Ephesians 6:5
Slaves, be obedient to those who are your earthly masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as to Christ.
It is a measure of the enormous distance we have traveled since the advent of Christ to note that, even for an extremely educated pre-Christian writer like Aristotle, it was a commonplace to speak of certain sorts of people as “natural slaves”. The New Testament, in contrast, though it recognizes the phenomenon of slavery as a reality of life, never derives from this contemporary reality the notion that “some people are more equal than others.” Rather, the New Testament insists that God is no respecter of persons and sees in both master and slave the image of Christ and the duty of mutual love. Today’s verse reflects exactly that truth. Paul urges slaves to serve their masters, not because slaves are inherently inferior or because they are to be servile to Fate, but because this is their peculiar opportunity to serve Christ in their full dignity as children of God. The “fear and trembling” to which Paul refers is not “craven submission” but the kind of awe which falls upon God’s anointed prophets when they are selected to bring his message to a world unworthy of them. Paul, in short, is reaffirming that God lifts up the meek and lowly in a miraculous way and makes them vehicles of God’s grace. Christ, who died a slave’s death, now calls slaves to share his eternal life and his dignity as sons and daughters of God.
