Ephesians 6:5–9: Does “Slaves, Obey Your Masters” Support Slavery?

Ephesians 6:5–9 does not command anyone to enslave anyone, and it does not tell masters to free their slaves. It tells slaves to obey their masters as they would Christ, and it tells masters to “do the same things” and stop threatening, because both serve one Lord who shows no favoritism. Christians who defended slavery quoted it, and Christians who opposed slavery read it inside a Bible that condemns man-stealing.

Key Points

• The Greek word is δοῦλος (doulos), a slave, not a hired servant. The masters are κύριοι (kyrioi), the same word the passage uses for the Lord. (1)
• Ephesians 6:9Ephesians 6:9 · King James VersionAnd, ye 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.Ephesians 6:9 · King James VersionOpen the Source tells masters to give up ἀπειλή (apeilē), threatening, and says there is no προσωπολημψία (prosōpolēmpsia), favoritism, with God. (1)
• Aristotle calls a slave “an animated instrument” and a master’s “mere chattel.” (8) Paul speaks to slaves directly, as people who answer to God.
• 1 Timothy 1:101 Timothy 1:10 · King James VersionFor whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;1 Timothy 1:10 · King James VersionOpen the Source lists ἀνδραποδιστής (andrapodistēs), slave-traders, among the lawless. (6) Exodus 21:16Exodus 21:16 · King James VersionAnd he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.Exodus 21:16 · King James VersionOpen the Source puts the man-stealer to death. (7)
• The 1807 “Slave Bible” kept Ephesians 6:5–9Ephesians 6:5–9 · King James Version^6:5 Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; ^6:6 Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; ^6:7 With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: ^6:8 Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. ^6:9 And, ye 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.Ephesians 6:5–9 · King James VersionOpen the Source and left out Galatians 2–4, including Galatians 3:28Galatians 3:28 · King James VersionThere is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.Galatians 3:28 · King James VersionOpen the Source. (15)
• Frederick Douglass wrote, “I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ,” and hated the “slaveholding religion” of his own country. (17)

What the Passage Says

Ephesians 6:5–9Ephesians 6:5–9 · King James Version^6:5 Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; ^6:6 Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; ^6:7 With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: ^6:8 Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. ^6:9 And, ye 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.Ephesians 6:5–9 · King James VersionOpen the Source, King James Version:

Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And, ye 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.

Ephesians 6:5–9 · King James Version

It is the last pair in a household code that begins with “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God” in Ephesians 5:21Ephesians 5:21 · King James VersionSubmitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.Ephesians 5:21 · King James VersionOpen the Source and runs through wives and husbands, then children and fathers. Colossians 3:22–4:1Colossians 3:22–4:1 · King James Version^3:22 Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God: ^3:23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; ^3:24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. ^3:25 But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons. ^4:1 Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.Colossians 3:22–4:1 · King James VersionOpen the Source is the parallel. (2)

