Colossians 3:22

Servants Bondservants, slaves. Cp. Ephesians 6:5-8; and see 1 Corinthians 7:21-22; 1 Timothy 6:1-2; Titus 2:9-10; Philemon; 1 Peter 2:18-25; and cp. Luke 17:7-10. On the relation of the Gospel to slavery, see below, Introd. to the Ep. to Philemon, ch. 4.

in allthings] See above, on Colossians 3:20.

according to the flesh With the implied thought that the master was not master of his bondman's spirit, and that master and bondman alike were bondmen, spiritually, of Christ. So Ephesians 6:5, where this clause is somewhat enlarged. The "neither bond nor free" of v. Colossians 3:11 above leaves thus undisturbed the actual duties of social status.

eyeservice Ephesians 6:6. The word occurs there and here only, and was perhaps coined by St Paul. It means the "service" which works only when inspected, and does not come from the unseen source of love and goodwill.

menpleasers Seeking merely the personal comfort of approval or indulgence, in a purely selfish and therefore insincere "pleasing." Such obsequiousness might conceal deep contempt or malice all the while. See note on Ephesians 6:6.

singleness Lit., simplicity; the desire to do right for its own sake, or rather for the sake of the heavenly (and also the earthly) Master; as against the selfish aim of the "men-pleaser." See 1 Timothy 6:2 for a practical comment. The phrase is verbatim as in Ephesians 6:5, where see our note. And see the last words of Ephesians 6:6; "doing the will of God from the soul."

fearing God Read, fearing the Lord Christ, the true Master, with the fear of reverent loyalty. The word "fear" is used in Scripture of holy and perfectly happy reverence too often to need quotation.