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Col_3:25. Ground of encouragement ( γάρ , see the critical remarks) to fulfil the precept τῷ κυρ . Χ . δουλεύετε : for he who does wrong shall carry off (the penal recompense of) what wrong he has done,—a locus communis, of which the slaves were to make the application, that the unjust treatment which they experienced from their masters would not go unpunished; hence they could not but feel themselves the more encouraged to be in their relation of servitude slaves of no other than Christ, and to permit no unjust treatment to make them deviate from that principle. Paul therefore adds for their further encouragement:[166] καὶ οὐκ ἔστι προσωποληψία , and there is no partiality, of which likewise general proposition the intended application is, that in that requital the impartial Judge (Christ, comp. Col_3:24) will not favour the masters, and will not injure the slaves, comp. Eph_6:9. The correct view is held substantially by Theodoret, Beza, Calvin, Estius, Zachariae, Ewald, and others. Others have understood ὁ ἀδικῶν as referring to the slave who violates his duty, in which case ἀδικεῖν is taken either in the strict sense of the trespass of him who intentionally injures his master (Hofmann, comp. Phm_1:18), or loosely and generally in the sense of doing wrong, comp. Rev_22:11 (Chrysostom, Theophylact, Bengel, Heinrichs, Storr, Flatt, Steiger, and others). But against this view the κ . οὐκ ἔστι προσωπολ . may be decisively urged, which assumes that the subject to be punished is higher, of superior rank; for the idea which has been imported into the passage is purely fanciful: “Tenues saepe putant, sibi propter tenuitatem ipsorum esse parcendum; id negatur,” Bengel, in connection with which Theophylact appeals to Lev_19:15. And if on account of οὐκ ἔστι προσωπολ . the unjust masters must be taken as meant by ὁ αδικῶν in the application of the sentence, the reference to both parties, to the masters and the slaves (Erasmus, Grotius, and others, including Bähr, Huther, Baumgarten-Crusius, and Bleek, following Jerome and Pelagius), is thereby excluded, since προσωπολ . is appropriate only to the masters.
κομίσεται ] shall carry off for himself (sibi), refers to the Messianic judgment, and ἠδίκησε to that which he, who is now ἀδικῶν (present), has (shall have) then done. On the expression κομίζεσθαι κ . τ . λ ., used to express the idea of a recompense equivalent to the deed in respect of its guilt, comp. Eph_6:8, and on 2Co_5:10.
Respecting προσωποληψία , see on Gal_2:6.
[166] Hofmann finds it incredible that Paul should have closed the section referring to the slaves with a proposition couched in such general terms as ver. 25, which applies not to the slaves, but to the masters. This, however, is an erroneous view. For in vv. 22–24 the apostle has instructed the slaves regarding their active bearing in service, and he is now, in the general proposition of ver. 25, suggesting for their reflection and deliberate consideration the proper soothing and elevating point of view regarding their passive bearing in service also. Thus ver. 25 also applies to the slaves, and forms merely the transition to the precept for the masters in Col_4:1. This applies also in opposition to the doubts expressed by Holtzmann, p. 44 f.