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A narrated teaching walk through Ephesians 6:5–9 — about 44 minutes. Press Begin the lesson and the slides advance with the narration; or explore silently with the arrow buttons.
Ephesians 6:5–9 · A Teaching Walk Through the Passage
One Master in Heaven
Servants work from the soul as to Christ, masters renounce threats, for both stand before one impartial Master in heaven who repays every good.
Opening Prayer
Make our work worship
Lord of heaven and earth, Master of us all, we come to a passage that walks into the workplace — into labor, authority, wages, and the long hours where most of our days are spent. Show us Christ: the Son who took the form of a servant, worked at a bench in Nazareth, washed the feet of those who called Him Master, and reigns as the Lord before whom there is no partiality. Teach the workers among us to serve from the soul, as to You; teach those with authority to lay down every threat. And let the weary hear that nothing done for You is ever lost. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Timeline Context
The code’s last panel — and its hardest
- The third panel of the household code, still hanging on “be filled with the Spirit… submitting in the fear of Christ” (5:18, 21).
- Perhaps a third of Ephesus was enslaved; slaves sat in the assembly — and Paul addresses them directly and first, as disciples.
- Masters according to the flesh (v. 5) builds in the limit: they own hours, never souls.
- Verse 9’s “do the same… stop your threatening” had no pagan parallel — Paul confiscates the institution’s one instrument.
- Scripture’s trajectory detonates the institution from within: one Master, no partiality, brothers (Philemon 16), enslavers condemned (1 Timothy 1:10).
Ephesians 6:5–7 (ESV)
As you would Christ
5 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man,
Ephesians 6:8–9 (ESV)
The repayment, and the masters
8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. 9 Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.
Ephesians 6:5–9
The workplace, routed through the throne
Expanded Outline
Five movements
- Bondservants, Obey — as You Would Christ (v. 5)
- Not Eye-Service, but the Heart (v. 6)
- Serving the Lord and Not Man (v. 7)
- The Lord Who Repays (v. 8)
- Masters under the Master (v. 9)
Section 1 — Key Insight · Ephesians 6:5
As you would Christ
- Paul addresses slaves directly and first — moral agents, disciples, members of the assembly hearing their own mail.
- “Masters according to the flesh“: jurisdiction over labor and hours — never the soul, which has another Kyrios.
- “Fear and trembling” is Paul’s phrase for reverent seriousness before God’s work (Philippians 2:12) — awe running past the master.
- Haplotēs kardias — a sincere heart: single, unfolded — the opposite of the double life.
- “As you would Christ“: the task received from his hand, done under his eye, offered to his glory — where the world saw drudgery, heaven saw liturgy.
Section 1 — Application · Ephesians 6:5
Re-address the work
- Name your actual tasks and re-address them — this report, this shift, this laundry — “as to Christ” (v. 5).
- Let “fear and trembling” cut both modern idols: work is neither god nor garbage but assignment, received with reverence.
- Treat the ordinary excellences — punctuality, honesty, thoroughness — as spiritual disciplines in the work-sphere.
- A warning: “as to Christ” ennobles the worker — it does not deify the workplace, sanctify exploitation, or silence lawful appeals for justice (1 Corinthians 7:21).
Ask yourself: What would actually change in your work — its quality, attitude, and integrity — if you consciously re-addressed each task “as to Christ” for one full week?
Section 2 — Key Insight · Ephesians 6:6
Not eye-service, but the heart
- Paul coined a word for the workplace’s oldest disease: ophthalmodoulia — work calibrated to the supervisor’s eye.
- Anthrōpareskoi — people-pleasers: workers whose whole court of appeal is human approval (Galatians 1:10).
- The re-identification: the household slave receives Paul’s own proudest title — “bondservants of Christ” (v. 6), the title Paul takes himself (Romans 1:1).
- His daily labor is reclassified as “the will of God” (echoing 5:17) — not beyond the workplace, but constituted by faithfulness within it.
