And, you 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.
All Commentaries on Ephesians 6:9 Go To Ephesians 6
John Chrysostom
AD 407
And ye masters, he continues, do the same things unto them.
The same things. What are these? With good-will do service. However he does not actually say, do service, though by saying, the same things, he plainly shows this to be his meaning. For the master himself is a servant. Not as men-pleasers, he means, and with fear and trembling: that is, toward God, fearing lest He one day accuse you for your negligence toward your slaves.
And forbear threatening; be not irritating, he means, nor oppressive.
Knowing that both their Master and yours is in Heaven.
Ah! How mighty a Master does he hint at here! How startling the suggestion! It is this. With what measure you measure, it shall be measured unto you again Matthew 7:2; lest you hear the sentence, Thou wicked servant. I forgave you all that debt. Matthew 18:32
And there is no respect of persons, he says, with Him.
Think not, he would say, that what is done towards a servant, He will therefore forgive, because done to a servant. Heathen laws indeed as being the laws of men, recognize a difference between these kinds of offenses. But the law of the common Lord and Master of all, as doing good to all alike, and dispensing the same rights to all, knows no such difference.
But should any one ask, whence is slavery, and why it has found entrance into human life, (and many I know are both glad to ask such questions, and desirous to be informed of them,) I will tell you. Slavery is the fruit of covetousness, of degradation, of savagery; since Noah, we know, had no servant, nor had Abel, nor Seth, no, nor they who came after them. The thing was the fruit of sin, of rebellion against parents. Let children hearken to this, that whenever they are undutiful to their parents, they deserve to be servants. Such a child strips himself of his nobility of birth; for he who rebels against his father is no longer a son; and if he who rebels against his father is not a son, how shall he be a son who rebels against our true Father? He has departed from his nobility of birth, he has done outrage to nature. Then come also wars, and battles, and take their prisoners. Well, but Abraham, you will say, had servants. Yes, but he used them not as servants.
Observe how everything depends upon the head; the wife, by telling him to love her; the children, by telling him to bring them up in the chastening and admonition of the Lord; the servants, by the words, knowing that both their Master and yours is in Heaven. So, says he, you also in like manner, as being yourselves servants, shall be kind and indulgent. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.
But if, before considering this next, you have a mind to hearken, I shall make the same remarks concerning servants, as I have also made before concerning children. Teach them to be religious, and everything else will follow of necessity. But now, when any one is going to the theater, or going off to the bath, he drags all his servants after him; but when he goes to church, not for a moment; nor does he compel them to attend and hear. Now how shall your servant listen, when thou his master art attending to other things? Have you purchased, have you bought your slave? Before all things enjoin him what God would have him do, to be gentle towards his fellow-servants, and to make much account of virtue.
Every one's house is a city; and every man is a prince in his own house. That the house of the rich is of this character, is plain enough, where there are both lands, and stewards, and rulers over rulers. But I say that the house of the poor also is a city. Because here too there are offices of authority; for instance, the husband has authority over the wife, the wife over the servants, the servants again over their own wives; again the wives and the husbands over the children. Does he not seem to you to be, as it were, a sort of king, having so many authorities under his own authority? And that it were meet that he should be more skilled both in domestic and general government than all the rest? For he who knows how to manage these in their several relations, will know how to select the fittest men for offices, yes, and will choose excellent ones. And thus the wife will be a second king in the house, lacking only the diadem; and he who knows how to choose this king, will excellently regulate all the rest.
