17 Bible Verses about Servants

But I feel that I must send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow-laborer, and fellow-soldier, whom you sent to look after my needs.

Share my hardships like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Anyone who is in the army keeps from being involved in business affairs, so as to please the officer who enlisted him.

Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus, to all the devoted adherents of Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the superintendents and assistants;

Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, and the brother of James, to those who have been called, who are dear to God the Father and have been kept through union with Jesus Christ;

Paul, a slave of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to arouse faith in those whom God has chosen, and the comprehension of religious truth,

James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, sends greeting to the twelve tribes that are scattered over the world.

The secret meaning of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and of the seven gold lampstands is this: The seven stars are the guardian angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

"To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: " 'He who holds the seven stars in his right hand and goes about among the seven gold lampstands speaks thus:

Whatever the endowment God has given you, use it in service to one another, like good dispensers of God's varied mercy.

and a slave of the Lord must not quarrel, but treat everyone kindly; he must be persuasive and unresentful,

The right way for a man to think of us is as Christ's servants, and managers authorized to distribute the secret truths of God.

For as God's overseer a superintendent must be irreproachable, not arrogant or quick-tempered or given to drink or pugnacious or addicted to dishonest gain,

For it is not myself but Christ Jesus that I am proclaiming as Lord; I am only a slave of yours for Jesus' sake.

You who are slaves must always obey your earthly masters, not with mere external service, as though you had only men to please, but with sincerity of heart, because you fear the Lord.

All who are under the yoke of slavery must treat their masters with the greatest respect, so that the name of God and our teaching may not be abused.

You who are slaves, obey your earthly masters, in reverence and awe, with sincerity of heart, as you would the Christ,

You servants must be submissive to your masters and perfectly respectful to them; not only to those who are kind and considerate, but also to those who are unreasonable.

Tell slaves always to obey their masters and try to please them, not to oppose them

A Roman captain had a slave whom he thought a great deal of, and the slave was sick and at the point of death. When the captain heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, to ask him to come and save his slave's life.

Once you found him useless, but now he has become useful to you and to me,

When the angel who had spoken to him was gone, Cornelius called two of his servants, and a devout soldier who was one of his personal attendants,

For I am myself under the orders of others and I have soldiers under me, and I tell one to go, and he goes, and another to come, and he comes, and my slave to do something, and he does it."

For last night an angel of the God I belong to and serve stood before me,

James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, sends greeting to the twelve tribes that are scattered over the world.

As God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in spreading the good news of his Son, I never fail to mention you when I pray,

Live like free men, only do not make your freedom an excuse for doing wrong, but be slaves of God.

Do not get into close and incongruous relations with unbelievers. What partnership can uprightness have with iniquity, or what can light have to do with darkness? How can Christ agree with Belial? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? What bargain can a temple of God make with idols? For we are a temple of the living God, just as God said, "I will live in them and move among them, And I will be their God and they will be my people."

No slave can belong to two masters, for he will either hate one and love the other, or stand by one and make light of the other. You cannot serve God and money.

No servant can belong to two masters, for he will either hate one and love the other, or he will stand by one and make light of the other. You cannot serve God and money!"

No, but that what the heathen sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot eat at the table of the Lord and at the table of demons. Or are we trying to arouse the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he is?

With it we bless the Lord our Father, and with it we curse men made in God's likeness. Blessing and cursing issue from the same mouth! This is not right, my brothers. Does a spring pour forth fresh and brackish water from the same crevice? read more.
Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers, or a grape vine figs? A salt spring cannot give fresh water.

For we have all??ews or Greeks, slaves or free men??een baptized in one spirit to form one body, and we have all been saturated with one Spirit.

for you know that everyone, slave or free, will be rewarded by the Lord for his good conduct.

There is no room for "Jew" and "Greek"; there is no room for "slave" and "freeman"; there is no room for "male" and "female"; for in union with Christ Jesus you are all one.

Here, what matters is not "Greek" and "Jew," the circumcised and the uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, freeborn, but Christ is everything and in us all.

Tell slaves always to obey their masters and try to please them, not to oppose them

You who are slaves, obey your earthly masters, in reverence and awe, with sincerity of heart, as you would the Christ, not with mere external service, as though you had only men to please, but like slaves of Christ, carrying out the will of God. Do your duties heartily and willingly, as though it were for the Lord, not for men, read more.
for you know that everyone, slave or free, will be rewarded by the Lord for his good conduct.

All who are under the yoke of slavery must treat their masters with the greatest respect, so that the name of God and our teaching may not be abused. Those who have Christian masters must not think lightly of them because they are brothers; they must serve them all the more faithfully, because those who benefit by it are believers and hence dear to them. These are the things you must teach and preach.

