Ephesians 6:8

Ephesians 6:8. Knowing; since ye know; encouraging motive for such obedience.

That whatsoever good thing each one doeth. The early manuscripts present a number of various readings of this clause, affecting mainly the order of the words; the better supported variation may be rendered: ‘that each one if he doeth any good thing,' ‘Each one,' whether ‘bondman or free;' ‘good thing' means what is done ‘as to the Lord, and not to men.'

The same, or, ‘this,' this good thing, shall he receive again from the Lord; in the day of final recompense, when Christ returns to judge. ‘This he shall then receive in its value as then estimated changed, so to speak, in the currency of that new and final state' (Alford).

Whether he be bondman or free. To apply this merely to two classes of servants weakens the force of the verse as a whole. The more obvious reference is to servants and masters, thus giving to the verse the character of a general proposition, which affords an easy transition to the succeeding exhortation to the free man in Ephesians 6:9 (‘masters').