1 Timothy 6:1-21

Concerning Servants, the Rich, and Corrupt Teachers

1, 2. The eighth charge to Timothy, as to bondservants or slaves. We have here an indication of the way in which Christianity abolished slavery—not by denouncing it, but by implanting the idea of Christian brotherhood, which was incompatible with it: see Intro, to Philemon. If a Christian were the slave of an unbeliever, his submissiveness was to be such as to earn credit for his profession. If he had a Christian master, he was to be the more zealous in his service, inasmuch as his master, who derived benefit from it, was a believer like himself, and therefore an object of love.