
(2) In relation to servant. As there is to be good will" toward the master, so there is to be good will toward the servant. The master may not find the servant what he would like him to be. He may have to reprove him for eye-service or for careless service under his eye. But he is always to have good will toward him, as placed under him by Christ. He is to show his good will by seeking to make him comfortable in his position. Especially is he to use his influence with him on behalf of his higher well-being. In the name of Christ, then, let good will be met by good will. Education alone is ineffectual. It has sometimes been found that, with the spread of education, there has been an embittering of the relations between masters and servants. It is wrong, however (as not a few do), to blame education for this. It may be said that, if these relations cannot stand educative influences, then they are not what they should be. And the conclusion to be drawn is, not that we are to dispense with education, but that those relations can only be thoroughly maintained by reasonableness and genuine good feeling on both sides. And Christians are not to give up the problem in despair, but ought to be prepared to demonstrate to the world that it is possible, on Christian principles, for masters and servants to work together in harmony.
1. Fault to be avoided. "And forbear threatening." "The too familiar threatening" is the idea conveyed in the Greek. It was the ready resource of persons possessed of irresponsible power. Slaves were made to work under fear of the lash. And, though masters have not so much in their power now, yet the power that they have (there is generally an advantage in their circumstances compared with their servants) they are not to abuse. It is those who are deficient in the right management of their servants, in reasonable dealing, especially in that good will which is so necessary to management, that take to the clumsy, coarse method of threatening. Power must sometimes be put into execution against servants"; but to hold threats over their heads, to treat them with clamor, with insult, or with something worse, is not worthy of the Christian master.
2. Word of warning. "Knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven." Christ is represented as the Master of the slave. There was a wrong involved (apart from any harsh treatment he might receive) in the very fact of his being a slave. He is represented as the Master of the slaveholder, too, i.e. of the man who was so unenlightened as to hold slaves. As the Master of them both, he would see to things in the end being righted between them. The Christian master still is to be influenced to do what is just and proper by his servants by the consideration that Christ is the Master of his servants as well as his Master. And in the righting that, is to take place, for every advantage that the master has taken of his servant, for every harsh speech and threatening word he has used toward him, he will suffer everlasting loss. "And there is no respect of persons with him" (i.e. with Christ). There is a real distinction between master and servant, proprietor and tenant. What is adventitious may gather round it, but the essential thing is that Christ has not ordained equality here, but has placed his authority in some, and has subjected others, and has thus given rise to mutual obligations and trial and the formation of character in connection with these obligations. But though a real distinction, it is not to be carried beyond what there is really in it. After all, it is only to last through the present earthly economy. It is destined to be obliterated with other time-distinctions. And meantime Christ does not respect a person less because he is a servant, or more because he is a master. He has an equal interest in them as both included within the sweep of his work, as having taken him as their Savior and Master. He has an equal interest in them in the relationship in which they stand to each other. And if they do their part equally well, one in the position of servant and the other in the position of master, then he will see to it that they will be equally rewarded. R.F.
Vers. 5-9.
Servants and their masters.
"Servants," etc. There are two thoughts underlying these verses.
1. The existence of social distinction, s amongst men. There are masters and servants, rulers and subjects. These distinctions are no accidental phases of society, they grow out of the constitution of things. Diversity in the temperaments, tastes, capacities, and circumstances of men give rise to masters and servants.
2. The one spirit which is to govern men of all distinctions. The rich and the poor, the sovereign and his subject, the master and the servant, are under an obligation to be animated by the same moral spirit, and controlled by the same moral consideration. "All in all things should do the will of God from the heart.
I THE DUTY OF SERVANTS. The duty of servants, of course, is obedience. "Be obedient to them that are your masters." But the obedience is here characterized.
1. It is obedience in bodily matters. "According to the flesh." Their service is limited to secular concerns, things that have reference to the material and temporal interests of their masters. They were to give their muscles, and their limbs, and their contriving faculties, but not their souls. "Consciences and souls were made to be the Lord"s alone.
2. It is obedience honestly rendered. "With fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart with eye-service." These expressions mean that there should be no duplicity, no double-dealing, but downright honesty in everything. A servant is bound to be honest towards his employer. He has no right to be lazy or wasteful. He has contracted to give, on certain stipulated conditions, his energies and time to promote the secular interests of his master.
3. It is obedience inspired with the religious spirit. They are to regard themselves in everything as the servants of Christ, and are bound to do the "will of God from the heart." In everything the authority of Christ must be held as supreme. Whatsoever is done in word or deed should be done all to the glory of God.
4. It is obedience which, if truly rendered, will be rewarded of God. "Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord. whether he be bond or free." The faithful servant may feel that the wages he receives from his earthly master are unjustly inadequate. Yet the great Master will award to him at last an ample compensation. Whatsoever good thing he has done, however trivial, shall meet its reward at last. The good thing must be rewarded. Goodness carries evermore its own reward.
II THE DUTY OF MASTERS. The way in which masters should exercise their authority is here indicated.
1. They are to exercise it religiously. "Ye masters, do the same things unto them." "The same things," as we have said, do not mean the same work, but the same spiritual attributes. Servants are to be honest and respect the will of God in all; the masters are here bound to do "the same things." Both are to be under the domination of the same moral spirit.
