Charles Ellicott Commentary Ephesians 6:5

"Servants, be obedient unto them that according to the flesh are your masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;" — Ephesians 6:5 (ASV)

Your masters according to the flesh.—This phrase (used also in Colossians 3:12) immediately implies the necessary limitation of all human slavery. It can subjugate and even kill the body, but it cannot touch the spirit; and it belongs only to the visible life of this world, not to the world to come. The slave is a human being in spiritual and immortal being, not a “living tool” or “chattel,” as even philosophy called him.

With fear and trembling.—This phrase is a favorite one with St. Paul (see 1 Corinthians 2:3; 2 Corinthians 7:15; Philippians 2:12, in all of which cases it is applied to the condition of individuals as individuals under the weight of solemn responsibility before God). It recognizes the spirit of bondage unto fear (Romans 8:15) necessarily belonging to all who are “under law,” i.e., under obedience to the will of another, as enforced upon them by compulsion; and this fear, moreover, is viewed as showing itself in “trembling” anxiety to obey. So St. Peter commands (1 Peter 2:18), Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward; and it is to be noted that he describes the suffering in this implied as a fellowship with the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 6:21–24).

Singleness of your heart, as unto Christ.—The phrase “singleness of heart,” is here used in its proper sense, from which all others (2 Corinthians 8:2; 2 Corinthians 9:11; 2 Corinthians 9:13) may be derived. It means having only one aim, and that the one which we profess to have, with no duplicity of reservation or hypocrisy. Such singleness of heart cannot be given perfectly to any merely human service, because no such service has a right to our whole heart; hence St. Paul adds, as unto Christ, bidding them look on their service as a part of the service to Him who can claim absolute devotion.

On verses 5-9:

In Ephesians 6:5-9 the hardest form of subjection, that of slaves to masters, is dealt with, still under the same idea that both are “in Christ.” The slave is the servant of Christ in obeying his master; the master is a fellow-servant with his slave to the same Divine Lord. We notice on this particular subject a remarkable emphasis, and a singular closeness of parallelism between this Epistle and the Epistle to the Colossians; probably to be accounted for by the presence of Onesimus with St. Paul at the time, which would naturally press on him some special consideration of the relation of Christianity to slavery. Accordingly, St. Paul’s general attitude towards slavery will be best considered in the Epistle to Philemon (see Philemon). Here it will be sufficient to note that while the institution, unnatural as it is, is left untouched, the declaration of a common fellowship in Christ enunciates a principle absolutely incompatible with slavery, and destined to destroy it.