Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Ephesians · About this commentary
Servants and Masters
Ephesians 6:5-9
5 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, · WEB
Slaves are given five verses of dignity and masters one sentence of warning, and both are told the same thing about who is watching.
Slaves are addressed directly, as members of the congregation capable of a decision. The other letters that treat the subject show the same courtesy Colossians 3:22 1 Peter 2:18. And the qualifier is exact: masters according to the flesh. The phrase concedes the authority and bounds it at once.
What is asked is singleness of heart, as to Christ. Verse 6 names what it is not — not in the way of service only when eyes are on you, as men pleasers. The Greek is a single compound for eye-service: work calibrated to whether it is being observed.
Against that the letter redescribes the work itself. As servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. And as to the Lord and not to men. The labor does not change. The person it is rendered to does.
Verse 8 gives the ground, and it answers the injustice the letter has just conceded: whatever good thing each one does, he will receive the same good again from the Lord, whether he is bound or free. The accounting is the same for both classes, which is precisely what the earthly arrangement was not.
Then verse 9, and the masters get one verse to the slaves' five. Do the same things to them — the same singleness, the same service as to the Lord — and give up threatening. The word describes the standing menace that made the whole system work, and it is simply withdrawn.
The reason closes both halves together: he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with him.
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