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Ephesians 6:1-9 - Children, Parents, Servants, and Masters Under Christ

17 min read

The word that governs this passage is Lord. Children obey “in the Lord.” Fathers form children in “the Lord.” Enslaved people serve “as to Christ” and expect recompense “from the Lord.” Masters discover that the people beneath them have the same Master in heaven. Paul brings the whole household into the presence of Christ, where no one is invisible and no authority is absolute.

This completes the household exhortation begun in Ephesians 5. In the Roman world, the household was larger than a modern nuclear family and was ordered beneath the authority of the male householder. It could include wife, children, dependents, and enslaved people. Paul speaks within that unequal social order, but he does something morally serious: he addresses the less powerful as responsible hearers of the apostolic word, then turns to those holding power and commands them before Christ.1

The passage must therefore be heard in both directions. It calls for obedience, honor, discipline, and faithful service. It also limits human claims, forbids provocation, removes threatening from authority, and ends with God’s impartial judgment. Its climax is not the obedience demanded in verses 1 and 5, but the shared Master revealed in verse 9.

Children Obey and Honor in the Lord (Ephesians 6:1-3)

1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

2 “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise:

3 “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”

Paul speaks to children, not merely about them. They belong among those who can hear Scripture, answer God, and grow in holiness. Their place in the household does not make them spiritually incidental. Christ receives their obedience as part of their discipleship.

“Obey” and “honor” are related, but they are not identical. The verb ὑπακούετε (hypakouete) in verse 1 calls children to listen and respond to their parents. The command τίμα (tima), “honor,” reaches further. It includes reverence, gratitude, truthful care, and refusal of contempt. Obedience particularly concerns dependent childhood; honor remains a lifelong command, though its concrete form changes as a child becomes an adult.2

Paul places obedience “in the Lord.” The phrase first locates family life inside communion with Christ: ordinary listening, chores, correction, and gratitude can become obedience offered to Him. The same words also establish a boundary. No parent replaces God or receives the right to command sin, demand secrecy about harm, or silence a child’s conscience. Honor can coexist with reporting abuse, seeking protection, keeping necessary distance, and refusing an evil demand. A child in immediate danger needs safety and truthful help, not a religious argument for remaining exposed.

The promise attached to the command does not guarantee that every obedient child will enjoy an easy or unusually long life. Paul receives the commandment with its covenant promise and teaches that honoring parents belongs to the life ordered toward God’s blessing. The promise gives the command a horizon of life and peace; it does not make suffering children responsible for the sins committed against them.

Gems from the Fathers 💎

St John Chrysostom notices that Paul addresses children with a command and a promise suited to their understanding. He also reads “in the Lord” as a real limit: obedience applies “wherever you will not be offending against God.”3 His sentence is brief, but it keeps Christian honor from becoming idolatry of family authority. A child is formed to obey Christ through the family, never to disobey Christ for the family’s sake.

Fathers Nurture Without Provoking (Ephesians 6:4)

4 And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

Paul turns immediately toward the recognized authority holder. The father cannot recite the child’s duty while ignoring his own. The first word to him is a prohibition: “do not provoke.” Authority under Christ is judged not only by its stated intentions but also by what it produces in the vulnerable person.

The verb παροργίζετε (parorgizete) means to provoke or stir toward anger. Paul then contrasts it with ἐκτρέφετε (ektrephete), to nourish, rear, or bring to maturity. The same verb appeared in Ephesians 5:29 for the way a person nourishes the body and the Lord cares for the Church. Christian formation is therefore not the demand for compliance. It is patient care directed toward maturity in Christ.4

The paired words παιδεία (paideia) and νουθεσία (nouthesia) include disciplined formation and admonition. Neither word grants permission for rage, humiliation, threats, favoritism, contempt, spiritual manipulation, or violence. The negative command governs the positive one. Correction that crushes a child’s spirit, makes the home unpredictable, or uses God to secure a parent’s ego is not “the training and admonition of the Lord.” The Lord’s discipline seeks truth and repentance while protecting the child’s dignity.

