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Sermon preached on Ephesians 6:5-9 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 08/16/2026 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
We turn now to finish this section in Ephesians on submission and authority, turning to the master-servant relationship. Let me begin in my introduction to again say that this passage does not condone the many evils and abuses that have been done to slaves and servants throughout history. Indeed, the Bible explicitly condemns those evils and abuses. Ultimately, it has been Christians, working from biblical principles, that have pursued the abolishment of chattel slavery in modern society. This passage certainly contributed to that in its high regard for the equality of all humans before the Lord. And yet the beauty of this passage is that its lessons still are very applicable even after the abolition of slavery. For the heart of the relationship between a master and a servant finds ongoing application in the workplace between employers and their employees. In that spirit, I will seek to make various workplace applications as we study this text.
But another application of this text is to see the analogy to Jesus as our Master, and how we are his servants. While the pew Bible uses both the words “master” and “lord”, they are actually the same word in the Greek, kyrios. Paul’s use of the same word invites comparisons between Jesus and earthly masters. When we serve our earthly masters, we can learn about serving Jesus our heavenly master. Likewise, earthly masters can learn how to treat their servants as they consider how Jesus treats us. The identification of Jesus as our Lord and us as his servants is one of the most prominent descriptions in the Bible. May today’s study help us make application to how we serve Jesus as our master.
So then, our first point will consider what this passage says to servants, as we see in verses 5-8. Our second point will consider what this passage says to masters, as we see in verse 9. Our third point will consider a related theme of reward that is present in this passage. Let’s dig in.
We begin in verse 5, where it addresses servants. Let us appreciate how this immediately affirms the human dignity of them. The major Greco-Roman household codes also taught about master-servant relationships, but they would do so by addressing the masters and instructing them how to properly manage their servants. Those other documents don’t address the servants. But for servants to be addressed here, it affirms that as both image bearers and as Christians, they are in equal standing before God and addressed accordingly.
That point is then wonderfully complemented with the command to the servants to obey their earthly masters. The wording for “earthly masters” is literally “masters according to the flesh.” While all humans have common dignity as image bearers, yet our differing relationships will mean that we may have certain kinds of masters in this life. In the workplace, your employer will be your master as long as you both agree to the continued employment relationship. That employer may assign you one or more bosses that you have to report to. Your job will be to serve them in the context of your employment. That means you need to do what you are supposed to do and not do what you are not supposed to do.
Yet, Paul’s instructions to servants has much more to say. His concern is not just with your actions, but what is going on in your heart. Verse 5 says that you should serve your earthly masters with fear and trembling. That doesn’t come across that well in modern English, but the idea is that you are to have an attitude of great respect for your boss. It’s an attitude that recognizes that they are in charge and there will be consequences if you don’t do your duty. Then verse 5 goes on to say that servants should serve with a sincere heart. The Greek literally describes a single heart. The idea is that your heart is genuinely looking to serve your earthly master, versus someone who acts like their heart is in the work when it’s really somewhere else. Now that makes sense because as verse 5 says, you serve as you would Christ. This is a strongly emphasized here. Since Christ commands such faithful service, you actually are serving Jesus when you do that.
Verse 6 goes on to further develop this idea when it says “Not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.” When it describes eye-service, it’s saying don’t work hard and serve your earthly master just when they are watching. That would show you are only serving to please them. Now, it is not wrong to try to please your boss. In fact, I think you should try to please your boss in the Lord. But, this verse wants you to see that your job is not merely to please your earthly master, but to please Christ Jesus. Our earthly service is to fulfill the service to Christ that he calls us to do. So, that is why we ultimately have fear and trembling and sincere-hearted service, because we see that serving our earthly master is ultimately serving our heavenly master. Verse 6 reinforces it when it says that this is to do the will of God from the heart! It is God’s will for you to fulfill your duties and obligations to your earthly masters. Verse 7 again emphasizes the same points. Our service should be with good will as if we are serving the Lord and not just man. The description of “good will” refers to serving with wholeheartedness and a good attitude.
So the main point to servants is to see that you are ultimately serving Jesus. But the implication it emphasizes is that this means your heart and attitude need to be in the right place. How often people complain about their earthly bosses. Indeed, some bosses today are terrible. Historically, how many slave masters were even worse to their slaves. But we are called to have a good attitude toward our boss, not for their sake, but for Christ’s. May we have the grace to serve with a right attitude and heart no matter what our earthly bosses are like.
