6:7a

Serve with good will: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as with good will means “enthusiastically” or “cheerfully.” Here, it means slaves should do their work willingly and happily, not just because they have to do it.

Here are some ways to translate this word:

• As an adverb. For example:

Work happily
-or-
Work willingly

• As a verb. For example:

Be-happy doing your work

• As an idiom: If your language has an idiom that means to do something with a cheerful willing attitude, you can use that. For example:

Let your heart dance while you do your work

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

Work with enthusiasm (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
Do your work as slaves cheerfully (Good News Translation)
-or-
Serve eagerly (God’s Word)

6:7b

as to the Lord and not to men: The Greek clause that the Berean Standard Bible literally translates as as to the Lord and not to men means that a Christian slave serves the Lord, even when he is doing daily work for his master.

Here are some ways to translate this phrase:

Consider that you are doing your work for the Lord, not just for people
-or-
When you do your work, think this: you are working for the Lord, you are not just working for your master

the Lord: Here Lord refers to Christ (6:5c, 6:6b).

© 1999, 2019 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.