There were many slaves living in the Roman empire during the first century. Some of the slaves had sold themselves into slavery. They sometimes did this to keep from being killed. Sometimes they did this to actually make their lives easier. Their new masters would take them to a rich part of the world. Some slaves were from conquered countries. If the country had fought hard to keep from being conquered, the Romans would bring many of the people to other parts of the Roman Empire and sell them. Sometimes soldiers got to take defeated people as slaves as a part of their wages for being soldiers.
Ephesus was a major trading center in the Roman empire. A great amount of trade was done there. Some ancient writers say that as many as 10,000 slaves sold there each day.
Paul speaks to the slaves and the masters in his letter to the Ephesian church. In Ephesians 6:5-8, he tells the slaves to obey their masters. They are to do their service with good will. They are to obey their masters as if they were servants of Christ.
In Ephesians 6:9, Paul tells the masters to treat their servants with the same attitude that he had told the servants to have toward their masters. He tells them to remember that they have a Master in heaven.
I am glad that we have a good Master in heaven. He does not have respect of persons. He does not treat one person one way and another person another way. He loves all men. And he wants all men to love and obey him. He wants all men to be his servants. If we will be good servants, he promises to give us a great reward–heaven.