You who are slaves must always obey your earthly masters, not with mere external service, as though you had only men to please, but with sincerity of heart, because you fear the Lord. Work at everything you do with all your hearts, as work done not for men only but for the Lord,

Then he poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, wiping them with the towel that was about his waist.

just as the Son of Man has come not to be waited on, but to wait on other people, and to give his life to ransom many others."

For which is greater, the man at the table, or the servant who waits on him? Is not the man at the table? Yet I am like a servant among you.

but laid it aside to take on the nature of a slave and become like other men.

immoral people, men sexually perverted, kidnapers, liars, perjurers, or whatever else is contrary to sound teaching,

Now further, what is always demanded of managers is that they can be depended on.

or steal from them, but to show such perfect good faith as to do credit to the teaching about God our Savior, by everything they do.

The man who can be trusted in a very small matter can be trusted in a large one, and the man who cannot be trusted in a very small matter cannot be trusted in a large one. So if you have proved untrustworthy in using your ill-gotten wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have been untrustworthy about what belonged to someone else, who will give you what belongs to you?

but laid it aside to take on the nature of a slave and become like other men. When he had assumed human form, he still further humbled himself and carried his obedience so far as to die, and to die upon the cross.

That is why the Christ, when he was coming into the world, said, "You have not wished sacrifice or offering, but you have provided a body for me.

The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into slavery in Egypt. But God was with him, and rescued him from all his troubles, and enabled him to win favor and to show wisdom when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he appointed him governor of Egypt and of his whole household.

You must be ready with your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to come home from a wedding, so that when he comes and knocks, they can open the door for him at once. Blessed are the slaves whom their master will find on the watch when he comes. I tell you, he will gird up his robe and make them take their places at table, and go around and wait on them. read more.
Whether he comes late at night or early in the morning and finds them on the watch, they are blessed. But you may be sure of this, that if the master of the house had known what time the thief was coming, he would have been on the watch, and would not have let his house be broken into. You must be ready too, for the Son of Man is coming at a time when you do not expect him."

So he said, "A nobleman once went to a distant country to secure his appointment to a kingdom and then return. And he called in ten of his slaves and gave them each twenty dollars and told them to trade with it while he was gone. But his countrymen hated him, and they sent a delegation after him to say, 'We do not want this man made king over us.' read more.
And when he had secured the appointment and returned, he ordered the slaves to whom he had given the money to be called in, so that he could find out how much they had made. The first one came in and said, 'Your twenty dollars has made two hundred, sir!' And he said to him, 'Well done, my excellent slave! You have proved trustworthy about a very small amount, you shall be governor of ten towns.' The second came in and said, 'Your twenty dollars has made a hundred, sir!' And he said to him, 'And you shall be governor of five towns!'

So you must be on the watch, for you do not know on what day your Master is coming. But you may be sure of this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the watch, and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you must be ready too, for the Son of Man is coming at a time when you do not expect him. read more.
"Who then will be the faithful, thoughtful slave whom his master put in charge of his household, to give the members of it their supplies at the proper time? Blessed is that slave if his master when he returns finds him doing it. I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his property.

You servants must be submissive to your masters and perfectly respectful to them; not only to those who are kind and considerate, but also to those who are unreasonable.

Do you not know that when you submit to being someone's slaves, and obeying him, you are the slaves of the one whom you obey, whether your slavery is to sin, and leads to death, or is to obedience, and leads to uprightness?

promising them freedom when they are themselves slaves of destruction; for a man is the slave of whatever overcomes him.

I use these familiar human terms because of the limitations of your nature. For just as you before gave up the parts of your bodies in slavery to vice and greater and greater license, you must now give them up in slavery to uprightness, which leads to consecration.

you have been bought and paid for. Therefore, honor God with your bodies.

You have been bought and paid for; you must not let yourselves become slaves to men.

Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, called as an apostle, set apart to declare God's good news,

And he sat down and called the Twelve in, and said to them, "If anyone wishes to be first, he must be the last of all and the servant of all."

But you must not let people call you 'Rabbi,' for you have only one teacher, and you are all brothers. And you must not call anyone on earth your father, for you have only one father, your heavenly Father. And you must not let men call you master, for you have only one master, the Christ. read more.
But he who is greatest among you must be your servant.

And Jesus called them to him, and said to them, "You know that those who are supposed to rule the heathen lord it over them, and their great men tyrannize over them; but it is not to be so among you. Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to hold the first place among you must be everybody's slave.

Remember what I said to you: No slave is greater than his master. If they have persecuted me they will persecute you too. If they have observed my teaching, they will observe yours too.