2. They are to exercise it magnanimously. "Forbearing threatening." Though the servant may by accident, or, what is worse, by intent, by omission, or by commission, try severely the temper of his master, his master should forbear threatening. He should show his right to be a master by governing his own soul. The man who takes fire at every offence, whose eyes flash with rage, and lips mutter threats, is too little a creature to be a master. He has no license from Heaven to rule either children, servants, or citizens, who is not magnanimous in soul.
3. They are to exercise it responsibly. "Knowing that your Master also is in heaven." They are amenable to God for the way in which they use their authority. The master has the same Lord as the servant, and they must stand at last together at the great tribunal. To that Master all social distinctions vanish in the presence of moral character. "Neither is there respect of persons with him. D.T.
Vers. 5-9.
Servants and masters.
The early preachers of the gospel were wise in not provoking futile and fatal attempts at a social revolution by denouncing slavery. Nevertheless, they laid the foundation of that revolution and secured its peaceable and bloodless accomplishment. Slavery could not permanently survive the establishment of the principle of Christian brotherhood. Meanwhile under the then existing circumstances Christianity taught certain necessary duties of slaves and masters, the essential ideas of which apply to so much of the present state of society as is at all analogous to that of the first century.
I THE DUTIES OF SERVANTS.
1. The duties.
(1) Obedience. The position of service, whether forced as in slavery or freely accepted as among us, implies obedience. Indeed, where the condition of service is voluntarily entered upon for the sake of adequate payment the duty is so much the stronger. The disobedient servant commits a double sin; he is unfaithful to his engagement, and he is robbing his master of unearned wages.
(2) Singleness of heart. Half-hearted service is semi-disobedience.
(3) No eye-service. How common is this degrading and dishonest habit in all walks of life, from that of the maid who is idle when her mistress is away, to that of the statesman who works for what will win the applause of the multitude to the neglect of the real welfare of the nation, or the preacher who preaches popular sermons to catch the ear of the congregation and hides unpopular truths that men much need to hear!
(4) Serving the Lord. We are all to serve Christ in our daily work. This consecrates the most menial task.
2. The reward. Gross injustice characterized the old-world treatment of slaves, and tempted to disloyal service. This injustice will not be seen at the great reckoning. The slave will be as fairly judged as his master. The lowliest work will win as high a reward as the most pretentious if the motive is equally good. Here is an inducement to faithfulness in little things.
II THE DUTIES OF MASTERS. It was hard to teach a slave-holder his duty. Yet it is fair to observe that in many households the rigor of servitude was much softened, and kinder and more humane relations maintained than those that sometimes characterize our modern commercial connection of workman and employer, relations out of which all humanity seems to have vanished. It is interesting to see that in the New Testament a hired servant is considered to be worse off than a household slave (e.g. Luk_15:17)
1. The duties.
(1) Fairness. "Do the same things unto them." The duties are reciprocal. Masters have no right to expect more devotion to their interests from their servants than they show to their servants" interests.
(2) Kindness. "Forbear threatening." It is cowardly to use the power of the purse, as old masters used the whip, to gain an unfair advantage over a servant. In the end sympathy and genial friendliness will secure the best service.
2. The motives.
(1) Servants and masters have one common Master. Both are alike servants of Christ; both must give account to him of their stewardship.
(2) Christ will judge without respect of persons. The advantages of social superiority are but temporary. They will be of no use at Christ"s judgment. W.F.A.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv5–7 Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters…
Eph_6:5
Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ.
Read full note →
A sermon to servants
Understand your calling as the servants of Christ. You are His servants before you are any earthly masters, and every work you do, every duty you fulfil, every command you obey, is really obedience to Him. He says, do this and this, by the lips of the earthly master; do it bravely, cheerfully, thoroughly; it is done for Me, not for him. All that is menial in that case vanishes out of your daffy tasks. Behind the human master there is a higher Master; there is no humiliation even in bondage to Him.
I. Be faithful for the sake of Christ your Lord. I mean, be loyal to the trust reposed in you; repay it by strict fidelity, incorruptible honesty, and steady devotion to those interests of the household committed to your charge.
II. Be diligent. Give to your service the energy that you would give to Christ; put it on the highest and firmest ground. Give your best, because it is the Lords work you are doing; it is the Lords Well done you are winning; it is the Lords wage you will receive at last.
III. Be patient. Many commands may seem unreasonable; many tempers you have to do with, irritable and arrogant. Take it up into a higher region. See how far the thought of Christ will enable you to do and bear. Be always more ready to obey than to question, to work than to wrangle, to submit than to rebel; and you will do well. And do not be always thinking that you can better yourself; be patient, and rather bear the ills you have, than fly to others that you know not of.
IV. Be cheerful. Nothing makes such sunlight on earth as cheerful, joyful fulfilment of duty. We have never mastered the lesson of life till we can sing to our tasks, and smile as we sing. Make it your study daily to wear a cheerful aspect as you go about your duty, and to make your life a willing, joyful service to your heavenly King.
V. Be sure that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. No work done for Christ ever fails of a blessing. (J. B. Brown, B. A.)
