Cheryl Schatz

Notice above that the word for “be obedient” means to “be subject to”, “follow”, “listen to”, “submit to”, “yield to”.

Slaves are to submit to their masters and to do this willingly in sincerity of heart “as to Christ”.

Are masters also to do all of this in sincerity of heart “as to Christ”? Yes, they are also to submit to the needs of the servant and listen to them. These Christian masters are to do all of this in the fear of the Lord. For just as the slaves are to render service to their masters:

Ephesians 6:7 (NASB)
7 With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men,

…so too are the masters to render service to the slaves:

Ephesians 6:9 (NASB)
9 And masters, do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.

One other thing that is added on the part of masters is to give up threatening. Although with mutual submission, this would also be applicable to slaves, slaves would not be the ones who would have the power to threaten. It is the masters who had the power to threaten with punishment. They were to stop this.

Notice also that along with doing the same things (plural) to the slaves, they were to consider that the slaves were equal with them in the Lord as they both has the same master and the Lord is not partial to masters over slaves.

You can’t just take ‘obey’ and ‘do the same thing’ and ignore the rest of the text as if it doesn’t mean anything or rather gives meaning to the exhortation.

I didn’t say that the rest of the text didn’t mean anything. I was pointing out the mutual submission that is evident in the English and in the Greek. Whatever the rest of the text includes, it cannot exclude “submission” and “do the same thing”. These words are there for a purpose and they make common sense of Ephesians 5:21 where the grammar is reciprocal. When the command is for all of us to submit to each other and then Paul goes on to show how that is to be operative even in the lives of slaves and masters with masters doing the same things to the slaves as unto the Lord, we have a full description of mutual submission “one to another”.

Why will i waste my time explaining how my marriage works on this blog.

You don’t need to give us an example from your own marriage, but surely you can give a hypothetical example that you would consider a classic example of an authority taken by the husband with submission by the wife where the husband is not required to do for the wife what she is required to do for him. Without an example how is it that we can fully understand what you are saying? Since you don’t agree with my examples of mutual submission, perhaps you can give us a good one or two examples of unilateral submission. Or perhaps you just aren’t able to give such an example. If that is the case just say so. Then our case will stand and we win 😉