if I charge free men to submit themselves one to another in the fear of God,—as he said above, “submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ”;—if I charge moreover the wife to fear and reverence her husband, although she is his equal; much more must I so 158 speak to the servant. It is no sign of low birth, rather it is the truest nobility, to understand how to lower ourselves, to be modest and unassuming, and to give way to our neighbor. And the free have served the free with much fear and trembling. “In singleness of heart,” he says. And it is well said, since it is possible to serve with fear and trembling, and yet not of good will, but in just any way that may be possible. Many servants in many instances secretly cheat their masters. And this cheating accordingly he does away, by saying, “in singleness of your heart as unto Christ, not in the way of eye-service as men-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good-will doing service, as unto the Lord, and not unto men.” Seest thou how many words he requires, in order to implant this good principle, “with goodwill,” I mean, and “from the heart”? That other service, “with fear and trembling” I mean, we see many rendering to their masters, and the master’s threat goes far to secure that. But show, saith he, that thou servest as “the servant of Christ,” not of man. Make the right action your own, not one of compulsion. Just as in the words which follow, he persuades and instructs the man who is ill-treated by another to make the right action his own, and the work of his own free choice. Because inasmuch as the man that smites the cheek, is not supposed to come to that act in consequence of any intention in the person struck, but only of his own individual malice, what saith He? “Turn to him the other also” (Matt. v. 39.); to show him that in submitting to the first thou wert not unwilling. For he that is lavish in suffering wrong, makes that his own which is not his own act, by suffering himself to be smitten on the other cheek also, and not merely by enduring the first blow. For this latter will have perhaps the appearance even of cowardice; but that of a high philo- sophy.—Thus thou wilt show that it was for the sake of wisdom that thou didst bear the first blow also. And so in the present case, show here too, that thou bearest this slavery also willingly. The man-pleaser then is no servant of Christ. The servant of Christ is not a man- pleaser. (Gal. i. 10.) For who that is the servant of God, makes it his object to please men? And who that pleases men, can be a servant of God? “From the heart,”455 saith he, “with good-will doing service.” For since it is possible to do service even with singleness of heart and not wrongfully, and yet not with all one’s might, but only so far as fulfilling one’s bounden duty, therefore he says, do it with alacrity, not of necessity, upon principle, not upon constraint. If thus thou do service, thou art no slave; if 455 [“From the heart” (ἐκ ψυχῆς) is joined by Chrysostom with what follows. (So Westcott and Hort.) But as μετ᾽ εὐνοίας expresses the well-meaning disposition, it already includes the sense of ἐκ ψυχῆς. So that ἐκ ψυχῆς belongs to what precedes. So Meyer, Ellicott, and Rev. Ver.—G.A.] 292 Ephesians 6:5-8