CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Ephesians 6:5. Servants, be obedient.—R.V. margin, “bond-servants.” There was One who had “become obedient even unto death,” having taken “the form of a bond-servant” (Philippians 2:7). With fear and trembling.—“With that zeal which is ever keenly apprehensive of not doing enough” (Meyer). The same phrase is used of the way in which our personal salvation is to be worked out (Philippians 2:12).
Ephesians 6:6. Not with eyeservice.—A word used only by St. Paul. The thing it describes is easily recognised to-day.
Ephesians 6:7. With good will doing service.—If a philosopher-slave like Epictetus could rise superior to his condition, surely Christianity could do as much for the humblest believer.
Ephesians 6:8. Knowing that whatsoever good … bond or free.
“This is the famous stone
That turneth all to gold,
For that which God doth touch and own
Cannot for less be told.”
George Herbert.
Ephesians 6:9. Do the same things unto them.—The utmost application of the “golden rule.” Forbearing threatening “may either mean abating or giving up.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Ephesians 6:5-9
The Duties of Servants and Masters.
I. The duty of the servant to the master is to obey.—
1. This obedience is to be rendered with conscientious solicitude. “With fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart; … not with eyeservice, as menpleasers” (Ephesians 6:5-6). There must be a genuine care for our work. “Be obedient, with fear and trembling.” The fear enjoined is no dread of human displeasure, of the master’s whip or tongue. It is the same fear and trembling with which we are bidden to work out our own salvation (Philippians 2:12). The inward work of the soul’s salvation and the outward work of the busy hands labouring in the mine, or at the loom, or in the lowliest domestic duties—all alike are to be performed under a solemn responsibility to God and in the presence of Christ, the Lord of nature and of men. No man, whether he be a minister of state or a stable-groom, will dare to do heedless work who lives and acts in that august Presence. The sense of Christ’s Lordship ensures honesty in work. “Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers.” It is the common fault and temptation of servants in all degrees to observe the master’s eye, and to work busily or slackly as they are watched or not. Such workmen act as they do because they look to men and not to God. Their work is without conscience and self-respect. Let us all adopt St. Paul’s maxim; it will be an immense economy. What armies of overlookers and inspectors we shall be able to dismiss when every servant works as well behind his master’s back as to his face, when every manufacturer and shopkeeper puts himself in the purchaser’s place and deals as he would have others deal with him (Findlay).
2. This obedience should be cheerful and hearty as rendered unto a higher than an earthly master.—“As unto Christ; … doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men” (Ephesians 6:5-7). Obedience should be not only careful and honest, but hearty. The heart is the source of our greatest power. Nothing can be translated into an act that has not first been conceived and set in motion by the heart. As the stroke of the piston sets in motion the most complicated machinery and produces certain results, so the throb of the heart brings all our activities into play and gives direction and character to our work. The worth of our work as a whole will be decided by the heartiness we throw into every single duty. Workmanship counts for much. I have read of a chain, weighing two ounces, costing £170, being 163,000 times more than the value of the original bit of iron from which it was made. The work of the artist made all the difference; he put into it his best self, his heart, his genius. So in the works of the divine Creator. The symmetry, the beauty, the perfect balance and shining magnificence of the world are the result of the patient work and hearty enthusiasm with which the great Architect has put together and finished the most minute parts of the planet.
3. Genuine obedience is always rewarded.—“Whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:8). Even in this world conscientious work is not without reward. “In all labour there is profit. The diligent hand maketh rich.” A stationer settling a large account with a paper-manufacturer, said: “I owe all my success in business to you; but let me ask you how a man of your caution came to give credit so readily to a beginner of my slender means?” “Because,” said the paper-maker, “at whatever hour in the morning I passed to my business, I always observed you at yours with your coat off.” Work gives character, and is the pathway to success and wealth. But in the world to come, when servant and master stand before the bar of Christ, reward will be equitably meted out according to the work of each.
II. The duty of the master is to act towards his servant on the same principles as obedience to himself is regulated.—“And, ye masters, do the same things unto them” (Ephesians 6:9). The master is to put himself in the place of his servant, and act towards him as he would desire to be treated if their positions were reversed. It is a practical application of the great rule, “Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them”—a rule we are in danger of interpreting on one side only: our own side.
