Bondmen, obey in all things your masters according to flesh; not with eye-services, as men-pleasers, but in simplicity of heart, fearing the Lord.
The letter has been showing how the new life works out at home; now it comes to the lowest place in the household, the slave. Why does it not tell these people to walk free, and what does honest work look like when the work is forced?
Christianity leaves the social order standing and aims at something else.
It seems that masters and slaves were no part of the creation order. So you might expect Christianity to ignore such arrangements, or even to ban them. It does neither. Christianity does not approve slavery and does not condemn it, because the work of grace is not to "set itself to change the state of the world, and of society". Its great purpose is to call a people out of the world to Christ, and to bring them into new and heavenly relationships.
The command has no conditions attached, and one writer links that to the state of these readers.
The command is absolute in every one of these cases in Colossians. It is not so in Ephesians, which brings in more of a guard. I think this is because the Ephesians were in a happier and better state. They needed the limits of the duty rather than the pressure of it. The Colossians needed to be urged to obey… Strange to say, you will always find self-will keeping company with a spirit of rule-keeping. There is never true obedience without the power of grace.
Becoming brothers in Christ created a new danger inside the household.
A slave suddenly found himself a brother to his master. If he did not watch himself, he would soon start to judge his master, weighing whether he ought to say this or do that. If his master blamed him for anything, he might think his master had acted in a hard, unspiritual way… Yet a man ought to do everything better after he knows Christ than before. The idea that a Christian master should put up with badly done work, just because he is a Christian, is all selfishness.
"In everything" sounds unlimited, but the passage itself sets one boundary.
As the very name suggests, the servant's first duty is obedience… and, as with children, the obedience called for is almost unlimited. The one limit lies in what they owe the Lord above all. Scripture does not state this outright, but it clearly implies it when it says they serve the Lord Christ. (Col. 3:24.)
This command reaches far beyond the ancient household.
Verse 22 speaks to slaves, yet the principle applies also to employees and students at school. If even slaves are to obey, then those who are well paid have far more reason to obey… Their obedience is not to be "eye service" — work done only while the master is watching. They are to work as people who are always under the eye of God, in sincerity of heart, which is the opposite of a double life, and moved by the true fear of God.
A cruel master gives the servant no excuse of his own.
They are not to plan and plot to cast off their chains and assert their rights. They are not to give way to sour, sullen and revengeful feelings. Instead they are to become models of faithful, hard-working service… Even in the extreme case of slavery, unrighteousness in the master would not excuse unrighteousness in the servant.
Older versions read "singleness of heart" here, and the same word turns up elsewhere.
The noun "singleness" (or "simplicity") appears more often. Ephesians 6:5 and Colossians 3:22 speak of singleness of heart, and 2 Corinthians 1:12 and 11:3 of simplicity before God and before Christ. It is a heart marked by love and trust, simple and undivided. It will not let any sin spoil our relationship with our Lord and our God and Father — not doubt, and not wrong hidden motives.
The fear in this verse is not the fear of the man in charge.
The words "with fear and trembling" do not in the least imply any slavish fear of men. Such service could not be done "in singleness of heart," nor "unto Christ"… There are two motives for service given here. The first is the purest and the highest: the fear of the Lord and affection for His blessed Person, who as a servant has set us such an example in everything that is good and for the glory of God.
- Place kept. Christianity neither approves slavery nor condemns it. Grace calls people out of the world to Christ, so the slave stays where he is and serves there.
- Word absolute. The command here carries no conditions, because these readers needed pressure rather than limits. Self-will and rule-keeping always travel together.
- One limit. Obedience runs as far as what the servant owes the Lord, and no further. In the end he serves the Lord Christ.
- Eye changed. Eye-service is work that appears while the master watches and stops when he turns away. It suits a people-pleaser and disgraces a God-pleaser, because the Christian works at all times under the eye of God.
- Heart undivided. Sincerity of heart means love and trust with no hidden motive. A master who becomes your brother is no excuse for working worse than before.
Whatsoever ye do, labour at it heartily, as [doing it] to the Lord, and not to men;
Paul closes his letter to the Colossians with instructions for ordinary life — wives, husbands, children, fathers, and then working people who owned nothing and took orders all day. This verse asks a question every worker still faces: who am I really working for, and does that change how I work?
The first readers were slaves. That setting is what makes the command so striking.
"Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men" (Col. 3:23). Paul wrote these words to people who were slaves. A slave's life could be hard, depending on what the master was like. Either way, Paul urged them to work heartily. They had an earthly master, but they were to look up to their Master in heaven. They were to please Him. Paul puts a remarkable dignity on these slaves when he writes, "you are serving the Lord Christ." Slavery as Paul knew it may no longer exist. But the Christian employee still owes the same hearty service, as to the Lord.
