Ephesians 6

Verses 1-4 continue the household code by addressing children directly, which assumes their participation within the worshiping community. Their obedience is qualified as being “in the Lord,” and Paul supports the command by citing the fifth commandment from Exodus 20:12 and Deuteronomy 5:16. He calls it the “first commandment with a promise,” probably meaning the first command in the Decalogue explicitly accompanied by a promise. Fathers, or possibly parents more generally under the term pateres, are warned not to provoke children but to raise them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Verses 5-8 address enslaved persons within the realities of the ancient household. They are told to obey earthly masters sincerely, not merely when watched, because their service is ultimately rendered to Christ. The passage neither abolishes slavery nor provides a defense of the institution; it regulates relationships within an existing social order while relocating ultimate allegiance to Christ. The reference to receiving back from the Lord whatever good one does gives enslaved believers eschatological dignity not dependent on social status.

Verse 9 addresses masters with a striking reciprocal command: “do the same things to them,” and stop threatening. Masters and slaves share the same heavenly Lord, with whom there is “no partiality.” Some interpreters see this as planting principles that undermine slavery’s ideological foundations, while others stress that the text stops short of demanding emancipation. The immediate rhetorical force is to subject earthly authority to divine judgment.

Ephesians 6 completes the household instructions begun in 5:21 and then broadens the letter’s ethical vision into cosmic conflict. Verses 1-9 address children and parents, enslaved persons and masters, adapting familiar Greco-Roman household conventions while placing every relationship under the lordship of Christ. Obedience, nurture, service, and authority are all relativized by accountability to the same heavenly Lord, who shows no partiality.

Verses 10-20 conclude the main exhortation with the imagery of God’s armor. The church’s struggle is not ultimately against human opponents but against spiritual powers, and the armor imagery draws heavily on Isaiah’s descriptions of God and his messianic agent. Prayer accompanies the entire struggle, including intercession for Paul’s proclamation while imprisoned. Verses 21-24 provide travel information about Tychicus and close with blessings of peace, love, faith, and grace.