A pupil is not better than his teacher, nor a slave better than his master. A pupil should be satisfied to come to be like his teacher, or a slave, to come to be like his master. If men have called the head of the house Beelzebub, how much worse names will they give to the members of his household!

I tell you, no slave is superior to his master, and no messenger is greater than the man who sends him.

For the Son of Man is going his way, as it has been decreed, but alas for the man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!" And they began to discuss with one another which of them it was who was going to do this. A dispute also arose among them, as to which one of them ought to be considered the greatest. read more.
But he said to them, "The kings of the heathen lord it over them, and their authorities are given the title of Benefactor. But you are not to do so, but whoever is greatest among you must be like the youngest, and the leader like a servant. For which is greater, the man at the table, or the servant who waits on him? Is not the man at the table? Yet I am like a servant among you.

Have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he possessed the nature of God, he did not grasp at equality with God, but laid it aside to take on the nature of a slave and become like other men. read more.
When he had assumed human form, he still further humbled himself and carried his obedience so far as to die, and to die upon the cross.

So he said, "A nobleman once went to a distant country to secure his appointment to a kingdom and then return. And he called in ten of his slaves and gave them each twenty dollars and told them to trade with it while he was gone. But his countrymen hated him, and they sent a delegation after him to say, 'We do not want this man made king over us.' read more.
And when he had secured the appointment and returned, he ordered the slaves to whom he had given the money to be called in, so that he could find out how much they had made. The first one came in and said, 'Your twenty dollars has made two hundred, sir!' And he said to him, 'Well done, my excellent slave! You have proved trustworthy about a very small amount, you shall be governor of ten towns.' The second came in and said, 'Your twenty dollars has made a hundred, sir!' And he said to him, 'And you shall be governor of five towns!' And the other one came in and said, 'Here is your twenty dollars, sir. I have kept it put away in a handkerchief, for I was afraid of you, for you are a stern man. You pick up what you did not lay down, and reap what you did not sow.' He said to him, 'Out of your own mouth I will convict you, you wretched slave! You knew, did you, that I was a stern man, and that I pick up what I did not lay down, and harvest what I did not sow? Then why did you not put my money in the bank, so that when I came back I could have gotten it with interest?' And he said to the bystanders, 'Take the twenty dollars away from him, and give it to the man who has the two hundred!' They said to him, 'He has two hundred, sir!'??26 'I tell you, the man who has will have more given him, and from the man who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away! But bring those enemies of mine here who did not want me made king over them, and slaughter them in my presence!' "

So you must be on the watch, for you do not know on what day your Master is coming. But you may be sure of this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the watch, and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you must be ready too, for the Son of Man is coming at a time when you do not expect him. read more.
"Who then will be the faithful, thoughtful slave whom his master put in charge of his household, to give the members of it their supplies at the proper time? Blessed is that slave if his master when he returns finds him doing it. I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his property. But if he is a bad slave and says to himself, 'My master is going to stay a long time,' and begins to beat the other slaves, and eats and drinks with drunkards, that slave's master will come back some day when he does not expect him, and at some time of which he does not know and will cut him in two, and put him with the hypocrites, to weep and gnash his teeth.

You who are slaves must always obey your earthly masters, not with mere external service, as though you had only men to please, but with sincerity of heart, because you fear the Lord.

not with mere external service, as though you had only men to please, but like slaves of Christ, carrying out the will of God.

You who are slaves must always obey your earthly masters, not with mere external service, as though you had only men to please, but with sincerity of heart, because you fear the Lord.

not with mere external service, as though you had only men to please, but like slaves of Christ, carrying out the will of God.

You who are slaves must always obey your earthly masters, not with mere external service, as though you had only men to please, but with sincerity of heart, because you fear the Lord.

not with mere external service, as though you had only men to please, but like slaves of Christ, carrying out the will of God.

Do your duties heartily and willingly, as though it were for the Lord, not for men,

Work at everything you do with all your hearts, as work done not for men only but for the Lord,

You who are slaves must always obey your earthly masters, not with mere external service, as though you had only men to please, but with sincerity of heart, because you fear the Lord.

You who are slaves, obey your earthly masters, in reverence and awe, with sincerity of heart, as you would the Christ,

You who are slaves must always obey your earthly masters, not with mere external service, as though you had only men to please, but with sincerity of heart, because you fear the Lord.

You who are slaves, obey your earthly masters, in reverence and awe, with sincerity of heart, as you would the Christ,

for you know that everyone, slave or free, will be rewarded by the Lord for his good conduct.

for you know that it is from him that you are to receive that inheritance which is to be your reward. Think of Christ as the master you are working for.

