🛡️WEB · Ephesians 6:5
What does Ephesians 6:5 mean?
"Servants, be obedient to those who according to the flesh are your masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as to Christ;"
— Ephesians 6:5 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
“Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with a promise:
“that it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth.”
You fathers, don’t provoke your children to wrath, but nurture them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Servants, be obedient to those who according to the flesh are your masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as to Christ;
not in the way of service only when eyes are on you, as men pleasers; but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;
with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men;
knowing that whatever good thing each one does, he will receive the same again from the Lord, whether he is bound or free.
Explanation
Ephesians 6:5 reads, "Servants, be obedient to those who according to the flesh are your masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as to Christ." In plain language, Paul is instructing those in servitude to obey their earthly masters with sincerity, humility, and reverence, treating the work as though they were serving Christ himself rather than merely a human employer. The phrase "according to the flesh" is important—it distinguishes an earthly, temporary master from the ultimate Master, Christ, signaling that this human relationship is limited in scope and does not touch the deeper spiritual freedom and dignity the servant has in Christ.
This verse comes from a section of Ephesians (6:5-9) often called a "household code," where Paul addresses relationships within the ancient household: husbands and wives, parents and children, and masters and servants (or slaves, since the Greek term doulos referred to slaves, who made up a significant portion of the population in the Greco-Roman world). Paul wrote this letter, likely from prison, to the church at Ephesus, a congregation living within a society where slavery was a deeply embedded social and economic institution. Paul does not here call for the abolition of slavery as an immediate social program, but he does something radical within that context: he addresses slaves directly as full moral agents and members of the Christian community, worthy of instruction just as masters are (in verse 9, masters are told to treat their slaves justly, remembering they too have a Master in heaven).
Theologically, the key point is that all work and all relationships are to be reo
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