1. To avoid irritating severity.—“Forbearing threatening” (Ephesians 6:9). The slave in early times was treated as scarcely human, and was ruled by the fear of punishment. Christianity in the beginning did not interfere with domestic slavery; but it introduced principles which, wherever, adopted utterly abolished slavery. The Christian master cannot act on the policy of cruelty, but treats his servants with justice and kindness.
2. To remember that both are servants of a higher and impartial Master.—“Knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with Him” (Ephesians 6:9). A party of friends setting out together upon a journey soon find it to be the best for all sides that while they are upon the road one of the company should wait upon the rest, another ride forward to seek out lodging and entertainment, a third carry the portmanteau, a fourth take charge of the horses, a fifth bear the purse, conduct, and direct the route; not forgetting, however, that as they were equal and independent when they set out, so they are all to return to a level again at their journey’s end. The same regard and respect, the same forbearance, lenity, and reserve in using their service, the same mildness in delivering commands, the same study to make their journey comfortable and pleasant which he whose lot it was to direct the rest would in common decency think himself bound to observe towards them, ought we to show to those who, in the casting of the parts of human society, happen to be placed within our power or to depend upon us (Paley). Master and man must give an account to Him who will judge every act according to its merit.
Lessons.—
1. Masters and servants are amenable to divine law.
2. Neither master nor servant gains any advantage by tactics that violate divine law.
3. Where the Christian spirit predominates trade disputes will soon be satisfactorily settled.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Ephesians 6:5-9. The Duties of Servants and Masters.
I. The duties of servants.—
1. To be obedient to their masters. This must be understood with the same limitation as all other commands enjoining relative duties. We are to obey God rather than men. Servants no further obey their masters according to the will of God than they make His will the rule and measure of their obedience to their masters.
2. Servants owe their masters reverence as well as obedience.
3. There is an honour, as well as fear, due to their masters.
4. Cheerfulness in their obedience is recommended by the apostle.
5. Diligence of faithfulness is another duty which they owe to their masters.
6. They are to be patient and submissive, though they meet with usage more severe than they think reasonable, not breaking their own obligations, or deserting their master’s service for trivial causes, but bearing his smaller indiscretions without complaint, and in cases of real injury seeking relief in a prudent manner and by lawful means.
7. In all their service they should act with an aim to please God and to obtain His approbation.
II. The duties of masters to their servants.—
1. Their government is to be mild and prudent, not passionate and severe.
2. With respect to apprentices, the contract binds the master not only to give them comfortable support, but to instruct them in his business and profession.
3. With respect to labourers, justice obliges us to give them the stipulated wages when they have faithfully performed the promised service.
4. With respect to all servants, equity requires that we treat them with humanity and kindness, and contribute all proper assistance to render them useful, virtuous, and happy.—Lathrop.
Ephesians 6:6-8.—Christian Servitude.—
1. To propose to ourselves the pleasing of men as our great design is inconsistent with the work of grace in the heart and with that subjection we owe to Christ. The meanest service is service done to Christ, and will be accepted by Him as such. 2. So ingrate is man, and so slow to reward those from whom he receives favour, that a man can never heartily do service to the most of men, except he look to God, whom to serve in the meanest employment is a reward in itself.
3. The Lord in dispensing rewards looks not to the external beauty, splendour, or greatness of the work, but to the honesty and sincerity of it.—Fergusson.
Ephesians 6:9. Masters accountable to God.—
1. There is no power among men so absolute—not that of kings and supreme rulers—but implies an obligation, through virtue of God’s ordinance, on those invested with it to make conscience of duties towards their inferiors and subjects.
2. As it is usual for powers on earth sinfully to oversee and not to punish the cruel and unjust dealings of masters towards servants, so those sins most connived at by men are most severely taken notice of by God.
3. It is too ordinary for men in place and authority to carry themselves as if they had none above them to be accountable to, or to dream that the Lord will not take such strict account of them as of their underlings and servants.—Ibid.