Ephesians 6:5-9--Bondservants and Masters

Ephesians 6:5-9
New American Standard Bible
​5 Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ; 6 not by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. 7 With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, 8 knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free.
9 And masters, do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.

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Another note about translations today.  You'll notice that I'm intentionally using the NASB today instead of the ESV.  There's a word in the text today that is translated as "servant" or "bondservant" in many English translations due to cultural sensitivity, but there is no more correct translation for this word than "slave."  The translators of the NASB intentionally translated this word as "slave" whenever it appeared to give an accurate word-for-word translation.

Try not to read into the passage what you think the word slave means--this is exactly the same word used by Jesus at the Lord's Supper when He washed the disciples' feet and told them whoever wanted to be the greatest among them must be a slave to all. (See Mark 10:44).  For those that would like to look the word up themselves it's Strong's number is G1401  (https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=G1401&t=NASB).  There is much confusion over this word because the translators of the KJV didn't like the word "slave" because of the connotation of the African slave trade and used the word "servant" or "bondservant" except in the cases where the person was a slave to something that was not a person or that was the only word that would fit the scenario at hand ("a slave to sin" or the demon-processed slave girl that told fortunes in Acts 16).  However, the word doulos in Greek means the lowest slave in the household--the one with no status or privilege and who gets the worst jobs assigned to them (like washing the feet of the guests as they come into the house).

The Christians Paul is talking to are probably in this position of slavery as a result of their sinful lives before Christ--most likely because they are indebted to the men who are their masters and they were unable to pay their debt to them.  In such a case, the master would be allowed to take possession of the man and his family and force them to work to pay off the debt or to sell them to another to pay off the debt and the man and his family would be indebted to the new master.  The big difference in Roman culture and what we see described in Exodus 21 is that God made a provision in Exodus for the debt to be forgiven after 7 years, but no such provision is made in Roman society, so there may be debts that were so large that people were born into slavery that they could never get out of through no fault of their own.  There was no system in the courts for the slave to say that his debt had been paid and that he should be set free, and it often became a caste system where if you were born to a slave, you were were a slave--once you lost your freedom (or one of your ancestors lost their freedom) it was nearly impossible to get it back, especially for someone in this category of the lowest of slaves.

Whatever the circumstances surrounding their slavery, Paul tells them to obey their earthly masters.  in the same way they would obey Christ--their Lord and Master.  The phrase "with fear and trembling" can mean fear of being punished, but it can also mean a holy awe and reverence.  The slaves were not simply to obey when their master's eye was on them, but they were to be good stewards of what had been entrusted to them and do their work as if it was unto the Lord--whose eyes were always on them, and they were to do so willingly from their heart.  They were to work as if they were working for the Lord and not for men, knowing that God would see everything and they would receive their reward in heaven for their obedience even if they never received a reward here on earth.

Paul then addresses those who have become Christians and are masters of slaves.  The masters are to remember that the slave and the free man are both slaves of Christ and they should treat their slaves well and stop abusing and mistreating them because they will answer to God for this.  We'll see later in the book of Philemon exactly how Paul deals with a situation where a slave ran away from his Christian master and became a Christian in the process, and Paul pleads for the slave, Onesimus, in his letter to the master, Philemon.

I know this passage doesn't sit right with many Christians today and they want to try to make it into something else like a relationship between employee and employer (and there is much that could be learned from these verses about such a relationship), but the meaning of the verses is much different for someone who is not in a voluntary relationship and can't get out of it.  Even in such a relationship, they were told to submit to the earthly authority they were under because all authority flows from God and it is Him you are serving.  Of course, Paul wouldn't instruct the Christians to do something immoral because their master told them to do it, but he would tell that if they were going to refuse a command like that to be willing to pay the consequences.  We see examples of Hebrew slaves that did this in the book of Daniel, chapter 3.

16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. 18 But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”  (Daniel 3:16-18).

Now would also probably be a good time to point you to Romans 13 to see that Paul also extended this teaching to "every governing authority," including the civil (pagan) governors and kings.  We may think we have it bad, but at the time Paul wrote those words to the church in Rome, Nero was the emperor of Rome and was burning Christians alive as torches for his parties, forcing them to engage in gladiatorial combat for the amusement of the people, and lining the streets with crosses with Christians on them to discourage anyone from converting to Christianity, and yet Paul tells the Roman and everyone else reading the letter to submit to such authorities because it is for God to establish and depose kings, and government was established by God and we honor God by honoring those He has put over us as long as their commands do not come in conflict with the higher law of God.


Acts 5:27-32
New American Standard Bible27 When they had brought them, they stood them before the Council. The high priest questioned them, 28 saying, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” 29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. 30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. 31 He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. 32 And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”