Charles Ellicott Commentary Ephesians 6:8

"knowing that whatsoever good thing each one doeth, the same shall he receive again from the Lord, whether [he be] bond or free." — Ephesians 6:8 (ASV)

The same shall he receive of the Lord.—This verse reinforces the previous exhortations by instilling a sense of responsibility and hope. The phrase itself is emphatic—not “he will receive the reward of his deed,” but “he will receive the deed itself,” considered as something still living and returning to him, both in the judgments of life and in what we rightly call the “Last Judgment” of the Great Day. A slave in the eye of the law had no rights, and therefore no responsibility or hope. St. Paul therefore urges him, as a Christian, to lift his thoughts to a region in which all, slave and free alike, may hear the blessing, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”