The Greek Words

• δοῦλος (doulos). A slave. The King James “servant” softens it. The same word names the slave in Galatians 3:28Galatians 3:28 · King James VersionThere is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.Galatians 3:28 · King James VersionOpen the Source, Onesimus in Philemon 1:16Philemon 1:16 · King James VersionNot now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord?Philemon 1:16 · King James VersionOpen the Source, and Christ, who took “the form of a servant,” μορφὴν δούλου, in Philippians 2:7Philippians 2:7 · King James VersionBut made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:Philippians 2:7 · King James VersionOpen the Source. (21) The slaves of Ephesians 6:6Ephesians 6:6 · King James VersionNot with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;Ephesians 6:6 · King James VersionOpen the Source are told to act as “servants of Christ,” δοῦλοι Χριστοῦ.
• κύριος (kyrios). Master and Lord. The earthly masters are κύριοι “according to the flesh,” κατὰ σάρκα. The slave’s reward comes “of the Lord,” παρὰ κυρίου, in Ephesians 6:8Ephesians 6:8 · King James VersionKnowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.Ephesians 6:8 · King James VersionOpen the Source, and the masters’ own κύριος is in heaven in Ephesians 6:9Ephesians 6:9 · King James VersionAnd, ye 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.Ephesians 6:9 · King James VersionOpen the Source.
• μετὰ φόβου καὶ τρόμου (“with fear and trembling”). Paul uses the same pair for every believer in Philippians 2:12Philippians 2:12 · King James VersionWherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.Philippians 2:12 · King James VersionOpen the Source, for the Corinthians receiving Titus in 2 Corinthians 7:152 Corinthians 7:15 · King James VersionAnd his inward affection is more abundant toward you, whilst he remembereth the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling ye received him.2 Corinthians 7:15 · King James VersionOpen the Source, and for himself in 1 Corinthians 2:31 Corinthians 2:3 · King James VersionAnd I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.1 Corinthians 2:3 · King James VersionOpen the Source. It is the posture of a person before God, not a phrase coined for slaves.
• ἁπλότης (haplotēs), “singleness” of heart, set against ὀφθαλμοδουλία (ophthalmodoulia), “eyeservice,” work done only while watched.
• ἀνίημι τὴν ἀπειλήν (“forbearing threatening”). The verb means to loosen or let go. The masters are told to drop the threat, the ordinary tool of control.
• προσωπολημψία (prosōpolēmpsia). Literally receiving the face: favoritism by rank. The same word appears in Romans 2:11Romans 2:11 · King James VersionFor there is no respect of persons with God.Romans 2:11 · King James VersionOpen the Source and Colossians 3:25Colossians 3:25 · King James VersionBut he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.Colossians 3:25 · King James VersionOpen the Source. (22) In Ephesians it is aimed at the master.

How Roman Household Slavery Worked

The Digest of Justinian quotes Florentinus: “Slavery is an institution of the Law of Nations by means of which anyone may subject one man to the control of another, contrary to nature.” The next line says slaves were so called because commanders sold captives “instead of putting them to death.” (11)

• War captives. Josephus says the captives of the Jewish war “was collected to be ninety-seven thousand.” (12)
• Debt. In Matthew 18:25Matthew 18:25 · King James VersionBut forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.Matthew 18:25 · King James VersionOpen the Source a lord orders a debtor “to be sold, and his wife, and children.” (20)
• Scale. Walter Scheidel’s estimates of the slave share of the Empire and of yearly manumissions are quoted on Slavery in the Bible, Rome, and Islam: A Fair Comparison. (13)
• Peculium. Tubero, quoted in the Digest, defines it as what the slave has “separate and apart from his master’s accounts with the permission of the latter.” Pomponius adds that “the master can take away the entire amount of peculium from the slave.” (11)
• Manumission. Freedom could be bought or promised. Tacitus says the prefect Pedanius Secundus was killed by a slave “refused his freedom, for which he had made a bargain.” (10)
• Brutality. After that murder, “ancient custom required that the whole slave-establishment which had dwelt under the same roof should be dragged to execution.” The Senate voted for it, a crowd protested, and the emperor lined the route with soldiers. (10)

Seneca shows the range of opinion: “‘They are slaves,’ people declare. Nay, rather they are men.” (9)

How It Differed From Atlantic Chattel Slavery

Roman law tied slavery to capture, birth, and debt, and the Digest calls it “contrary to nature.” (11) Virginia’s act of 1662 asked whether “children got by any Englishman upon a negro woman should be slave or ffree” and ruled that children follow “the condition of the mother.” (14) The American system was hereditary and racial. Neither system was gentle. Rome executed a whole household for one slave’s crime. (10)

Household Codes and Aristotle

Aristotle’s Politics says “the first and smallest parts of a family are the master and slave, the husband and wife, the father and child,” the same three pairs Ephesians addresses. (8) His account of the slave:

so a slave is an animated instrument … that being who by nature is nothing of himself, but totally another’s, and is a man, is a slave by nature; and that man who is the property of another, is his mere chattel, though he continues a man

Aristotle writes about slaves as part of the master’s household management. Paul’s code differs in four ways that can be read off the text. (1)

• It speaks to slaves in the second person, as people whose work is “doing the will of God from the heart.”
• It promises the slave a reward from the Lord “whether he be bond or free.”
• It gives the master duties: “do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening.”
• It puts master and slave under the same κύριος, who shows no favoritism.

