Ephesians 6:9

My Notes

What Does Ephesians 6:9 Mean?

"And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him." Paul addresses slave owners directly: treat your slaves the same way you've been told to treat everyone else. Stop threatening. Because you have a Master too — and he doesn't play favorites. The command is revolutionary: in a world where masters had absolute authority over slaves (including the right to punish, sell, or kill), Paul says: the authority you exercise is under authority. Your Master sees how you treat your servants. And he doesn't discriminate between free and enslaved.

The phrase "no respect of persons" (prosōpolēmpsia — no face-favoring, no partiality based on status) means God evaluates the master and the slave by the same standard. The social hierarchy is real. The divine evaluation ignores it.

Reflection Questions

• 1.Where do you exercise authority without remembering you're under authority?
• 2.What does 'forbearing threatening' practically look like for someone in a position of power?
• 3.How does God's 'no respect of persons' flatten the hierarchies you operate within?
• 4.Where is the reciprocity Paul demands (do the same things to them) absent in your leadership relationships?

Devotional

Masters: you have a Master. And he's watching how you treat his people. Paul looks at the social hierarchy of the Roman Empire — masters at the top, slaves at the bottom — and flattens it with a single theological fact: the Master in heaven plays no favorites.

Do the same things unto them. The same things — what things? The love, the service, the sincerity of heart that Paul has just instructed slaves to show their masters (v. 5-8). Now he turns the standard around: masters, show the same to your slaves. The reciprocity demolishes the one-directional power dynamic. The slave serves the master with sincerity? The master serves the slave with the same sincerity. The street goes both ways.

Forbearing threatening. Stop threatening. The most common tool of mastery — the threat of punishment — is removed from the master's toolkit. You don't control through fear. You don't maintain authority through intimidation. The threatening that every Roman master used to manage slaves — Paul says: stop it. Because the God above you doesn't threaten. He sustains.

Knowing that your Master also is in heaven. The master has a Master. The authority at the top of the household isn't the top of the universe. Above every earthly master is the heavenly one — the one whose authority makes the earthly master's authority borrowed, temporary, and accountable. You're not the highest authority in the room. You answer to someone. And that someone is watching.

Neither is there respect of persons with him. God doesn't see the social hierarchy. He doesn't evaluate the master as more important than the slave. He doesn't weight the master's case more favorably. The master and the slave stand before the same God with the same evaluation criteria. The social standing that gives you power on earth gives you nothing in heaven.

Paul doesn't abolish slavery in this verse (the political context wouldn't allow it). But he removes every moral foundation for it: if the master and slave answer to the same Master, if the master must treat the slave with the same standard the slave uses for the master, if threatening is forbidden and partiality is nonexistent with God — the system's moral legitimacy is already dead. The institution might persist. The justification for it has been demolished.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture