Paul knows we will be tempted to serve “by the way of eye-service” (Ephesians 6:6). It was a good thing that I loved my family well while my friend watched. But I should also seek to serve my family sacrificially when no one is watching. In private moments, I should serve to glorify God. In public moments, I should serve to glorify God. In all situations, I should serve to exalt the Lord, not myself.

Ephesians 6:5–8, “Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, 8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.”

When I read these sections of Ephesians, I’m tempted to skip verses that don’t seem to apply to me. I’m a wife, but obviously not a husband. I’m a mother, not a father—but I’ll listen in on what Paul is telling fathers. And these verses about slaves and masters sound like antiquated instructions to the first-century church without relevance to 21st-century readers. If you feel the same way, I’d encourage us both to reconsider.

Paul’s discussion of bondservants and masters might cause this passage to sound irrelevant or even offensive to our modern ears. The Greek word doulos is translated in different translations and different places in the Bible as bondservant, slave, or servant. Regardless of the word used, we need to remember that slavery at that time was very different from our American history of slavery.

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