Respective duties of masters and servants
I. Let us consider the duties of servants, as they are represented to us in Scripture.
1. The first point, then, which is enforced in every passage relating to this subject, is obedience (Col_3:22; Tit_2:9; 1Pe_2:18). Such obedience does not rest on any mere law or custom of man, but on the plain word of Almighty God. There cannot be any disgrace in homing the place of a servant. Can there be shame in that, to which the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the Lord of glory, submitted? (Php_2:6-8; Heb_5:8.) But of what kind should your obedience be? The apostle has taught you that as to its extent it should be universal. Obey in all things your masters, that is, in all things which are not contrary to the higher law of your heavenly Master: in all else obey readily and without limitation (Php_2:14). In small things as well as great. As servants should show obedience to their masters in all lawful things, so should they show it with reverence and meekness, or, as it is expressed in the text, with fear and trembling, lest ye should offend them.
2. Another duty of a servant is to add to his obedience a constant endeavour to please. Let your services be seen to flow not from necessity or interest alone, but from the attachment of a willing heart.
3. A third duty is strict faithfulness and honesty. An unfaithful servant is in itself a term of deep reproach. He owes much to those into whose service he enters. He is sheltered beneath their roof; he shares the comforts of their home, is placed beyond the reach of want, eats of his masters bread, and drinks of his masters cup. Much is confided to him. His masters goods are placed beneath his care, and are justly required at his hand.
II. The duties of a master (see Col_4:1).
1. A master is bound in justice to keep to the full the terms of his agreement--to give to his apprentice the needful instruction in his business, and to pay his servant the stipulated wages (Deu_24:14-15; Jam_5:4).
2. The law of equity may be considered as binding a master to kindness, forbearance, and concern for the souls of his servants. It bids him show kindness, and thus extends further than the strict rule of justice. Reason and conscience are its umpires.
III. Mutual are the obligations under which masters and servants are placed to each other. Highly important are their respective duties, and each may truly glorify God in the sphere assigned them. But what are the motives, what is the principle that can produce such blessed fruit? It is summed up in the consideration--Ye have both a Master in heaven. Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price, even the precious blood of Christ. Servants l how powerfully is this motive pressed on you! Be obedient to them that are your masters … in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to mere How happy are you, if you have indeed become the servants of Christ. Then will it be your foremost desire and endeavour to adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour in all things. And, behold, how true religion can ennoble every station! Masters! your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with Him. Ye and your servants are fellow servants of the Lord; you are members of the same body--His Church; you must speedily stand together before His judgment seat. (E. Blencowe, M. A.)
Servants and masters
Paul takes the institutions of society as they stand, and defines the duties of those who acknowledge the authority of Christ. He teaches that the State is a Divine institution as well as the Church. Political government is necessary to the existence of human society; a bad government is better than no government at all. Governors might be unjust; but Christian people, with no political authority or power, are not responsible for the injustice, nor are they able to remedy it. Government itself is sanctioned by God, and submission is part of the duty which Christian people owe to Him. Domestic and industrial institutions are also necessary for the existence of society. By the Divine constitution of human life we have to serve each other in many ways, and if the service is to be effective it must be organized. In apostolic times slavery existed in every part of the Roman empire. It was a form of domestic and industrial organization created by the social condition of the ancient world. It was the growth of the history and mutual relations of the races under the Roman authority. To practical statesmen in those days it would have seemed impossible to organize the domestic and industrial life of nations in any other way, as impossible as it seems to modern statesmen to organize commerce on any other principle than that of competition. Christian people were not responsible for its existence, and had no power to abolish it. Their true duty was to consider how, as masters and slaves, they were to do the will of Christ. Paul transfigures the institution. He applies to it the great principle which underlies all Christian ethics; Christ is the true Lord of human life; whatever we do we are to do for Him; we are all His servants. Slaves live in the eye of God. They are to do their work for Him. All that is hard, all that is ignominious, in their earthly condition is suddenly lit up with the glory of Divine and eternal things. Servants, be obedient unto them that according to the flesh are your masters, with fear and trembling--with that zeal which is ever keenly apprehensive of not doing enough--in singleness of your heart, with no double purpose, but with an honest and earnest desire to do your work well, as unto Christ. This will redeem them from the common vice of slaves; if they accept their tasks as from Christ, and try to be faithful to Him, they will not be diligent and careful only when their masters are watching them, in the way of eye-service, as men-pleasers, but will be always faithful as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. They will cherish no resentment against their earthly masters, and will not serve them merely to avoid punishment, but, regarding their work as work for Christ, will do it cheerfully with real kindliness for those whom they have to serve, with goodwill doing service, as unto the Lord and not unto men. Their earthly masters may deny them the just rewards of their labour, may fail to recognize their integrity and their zeal, may treat them harshly and cruelly; but as Christs servants they will not miss their recompense; they are to work, knowing that whatsoever good thing each one doeth, that very thing shall he receive again from the Lord, whether he be bond or free. No good works will be forgotten; the rewards which are withheld on earth will be conferred in heaven. Masters are to act towards their servants in the same spirit, and under the government of the same Divine laws. Ye masters, do the same things unto them. As slaves are warned against the special vices of their order, and charged to do their work, not reluctantly, but with goodwill, not in the way of eye-service, as men-pleasers, but from the heart, so masters are warned against the special vice of which masters were habitually guilty; they are not to be rough, violent, and abusive, but are to forbear threatening. They are reminded that their authority is only subordinate and temporary; the true Master of their slaves is Christ, and Christ is their Master too; He will leave no wrong unredressed. Before earthly tribunals a slave might appeal in vain for justice, but there is no respect of persons with Him. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)