This command exposes several familiar parental temptations. Fear can be mistaken for respect. Public embarrassment can be called correction. Relentless comparison can masquerade as motivation. Religious achievement can become a way for parents to display themselves through their children. Paul calls fathers to another task: nourish a person whose life belongs to Christ.

Chrysostom on forming a Christian

Chrysostom gathers the aim of Christian parenting into four words: “Make him a Christian.” He then sharpens the standard: “Tempers are wanted, not talking; character, not cleverness; deeds, not words.”5 He is not rejecting education or skill. He is refusing to let success replace holiness. A child may learn achievement while remaining proud, cruel, dishonest, or prayerless. Formation in the Lord seeks a heart capable of repentance, courage, mercy, chastity, worship, and faithful service.

Parents teach this life partly by command and deeply by example. A father who apologizes after anger, prays without performance, keeps his promises, speaks respectfully to the child’s mother, and serves when unnoticed gives substance to his instruction. The child hears what is taught; the child also studies the life of the teacher.

Enslaved People Serve Before Christ (Ephesians 6:5-8)

5 Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ;

6 not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,

7 with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men,

8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.

The Greek word translated “bondservants” is δοῦλοι (douloi): enslaved people or slaves. Roman slavery was a coercive legal reality, not ordinary salaried employment. Enslaved people could be acquired through war, birth, sale, kidnapping, exposure, and other means; their work varied widely, but their condition exposed them to punishment, sale, sexual abuse, and separation from family.6 Modern workplace application may come later, but historical truth must come first.

These verses do not legally abolish Roman slavery, and the guide should not pretend that they do. Nor do they call slavery good. Paul addresses people living within an oppressive structure and speaks directly to their moral agency before Christ. Their earthly condition does not exhaust their identity. Their faithfulness is not hidden from God, and their human master is never their final Lord.

The phrase “masters according to the flesh” is crucial. Κατὰ σάρκα (kata sarka), “according to the flesh,” marks the earthly and limited sphere of the master’s claim. Human power may constrain the body and circumstances; it cannot own the soul, confer ultimate worth, or replace Christ’s lordship. Paul does not spiritualize the enslaved person’s suffering away. He places the sufferer before a higher judgment in which the earthly hierarchy is not ultimate.7

Paul next contrasts performance for the watching eye with service from the inner person. Ὀφθαλμοδουλεία (ophthalmodouleia), “eyeservice,” is conduct activated by surveillance. Ἀνθρωπάρεσκοι (anthrōpareskoi), “men-pleasers,” names service governed by the desire to satisfy human observers. Against both, Paul writes ἐκ ψυχῆς (ek psychēs), “from the soul,” and μετ᾽ εὐνοίας (met’ eunoias), “with goodwill.” The contrast reaches deeper than productivity. It asks who possesses the heart while the hands are working.8

Christ’s presence gives the oppressed person a freedom that the master did not create and cannot cancel: the freedom to offer a faithful act to the Lord. This must never be used to tell a victim to remain in danger, keep exploitation secret, or make peace with abuse. Spiritual agency belongs to the oppressed person; it is not a tool for the powerful to demand silence. Where escape, protection, disclosure, or legal intervention is possible and needed, seeking safety does not betray Christ.

Verse 8 makes the promise personal: “whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.” The repeated emphasis falls on “anyone” and on the Lord who recompenses. Human systems may ignore hidden labor, erase names, and distribute honor by rank. Christ sees the good itself and the person who offered it. Status does not make suffering unreal, but neither can status hide faithfulness from Him.

Chrysostom on service before Christ

Chrysostom calls earthly mastery “according to the flesh, brief and temporary.” He urges the servant to act from the heart “for Christ’s sake.”9 His aim is to lift the enslaved person’s sight above the social order, not to make the social order righteous. This distinction matters. The Gospel can preserve a person’s communion with Christ within oppression while still judging the oppressor and refusing to rename coercion as goodness.