The Cross-References

• Colossians 3:22–4:1Colossians 3:22–4:1 · King James Version^3:22 Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God: ^3:23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; ^3:24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. ^3:25 But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons. ^4:1 Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven.Colossians 3:22–4:1 · King James VersionOpen the Source. The same commands. Masters must give “that which is just and equal.” (2)
• Philemon 1:16Philemon 1:16 · King James VersionNot now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord?Philemon 1:16 · King James VersionOpen the Source. Paul sends Onesimus back “not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved.” Philemon 1:21Philemon 1:21 · King James VersionHaving confidence in thy obedience I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say.Philemon 1:21 · King James VersionOpen the Source adds, “thou wilt also do more than I say.” He does not state what “more” is. (3)
• 1 Corinthians 7:211 Corinthians 7:21 · King James VersionArt thou called being a servant? care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather.1 Corinthians 7:21 · King James VersionOpen the Source. “If thou mayest be made free, use it rather.” The Greek μᾶλλον χρῆσαι has no object, so “use it” can mean the freedom or the present state. 1 Corinthians 7:231 Corinthians 7:23 · King James VersionYe are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.1 Corinthians 7:23 · King James VersionOpen the Source adds, “be not ye the servants of men.” (4)
• Galatians 3:28Galatians 3:28 · King James VersionThere is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.Galatians 3:28 · King James VersionOpen the Source. “There is neither bond nor free … for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” (5)
• 1 Timothy 1:101 Timothy 1:10 · King James VersionFor whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;1 Timothy 1:10 · King James VersionOpen the Source. ἀνδραποδιστής, the man-stealer or slave-trader, is listed with liars and perjurers. (6)
• Exodus 21:16Exodus 21:16 · King James VersionAnd he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.Exodus 21:16 · King James VersionOpen the Source. “He that stealeth a man, and selleth him … shall surely be put to death.” The Hebrew verbs are גָּנַב (ganav), to steal, and מָכַר (makhar), to sell. (7)

The Strongest Form of the Objection

Paul knew Roman slavery and its violence. He told slaves to obey “as unto Christ,” he never told a master to free a slave, and he sent a runaway back. A command to obey a master with “fear and trembling” gives slaveholding a religious motive. A text that only softens a system leaves the system in place, and American defenders of slavery read it that way.

That objection is accurate about what the passage does not say. Ephesians 6 contains no command to emancipate.

How Christians Used the Passage

In defense of slavery. Stringfellow quoted Ephesians 6:5–9 in full and wrote, “Here, by the Roman law, the servant was property, and the control of the master unlimited.” He argued that slavery’s “legality was recognized, and its relative duties regulated, by Jesus Christ.” When an opponent cited Exodus 21:16Exodus 21:16 · King James VersionAnd he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.Exodus 21:16 · King James VersionOpen the Source, he answered, “I suppose that no State has ever established domestic slavery, which did not find such a law necessary.” (16)

The 1807 Select Parts of the Holy Bible, for the Use of the Negro Slaves was printed in London for the British West Indies. Its Galatians runs from chapter 1 to chapter 5, so Galatians 3:28Galatians 3:28 · King James VersionThere is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.Galatians 3:28 · King James VersionOpen the Source is absent. Its Ephesians 6 keeps verses 5–9, including “forbearing threatening.” (15) Museum of the Bible, which exhibited Fisk University’s copy, says it was published “on behalf of the Society for the Conversion of Negro Slaves” and that its publishers “deliberately removed portions of the biblical text, such as the exodus story, that could inspire hope for liberation.” Its curator Anthony Schmidt told NPR that about 90 percent of the Old Testament and 50 percent of the New Testament are missing: 232 of 1,189 chapters remain. (23) (24)