And because you are sons, God has sent into our hearts the spirit of his Son, with the cry, "Abba!" that is, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir, made so by God.

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the cultivator. Any branch of mine that does not bear fruit he trims away, and he prunes every branch that bears fruit, to make it bear more. You are pruned already because of the teaching that I have given you. read more.
You must remain united to me and I will remain united to you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains united to the vine, you cannot unless you remain united to me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Anyone who remains united to me, with me united to him, will be very fruitful, for you cannot do anything apart from me. Anyone who does not remain united to me is thrown away like a branch and withers up, and they gather them and throw them into the fire and burn them. If you remain united to me and my words remain in your hearts, ask for whatever you please and you shall have it. When you are very fruitful and show yourselves to be disciples of mine, my Father is honored. I have loved you just as the Father has loved me. You must retain my love. If you keep my commands you will retain my love, just as I have observed the Father's commands and retain his love. I have told you all this so that you may have the happiness that I have had, and your happiness may be complete. The command that I give you is to love one another just as I have loved you. No one can show greater love than by giving up his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you to do. I do not call you slaves any longer, for a slave does not know what his master is doing, but now I call you friends, for I have made known to you everything that I have learned from my Father.

Jesus answered, "I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. Now a slave does not belong to a household permanently; but a son does.

What follows, then? Are we to sin, because we live not under law but under mercy? Certainly not! Do you not know that when you submit to being someone's slaves, and obeying him, you are the slaves of the one whom you obey, whether your slavery is to sin, and leads to death, or is to obedience, and leads to uprightness? But, thank God! though you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient from your hearts to the standard of teaching that you received, read more.
and so you have been freed from sin, and made slaves of uprightness. I use these familiar human terms because of the limitations of your nature. For just as you before gave up the parts of your bodies in slavery to vice and greater and greater license, you must now give them up in slavery to uprightness, which leads to consecration. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free as far as uprightness was concerned.

rose from the table, took off his outer clothing, and fastened a towel about his waist. Then he poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, wiping them with the towel that was about his waist.

and rescued him from all his troubles, and enabled him to win favor and to show wisdom when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he appointed him governor of Egypt and of his whole household.

All who are under the yoke of slavery must treat their masters with the greatest respect, so that the name of God and our teaching may not be abused.

And when he had secured the appointment and returned, he ordered the slaves to whom he had given the money to be called in, so that he could find out how much they had made. The first one came in and said, 'Your twenty dollars has made two hundred, sir!'

The second came in and said, 'Your twenty dollars has made a hundred, sir!'

You who are slaves, obey your earthly masters, in reverence and awe, with sincerity of heart, as you would the Christ,

Tell slaves always to obey their masters and try to please them, not to oppose them

Why, the wages you have withheld from the laborers who have reaped your harvests cry aloud, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

A hired man who is not a shepherd and does not own the sheep, when he sees a wolf coming, will leave the sheep and run away, and the wolf will carry them off and scatter the flock. For he is only a hired man, and does not care about the sheep.

He immediately called them. And they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and went off after him.

When he came to himself he said, 'How many hired men my father has, who have more than enough to eat, and here I am, dying of hunger!

You have been bought and paid for; you must not let yourselves become slaves to men. Brothers, everyone must remain in fellowship with God in the station in which he was called.

Everyone ought to remain in the station in which he was called. If you were a slave when you were called, never mind. Even if you can gain your freedom, make the most of your present condition instead.

For a slave who has been called to union with the Lord is a freedman of the Lord, just as a free man who has been called is a slave of Christ.

I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the mercy of Christ, to some different good news??7 not that there is any other, only that there are some people who are trying to unsettle you and want to turn the good news of the Christ around. But even if we or an angel from heaven preach to you good news that contradicts the good news we have preached to you, a curse upon him! We have said it before, and I repeat it now??f anyone is preaching to you good news that contradicts the good news you have already received, a curse upon him! read more.
Is that appealing to men's weaknesses, or to God? Is that trying to suit men? If I were still doing that, I would be no slave of Christ.

You who are slaves, obey your earthly masters, in reverence and awe, with sincerity of heart, as you would the Christ, not with mere external service, as though you had only men to please, but like slaves of Christ, carrying out the will of God.

for you know that it is from him that you are to receive that inheritance which is to be your reward. Think of Christ as the master you are working for.

For God approves a man if from a sense of duty he endures suffering unjustly inflicted??20 for what credit is there in your enduring being beaten for doing wrong? But if you endure suffering for doing what is right, you have God's approval.