That sets us up for our second point to address masters. While a servant should seek to serve their boss no matter what they are like, nonetheless Christ calls masters to exercise their authority in a righteous way. Turn then to verse 9. Interestingly, the instructions start off briefly by comparison. It says to the masters, “Do the same to them.” Surely, this refers back to the perspective of being accountable to Jesus and therefore fulfilling your duty with the right attitude and concern for the other. Here, the golden rule comes to mind. A master should treat their servant the way they would want to be treated. And a master should have a genuine heart of compassion and concern and love for their servant. If we would expect servants to serve their masters with all good will as unto Christ, then this would say masters should manage their servants with all good will as someone accountable to Christ.
Verse 9 then goes on to give a specific example of what Paul has in mind for masters. He says they should stop their threatening. Sadly, you could imagine that many masters wielded fear of punishment in a harsh and heavy-handed way to motivate their servants. This does not mean that masters shouldn’t have reasonable consequences for their servants who aren’t willing to fulfill their duty. In the workplace today, you may get written up or even fired if you don’t do your job properly. But we all know that is different than an environment where you have a boss always screaming at you and threatening you and just an overall hostile and abusive environment. I think we see here that there is a clear distinction between hostile threatening and realistic consequences when we remember back to verse 5 that servants were supposed to have at attitude of fear and trembling with regard to their boss. We said that was to have proper respect, which includes that you recognize there are consequences if you fall short of your duties. If servants will show proper respect and masters will not create a hostile, threatening environment, then the workplace will run smoother and be in better order. God desires for such excellence in the workplace.
A master’s proper treatment of their servants is especially driven home by what Paul reminds them of at the end of verse 9. He says to them, “Knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven.” This reminds us that before the Lord, masters and servants are equal in Christ’s site. We have one Lord. How especially wonderful is that thought in the church. If the master and the servant are both Christians, they have that relationship in the workplace, but at church, they are ultimately peers in Christ’s body. How wonderfully Paul illustrated that in the epistle to Philemon, a person who had been converted to Christ by Paul. Paul wrote a letter to Philemon because he encountered Philemon’s runaway slave. Paul shared the gospel to the slave and he became a Christian. Paul then sends him back to his master Philemon to make things right. Paul writes this to Philemon, “For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother… both in the flesh and in the Lord.” Paul was encouraging Philemon to set this slave free. Again, do you see how the Bible ultimately led Christians to abolish slavery? But I digress. The point is that earthly masters should not think of themselves as higher or better than their servants. For we are all ultimately fellow servants of Christ, living out whatever calling he has seen fit to entrust to us at that time. That also means that earthly masters should see how Jesus treats us his servants and model their own leadership after the way Jesus cares for us his servants.
Let us now turn to our third point and consider the theme of reward that is here. That theme is especially prevalent in verse 8 which says, “Knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.” Once a servant realizes that when he serves his master, he’s ultimately serving Jesus, then he can look to Jesus for the reward. As a side note, masters, you should reward your faithful servants. But even if earthly masters don’t, a servant can trust that Jesus sees and that Jesus will reward him.
Now, based on other Scriptures, some of that reward could come even in this life. Jesus taught on stewardship in several similar parables. One principle he gave in Luke 19:26 saying, “I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” It could be that Jesus rewards how you faithfully serve him with even more responsibility in this life. Yet, we also know that sometimes a servant faithfully serves and doesn’t seem to ever get promoted or recognized in this life. It is clear from Jesus’ various teaching on this topic that our greatest reward awaits for us after he returns. Then, we will enjoy eternal life and blessedness in the new creation. This is not to say that we earn eternal life, or even the blessings that he may reward us with there. Eternal life is ultimately received by grace through faith, not our works. And Luke 17:10 even teaches that when servants faithfully perform their obligations, they don’t inherently merit special reward but rather we are to say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.” Yet, while it is our duty to serve without expecting reward, it is our generous Lord Jesus who nonetheless promises to reward us.
