Ephesians 6:6 · Passage · Diligence
Doing the Will of God from Your Heart
Paul asks Christian slaves to serve their earthly masters as they would serve Christ, and he sets their masters under the same Lord.
Paul gave the slaves four verses of his household code and their masters one.
And do this not only to please them while they are watching, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.
- The passage
- Ephesians 6:5 to 8
- Book
- Ephesians
- Hold in memory
- Ephesians 6:7
Summary
Ephesians 6:5 to 8 asks Christian slaves for obedience with sincerity of heart and for good will toward their work, and Ephesians 6:9 tells their masters to give up their threats. Paul writes to the slaves as believers who can please God in work they did not choose. Diligence here begins in the heart before it reaches the hands.
- Paul gives slaves commands and a promise of their own.
- Service given only to please a watching master is set against service done from the heart as servants of Christ.
- The Lord, and no earthly master, is the One who repays faithful work.
Where the Passage Stands in Ephesians
The passage is the fifth charge of a household code that runs from Ephesians 5:22 to 6:9.
Diligence is the steady, willing effort Scripture asks of God's people in the work they are given, and Ephesians 6:5 to 8 asks it of the people who had the least choice about their work. Paul wrote these lines to slaves among the believers who read the letter, and he followed them with one line to their masters.
This study asks what Paul required of a slave's work, on what ground he required it, what he told the masters, and how the passage bears on slavery itself.
The letter is addressed “To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 1:1). Its household code begins, “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:22), and turns to children and fathers in Ephesians 6:1 to 4 before it reaches slaves and masters.
Paul gives the same charge to slaves in Colossians 3:22 to 25, whose central line begins “Whatever you do”.
The Passage in Its Order
The passage moves from obedience and good will to the reward, and then to the masters.
The ladder runs from obedience to the reward and ends with the masters' own Master.
A ladder of five rungs with the Berean words of each verse.
Verses 5 to 9, the Charge and Its Ground
Each charge to the slaves is measured by the service owed to the Lord.
Paul measures the slave's obedience by the obedience owed to Christ, so the master on earth is served for the sake of the Master in heaven.
Good will in Ephesians 6:7 names the manner of the work, and the promise of Ephesians 6:8 names its ground. In Ephesians 6:9 Paul turns from the slaves to those who own them and holds both to one standard.
Brotherhood and Freedom in Paul's Other Letters
Paul's letters to Philemon and to Corinth speak to a slave's brotherhood and to his freedom.
The Old Testament Behind the Charge
A wisdom saying and a story of Genesis stand behind Paul's charge.
Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, for in Sheol, where you are going, there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.Paul's charge shares the Teacher's call to whole effort and gives it a new ground in the Lord.
Joseph was a slave in Egypt when “the LORD was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, serving in the household of his Egyptian master” (Genesis 39:2). Potiphar “put him in charge of his household and entrusted him with everything he owned” (Genesis 39:4).
Voices on the Passage
Two readers of the passage, each under the line he teaches.
died 407 · John Chrysostom
Homily on Ephesians 22
The quotation1 quotation
“Thus then it is not husband only, nor wife, nor children, but virtuous servants also that contribute to the organization and protection of a house. Therefore the blessed Paul has not overlooked this department even. He comes to it, however, in the last place, because it is last in dignity and rank. Still he addresses much discourse also to them, no longer in the same tone as to children, but in a far more advanced way, inasmuch as he does not hold out to these the promise in this world, but in that which is to come. ‘Knowing,’ saith he, ‘that whatsoever good or evil thing each one doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord,’ and thus at once instructs them to love wisdom. For though they be inferior to the children in dignity, still in mind they are superior to them.”
John Chrysostom · Homily on Ephesians 22 · on Ephesians 6:5 to 8Patristic
died 1107 · Theophylact of Ohrid
Commentary on Ephesians
Theophylact read work from the soul as work done with all strength and readiness.
The quotation1 quotation
“For it is possible to serve in simplicity of heart and sincerely, but not with all one's strength, fulfilling only some particular task; therefore he now adds: ‘from the soul,’ that is, with all strength and readiness; even ‘with zeal,’ that is, with complete devotion …”
Theophylact of Ohrid · Commentary on Ephesians · on Ephesians 6:7Patristic
The Passage and Slavery
Two readings answer what the passage says to slavery itself, each with its holder and the objection raised against it.
The passage governs the believer's conduct inside slavery, and freedom is taken when it can be had.Albert Barnes, Notes on Ephesians 6:7
Albert Barnes wrote on Ephesians 6:7 that the slave “should regard his lot in life as having been ordered by Divine Providence for some wise and good purpose”. He was to serve faithfully “until he may be permitted to enjoy his liberty in a quiet and peaceable manner”, and Barnes pointed his reader to 1 Corinthians 7:21.
Against this reading, verse 9 gives the masters no command to free their slaves.
Slave and master are distinctions of this present life only.Theodoret of Cyrus, Interpretation of the Epistle to the Ephesians
Theodoret of Cyrus wrote on Ephesians 6:8 that “slavery and mastery are categories that are confined to this present life”. In the life to come, he said, nothing will rest on social status “but on virtue and vice”.
Against this reading, verses 5 to 7 govern the slave's work in the present life.
Service from the Heart
Paul's letter to Titus names one more reason for faithful work.
Slaves are to submit to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not stealing from them, but showing all good faith, so that in every respect they will adorn the teaching about God our Savior.The verse adds the honor of the gospel to the reasons Paul gives in Ephesians.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- John Chrysostom, Homilies on Ephesians, homily 22, on Ephesians 6:5 to 8.
- Theodoret of Cyrus, Interpretation of the Epistle to the Ephesians, on Ephesians 6:8, in a modern English translation.
- Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Ephesians, on Ephesians 6:7, in a modern English translation.
- Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on Ephesians 6:7.
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