Relation of the gospel to slavery
These precepts may be met with the objection that slavery was a cruel tyranny, and that no moral duties could be created by social relations which were an outrage at once on human rights and on Divine laws; the masters had one duty, and only one--to emancipate their slaves; the slaves were grossly oppressed, and were under no moral obligations to their masters. But the objection is untenable. The worst injuries may be inflicted upon me by an individual or by the State, but it does not follow that I am released from obligations either to the man or to the community that wrongs me. I may be unjustly imprisoned, imprisoned by an iniquitous law or by a corrupt judge; but it may be my duty to observe the regulations of the jail; I ought not to be in prison at all, but being there it may be my duty neither to try to escape nor to disturb the order of the place. And though a man ought not to be a slave at all, he may be under moral obligations to those who hold him in slavery. So, on the other hand, I may be a jailer, and may have prisoners under my care who, in my belief, have committed no crime, and yet it may be my duty to keep them safely. To take an extreme case: the governor of a jail may be fully convinced that a man in his charge who has been condemned to be hung for murder is innocent of the crime, but if he were to let the man escape he would be guilty of a grave breach of trust. We may say of slavery what John Wesley said of the slave trade, that it is the sum of all villanies, and yet a servile revolt may be a great and flagrant crime. While the institution exists and a real and permanent improvement in the organization of society is impossible, it is the duty of the slave to bear his wrongs patiently. Circumstances may be easily imagined in which the position of a master, if he be a Christian, would be in some respects more difficult than that of a slave. Some of the miserable creatures whom he owns may have lost, or never possessed, the energy, the forethought, the self-reliance, the self-control, necessary for a life of freedom. In the organization of society there may be no place for them among free citizens. To emancipate them would be to deprive them of a home, to give them up to starvation, to drive them to a life of crime. In such circumstances a Christian master might think it his duty to retain his authority for the sake of society, and for the sake of the slaves themselves; but would resolve to use his power with as much gentleness and kindness as the hateful institution permitted. But it may be further objected that there are no indications in the New Testament that the apostles saw the hatefulness of the institution, or desired its disappearance. They certainly did not denounce it. I suppose that if Paul had been asked for his judgment on it he would have said that slavery was part of the order of this present evil world. If he had been pressed more closely and asked to say whether he thought it just or not, he would probably have answered that in a world which had forgotten God, and was in open revolt against Him, all the relations between man and man were necessarily thrown into disorder. It was not slavery alone that violated the true and ideal organization of human society; the whole constitution of the world was evil; and no great and real reform was possible apart from the moral and religious regeneration of the race. When the golden age came, and the love and power of Christ had won a final victory over human sin, the order of the world would be changed. Under the reign of Christ, tyranny, slavery, war, and poverty, would be unknown. Meanwhile, and in the actual condition of mankind, the work of the Christian Church was not to assault institutions, but to try to make individual men loyal to Christ. It was not Christs plan to effect an external revolution, but to change the moral and spiritual life of the race … We are happily free from the curse and crime of slavery; but even the social order of England, which we are accustomed, very inconsiderately, to call a Christian country, does not perfectly realize the ideal of social justice. There are no slaves among us, but there are tens of thousands of Christian people who feel, and have a right to feel, that their lot is a very hard one. They are inadequately paid for their work; they are badly fed, badly clothed, badly housed. They are never free from anxiety, they are always on the edge of misery and of ruin. They are without any hope of improving their condition. If by self-denial and forethought they are able in good times to save a little from their poor wages, illness, depression of trade, and loss of work soon sweep their little store away. They have to endure harsh and unkindly treatment from men whose control they cannot escape. But their position is not worse than the condition of slaves in apostolic times, and they should resolve with the help of Christ to obey the apostolic law. Let them do their laborious and ill-paid work as work for Christ. Let them look above and beyond their earthly masters to Him; cherishing no resentment against the men who treat them roughly and tyrannically, but with goodwill doing service as unto the Lord and not unto men. Let them never yield to the base temptation to work badly because they are paid badly; their true wages do not come to them on Friday night or Saturday morning; they are Christs servants, and He will not forget their fidelity. Masters have not yet escaped from their old vice. Their position of power encourages an arbitrary and despotic temper, and those who employ a few men seem to be in just as much danger as those who employ hundreds and thousands. They are to be not only just but courteous. They are to remember that the relations between the master and his workmen, the merchant and his clerks, the tradesman and his assistants, are accidental and temporary. They have all one Master in heaven, and to Him the supreme question in reference to every mans life is not whether he is rich or poor, whether he rules or serves, but whether by justice, industry, temperance, and kindliness he is trying to do the will of God. The great revelation which has come to us through Christ abolished slavery; it ought to lift up our whole social and industrial life into the very light of God, and to fill the works, the warehouses, and the shops of this great town with the very spirit which gives beauty and sanctity to the palaces of heaven. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)
True service
Robert, said a man, winking slyly to a clerk of his acquaintance, you must give me good measure; your master is not in. Robert looked solemnly into the mans face, and replied, My Master is always in. Roberts Master was the all-seeing God. (New Handbook of Illustration.)
