Ephesians 6:5

Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; SERVANTS - literally, 'slaves.' MASTERS ACCORDING TO THE FLESH - in contrast to your heavenly Master (Ephesians 6:4). A consolatory hint that the mastership to which they were subject was but for a time (Chrysostom): their real liberty was still their own (1 Corinthians 7:22). FEAR AND TREMBLING - not slavish terror, but (1 Corinthians 2:3, note; 2 Corinthians 7:15...

5._Servants, be obedient. _His exhortation to servants is so much the more earnest, on account of the hardship and bitterness of their condition, which renders it more difficult to be endured. And he does not speak merely of outward obedience, but says more about _fear _willingly rendered; for it is a very rare occurrence to find one who willingly yields himself to the control of another. The _servants _( δοῦλοι) whom he immediately addresses were not hired servants, like those of the present day, but _slaves, _such as were in ancient times, whose _slavery _was perpetual, unless, through the favor of their masters, they obtained freedom, — whom their masters bought with money, that they might impose upon them the most degrading employments, and might, with the full protection of the law, exercise over them the power of life and death. To such he says, _obey your masters, _lest they sho

5-9 The duty of servants is summed up in one word, obedience. The servants of old were generally slaves. The apostles were to teach servants and masters their duties, in doing which evils would be lessened, till slavery should be rooted out by the influence of Christianity. Servants are to reverence those over them. They are to be sincere; not pretending obedience when they mean to disobey, but serving faithfully. And they must serve their masters not only when their master's eye is upon them; but must be strict in the discharge of their duty, when he is absent and out of the way. Steady regard to the Lord Jesus Christ will make men faithful and sincere in every station, not grudgingly or by constraint, but from a principle of love to the masters and their concerns. This makes service easy to them, pleasing to their masters, and acceptable to the Lord Christ. God will reward even the me...

Verse Ephesians 6:5. _SERVANTS, BE OBEDIENT_] Though δουλος frequently signifies a _slave_ or _bondman_, yet it often implies a _servant_ in general, or any one bound to another, either for a limited time, or for life. Even a _slave_, if a Christian, was bound to serve him faithfully by whose money he was bought, howsoever illegal that traffic may be considered. In heathen countries slavery was in some sort excusable; among Christians it is an enormity and a crime for which perdition has scarcely an adequate state of punishment. _ACCORDING TO THE FLESH_] Your masters in secular things; for they have no authority over your religion, nor over your souls. _WITH FEAR AND TREMBLING_] Because the law gives them a power to punish you for every act of disobedience. In singleness of your h

SERVANTS - οἵ δοῦλοι hoi douloi. The word used here denotes one who is bound to render service to another, whether that service be free or voluntary, and may denote, therefore, either a slave, or one who binds himself to render service to another. It is often used in these senses in the New Testament, just as it is elsewhere. It cannot be demonstrated that the word here necessarily means “slaves;” though, if slavery existed among those to whom this Epistle was written - as there can be little doubt that it did - it is a word which would apply to those in this condition; compare notes on 1 Corinthians 7:21; Galatians 3:28, note. On the general subject of slavery, and the Scripture doctrine in regard to it; s

EXPOSITION EPHESIANS 6:1 CHILDREN, OBEY YOUR PARENTS IN THE LORD: FOR THIS IS RIGHT. The first duty of children is obedience, and "in the Lord," _i.e. _in Christ, this duty is confirmed. The ἐν Κυρίῳ qualifies, not "parents," but "obey," and indicates that the element or life which even children lead in fellowship with Christ makes such obedience more easy and more graceful. The duty itself rests on the first principles of morality—"for this is right." It is an obligation that rests on the very nature of things, and cannot change with the spirit of the age; it is in no degree modified by what is called the spirit of independence in children. EPHESIANS 6:2 Honor thy father and mother (which is the first c

SERVANTS, BE OBEDIENT TO THEM THAT ARE [YOUR] MASTERS,.... The apostle enlarges on the duty of servants, as well as frequently inculcates it in his epistles; because, generally speaking, they were more rude and ignorant, and less pains were taken with them to instruct them; they were apt to be impatient and weary of the yoke; and scandal was like to arise from servants in the first ages of Christianity through some libertines, and the licentiousness of the false teachers, who insinuated, that servitude was inconsistent with Christian freedom: the persons exhorted are "servants", bond servants, and hired servants; who are to be subject to, and obey their "masters", of each sex, whether male or female, of every condition, whether poor or rich, believers or unbelievers, good or bad humoured, gentle or froward: such as are their masters ACCORDING TO THE FLESH; or "carnal masters", as the Vu...

Ephesians 6:1. _Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right._ Fitting by nature, and pleasing in the sight of God. Ephesians 6:2. _Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise: That it may be, well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of tire Lord._ For the duties are like birds with two wings, or like a pair of scales, balance for each side. There is the child's duty, but there is the parent's duty too. Ephesians 6:5. Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear an

5. EXHORTATIONS TO SERVANTS AND MASTERS CHAPTER 6:5-9 The servants exhorted were slaves. Slavery existed throughout the Roman Empire at that time. Nowhere is slavery attacked in the New Testament, nor is there a statement telling believers that it was a sin to own slaves and incompatible with the gospel. Paul wrote a courteous letter to Philemon and sent it by Onesimus, the runaway slave, who probably had stolen money from Philemon, his master. The gospel is not here to reform the world, to meddle with social conditions and politics. The slaves here exhorted were Christians. They all belonged to the one body where there is neither Greek nor Jew, bond nor free. They were in Christ, saved by grace and seated in Christ in the heavenly places. What did it matter if they were but slaves! Did not God's well beloved Son walk on this earth as a servant, yea, the servant of all! In all their bo...

EPHESIANS 5:22 TO EPHESIANS 6:9. SUBORDINATION IN THE FEAR OF CHRIST. The principle is illustrated by the relation (_a)_ of wives to husbands, (_b)_ of children to parents, (_c_) of slaves to masters. The writer does not attack existing social institutions slavery, the _patria potestas,_ the dependent position of women. He accepts the relationships as they exist in the world he knows, and seeks to interpret them in the light of the gospel (p. 649). If he enforces upon wives, children, and slaves, the duty of subordination, he insists also upon the corresponding obligations of conjugal love and protection, parental nurture and admonition, kind treatment and forbearance towards slaves. All these relationships are now relationships in the Lord. That of husband and wife in particular is g