¹Children, obey your parents because you are Christians.^aThis is the right thing to do. ²“Honor your father and mother ³that everything may go well for you, and you may have a long life on earth.” This is an important commandment with a promise.^b

⁴Fathers, don’t make your children bitter about life. Instead, bring them up in Christian discipline and instruction.

Paul’s Advice to Slaves and Masters

⁵Slaves, obey your earthly masters with proper respect. Be as sincere as you are when you obey Christ. ⁶Don’t obey them only while you’re being watched, as if you merely wanted to please people. But obey like slaves who belong to Christ, who have a deep desire to do what God wants them to do. ⁷Serve eagerly as if you were serving your heavenly master and not merely serving human masters. ⁸You know that your heavenly master will reward all of us for whatever good we do, whether we’re slaves or free people.

⁹Masters, treat your slaves with respect. Don’t threaten a slave. You know that there is one master in heaven who has authority over both of you, and he doesn’t play favorites.

Read in Logos

Ephesians 6:2–3: “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

Footnotes

a 6:1 Some manuscripts and translations omit “because you are Christians.”
b 6:3 The first part of verse 2 (in Greek) has been placed at the end of verse 3 to express the complex Greek sentence structure more clearly in English.