Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.
Servants are to remain subject to their masters with reverence and respect, not only to those who are good and gentle but also to those who are harsh, perverse and froward. When they suffer wrongfully while doing what is right and good with a clear conscience toward God, they are to endure it patiently without retaliation, defiance, insult, or threat. Such patient endurance of wrongful suffering is pleasing and acceptable to God and is part of the believer's calling, while patiently bearing punishment for one's own faults deserves no special credit. Christ is the example for those who suffer while doing right: though sinless and innocent, He did not answer insults with insults or threaten when He suffered, but entrusted Himself to God the righteous Judge and His righteous judgment. In that suffering He bore sins on the tree so that people might die to sin and live righteously, His wounds bring healing, and those who had strayed like sheep have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of their souls.
The verse applies to employer and servant relationships by requiring servants who follow Christ to do their work faithfully and intelligently as serving the Lord. It also requires Christian masters and employers not to treat workers as inferior or deal with them unfairly, but to avoid excessive demands, delayed or unjust wages, criticism, and an overbearing manner, and to treat them with kindness and integrity because both master and worker belong to Christ and are accountable to God. The verse instructs the manner of labor and the right relation between physicians and their brethren as God designed it. Medical missionary work is to be bound up with the gospel ministry rather than made the body, and God's people are to be kept separate from the world and free from worldly counsels and contaminating influences. Medical workers are to be molded after the similitude of Christ, standing on the platform of truth uninfluenced by false theories, respecting the pure principles of the gospel, and laboring unitedly with the church and ministers in soul-saving work rather than allowing any physician to control their efforts by his authority.
The verse counsels those facing restrictions from civil authorities to remain respectful while refusing any demand that violates the Sabbath. It counsels believers facing restrictions on Sunday work to remain calm and respectful but to refuse any demand that requires them to violate the seventh-day Sabbath.
Servants are to remain subject to their masters with reverence and respect, not only to those who are good and gentle but also to those who are harsh, perverse and froward. When they suffer wrongfully while doing what is right and good with a clear conscience toward God, they are to endure it patiently without retaliation, defiance, insult, or threat. Such patient endurance of wrongful suffering is pleasing and acceptable to God and is part of the believer's calling, while patiently bearing punishment for one's own faults deserves no special credit. Christ is the example for those who suffer while doing right: though sinless and innocent, He did not answer insults with insults or threaten when He suffered, but entrusted Himself to God the righteous Judge and His righteous judgment. In that suffering He bore sins on the tree so that people might die to sin and live righteously, His wounds bring healing, and those who had strayed like sheep have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of their souls.
The verse applies to employer and servant relationships by requiring servants who follow Christ to do their work faithfully and intelligently as serving the Lord. It also requires Christian masters and employers not to treat workers as inferior or deal with them unfairly, but to avoid excessive demands, delayed or unjust wages, criticism, and an overbearing manner, and to treat them with kindness and integrity because both master and worker belong to Christ and are accountable to God. The verse instructs the manner of labor and the right relation between physicians and their brethren as God designed it. Medical missionary work is to be bound up with the gospel ministry rather than made the body, and God's people are to be kept separate from the world and free from worldly counsels and contaminating influences. Medical workers are to be molded after the similitude of Christ, standing on the platform of truth uninfluenced by false theories, respecting the pure principles of the gospel, and laboring unitedly with the church and ministers in soul-saving work rather than allowing any physician to control their efforts by his authority.
The verse counsels those facing restrictions from civil authorities to remain respectful while refusing any demand that violates the Sabbath. It counsels believers facing restrictions on Sunday work to remain calm and respectful but to refuse any demand that requires them to violate the seventh-day Sabbath.