Against slavery. Gregory of Nyssa, preaching in the fourth century on Ecclesiastes 2:7Ecclesiastes 2:7 · King James VersionI got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me:Ecclesiastes 2:7 · King James VersionOpen the Source, attacked the owning of slaves itself, not only its abuses, on the ground that a human being is the image of God. (19) His words are quoted on Slavery in the Bible, Rome, and Islam.

Wilberforce answered the claim that Africans were “an inferior race of beings” as “a position so shameless, and so expressly contradicted by the Holy Scriptures.” He wrote that “to have first mitigated the evils of slavery, and at length in a great degree to have abolished the institution itself, have been numbered among the peculiar glories of Christianity.” (18)

Douglass records a master who whipped a lame young woman and quoted, “He that knoweth his master’s will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes.” In his appendix he wrote, “I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land.” (17) His contrast between “impartial” and “partial” Christianity matches the claim of Ephesians 6:9Ephesians 6:9 · King James VersionAnd, ye 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.Ephesians 6:9 · King James VersionOpen the Source that God shows no favoritism.

Where Traditions Differ

Catholic, Orthodox, and Baptist sources now agree that enslaving people is wrong. They differ in how they ground that judgment and how they treat their own past.

• Catholic. The Catechism, 2414, treats enslavement as a sin against the seventh commandment and cites Philemon as the model: “no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother.” (25) The full paragraph is on Does the Bible Support Slavery?.
• Orthodox and patristic. The appeal is to the Fathers, above all Gregory of Nyssa, who argued from the image of God against owning people at all. (19)
• Baptist. The Southern Baptist Convention’s 1995 resolution names “the role that slavery played in the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention” and says that “many of our Southern Baptist forbears defended the right to own slaves.” Its argument is repentance for its own reading of passages like this one. (26)

How This Site Evaluates It

The passage regulates a relationship it did not create. It does not approve man-stealing, which Exodus 21:16Exodus 21:16 · King James VersionAnd he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.Exodus 21:16 · King James VersionOpen the Source and 1 Timothy 1:101 Timothy 1:10 · King James VersionFor whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;1 Timothy 1:10 · King James VersionOpen the Source condemn. The Atlantic trade began with man-stealing. The passage also does not abolish slavery, and that silence was used to defend slaveholding for centuries.

What the text does is make the slave a moral agent before God, make the master answerable to the same Lord, take away the threat, and call the slave a brother in Philemon. Those claims weaken the master’s ownership without abolishing it. Christians who held the Bible both kept slaves and ended slavery. The wider question of the Law of Moses is Does the Bible Support Slavery?, and Jesus as God is the deity of Christ.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Does Ephesians 6:5 Mean?

It tells Christian slaves to obey their earthly masters sincerely, as service to Christ, and promises a reward from the Lord. (1)

Does Ephesians 6:9 Tell Masters to Free Their Slaves?

No. It tells them to “do the same things unto them,” to stop threatening, and to remember their own Master in heaven. (1)

What Is the Slave Bible?

A selection of the King James text printed in London in 1807 for enslaved people in the British West Indies. It omits Galatians 2–4 and keeps Ephesians 6:5–9. (15)

Does Doulos Mean Slave or Servant?

δοῦλος means a slave, a person owned by another. The King James renders it “servant.” (1)

Keep Reading

• Does the Bible Support Slavery?
• Slavery in the Bible, Rome, and Islam: A Fair Comparison
• What Does the Qur’an Say About War Captives, Spoils, and Slavery?