I love how the Westminster Confession chapter 16 explains this interesting dynamic. It says that even our best works cannot merit pardon of sin or eternal life. It says that even our best works in this life are mixed with much weakness and imperfection. It speaks of how we wholly need Jesus and his righteousness to merit an eternal blessed life for us. It even says that whatever form of good works we do accomplish, it is by the Spirit working such in us. After it says all that, listen to what WCF 16.5 says:
Nevertheless, the persons of believers being accepted through Christ, their good works also are accepted in him; not as though they were in this life wholly unblamable and unreprovable in God’s sight; but that he, looking upon them in his Son, is pleased to accept and reward that which is sincere, although accompanied with many weaknesses and imperfections.
What a wonderful summary of this interesting dynamic we find in the Bible. Our best works are wrought by God’s grace and even fall short. Yet, God graciously rewards that which he worked within us. Praise be to God! And so, while we know we don’t strictly deserve them, yet Jesus promises this reward as a way to encourage us in our service. People sometimes feel like we shouldn’t let this promise of reward motivate us, yet Jesus is the one who gives the promise of the reward for that very purpose.
Now verse 8 adds an additional note about the reward. It says that Jesus will reward the person, “whether he is a bondservant or free.” That’s not how things tend to work among humans. A free person has much greater ability to advance his estate than a slave. A slave’s work, generally, only could advance his master’s estate. But Jesus says that he will reward any who serves him, whether slave or free. This is further explained at the end of verse 9 when Paul reminds masters that with Jesus there is no partiality with him. As Galatians 3:28 also says, there is neither slave or free in Christ Jesus, that we are all one in him. So, this idea of reward applies to slaves and free people, including masters. Jesus does not play favorites to be partial to one type of person than another. If you are a rich earthly master or a poor earthly slave, Jesus will see you the same. He will reward grace wrought works done by any of his people, regardless of their earthly standard. In fact, Jesus makes clear he is more interested in what you do with what you’ve been entrusted with. If a slave has been given only a little, then only a little will be expected. But if a master has been entrusted with much, then much will be expected. Again, this becomes a matter of stewardship.
Now, while verse 8 spoke of reward in positive terms, the reference in verse 9 about partiality implies that someone can receive a negative reward. It reminds masters that if they treat their servants poorly that Jesus is their master in heaven who may reward them for their evil by punishing them, giving the evil masters what they deserve.
Now this warning of negative consequences for our service to Christ reminds us why we need the gospel. It will not be the case that we will be able to tell Jesus, “We have only done what was our duty.” At best, we can say, “By the grace of God, I’ve done some of our duty, imperfectly.” We all fall short in serving our Lord. That is why we need grace, from start to finish. Otherwise, the reward we would earn merely on our own record and strength would be eternal damnation. For before the impartial judge of all the earth, we would be found lacking. Yet, that is why I again proclaim to you the gospel!
Think of the gospel in the terms of what we’ve considered today. Jesus, the Lord and Master of all the earth, came not to be served but to serve. He came to do the will of God to save us even from the slavery of sin and to deliver us from the bondage of Satan and death. Matthew 20:28, Jesus said in talking about authority, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Or as Philippians 2:7 says, Jesus took the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and humbled himself and was obedient unto death, yet the Father rewarded him with the highest name and the place of highest authority. From there, he holds out salvation to all who come to him.
This salvation in Christ is explained this way in Romans 6:22: that we’ve been “set free from sin and have become slaves of God.” And so, our Lord and Master so served us that we would be set free, even to then serve him.
But let us not think that Jesus only served us to then put us under some heavy burden as his slaves. Remember what he said in Matt. 11:28-30, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Jesus is such a wonderful master. He not only first served us, but now the work he would have for us is easy and light. Indeed, it is a joy to serve our master who has so loved us. Indeed, we see the great blessing in serving Jesus, now and unto eternity.
So then, let each earthly servant serve his earthly master and each earthly master lead his earthly servant with the perspective of we are all saved together in Christ Jesus as one people. If we are a servant, we can better learn how Jesus became a servant for us. If we are a master, we can remember how the greatest master served his servants and gives them an easy yoke. May the Spirit of Christ who dwells within us, wonderfully inspire how we serve as servants and how we manage as masters.
I leave us with one final application. Here is one great way that we Christians can treat our respective masters or servants, whether they are Christian too or not. We can pray for them. Let us be faithful to pray for them as we await the return of Christ.
Amen.
Copyright © 2025 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
