Colossians 3:22

Colossians 3:22. Servants, lit., ‘bondmen,' slaves. See Ephesians 6:5-6.

In all things. Peculiar to this passage. Here, as in Colossians 3:20, it states the general rule; the limitations arise from the modifications of the relation, but chiefly from the superior commands of God.

Hasten according to the flesh; in contrast with the higher Master; ‘Lord' representing the same Greek word.

Not with eyeservice, lit., ‘eyeservices.' In Ephesians, the singular points to the abstract spirit; the plural here, to the various manifestations of it. The word was coined by the Apostle to express the service which aims only to seem faithful.

As menpleasers. The motive must be a higher one than that of pleasing men. ‘Eyeservices' are the natural result of being ‘men-pleasers.'

But in singleness of heart. Duplicity is a vice engendered by slavery, but wherever one serves another for wages there is room for it. The Christian should render the service due another, with a desire to be, not merely to seem, faithful.

Fearing the Lord. (The reading, ‘God,' is poorly supported.) The same word is translated ‘master' in the beginning of the verse. Hence the thought is: your real Master (not ‘according to the flesh') is Christ; jour obedience is to be prompted, not by a desire to please men, but by a fear of the Lord Christ (Colossians 3:24). Too often employers have been expected to act in a Christian, benevolent spirit, while the employees forgot their true Lord.