The modern reader may recognize “eyeservice” in work, school, ministry, or family duty: effort that appears only when praise, inspection, or reputation is at stake. That analogy is useful only after slavery has been named. Paul asks every Christian a searching question: if the human eye were removed, would love still govern the work? Hidden faithfulness is not servility. Offered freely to Christ, it is integrity.

Masters Answer to the Master of Both (Ephesians 6:9)

9 And you, masters, do the same things to them, giving up threatening, knowing that your own Master also is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.

Paul’s final sentence overturns any reading that leaves the powerful morally untouched. “Do the same things to them” does not mean that master and enslaved person perform socially identical tasks. It does press the master into the same Lord-directed moral world: sincerity, goodwill, accountability, and recognition of the other person before Christ. Authority receives no separate ethic.

Then Paul names the practice that must cease: threatening. The participle ἀνιέντες (anientes) means releasing or letting go; τὴν ἀπειλήν (tēn apeilēn) is “the threat.” Paul does not tell masters merely to threaten less or intimidate more politely. He commands them to relinquish threat as an instrument of rule.10

The reason is the theological summit of the passage. The Greek wording makes the shared lordship especially visible: αὐτῶν καὶ ὑμῶν ὁ Κύριος, “both their Master and yours.” The NKJV Scripture block remains unchanged, but this teaching gloss brings out what the Greek construction states. The enslaved person is not masterless before God, and the earthly master is not sovereign. Both stand beneath the Lord in heaven.10

Paul ends with προσωπολημψία (prosōpolēmpsia), partiality based on outward status or “face.” There is none with God. Wealth, title, citizenship, education, family role, clerical visibility, and control do not persuade the Judge to overlook harm. Verse 9 does not announce the legal abolition of Roman slavery within these lines. It does deny autonomous mastery, remove threatening from Christian authority, and expose the master to the judgment of the Lord who favors no rank.

Chrysostom on the master who is also a servant

Chrysostom catches the shock of the sentence: “The master himself is a servant.”11 Earthly authority is borrowed and answerable. The father, employer, priest, ministry leader, teacher, manager, and public official must all learn this posture, without allowing those modern analogies to erase the enslaved people actually addressed in the text.

Chrysostom also insists that God does not excuse a wrong because its victim holds low social status. Human systems may rank whose pain matters, but the common Lord’s law “knows no such difference.”12 This is where Paul’s household exhortation lands. Christ sees the person whom power reduces to a function, and He judges the person who uses power without mercy.

Christian authority therefore has a recognizable shape. It tells the truth without humiliation, gives correction without terror, protects those with less power, welcomes accountability, and repents when it has caused harm. “Giving up threatening” reaches beyond spoken threats to retaliation, financial pressure, isolation, public shaming, spiritual intimidation, and the quiet warning that honesty will be punished. Anyone who leads must ask whether people can tell the truth in his presence without fear.

The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪

The Coptic lectionary places Ephesians 6:1-9 within the larger Pauline reading Ephesians 6:1-23 for the Second Sunday of Mesra. The assigned reading continues into the armor of God, prayer, and Paul’s closing words. The verified source confirms the range, but it does not state an official rationale for the selection; the guide should not invent one.13

Ephesians 6:1-3 also closes the Pauline reading for Holy Matrimony, Ephesians 5:22-6:3. The Crowning service therefore hears the call to children and the command to honor parents within Paul’s wider vision of marriage and household life under Christ. Verses 4-9 are not part of that Crowning reading and should not be presented as though they were.14

These settings keep household discipleship inside the worship of the Church. Family authority is not private sovereignty. Work, formation, obedience, and leadership are brought before the Lord whose word is proclaimed among His people and whose judgment shows no partiality.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

Bring hidden obedience into communion with Christ. Resistance often appears in small places: delayed responsibilities, contemptuous tone, selective listening, or doing the minimum until someone notices. If the request is good and lawful, answer it without inner theater. Choose one neglected duty in the home, school, parish, or workplace and offer it quietly to Christ. The point is not compliance for its own sake, but a heart becoming whole before the Lord.

