Those who have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brothers, but rather let them serve them, because those who partake of the benefit are believing and beloved. Teach and exhort these things.
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).