The word "heartily" rules out work that is correct but has no heart in it.
But do not be so taken up with serving an earthly master. Remember, "you are serving the Lord Christ." This will make you all the more willing to obey your earthly master. You will do whatever you do heartily — not just because it is right, but with your heart in it.
The opposite of hearty work is not bad work. It is grudging work. And the verse reaches past the slaves it first addressed.
Verse 23, though addressed especially to slaves, may be taken to heart by every believer. What a difference it makes to our whole life if we do everything heartily to the Lord, and not grudgingly or unwillingly!
The verse before this one warns against "eye-service" — working for the boss's glance. Where the eye rests decides everything.
"Not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers." The eye is not to be on the face of the master. If it is, the temptation will be to please him, and so to become a man-pleaser. The smallest duty loses its value before God if we do it for men instead of for Him.
What replaces that habit is not tighter supervision but a larger audience.
What then is given as a safeguard against this people-pleasing eye-service? The uplifting thought that we serve the Lord Christ. Our work is for the eye of the Lord in heaven, not only for the eye of the master on earth. Even the dull, hard work of the lowest slave should still be done for the Lord of all.
If the Lord receives the work, then the smallest job carries weight.
What a happy thing it is to know that our God stoops to link His name and His glory with the humblest duties of ordinary daily life! This gives dignity, interest and freshness to every little act, from morning till night. "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men." Here lies the precious secret of the whole matter. It is not working for wages, but serving the Lord Christ, and looking to Him to receive the reward of the inheritance.
That principle lands on the most unremarkable parts of a working day.
How it brightens and beautifies the daily round of duty to be looking for the approval of Christ! Think what a difference it makes to writing up a ledger, planing a stubborn plank, or learning a hard verb. Our loving, patient Lord stands at our elbow to notice our efforts and reward our hard work.
Working "as for the Lord" settles the question of the difficult employer. The standard no longer comes from him.
So the Lord puts servants in His own presence. They are the servants of Christ. They are to do the will of God from the heart, and to fix their eye on the Lord alone. Remembering this is the secret of all happy, cheerful service and of all true obedience. It also sets them free from what their masters are like.
The next verse names a reward the earthly master may never give.
Service of any kind is only done as it deserves to be done for the Lord when the eye looks on to the end of the path. The Lord Christ pays good wages. He even pays a bonus at the end of the path of service — the reward of the inheritance.
- Whoever. Paul wrote first to slaves with nothing to gain. So no job is too small or too thankless for this verse.
- Whatever. "Whatever you do" leaves nothing outside — the ledger, the plank, the hard verb — so ordinary duties become the place where God's name is honoured.
- Heartily. The command is not just to do right work, but to do it with the heart. Grudging service fails the verse even when the job is done well.
- For the Lord. Working for men breeds eye-service and robs even a small duty of its value. Working for Christ frees you from the sort of master you happen to have.
- Rewarded. The earthly employer may never say thank you, but the Lord Christ pays in full — the reward of the inheritance.
knowing that of [the] Lord ye shall receive the recompense of the inheritance; ye serve the Lord Christ.
Paul writes here to slaves in Colossae, and he points them past their masters to their pay. Behind the household stands another Master, and behind the unpaid years an inheritance — so what is this "reward," and why does it go to the people with the least to gain on earth?
The word Paul uses for "reward" is not his usual one, and its meaning fits the people he writes to.
The word for "reward" here is not the ordinary one so translated. It occurs only here in the New Testament, though often in the Greek translation of the Old. It means recompense, with the underlying thought of compensation. You can feel how well it fits: grace would light up the otherwise hard condition of the Christian slave, from verse 22 onwards.
The verse names the real employer. That changes how a servant treats the master he can see.
Do not be so taken up with serving an earthly master. Remember, "you serve the Lord Christ." Then you will be all the more subject to your earthly master. You will do whatever you do heartily — not just because it is right, but with heart.
A servant's honour depends on whom he serves.
There is no disgrace in being a slave of Jesus Christ. His service is so dignified that the lowliest task becomes an honoured privilege to those who know that they "serve the Lord Christ."
Nothing here promises the slave a change in his circumstances. The promise is a coming day of open recognition.
What encouragement for a poor slave, if trampled on here and denied his rights as a man, to know that God looked on him and thought of him! And in the day of Christ's glory God would give him openly his position and his inheritance, owning him as one of His sons. In many a difficulty and trial it would help him to remember this: in serving his earthly master well, he was serving the Lord Christ.
The recompense is not a prize separate from Christ. It is a share in what is His.
True service of any kind is only done as it deserves to be done for the Lord when the eye looks to the end of the path of service. The Lord Christ pays good wages. He even pays a bonus at the end of the path of service — the recompense of the inheritance. Just think of it. He is destined to take up that glorious inheritance in the day of His coming glory, and we are going to share it with Him.
