What Does 1 Timothy 6:2 Mean?
And those who have steady masters, let them not look down on them, because they are brothers; but rather serve them, because they are steady and beloved, taking hold of the good. These things teach and urge.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort.THE KEY
The verse calls the master a brother while commanding the enslaved person with a verb from the Greek word-family for slavery.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to the enslaved person with a believing master: shared brotherhood is no permission for contempt, and the instruction is to serve all the more. The Greek service verb belongs to the word-family for slavery, so the unequal bond remains present in the command. The masters are called faithful and beloved, “partakers of the benefit.”
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that spiritual kinship automatically cancels the unequal demand for service; here brotherhood forbids contempt while the service command remains.
THE ROOT
δουλευέτωσαν
douleuetōsan
GROWS FROM
δοῦλ
doul-
Slave; a person bound to another’s service.
The verb translated “do them service” is δουλευέτωσαν (douleuetōsan), a form of δουλεύω (douleuō, to serve as a slave), from δοῦλος (doulos, slave). English “service” can sound general, while this word-family keeps the labor inside an enslaved person’s relation to a master.
ALSO GROWS
doulos: Slave; servant bound to another.
δοῦλος
The noun names the person-status carried by the service verb.
douleia: Slavery; bondage.
δουλεία
This related noun makes the condition present within the same word-family.
καταφρονείτωσαν
kataphroneitōsan
GROWS FROM
φρον
phron-
To think, set the mind, or regard; combined with κατά (kata, down), to think down upon.
“look down on” in this verse is kataphroneitōsan. The form καταφρονείτωσαν (kataphroneitōsan) carries the sense of regarding someone from above, as beneath consideration. The verse names the master as a brother, exposing contempt as a refusal to see that shared kinship.
ALSO GROWS
phroneō: To think; set one’s mind or regard.
φρονέω
The base verb shows that contempt is a way of seeing and judging.
phronēsis: Understanding; practical wisdom.
φρόνησις
This related word shows the same thought-family can name considered judgment rather than looking down on someone.
πιστούς
pistous
GROWS FROM
πιστ
pist-
Trust, reliance, and trustworthiness; one who trusts or proves reliable.
“steady masters” in this verse is pistous. Greek uses the same word-family for the masters called “believing” and those called “faithful”; English gives two labels where the sentence holds trust and reliability together. The root carries the sense of trust and leaning one’s weight on what is reliable.
ALSO GROWS
pistis: Trust; reliance.
πίστις
The noun names the trust held together with the masters’ reliability.
pisteuō: To trust, entrust oneself, or believe.
πιστεύω
The verb shows trust as an act of placing oneself or something in another’s care.
THE PATTERN
Brotherhood reaches across a master–servant bond and changes the obligations within it.
And if your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall send him out from you unbound.And you masters, do the same things to them, releasing the threat, knowing that their Lord and yours is in the heavens, and with him there is no lifting of faces.No longer as a servant, but more than a servant, a beloved brother, most of all to me, and how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord?THE THREAD
With good will serving, as to the Lord, and not to people.The same Greek verb-family stands behind “do them service” here and “doing service” in Ephesians 6:7. Ephesians describes that labor as done with good will and directed to the Lord, letting the shared root illuminate what “service” carries in both verses.
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