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.
The word "blasphemed" (blaspheemeo) means to speak reproachfully, to be spoken against, or to speak evil of another. (See Romans 3:8; Romans 14:16; 1 Corinthians 4:13; 1 Corinthians 10:30; Titus 2:5; and 2 Peter 2:2.) Paul urges servants to so behave as not to gain the reputation of being disrespectful and insubordinate. Liberty in Christ did not exempt them from all civil responsibilities. Fairbairn paraphrases the thought by saying that Christians should "beware of abusing their liberty in the gospel imagining that their spiritual calling and privileges entitled them to spurn the outward restraints under which they lay, and disregard the duties of their station" (231).