Ephesians 6

Children are called to obey “in the Lord, for this is right.” The qualifier is pastoral, not ornamental: obedience is for Christ’s sake and within what is lawful. Wesley’s heirs hear a moral summons—grace enables honor, yet the command is never a blank check for parental sin. A child is not required to follow a parent into evil. The tone is formation, not fear: what God asks is fitting, a sincere response to those who gave them life.

Obedience is the chief evidence of the honor God commands. The human heart recoils from subjection, so Paul presses the harder part. “In the Lord” locates the duty under God’s own authority: parents are to be obeyed only so far as is consistent with piety to God, which comes first. The appointment is divine, not merely cultural; yet that same appointment forbids treating a parent’s will as absolute. Rightness is grounded in God’s command, whose will is the rule of goodness.

Honor means love, reverence, obedience, and assistance—not mere ceremony. The mother is named because she is more easily slighted. The fifth commandment’s attached promise seasons the duty with hope. Grace trains children, and adult children, to honor both parents as a sincere act toward God; the command still asks for love, not a grudging show.

Paul cites the Decalogue to show that household honor is worship-shaped. The unique attached promise is meant to make obedience cheerful. Honor includes the whole of sincere affection and support; ceremony without obedience is empty before God. The commandment stands inside Christ’s household: God Himself has sealed this duty with a remarkable promise.

The promise of well-being and long life is usually fulfilled to the dutiful, and under the gospel is to be read chiefly in a more exalted, spiritual sense. Grace that enables honor also invites hope: God is not stingy with those who take His household seriously. The land-word is not a bargain that buys salvation, but a Father’s encouragement to walk in what is right.

Long life belongs among God’s gifts. Paul leaves out Canaan’s special mention because the same divine blessing now extends to the whole world. The reward is fitting: those who honor the parents from whom they received life are assured that in this life it will be well with them. Providence, not superstition, stands behind the promise.

Fathers are named as more apt to be stern; mothers are not excused. “Don’t provoke” forbids needless exasperation. Bringing children up is to be with tenderness and mildness, in the Lord’s discipline and instruction—Christian knowledge and practice together. Enabling grace makes gentle authority possible; parents remain accountable not to crush the little ones entrusted to them. This verse will not baptize harshness as “discipline.”

Unreasonable severity excites hatred and makes children throw off the yoke; writing to the Colossians, Paul adds “lest they be discouraged.” Bring-up carries gentleness, yet “the instruction and reproof of the Lord” guards against spoiling. God orders the household so that parental power is true and bounded: mild, considerate, aimed at the fear of the Lord—not tyranny, and not neglect.

Paul addresses bondservants inside a first-century structure he does not baptize as God’s ideal. “Masters” are “according to the flesh”—afterward the servant is free from his master. Fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart are offered as to Christ: integrity before God, not a theology of human ownership. This verse must never be used to excuse cruelty, trafficking, or abuse. Grace enables honest work unto Christ even in constrained callings; it does not make oppression righteous.

The servants in view were slaves, not hired hands, and some imagined the gospel had already purchased earthly freedom. Paul relocates service under Christ so that sincerity, not mere dread of punishment, marks Christian servants. “According to the flesh” softens the harsh aspect by reminding them that spiritual freedom remains untouched. The text regulates a then-present institution under Christ’s claim; it does not declare that institution the gospel’s goal, and verse 9 will hang impartial judgment over every master.

Eye-service and people-pleasing are named as the counterfeit. Bondservants of Christ do God’s will from the heart, with their might, whether watched or unseen. Enabling grace makes inward honesty possible; the command still asks for an undivided heart. God is not impressed by performance staged for human eyes.

Flattery while the master watches, and contempt when his back is turned, is the old disease of forced service. God requires truth and sincerity of heart: when they serve faithfully they obey God, who sees the hidden life. Eye-service is a species of unbelief—living as if only man were watching.

Serving with a willing heart, as serving the Lord and not people, turns common labor into a sacrifice. Have an eye to Him in all things, even as if there were no other master. Grace invites a glad offering of ordinary work; believers remain responsible not to let resentment become the master of the task.

Good will is contrasted with the suppressed indignation that swells when authority is only endured. The Lord is the true audience, so service need not wait on a worthy earthly master to become worship. Providence does not make cruelty good; it does mean the believer’s labor can still be rendered unto Christ.

Whatever good anyone does, the Lord will repay—whether bondservant or free. Status does not lock anyone out of God’s recompense. Arminians find a reward for true obedience, not a purchase of salvation: grace saves, and the Lord still notices faithful good. The line comforts the unseen laborer and warns against despair that effort is wasted on ungrateful people.

However unworthy, ungrateful, or cruel the master, God accepts the service as rendered to Himself. No distinction is made between slave and free; the world sets little value on a slave’s labor, but God esteems it as highly as a king’s duties. Outward station is thrown aside; each is judged according to the uprightness of the heart. Reward is the Lord’s to give.

Masters must “do the same”—act from the same Christ-ward principle—and stop threatening: gentleness and humanity, not a harsh or domineering way. Heaven’s Master is theirs too, and there is no partiality with Him. This verse is a warning to the powerful, not a tool for the powerful. Grace that saves the master also summons him to put away intimidation; abuse of household or workplace authority is sin under an impartial Judge.

Civil codes once granted masters vast power; many treated cruelty as lawful because the law allowed it. Even without royal restraints, God allows masters no power beyond the law of love. Threatenings and barbarity arise when servants are treated as cattle. They have the same Master in heaven, to whom they must render account; God is no respecter of persons, and the cause of the meanest will not be less regarded than that of the loftiest monarch. Rank will not shield the abuser at Christ’s tribunal.