The willing service of the heart
There is no moral good or moral evil in a work which is not my own--I mean no moral good or evil to me. A work which I do not myself perform may be creditable or discreditable to somebody else, it is neither to me. Take an illustration. In the Square of St. Mark, at Venice, at certain hours the bell of the clock is struck by two bronze figures as large as life, wielding hammers. Now, nobody ever thought of presenting thanks to those bronze men for the diligence with which they have struck the hours; of course, they cannot help it, they are wrought upon by machinery, and they strike the hours from necessity. Some years ago a stranger was upon the top of the tower, and incautiously went too near one of these bronze men; his time was come to strike the hour, he knocked the stranger from the battlement of the tower and killed him; nobody said the bronze man ought to be hanged; nobody ever laid it to his charge at all. There was no moral good or moral evil, because there was no will in the concern. It was not a moral act, because no mind and heart gave consent to it. Am I to believe that grace reduces men to this? I tell you, sirs, if you think to glorify the grace of God by such a theory, you know not what you do. To carve blocks, and move logs, is small glory, but this is the glory of Gods grace, that without violating the human will, He yet achieves His own purposes, and treating men as men, He conquers their hearts with love, and wins their affections by His grace. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The duties of servants
I. The duties they owe to themselves:
1. Religion.
2. Regard for truth.
3. Sobriety.
4. Chastity.
5. Frugality.
These duties they owe partly to masters, but by their non-performance they damage themselves alone.
II. Those which they owe to their employers:
1. Reverence and honour for them as superiors.
2. Obedience.
3. Good temper.
4. Fidelity--with regard to their property, their time, and their reputation.
5. Diligence.
6. Gratitude for kindness.
III. Those which they owe to each other--peacefulness--temperateness--kindness. (J. A. James.)
Christian servants
The Christian servants at Ephesus, who first read this letter of the apostle, were, probably, many of them slaves. Some, no doubt, were hired servants; but perhaps the greater part were in a state of absolute bondage to heathen masters.
I. Let us look, first, at the precepts and directions given to servants. And one is struck with this: there is no hint thrown out, no suggestion whatever offered, as to its being right or necessary to quit ones occupation in order to serve Christ and promote His cause in the world. It is not an infrequent thought, in the minds especially of young men, when brought to the Lord, that they must give up their worldly occupation, and devote themselves wholly and exclusively to minister in holy things. And now let us notice the particulars which the apostle expressly mentions for a Christian servant to attend to.
1. Observe the first command is obedience: Servants, be obedient to your masters according to the flesh.
2. Further, in this preceptive part of his address, notice, secondly, how he enjoins a thorough devotedness to his masters interests. This will appear in making manifest your thorough trustworthiness and faithfulness. I do not speak of mere honesty; the apostle means much more than this, when he speaks of showing all good fidelity. There is such a thing as seeking just to go through the daily routine with the spirit of a hireling, who will do no more than he must; who needs to be well looked after, or he will leave much neglected. Quite different is the spirit of a Christian servant: he will try his very utmost to please his employer; but he has a higher aim. What a pattern of this was Abrahams servant Eleazar, and Jacob in Labans house, and Joseph in his captivity, first, in Potiphars house, and then in his dungeon: his master left all he had in Josephs hand; he knew not ought he had, save the bread he did eat. No terms could more emphatically give the idea of perfect freedom from all care, produced and maintained by the perfect assurance of ability, assiduity, and incorruptible rectitude.
II. But let us proceed to notice, secondly, the motive which the apostle holds up as the governing principle, the ruling motive of a truly Christian servant: As the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily: as to the Lord, and not unto men; for ye serve the Lord Christ. Again: That ye may adorn--ye servants, plain, humble, unnoticed, who have little to set you off in the eyes of the world--that ye may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. In a word, let there be at the root of all--godliness: Setting the Lord always before you.
1. Now, first, what a comprehensive principle is this! It reminds us of those wonderful triumphs of mechanical skill by which the same engine can be applied to lift the most ponderous masses, or to drive with the utmost delicacy, as with the feeble blow of an infant, the slenderest pin into its place. So with this principle of doing all as to the Lord.
2. And then, secondly, how ennobling and elevating a motive it is! The highest archangel knows no higher.
3. And then, thirdly, how consoling and comforting a motive is this to the humble Christian! I am poor and needy, but the Lord careth for me may he say. One need not be in high station to serve the Saviour.
III. And then, thirdly, let us not forget the promise annexed to it. Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. Oh! how often this is manifested even here in this life! Many are the houses where the pious servant has been the first to introduce the gospel, and by his patient continuance in well-doing, has demonstrated its reality and power. (J. Cohen, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv5–7 5–8. Servants. The term does not refer so much…
5–8. Servants. The term does not refer so much to hired servants, as slaves, of whom there were many millions in the Roman Empire at that time. These were of all races, prisoners taken in war, or their children. Christianity did not violently destroy this relation, but regulated, mitigated and undermined it by introducing a new element into human life which would destroy it. Masters according to the flesh. Earthly masters whose dominion will go no farther than this world. With fear and trembling. Not for fear of punishment, but for fear that the service is not done right. As unto Christ. Christ will see and reward your fidelity to duty, even if an earthly master does not.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v5 Eph_6:5. Servants, be obedient.—R.V. margin, “bond-servants.” There was One…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Eph_6:5. Servants, be obedient.—R.V. margin, “bond-servants.” There was One who had “become obedient even unto death,” having taken “the form of a bond-servant” (Php_2:7). With fear and trembling.—“With that zeal which is ever keenly apprehensive of not doing enough” (Meyer). The same phrase is used of the way in which our personal salvation is to be worked out (Php_2:12).