Let nobody interfere with me after this, for I bear on my body the scars that mark me as a slave of Jesus.

For the Kingdom of Heaven is like an employer who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. He agreed with the laborers to pay them a dollar a day, and sent them to his vineyard. He went out about nine o'clock and saw others standing in the bazaar with nothing to do.

There were false prophets too among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will introduce destructive sects and deny the Master who has bought them, thus bringing on themselves swift destruction. Many people will follow their immoral ways, and they will cause the true way to be maligned. In their greed they will exploit you with pretended arguments. From of old their condemnation has not been idle, and their destruction has not slumbered. read more.
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but plunged them into Tartarus, and committed them to dark dungeons to await their doom, and if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, when he brought the flood upon the godless world; and if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and overwhelmed them with ashes, as a warning to ungodly men of what was to come, and saved the upright Lot who was so distressed by the immoral conduct of unprincipled men??8 for as long as that upright man lived among them, day after day his upright soul was tormented by what he saw and heard of their lawless actions??9 then the Lord knows how to rescue God-fearing people from trial and to punish wrongdoers while they are being kept for the Day of Judgment, especially those who yield to their physical nature and indulge in passions that defile them, and despise authority. Rash, headstrong men! They stand in no awe of majesty, but deride beings against whom even angels far superior to these beings in strength and power bring no abusive charge before the Lord. These men, like unreasoning animals, mere creatures of instinct created to be caught and killed, abuse what they do not understand and will be destroyed like animals, suffering wrong as the reward for their wrongdoing. They find pleasure in the indulgence of the moment; they are a stain and a disgrace, and they revel in their deceit while they join in your religious meals. They have eyes for nobody but adulterous women??yes insatiable in sin. They lure unsteadfast souls. Their hearts are trained in greed. They are accursed! They have left the straight path and gone astray. They have followed the path of Balaam, the son of Beor, who set his heart on dishonest gain, but he was rebuked for his offense; a dumb animal spoke with a human voice and checked the prophet's madness. Such men are dried-up springs, clouds driven before the storm, and they are doomed to utter darkness. They utter arrogant nonsense and use physical cravings to lure into immorality men who are just escaping from among those who live in error; promising them freedom when they are themselves slaves of destruction; for a man is the slave of whatever overcomes him.

But he refused and went and had him put in prison until he should pay the debt.

and begins to beat the other slaves, and eats and drinks with drunkards,

that slave's master will come back some day when he does not expect him, and at some time of which he does not know

Those who have Christian masters must not think lightly of them because they are brothers; they must serve them all the more faithfully, because those who benefit by it are believers and hence dear to them. These are the things you must teach and preach.

Once you found him useless, but now he has become useful to you and to me,

Once you found him useless, but now he has become useful to you and to me,

not with mere external service, as though you had only men to please, but like slaves of Christ, carrying out the will of God.

Do your duties heartily and willingly, as though it were for the Lord, not for men,

not as a slave any longer but more than a slave, a dear brother??ear especially to me, but how much dearer to you, both as a man and as a Christian!

Blessed is that slave if his master when he returns finds him doing it.

Ought you not to have taken pity on your fellow-slave, as I did on you?'

You servants must be submissive to your masters and perfectly respectful to them; not only to those who are kind and considerate, but also to those who are unreasonable.

For God approves a man if from a sense of duty he endures suffering unjustly inflicted??20 for what credit is there in your enduring being beaten for doing wrong? But if you endure suffering for doing what is right, you have God's approval.

He agreed with the laborers to pay them a dollar a day, and sent them to his vineyard.

That is the life to which you have been called, for Christ himself suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow his footsteps.

For I am myself under the orders of others and I have soldiers under me, and I tell one to go, and he goes, and another to come, and he comes, and my slave to do something, and he does it."

or steal from them, but to show such perfect good faith as to do credit to the teaching about God our Savior, by everything they do.

or steal from them, but to show such perfect good faith as to do credit to the teaching about God our Savior, by everything they do.

or steal from them, but to show such perfect good faith as to do credit to the teaching about God our Savior, by everything they do.

When he came to himself he said, 'How many hired men my father has, who have more than enough to eat, and here I am, dying of hunger!

For which is greater, the man at the table, or the servant who waits on him? Is not the man at the table? Yet I am like a servant among you.

Tell slaves always to obey their masters and try to please them, not to oppose them

Tell slaves always to obey their masters and try to please them, not to oppose them

When the angel who had spoken to him was gone, Cornelius called two of his servants, and a devout soldier who was one of his personal attendants,

Stay at the same house, eating and drinking what they offer you, for the workman deserves his pay. Do not change from one house to another.