Ephesians 6:1–9

February 1st, 2022| Topic: aBeLOG, Ephesians | 0

Children obey their parents and parents gently instruct their children, and slaves obey their masters with sincerity and masters treat their slaves likewise as they both serve God—all furthering unity and promising reward.

The theme of submission in this text is the extension of the fifth verb (participle)—“submitting”—that qualifies “filling by the Spirit” (Eph 5:18). We see instructions to those in authority (parents, employers) and to those under authority (children, employees).

The sense of 6:1 is that to obey one’s parents is tantamount to obeying God. Obedience is part of spiritual formation and discipleship to God, a mark of a follower of Christ, and not simply a response to authority. The retention of “on the earth” in 6:3 from the Decalogue indicates that blessing for obedience occurs in this life.

The Greek word for “father” can include both parents. It is quite countercultural that Paul sanctions no absolute authority in the hands of parents. They are asked to treat their wards with utmost care and concern. Provocation of their children to anger is proscribed; instead, parents are to “bring up” their children in the “discipline and instruction of the Lord” (6:4). Parents, surrogates for God the Father—God is, after all, the ultimate Father (3:14–15; 4:6)—care for their children as God does for his.

It is important to note is that first century Greco-Roman slavery was very different from modern-day slavery that has existed, and continues to exist, since the fifteenth century. Slaves in Paul’s time could own property and run their own businesses: some even found openings as musicians, medical advisers, educators, stewards, and companions of the elderly. Their owners often hired them out to work for others and these slaves were paid for their work. Some slaves even had their own slaves. Besides, slaves could change of legal status from enslavement into liberty was quite easy to accomplish: there were many ways in which slaves could be released. That, of course, is quite unlike modern f slavery in many parts of the world. All that is not to say that the ancient institution was totally good and needed no change. But on the whole, the closest analogy to this ancient situation in modern times is the employer–employee relationship.

There is a consistent focus on serving in the next section: “eye-service” and “slaves” (6:6); “serving” (6:7); and “slave” (6:8)—all from the same Greek root, “to serve.” But ultimately it was not their earthly masters being “served,” but Christ, the heavenly Master (6:9). The comparisons in 6:5–7, using “as,” show how slaves are to behave towards their masters in light of their acknowledgement of Christ as Lord: “as to Christ” (6:5); “not … as people-pleasers” (6:6a); “as slaves of Christ” (6:6b); and “as to the Lord” (6:7). “Sincerity of your heart” (6:5) qualifies the attitude of “fear and trembling”: it denotes purity of motive and singleness of purpose. And by expressing such an attitude they would get their reward “from the Lord” (6:6–8).

Employers are, in turn, exhorted to “do the same things” to their employees, expecting similar rewards from an impartial judge (6:9). Paul treats motivation for future rewards as incentive for present behavior for both groups (6:8–9). That Christ, the Lord, is the true “Master” (6:6–9) is a reminder that earthly masters, themselves, are slaves, too, fellow-slaves with their own slaves of the same Master in heaven. Paul’s advice to believing slave masters thus subtly undermines the whole system of slaveholding. Slave-owning believers are, in a sense, to submit to their slaves (5:21), serving their slaves in the same way they desire their slaves to serve them. The threat of violence is impossible in such an arrangement, and without the threat of violence, the abuses of slavery disappear, breaking down the whole system.

This, too, is part of God’s Grand Plan to consummate all things in Christ!

[For more details, see my Ephesians commentary.]