Read full note →
Eph_6:6. Not with eyeservice.—A word used only by St. Paul. The thing it describes is easily recognised to-day.
Eph_6:7. With good will doing service.—If a philosopher-slave like Epictetus could rise superior to his condition, surely Christianity could do as much for the humblest believer.
Eph_6:8. Knowing that whatsoever good … bond or free.
“This is the famous stone
That turneth all to gold,
For that which God doth touch and own
Cannot for less be told.”
George Herbert.
Eph_6:9. Do the same things unto them.—The utmost application of the “golden rule.” Forbearing threatening “may either mean abating or giving up.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Eph_6:5-9
The Duties of Servants and Masters.
I. The duty of the servant to the master is to obey.—
1. This obedience is to be rendered with conscientious solicitude. “With fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart; … not with eyeservice, as menpleasers” (Eph_6:5-6). There must be a genuine care for our work. “Be obedient, with fear and trembling.” The fear enjoined is no dread of human displeasure, of the master’s whip or tongue. It is the same fear and trembling with which we are bidden to work out our own salvation (Php_2:12). The inward work of the soul’s salvation and the outward work of the busy hands labouring in the mine, or at the loom, or in the lowliest domestic duties—all alike are to be performed under a solemn responsibility to God and in the presence of Christ, the Lord of nature and of men. No man, whether he be a minister of state or a stable-groom, will dare to do heedless work who lives and acts in that august Presence. The sense of Christ’s Lordship ensures honesty in work. “Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers.” It is the common fault and temptation of servants in all degrees to observe the master’s eye, and to work busily or slackly as they are watched or not. Such workmen act as they do because they look to men and not to God. Their work is without conscience and self-respect. Let us all adopt St. Paul’s maxim; it will be an immense economy. What armies of overlookers and inspectors we shall be able to dismiss when every servant works as well behind his master’s back as to his face, when every manufacturer and shopkeeper puts himself in the purchaser’s place and deals as he would have others deal with him (Findlay).
2. This obedience should be cheerful and hearty as rendered unto a higher than an earthly master.—“As unto Christ; … doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men” (Eph_6:5-7). Obedience should be not only careful and honest, but hearty. The heart is the source of our greatest power. Nothing can be translated into an act that has not first been conceived and set in motion by the heart. As the stroke of the piston sets in motion the most complicated machinery and produces certain results, so the throb of the heart brings all our activities into play and gives direction and character to our work. The worth of our work as a whole will be decided by the heartiness we throw into every single duty. Workmanship counts for much. I have read of a chain, weighing two ounces, costing £170, being 163,000 times more than the value of the original bit of iron from which it was made. The work of the artist made all the difference; he put into it his best self, his heart, his genius. So in the works of the divine Creator. The symmetry, the beauty, the perfect balance and shining magnificence of the world are the result of the patient work and hearty enthusiasm with which the great Architect has put together and finished the most minute parts of the planet.
3. Genuine obedience is always rewarded.—“Whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord” (Eph_6:8). Even in this world conscientious work is not without reward. “In all labour there is profit. The diligent hand maketh rich.” A stationer settling a large account with a paper-manufacturer, said: “I owe all my success in business to you; but let me ask you how a man of your caution came to give credit so readily to a beginner of my slender means?” “Because,” said the paper-maker, “at whatever hour in the morning I passed to my business, I always observed you at yours with your coat off.” Work gives character, and is the pathway to success and wealth. But in the world to come, when servant and master stand before the bar of Christ, reward will be equitably meted out according to the work of each.
II. The duty of the master is to act towards his servant on the same principles as obedience to himself is regulated.—“And, ye masters, do the same things unto them” (Eph_6:9). The master is to put himself in the place of his servant, and act towards him as he would desire to be treated if their positions were reversed. It is a practical application of the great rule, “Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them”—a rule we are in danger of interpreting on one side only: our own side.
1. To avoid irritating severity.—“Forbearing threatening” (Eph_6:9). The slave in early times was treated as scarcely human, and was ruled by the fear of punishment. Christianity in the beginning did not interfere with domestic slavery; but it introduced principles which, wherever, adopted utterly abolished slavery. The Christian master cannot act on the policy of cruelty, but treats his servants with justice and kindness.
2. To remember that both are servants of a higher and impartial Master.—“Knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with Him” (Eph_6:9). A party of friends setting out together upon a journey soon find it to be the best for all sides that while they are upon the road one of the company should wait upon the rest, another ride forward to seek out lodging and entertainment, a third carry the portmanteau, a fourth take charge of the horses, a fifth bear the purse, conduct, and direct the route; not forgetting, however, that as they were equal and independent when they set out, so they are all to return to a level again at their journey’s end. The same regard and respect, the same forbearance, lenity, and reserve in using their service, the same mildness in delivering commands, the same study to make their journey comfortable and pleasant which he whose lot it was to direct the rest would in common decency think himself bound to observe towards them, ought we to show to those who, in the casting of the parts of human society, happen to be placed within our power or to depend upon us (Paley). Master and man must give an account to Him who will judge every act according to its merit.
