Saturday, September 19, 2015



Ephesians 6:5-9
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.  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.  Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.  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.



Reflection

In this passage Paul continues giving examples of mutual submission.  It might be a bit of a stretch to see the relationship between a slave and a master as mutual submission but Paul is trying to at least bring a semblance of humanity into that kind of a relationship.
He tells slaves to obey their masters because they are not only slaves in an earthly sense but they are slaves of Christ as well.  So, they should obey their masters in the same way they would obey Christ.  Paul is instructing slaves who are also Christians to live as a follower of Jesus no matter what their lot in life.  Paul reminds the slaves that they well receive a reward from the Lord in heaven whether he is slave or free.

Then Paul addresses the Christian master.  He instructs masters to treat their slaves well.  He then reminds them that God is not going to treat them with favoritism over their slaves.  He goes on to explain that God is not going to make any distinction between slave and free.  Paul uses this argument to convince slave masters to treat their slaves as they would anyone else.

How could this teaching be applied to our lives in how we treat people who are our subordinates?  According to this passage how would Paul have us treat others over which we have authority?