Working for a reward can sound self-interested. But the passage gives two motives, and puts one of them first.
There are two motives for service given here. The first is the chief one, because it is the purest motive. It is the fear of the Lord and affection for His blessed Person. As a servant He has set us such an example in everything that is good and for the glory of God. This is what comes first: doing service heartily, as to the Lord, "fearing the Lord" (the correct reading in Colossians 3:22), and serving the Lord. The second motive for service is a "reward," which, in our character as "servants" of Christ, is quite a proper motive.
The encouragement is not only about the end. The Lord gives something along the way too.
All service, whatever its character, is done in responsibility to the Lord; and here lies the encouragement. His eye is on the faithful servant. He marks all his discouragements, trials and sorrows. He sustains him by His present approval, and by the prospect of "the reward of the inheritance" which he will receive at last from the hands of his Lord. For the time is not far off when He will settle accounts with all His servants.
- Master — Behind the earthly master stands the Lord Christ. Remembering Him makes a servant more subject to his master, not less.
- Dignity — Because of who the Master is, the lowest task is an honoured privilege, not a disgrace.
- Compensation — The word translated "reward" appears nowhere else in the New Testament. It carries the sense of recompense: compensation for what was lost.
- Payday — The recompense is the inheritance itself: a share with Christ in the glory He is about to take up, with the servant openly owned as a son in that day.
- Motive — Love for Christ comes first, reward second. Yet reward is a proper motive for a servant, and His approval already sustains him now.
For he that does a wrong shall receive the wrong he has done, and there is no respect of persons.
The apostle's last word to Christian slaves is a warning, not a promise. It lands in a home where the master held all the power and the slave had no legal remedy — so who is the wrongdoer here, and when does God settle the account?
The verse sits in a passage addressed to slaves. Yet the warning cuts both ways in the household.
In that coming day when accounts are settled, if not already now, the Lord will make it clear that He shows no partiality. Whoever does wrong, master or slave, will receive back the wrong he has done. So masters are to treat their slaves in the fear of the Lord, knowing that they themselves have a Master in heaven.
For a person with no standing in court, this is good news. God sees what no human court will act on.
What encouragement for a poor slave who is trampled on here and denied his rights as a man! God looked on him and thought of him. In the day of Christ's glory God would give him his place and his inheritance in full view of all, owning him as one of His sons. ... Was he treated unjustly, when he had no protector on earth? The apostle reminds him that the wrongdoer would certainly reap the reward of his deeds.
The same sentence that comforts the victim also removes his excuse. Bad treatment does not put a person outside the rule.
Verse 25 warns that doing wrong would mean the servant reaping what he sowed — whether or not he felt his master's treatment justified it. No doubt the same would be true for the master, but that is no real comfort to the servant. God shows no partiality. No matter how great the wrong someone suffers, it never justifies doing wrong in return.
Does the repayment wait for the coming day? One writer reads the words as a general rule that already operates now.
The apostle adds a remarkable word here: "the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality." I take this as covering both the present and the future, since it is a general principle.
Does forgiveness cancel the consequences? The answer separates two ways God deals with the same person.
"Whatever one sows, that will he also reap." But this is not grace; it is government. Still it is true of a saint as well as of a sinner. God deals with His people in both ways now: in grace, and in righteous government. I will never reap the reward of my sins in eternal blessedness, for that is infinite grace. But under His righteous government I will reap the reward of my wrongdoing here on earth.
Grace does not cancel a believer's accountability. The wrath is gone; the account is not.
The grace that has delivered us from judgment should shape our ways more powerfully than the fear of that judgment. And more than that, we must remember this: as sinners we are delivered from judgment and wrath, yet as servants we must give account of ourselves and our ways. The question is not whether men, angels, or devils see us here or there. No — "we must give account to God."
Status carries no weight in Christ's judgment. The person society honours and the person it overlooks stand on the same ground.
Even a Christian master might forget that social distinctions, though recognised and approved on earth, have no existence in Christ's judgment. Master and servant will all answer to Him. ... The law might give the injured servant no remedy. Yet the master is reminded of another court, where he must stand and where his treatment of his servant will be judged. It will be judged not by human laws, but by the standard of Him who is holy, Him who is true.
- Impartial — the rule covers everyone in the house: "Whoever does wrong, master or slave, will receive back the wrong he has done."
- Comfort — for the one with "no protector on earth," God has seen the injustice and will settle it in full view of all.
- Restraint — the same impartiality cuts the other way. Suffering wrong "never justifies doing wrong in return."
- Government — grace has removed eternal wrath. Yet God still deals with His own in "righteous government," so a believer reaps what he sows here.
- Accounting — rank is no shield. Master and servant "will all answer to Him," each giving account of his own ways to God.