Lessons.—
1. Masters and servants are amenable to divine law.
2. Neither master nor servant gains any advantage by tactics that violate divine law.
3. Where the Christian spirit predominates trade disputes will soon be satisfactorily settled.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Eph_6:5-9. The Duties of Servants and Masters.
I. The duties of servants.—
1. To be obedient to their masters. This must be understood with the same limitation as all other commands enjoining relative duties. We are to obey God rather than men. Servants no further obey their masters according to the will of God than they make His will the rule and measure of their obedience to their masters.
2. Servants owe their masters reverence as well as obedience.
3. There is an honour, as well as fear, due to their masters.
4. Cheerfulness in their obedience is recommended by the apostle.
5. Diligence of faithfulness is another duty which they owe to their masters.
6. They are to be patient and submissive, though they meet with usage more severe than they think reasonable, not breaking their own obligations, or deserting their master’s service for trivial causes, but bearing his smaller indiscretions without complaint, and in cases of real injury seeking relief in a prudent manner and by lawful means.
7. In all their service they should act with an aim to please God and to obtain His approbation.
II. The duties of masters to their servants.—
1. Their government is to be mild and prudent, not passionate and severe.
2. With respect to apprentices, the contract binds the master not only to give them comfortable support, but to instruct them in his business and profession.
3. With respect to labourers, justice obliges us to give them the stipulated wages when they have faithfully performed the promised service.
4. With respect to all servants, equity requires that we treat them with humanity and kindness, and contribute all proper assistance to render them useful, virtuous, and happy.—Lathrop.
Eph_6:6-8.—Christian Servitude.—
1. To propose to ourselves the pleasing of men as our great design is inconsistent with the work of grace in the heart and with that subjection we owe to Christ. The meanest service is service done to Christ, and will be accepted by Him as such. 2. So ingrate is man, and so slow to reward those from whom he receives favour, that a man can never heartily do service to the most of men, except he look to God, whom to serve in the meanest employment is a reward in itself.
3. The Lord in dispensing rewards looks not to the external beauty, splendour, or greatness of the work, but to the honesty and sincerity of it.—Fergusson.
Eph_6:9. Masters accountable to God.—
1. There is no power among men so absolute—not that of kings and supreme rulers—but implies an obligation, through virtue of God’s ordinance, on those invested with it to make conscience of duties towards their inferiors and subjects.
2. As it is usual for powers on earth sinfully to oversee and not to punish the cruel and unjust dealings of masters towards servants, so those sins most connived at by men are most severely taken notice of by God.
3. It is too ordinary for men in place and authority to carry themselves as if they had none above them to be accountable to, or to dream that the Lord will not take such strict account of them as of their underlings and servants.—Ibid.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v5 5-9. This paragraph beautifully expounds the relation between the…
5-9. This paragraph beautifully expounds the relation between the master and slave; as servant here is doulos, which always means a slave, as oiketees is the word for hired servants. Slavery was common in all nations in Paul’s day. The gospel is not a political, but a spiritual power. Hence, while it provides sanctifying grace competent to superinduce perfect harmony, love, peace, brotherhood, and charity between the master and servant, so as to make their home a little heaven, yet it lays deep in the heart of both those sanctified principles which will, in due time, utterly and eternally undermine and abolish the institution of human slavery. My great-grandfather, when converted under the preaching of Bishop Asbury in old Virginia, owned thirty Negro slaves. On arrival at his home, he called them all into his house, told them his experience, fell on his knees, and prayed for them, got up, and bade them a loving adieu, exhorting them to meet him in heaven, saying, “Go now whither you will, you are as free as I am.” Though we always lived in a slave State, that was the finale of slavery in our family.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v5 5. Exhortations to Servants and Masters
5. Exhortations to Servants and Masters
CHAPTER 6:5-9
Read full note →
The servants exhorted were slaves. Slavery existed throughout the Roman Empire at that time. Nowhere is slavery attacked in the New Testament, nor is there a statement telling believers that it was a sin to own slaves and incompatible with the gospel. Paul wrote a courteous letter to Philemon and sent it by Onesimus, the runaway slave, who probably had stolen money from Philemon, his master. The gospel is not here to reform the world, to meddle with social conditions and politics.
The slaves here exhorted were Christians. They all belonged to the one body where there is neither Greek nor Jew, bond nor free. They were in Christ, saved by grace and seated in Christ in the heavenly places. What did it matter if they were but slaves! Did not God’s well beloved Son walk on this earth as a servant, yea, the servant of all! In all their bonds they were the servants of Christ. Their service was to be rendered as unto the Lord and not unto men. The Lord would give them their reward. How happy these believing slaves must have been! And the Christian masters were to remember the one Master in heaven, with whom there is no respect of persons.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v5 The duties of servants and masters:
The duties of servants and masters:
v. 5. Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your he art, as unto Christ;
Read full note →
v. 6. not with eye service, as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the he art;
v. 7. with good will doing service as to the Lord, and not to men;
v. 8. knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.
v. 9. And ye masters, do the same things unto them, for bearing threatening, knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with Him.
