Let as many as are bondservants under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and the doctrine not be blasphemed.
Under the yoke ... There are two words in this little paragraph that carry inherent criticism of the institution of slavery.  "Yoke" is one of them, and the other is "master," coming from a particular Greek word "[@despotes] (from which our "despot" is derived), meaning one who has dominion."[4] Nevertheless, there is no militant condemnation of slavery in the New Testament; and, of course, modern critics have been very unfair and unperceptive in commenting on this.  See below: