ἁπλότητι καρδίας] as in Ephes. vi. 5, i.e. ‘with undivided service’; a LXX expression, 1 Chron. xxix. 17, Wisd. i. 1.
τὸν Κύριον] ‘the one Lord and Master’, as contrasted with τοῖς κατὰ σάρκα κυρίοις: the idea being carried out in the following verses. The received text, by substituting τὸν Θεόν, blunts the edge of the contrast.
23. ἐργάζεσθε] i.e. ‘do it diligently’, an advance upon ποιητε.
οὐκ ἀνθρώποις] For the use of οὐ rather than μὴ in antitheses, see Winer § lv. p. 601 sq. The negative here is wholly unconnected with the imperative, and refers solely to τῷ Κυρίῳ.
III. 24, 25]
[← ] τῷ Κυρίῳ, καὶ οὐκ ἀνθρώποις,] 24εἰδότες ὅτι ἀπὸ Κυρίου ἀπολήμψεσθε τὴν ἀνταπόδοσιν τῆς κληρονομίας· τῷ Κυρίῳ Χριστῷ δουλεύετε· 25ὁ γὰρ ἀδικῶν κομίσεται ὃ [ →]
24. ἀπὸ Κυρίου ‘However you may be treated by your earthly masters, you have still a Master who will recompense you.’ The absence of the definite article here (comp. iv. 1) is the more remarkable, because it is studiously inserted in the context, vv. 22–24, τὸν Κύριον, τῷ Κυρίῳ, τῷ Κυρίῳ. In the parallel passage Ephes. vi. 8 it is παρὰ Κυρίου: for the difference between the two see Gal. i. 12.
τὴν ἀνταπόδοσιν] ‘the just recompense’, a common word both in the lxx and in classical writers, though not occurring elsewhere in the New Testament; comp. ἀνταπόδομα Luke xiv. 12, Rom. xi. 9. The double compound involves the idea of ‘exact requital’.
τῆς κληρονομίας] ‘which consists in the inheritance’, the genitive of apposition: see the note on τὴν μερίδα τοῦ κλήρου, i. 12. There is a paradox involved in this word: elsewhere the δοῦλος and the κληρονόμος are contrasted (Matt. xxi. 35–38, etc., Rom. viii. 15–17, Gal. iv. 1, 7), but here the δοῦλος is the κληρονόμος. This he is because, though δοῦλος ἀνθρώπων, he is ἀπελεύθερος Κυρίου (1 Cor. vii. 22) and thus κληρονόμος διὰ Θεοῦ (Gal. iv. 7); comp. Hermas Sim. v. 2 ἵνα συγκληρονόμος γένηται ὁ δοῦλος τῷ ὑιῷ (with the context).