In Ephesians 6, Paul continues his theme of people submitting to each other. “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ,” he said in the previous chapter, before talking about married life.

Now he moves on to children and parents, and – controversially – the relationship of slaves and masters.

Children and parents

He says children should “obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right” (NIV), and reminds readers of that honouring parents is in the Ten Commandments.

But having said what would have been a completely obvious bit of ethics, he then says something radical.

He says: “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord” (NIV).

As the Faithlife Study Bible puts it: “In first-century Greco-Roman society, fathers—as the head of the household—had complete authority within the household to administer discipline.”

Indeed, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the Greek historian who died in AD 7, wrote that the Roman Empire “gave virtually full power to the father over his son, whether he thought proper to imprison him, to scourge him, to put him in chains, and keep him at work in the fields, or to put him to death”.

So Paul’s use of rhetoric involves saying the obvious status quo and then turning the tables on it.

The Bible is anti-slavery

Paul then comes to slavery. The Old Testament has Exodus as an anti-slavery chapter. In the New Testament Paul reveals what he really thinks of slavery by urging Philemon to turn his slave into a free man and also reconcile with him.

Here, in Ephesians 6, Paul is making a more limited argument aimed at stamping out the worst abuses.

He begins his rhetoric by telling slaves to behave well – the standard view of the time. “Serve wholeheartedly,” he says, “as if you were serving the Lord, not people.”

But then he reveals his radicalism by adding: “Treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favouritism with him.”

Slavery may have been a fact of life in the Roman Empire, but Paul was determined to ensure Christians knew that slaves and masters were equal in God’s eyes.