Slaves
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.
Slaves require a major section in Paul’s table of duties— second only to husbands. That may be because numerically slaves comprised a significant portion of the Ephesian congregation. Certainly in the Greco-Roman world, permeated as it was with slavery, slaves were an important sociological and economic factor.
It’s important to note that Paul does not make it his or the church’s platform to abolish slavery. That does not mean Paul put his stamp of approval on it. In Philemon, a letter that may have accompanied our letter to the Ephesians, Paul also addressed the slavery question. There, you may recall, Paul put in a good word for the runaway slave Onesimus, who was returning to his master. Paul not only strongly urged kind treatment for Onesimus but also hinted that his owner, Philemon, might consider releasing him (Philemon 21).
Abolishing slavery, however, is not part of Paul’s agenda. Far from it. Paul rather urges Christian slaves to be good slaves.
However, a couple factors make slavery more tolerable.
First, Paul notes that slaves are serving “earthly masters.” Slavery is a temporary situation, only for this world. Furthermore, it’s not an indication of a slave’s personal value, worth, or status before God. It makes no difference to God whether a person is “slave or free” (verse 8; see also Galatians 3:28).
The unity in the church that has been able to bring together Jew and Gentile also equalizes slave and free.
That doesn’t mean slavery will always be easy or comfortable. In urging the Ephesian slaves to obey their masters, Paul acknowledges that they may well be doing it “with respect and fear” (literally, with fear and trembling), so it’s safe to say some anxiety may be involved. Hence Paul views slavery as a cross, but one to be borne with Christian fortitude and ready acceptance.
In urging a God-pleasing course of action for the trying situation in which slaves find themselves, Paul sounds one negative and encourages with three positives.
Initially he cautions them against obeying their masters “only to win their favor when their eye is on [them].” That would be totally self-serving and unacceptable. Rather, they are to let their new man respond and obey their masters “just as [they] would obey Christ.”
That total obedience is expected becomes clear from the threefold encouragement to serve their masters heartily. Paul tells them to serve “with sincerity of heart,” “doing the will of God from [their] heart,” so that they “serve wholeheartedly.”
How are they to bring themselves to do that? Paul answers, “Because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.”
It is absolutely essential to keep in mind that Paul is writing these words to Christian slaves. These words are not directed to unregenerate people, suggesting that they can improve their status before God by good service to masters or that they can put themselves into a position where God owes them a reward. No, Paul is talking about their conscientious service as a fruit of faith, done as if they were “serving the Lord, not men.”
Paul’s way of expressing that truth is nothing other than what our Savior himself said when he described judgment day as a division between the sheep and the goats. The basis for that division will be the presence or absence of saving faith, as demonstrated by the presence of good deeds or the lack of them. In effect Paul is saying, “Everything will be properly sorted out on judgment day.” That is an encouragement to slaves, just as it serves as a warning to masters who may be inclined to mistreat their slaves.
Masters
9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.
When Paul here writes to “masters,” he is addressing Ephesian slave owners who are Christian. His intent is not to indict them for having slaves but rather to encourage Christian conduct toward slaves—the more so if their slaves are fellow Christians (think again of Philemon).
Paul urges masters to conduct themselves “in the same way.” That parallel carries us back into the section addressed to slaves. As slaves were to lead thoroughly Christian lives as they fulfilled their duties, so masters too were to be guided by Christian principles.
Such Christian principles rule out the threats by masters that no doubt were often a contributing factor to the fear we heard about on the part of slaves. Masters are not to terrorize their slaves. To make his point Paul utilizes a play on words involving the term “lord,” or “master.” He says in effect: “Be careful in your conduct. Even though you are a master over your slaves, don’t forget that there is in heaven someone who is your Master as well as theirs—and he doesn’t play favorites.”
Even the Christian retains an old Adam who needs tobe restrained by God’s law. Such restraint is what this short but sharp section is intended to provide for Ephesian slave owners. The real improvement, however, has to come from a heart that appreciates what the Master in heaven has done in sending his Son. Where that Master controls the slaves’ master, there will be no mistreatment of slaves.
In this way Christianity rendered tolerable what was basically a worldly institution all too open to abuse.
It will be evident that much of what Paul says in these last two sections transfers directly to the employer-employee relationships in today’s workplace.