- Ek psychēs — “from the soul”: constant because the Audience never leaves — the eye-servant is enslaved to watching faces; the soul-servant is free.
Section 2 — Ephesians 6:6
The eye-servant and the soul-servant
Section 2 — Application · Ephesians 6:6
The audit, and the transfer
- Chart the gap between your watched and unwatched work — every gap marks where a human eye is your master.
- Do one piece of excellent, wholly invisible work each week, offered to Christ (Matthew 6:4).
- Dethrone the approval-court: “It is the Lord who judges me” (1 Corinthians 4:4) — human evaluation becomes feedback, not verdict.
- A warning: no license for prickliness — Scripture commands pleasing our neighbor for his good (Romans 15:2); the target is approval enthroned.
Ask yourself: Whose approval functions as your real wage — whose face do you check after every performance — and what would it mean to transfer that account to the Lord who judges you?
Section 3 — Key Insight · Ephesians 6:7
With good will, as to the Lord
- Eunoia — good will, glad-heartedness: Paul commands, of slaves, the one thing no power can compel — cheerfulness.
- Correct work can be cold work: God cares about the final inch between duty and delight (Psalm 100:2; 2 Corinthians 9:7).
- “Not to man” is comparative: the human recipient keeps the envelope; Christ receives the letter.
- The transfer makes gladness possible where circumstances don’t deserve it — the servant’s joy has a source the master cannot touch.
- Quiet sedition: by commanding what no master can extract, Paul locates the inner life forever outside the master’s jurisdiction.
Section 3 — Application · Ephesians 6:7
Duty, warmed to gladness
- Work the last inch: thank God for two things before the disliked task; refuse the first grumble aloud (Philippians 2:14); re-address mid-task.
- Survive unworthy recipients by the transfer of terminus: let them keep the envelope; send the letter to Christ.
- Keep identity, joy, and conscience filed under another Master’s name — beyond every review and reorganization (Colossians 3:3).
- A warning: “not to man” is no cover for despising the people served — the Lord receives the service as it blesses real neighbors (Matthew 25:40).
Ask yourself: Who is the “unworthy recipient” in your working life — the boss, client, or institution that will never deserve or notice your best — and how does “as to the Lord and not to man” specifically apply there?
Section 4 — Key Insight · Ephesians 6:8
Knowing the Lord repays
- The motive is knowledge: eidotes — a repayment is coming, and it is itemized: “whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back.”
- Komisetai is the recompense-verb of the judgment (2 Corinthians 5:10) — every good entered in a ledger no economy devalues.
- For a slave whose wages and credit all went to the master: nothing is lost (Hebrews 6:10).
- Rewards are grace crowning grace — God accepts imperfect works in his Son and delights to repay them — yet they are real, and Scripture appeals to them freely (Hebrews 11:26).
- “Whether bondservant or free”: the first great leveling — a slave may be rich in the only books that matter (Revelation 2:9).
Section 4 — Application · Ephesians 6:8
Nothing is lost
- Do the unrepayable work first and best — the caregiving, integrity, and service earth will never credit (Luke 14:14).
- Bring decades of uncredited labor to the Lord by name, and file them in his ledger, not your resentments.
- Audit your status-arithmetic: keep your net worth in the currency that survives (1 Timothy 6:19).
- A warning: acceptance precedes assessment (Luke 17:10) — and “heaven will pay you” never excuses withheld justice (James 5:4).
Ask yourself: What unrewarded good work in your life most needs v. 8’s promise right now — and what would change if you genuinely believed the Lord keeps that ledger?
Section 5 — Key Insight · Ephesians 6:9
Masters, do the same
- “Do the same to them“: the master owes his servants the sincerity, good will, and as-to-Christ service just commanded — no pagan code ever said it.
- “Stop your threatening“: the institution’s standing instrument, retired with a participle — a master who cannot threaten must actually lead.
- Ephesians’ authority is always cruciform: the husband gives himself up (5:25), the father nourishes (6:4), the master serves.
