Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ;
EPHESIANS 6:5
Within the structure of family relationships and economic systems of the physical world, the apostle Paul encourages believers in Jesus to submit to one another by His Spirit who confirms their equal and unified status in Him.
The apostle Paul says to the saints in Ephesus and faithful in Jesus that God has blessed them with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Jesus, having predestined them to adoption as sons by Jesus to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, making them accepted in Him. They have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, God having made known the mystery of His will that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Jesus (EPH1:1-10).
Paul prays God strengthens them through His Spirit that Jesus may dwell in their hearts through faith, that being rooted and grounded in love they would know His love which passes knowledge, and be filled with all the fullness of God (EPH3:16-19). As a result they are to walk with all lowliness and gentleness with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of God’s Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in them all (EPH4:1-6). For they were once in darkness but are now light in Jesus so they are to walk as children of light, being filled with God’s Spirit who confirms who they are in Him, submitting to one another in the fear (reverence) of Him (EPH5:8,18-21,ROM8:16).
Wives are to be subject to their husbands as the believers are subject to Jesus, and husbands are to love their wives as Jesus loves the believers and gave Himself for them. Children are to obey their parents who are in Jesus, and fathers are not to provoke their children to wrath, but bring them up in the knowledge of Jesus (EPH5:24-25,6:1,4). Bondservants are to be obedient to their masters according to the flesh (physical world) with fear and trembling (reverence and awareness of one’s own fleshly weaknesses) in sincerity of heart, not with eyeservice as men pleasers but as bondservants to Jesus, doing the will of God from the heart knowing that whatever good anyone does they will receive the same from Jesus, whether slave or free. And masters are to do the same to their bondservants, giving up threatening knowing that their own master is Jesus, and there is no partiality with Him (EPH6:5-9).