Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Timothy · About this commentary
Servants Under a Yoke
1 Timothy 6:1-2
1 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 blasphemed. · WEB
The instruction is given to the party with no power, and the reason offered is about the reputation of a name rather than the justice of an arrangement.
The address is to slaves, and the letter speaks to them directly as members of the congregation capable of a decision — the same courtesy shown in the other letters that treat the subject Colossians 3:22 1 Peter 2:18.
The phrase under a yoke is the letter's own, and it is not a neutral description. It concedes the weight before asking anything.
What is asked is that they regard their masters as worthy of full honor, and the reason given is stated in terms of consequence rather than justice: so that the name of God and the doctrine may not be blasphemed. The letter is not arguing that the arrangement is right. It is saying what a watching society will conclude about the message if believing slaves are known for insolence.
Verse 2 addresses the harder case, and it is the more interesting of the two. Where the master is himself a believer, the temptation named is to despise him — to take the shared faith as a reason to serve less, since the two are now brothers.
The letter refuses that, and its counter is worth reading closely: serve them all the better, because those who benefit from the service are believing and beloved. The gospel is not permitted to become a reason for worse work.
What the letter does not do here is address the master, as it does elsewhere Colossians 4:1 Philemon 1:16. This is a letter to a young overseer about congregational order, and the party in front of it is the one in the pew.
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