Practice honor without surrendering truth. Some people use “honor” to avoid gratitude; others use it to hide serious harm. Name the reality before God. If a parent has loved and sacrificed, express specific thanks while there is time. If the relationship includes manipulation, violence, or danger, refuse contempt but seek truthful counsel, boundaries, protection, or distance. Christian honor never requires cooperation with sin or secrecy about abuse.

Repent of authority that needs fear. Parents and leaders may feel respected when others become silent, cautious, or eager to avoid displeasing them. Paul gives that condition a different name: provocation and threat. Examine one place where your anger, sarcasm, unpredictability, status, money, or spiritual language makes another person afraid to speak. Confess it plainly, stop the behavior, invite accountable correction, and repair what can be repaired.

Refuse eyeservice. The craving to be seen can enter paid work, church service, caregiving, study, and prayer. It produces energy when praise is available and resentment when sacrifice remains unnoticed. Before one hidden task this week, pray: “Lord Jesus Christ, receive this from my whole soul.” Then complete it without arranging for recognition. The Lord who sees the enslaved person’s good also sees every faithful act offered without applause.

See Christ’s judgment as both warning and consolation. “There is no partiality with Him” warns the powerful that rank will not protect them. It consoles the overlooked that low status will not erase them. If you have harmed someone with less power, move toward repentance before excuses harden. If your good has been ignored, bring the wound to Christ without letting bitterness become your master. His judgment is free from the favoritism that distorts human rooms.

Footnotes

  1. OpenStax, “The Daily Life of a Roman Family”; Dickinson College Commentaries, “The Roman Family”. ↩

  2. BibleHub interlinear, Ephesians 6:1, for ὑπακούετε and ἐν Κυρίῳ; Ephesians 6:2, for τίμα. ↩

  3. St John Chrysostom, Homily 21 on Ephesians, on Ephesians 6:1 and obedience “in the Lord,” New Advent. ↩

  4. BibleHub interlinear, Ephesians 6:4, for παροργίζετε, ἐκτρέφετε, παιδεία, and νουθεσία. ↩

  5. St John Chrysostom, Homily 21 on Ephesians, on Ephesians 6:4 and the Christian formation of children, New Advent. ↩

  6. OpenStax, “Slavery in the Roman Empire”. ↩

  7. BibleHub interlinear, Ephesians 6:5, for δοῦλοι and κατὰ σάρκα κυρίοις. ↩

  8. BibleHub interlinear, Ephesians 6:6, for ὀφθαλμοδουλεία, ἀνθρωπάρεσκοι, and ἐκ ψυχῆς; Ephesians 6:7, for εὐνοία and service to the Lord. ↩

  9. St John Chrysostom, Homily 22 on Ephesians, on Ephesians 6:5-8 and service before Christ, New Advent. ↩

  10. BibleHub interlinear, Ephesians 6:9, for τὰ αὐτά, ἀνιέντες τὴν ἀπειλήν, αὐτῶν καὶ ὑμῶν ὁ Κύριος, and προσωπολημψία. ↩ ↩2

  11. St John Chrysostom, Homily 22 on Ephesians, on Ephesians 6:9, “The master himself is a servant,” New Advent. ↩

  12. St John Chrysostom, Homily 22 on Ephesians, on Ephesians 6:9 and the common Lord’s impartial judgment, New Advent. ↩

  13. CopticChurch.net, readings for 16 August 2026, Pauline Epistle Ephesians 6:1-23 for the Second Sunday of Mesra. ↩

  14. St. Bishoy Coptic Orthodox Church, Rites of the Wedding Ceremony, Pauline reading Ephesians 5:22-6:3, printed page 17 and following. ↩

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