- “Their Master and yours is in heaven”: every boss a middle manager under review.
- “No partiality” — no reading of faces, ranks, or titles: the master’s advantages are inadmissible at the bar that matters (Job 31:15).
Section 5 — Ephesians 6:9
The ground is level
Section 5 — Application · Ephesians 6:9
Serve downward; retire the threat
- Render downward what you expect upward: honest words, just and prompt pay, credit given (Colossians 4:1).
- Retire the threat’s modern forms: the cultivated temper, dangled insecurity, the review as menace.
- Imitate God’s impartiality: learn the names of the invisible (James 2:1).
- A warning: lawful accountability stands — standards fairly enforced are justice; the target is government by fear.
Ask yourself: If you hold any authority over others’ work: would those under you describe your leadership as “the same” service you expect from them — and where does the threat, in any of its modern forms, still operate in your management?
The Throughline
The Servant is the Master
- The form the slave bears is the form the Son took: doulos (Philippians 2:7)
- The service commanded was enacted in the upper room: the towel, the basin (John 13:14)
- The ransom that frees every slave of sin was paid by the Servant (Mark 10:45)
- The impartial Judge is also the impartial Savior (Romans 10:12)
- The last inversion is his promise: the Master will gird himself and serve his servants (Luke 12:37)
Its theology is a Person: the Master we serve is the Servant who bought us — no one who works for him works unseen, unpaid, or alone.
Application Questions for Discussion
Questions to take into the week
- What would actually change in your work — its quality, attitude, and integrity — if you consciously re-addressed each task “as to Christ” for one full week?
- Where does your work-life currently sit between the two idols — work as identity, and work as joke endured for the weekend — and what would “fear and trembling… with a sincere heart” look like in its place?
- Where is the widest gap between your watched and unwatched work — and what one practice would close it before the Audience of One?
- Whose approval functions as your real wage — whose face do you check after every performance — and what would it mean to transfer that account to the Lord who judges you?
Application Questions for Discussion
Questions to take into the week
- Where has your work become correct but cold — duty without eunoia — and what would begin to warm the last inch between compliance and gladness?
- Who is the “unworthy recipient” in your working life — the boss, client, or institution that will never deserve or notice your best — and how does “as to the Lord and not to man” specifically apply there?
- What unrewarded good work in your life most needs v. 8’s promise right now — and what would change if you genuinely believed the Lord keeps that ledger?
Application Questions for Discussion
Questions to take into the week
- “Whether he is a bondservant or is free”: if heaven’s pay-table ignores earthly rank, how should that reorder your ambitions, your envy, and the way you measure your own working life?
- If you hold any authority over others’ work: would those under you describe your leadership as “the same” service you expect from them — and where does the threat, in any of its modern forms, still operate in your management?
- Where does partiality — the reading of faces, ranks, and usefulness — shape how you treat people at work and in the church, and what would God’s impartiality require you to change?
Closing Prayer
Until You serve us at Your table
Gracious Father, we thank You for a Word that dignifies the most ordinary labor and humbles the most exalted office: one Master in heaven, and no partiality with Him. We confess the eye-service, the people-pleasing, the grudging hearts — and where we hold authority, the threats and partiality by which we have wielded it. Forgive us through Jesus Christ, who took the form of a servant and never served with a divided heart. Thank You that our labor in the Lord is not in vain — that You see the unseen and will repay every good. Keep us serving You until the day You gird Yourself and serve us at Your table. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Ephesians 6:5–9
One Master in heaven
The Servant of the LORD took the form of a bondservant, worked a tradesman’s years, washed his servants’ feet, and paid the manumission price of his blood — and now every believer’s labor is worship, every ledger is kept in heaven, and one impartial Master waits to gird himself and serve his servants at the feast.
The full study, the summary handout, and more passages are at thebereantable.com — examine the Scriptures daily (Acts 17:11).
Keyboard: ← → slides · space play/pause · T transcript. Scripture quotations are from the ESV®.