Ephesians 6:5-9
Devotions for Saturday 19th July
This is the last piece of Paul’s advice about attitudes within the social framework of his own day. Just as in the letter of 1 Peter (2:18f.), Paul’s advice has been addressed to husbands, wives and servants (slaves), though Paul has added children (6:1-3). It is obvious therefore that both these great servants and apostles of the Lord regarded the home and the place of work to be the foremost places of Christian witness, and where attitudes and behaviour demonstrated the truth of a person’s beliefs. With great care and sensitivity, both Peter and Paul trod a careful path to say that for a Christian, all private and personal relationships should reflect the Lord, whether in submission (5:21,22,), service (5:25), discipline (6:4) or even in matters of person presentation (5:28-31).
It is important to realise this because unless we do, we become diverted from the meaning of scripture by our concerns about slavery and service. We could easily discuss whether or not it was right for a Christian household to employ servants or slaves and whether a Christian who was a slave should seek release in order to express the liberty of Christ Jesus in baptism, for example. As we have already found out in Ephesians, Paul was not interested in attempting to take on the Roman Empire and bring it down under the superior authority of Christ; he believed that the Gospel started ‘at home’ and what happened to the authorities of the world was a matter for the Lord. If we were to ask Paul, I am almost certain that he would tell us that the Lord would return shortly and any attempt to try to change the moral landscape of the Roman Empire was irrelevant. He believed that the witness of individual Christians was to win souls for the Kingdom so that as many as possible were saved before the day of reckoning.
This alone explains the form of Paul’s teaching about slaves. He told those in various forms of household service to remain loyal and to work as if working for the Lord and not an earthly master (6:5). He then emphasised this by making the stricter demand that work be done with utter dedication to God, whatever it was (6:7). It is hard for us to imagine the menial and tiresome work which had to be done by household slaves and servants in those days. Sanitary conditions were far from what we now experience, yet those who lived in luxury demanded that their servants and slaves maintained a clean house in every way. For some, Paul’s word meant that they had to deal with the manual disposal of sewerage as if in so doing they served the one true God of heaven. We should have no doubt that this is exactly what Paul means in verses 6 and 7; such work should be done without fuss, and with no attempt to win favours. This purity of service was what the Lord required at every level so that the witness of the Gospel was not compromised.
Equally, masters of households had a duty to act in the same utterly impartial manner towards those under their care and service. For Paul, impartiality was not a matter of equality in work and status, but equality in honesty and the treatment of all. If a master acted with the attitudes demanded by Paul in this scripture (6:9), then he would necessarily treat his servants and slaves as human beings and with decency, under all circumstances.
We might say that Paul was foolish to imagine that his advice could and would be taken. Where in all the Roman Empire was the perfect household in which everyone behaved with such honesty and perfect godliness? The answer is nowhere. However, Paul was right to set before God’s people the highest standards of social and family behaviour, so that the Gospel always had the opportunity to flourish on the basis of the good behaviour, respect and testimony of Christian people standing out from the more debased world of the Roman Empire, in every area of life.
It does not take too much to observe that the same call is of crucial importance to the Gospel in today’s world. The highest morality and standards of service need to be shown within the world of work and the home. New expressions of worship and revivals in various parts of the world will only ever have a small part to play in God’s strategy for the proclamation of the Gospel. His strategy, as Paul examples here so well, begins with Christian people being good and worthy people in the home and in our place of work. Our living the life of obedience in the Kingdom of God is what counts when the Gospel is proclaimed, because having heard the Gospel proclaimed, most people judge Christian faith by what they see of individual Christians wherever they find them; and that could be you or me.
5 Slaves, be obedient to your earthly masters with fear and trembling; obey with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not as people-pleasers by way of trying to impress, but as servants of Christ and doing God’s will from the heart. 7 Do your service with good will as if to the Lord and not to people, 8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive this back from the Lord, whether a slave or free. 9 Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that the one who is both their Lord and yours is in heaven, and he shows no favouritism.
To read the questions and discipleship challenges for this text: go to the discipleship page
Throughout this day, Lord God, we ask for strength to face every difficult decision, every troublesome situation and every awkward moment, with the wisdom, courage and perseverance that You alone can give. More than this, Lord God, we ask that we might rise above our trials by the power of Your Spirit, and be victorious through mercy and love. Through Jesus Christ we pray; AMEN
Weekly Theme: World Politics
Pray for your own country and its political leaders. Pray also for those responsible for supporting the government and enabling it to function; civil servants and other staff.
On-going prayers
- Give thanks for security in your home
- Pray for people everywhere who are searching to find faith
- Pray for those whose lives are threatened by bad weather
© All text and pictures on this page copyright Paul H Ashby 2008 - all rights reserved
What do you gain by reading?
Some insight, some stimulation?
and a chance to draw aside from other things?
You can read magazines or daily papers,
And have the cultural gossip of your day, spoon-fed,
In the guise of news about what’s happening in the world.
You can read a novel, or perhaps biography,
To challenge and extend your mind, and be manipulated
In your emotions by the skills of those who happen to write.
You can read God’s Word, the scriptures,
To open up your mind, heart and spirit to deeper things,
The inspiration, revelation, and power of God for life.
Read widely, but make a careful choice.
All can feed the mind or inspire feelings, but with what?
Only one can feed the spirit with truth and give you value for life.