This admonition is not confined to domestic slaves and their masters, but includes all relations of subordination. Owing to the conditions of his time, of course, St. Paul addresses himself especially to the servants in bondage: Servants, obey those who, according to the flesh, are your masters. Obedience to their earthly, bodily masters was the duty of slaves. Whether Christian slaves had a heathen or a Christian master, their submission was demanded with equal force, Col 3:22-25; Col 4:1; 1Pe 2:18-25. The institution of slavery is not intrinsically wrong, the Christian abolitionist, therefore, holding his ground on the basis of social and economic reasons only. The obedience of the servants was to be rendered: With fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as to Christ. It was thus to be of such a nature as to shrink from the slightest neglect of duty; it was to be concerned strictly and entirely with the one aim of performing every service satisfactorily, whether or not a special reward would be forthcoming; it was to be performed in the consciousness that, in the final analysis, it was done to Christ. Solicitous zeal, absence of all pretense and insincerity, and the feeling of serving Christ: these factors characterize true service.
The apostle explains his meaning more fully: Not in the way of eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. It may have been the custom then, as it is a common practice now, that servants seek only to gain the approval of their masters so long as they are under the eyes of the masters, and that their obedience extends only as far as the eyes of the masters reach. Christian servants and workmen, on the other hand, look upon themselves as the servants of Christ in their own station, for which reason they attempt to fulfill the will of God in the work which they are performing for their masters. They are fully aware that the omniscient eye of God sees all the hidden things, and they thus do the will of God from their heart, with all sincerity and faithfulness, doing service with good will as to the Lord and not to men. They do not consider their station in life as a burden which may be borne only with groaning, but their attitude toward their work and toward their master indicates that they wish their master well in his enterprises, and desire to render him all the assistance in their power. Thus they bring out in their whole life the conviction of their hearts that they are performing their service, their work, to the Lord Himself, and not merely to men. This attitude influences and controls their entire outlook upon life, making careless, shabby work on their part impossible and excluding the thought of boycotts and strikes, so far as they personally are concerned. And finally: Knowing that each one, if he does anything good, this he will receive of the Lord, whether slave or free. Christian servants and workmen, at the present time no longer in slavery, but all of them free, know that the Lord keeps the record of their work, and that His reward will come in time. They may not receive the recognition to which their faithful service entitles them here in time, but the Lord knows what every single one has done, in love and obedience to Him. And the day is coming when they will receive the reward of grace from the hands of their heavenly Father; they will be given credit in the values of eternity for the work done here in time.
But the masters are not excluded from the exhortation: And you masters, do the same things toward them, omitting threatening, knowing that their Lord and pours is in heaven, and respect of persons is not with Him. The same thing, the same good will, should be shown by the masters as that enjoined upon the servants, for they also have duties to their subordinates; it is a condition of mutual give and take. For one thing, the masters should not attempt to maintain discipline through the terror of threats. In singling out this one instance of bad feeling on the part of a master, St. Paul includes every form of harshness, all habitual browbeating. For after all, God above is the Master of both the servants and the human masters, and His throne is in the heaven above, and not merely on earth. Before this mighty Lord all men are alike, He shows special favor to none; He will judge the masters as well as the servants, the employers as well as the employees. If this section would only be heeded more generally in the world, there would be no difficulty between labor and capital, for all such questions as now agitate men’s minds are answered here completely. Both parties considering their work as a service to Christ and God, they will exercise humility and kindness at all times.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v5 be obedient to
be obedient to
"obey." This is a command.
Read full note →
deep respect and trembling
The phrase "deep respect and trembling" uses two similar ideas to emphasize the importance of honoring their masters. (See: Doublet and Idiom)
and trembling
Here "trembling" is an exaggeration used to emphasize how important it is that slaves obey their masters. AT: "and fear" or "as though you were shaking with fear" (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)
in the honesty of your heart
Here "heart" is a metonym for a person's mind or intentions. AT: "with honesty" or "with sincerity" (See: Metonymy)
as slaves of Christ
Serve your earthly master as though your earthly master were Christ himself.
from your heart
Here "heart" is a metonym for "thoughts" or "intentions." AT: "with sincerity" or "enthusiastically" (See: Metonymy)
Serve with all your heart
Here "heart" is a metonym for "thoughts" or "inner being." AT: "Serve with all of your being" or "Be completely dedicated when you serve" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
servant
obey
lord
heart
Christ
will of God
lord
works
reward
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv5–6 6:5-9 The relationship between slaves and masters (and, by…
6:5-9 The relationship between slaves and masters (and, by analogy, between employees and employers) is to be shaped by their commitment to the Lord and their desire to build one another up in Christ. Christian slaves are to obey their masters, and Christian masters are to treat their slaves kindly (see Col 3:22–4:1). • Paul was not promoting slavery but teaching Christians how to live in it as a fact of life in that culture (for Paul’s treatment of slavery, see Philemon Book Introduction, “Meaning and Message”).
6:5 Obedient service to earthly masters expresses a Christian slave’s service to Christ (see Col 3:22-23; 1 Tim 6:1-2; Titus 2:9-10; 1 Pet 2:18-23).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.