For God [is] not unrighteous to forget your work, and the love which ye have shewn to his name, having ministered to the saints, and [still] ministering.
The letter has just warned about ground that grows thorns and briars. Now the writer turns to his readers with confidence, because of their record: work, love, and service to God's people that God Himself will not forget.
The verse begins with "For". One writer shows the warning turning into reassurance:
How the apostle hurries to reassure any trembling soul that had a real conscience toward God. He is not speaking in a way to drive them to despair... Then, instead of thorns and briars, he shows the fruitfulness of a Christian life. The Spirit who lives in the believer produces it in the "good ground" of a heart truly broken and alive to God. Blessed contrast, is it not?
The verse does not say God is too kind to forget. It says He is not unjust. The character that rejects empty profession is the same character that secures the believer.
The very nature and character of God is such that it is impossible for Him to overlook the evidences of true faith. On the one hand, He is perfectly righteous to reject a profession that shows no faith. On the other hand, His very righteousness demands that He fully recognise every "work and labour of love" shown "toward His Name." Such motives of love can come only from faith in Him personally. And the believer's eternal assurance is bound up with God's perfect righteousness.
The love was shown to people, yet the verse credits it to God's name. Commentators trace this to the way Christ ties Himself to His own:
It must be remembered that our blessed Lord fully identifies Himself with His people... whatever is ministered to His own is kindness shown to His name. He Himself has explained it in the ever-memorable words, "As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me."... And here also lies the secret of all true service among His people. If they are our object, much as they might benefit by the service, it is not such service as the Lord can commend.
One writer explains what that service was in practice:
These Hebrew believers had been doing good, and "communicating," that is, sharing what they had, with their fellow believers who were in need, for they had understood the truth that with such sacrifices God is well pleased. By caring in this way, with true brotherly love, for the needs of God's people, they were, the apostle says, showing kindness to His name.
The verse looks at past service and present service together. One writer notes that God keeps a record of such service:
There are others mentioned, of whom it can be said, they did what they could. God took notice of their work, and the Spirit has recorded it. For, done to the saints as saints, it was done to Christ, and so was precious in God's sight. The Hebrews had ministered to the saints, and continued to do so... Such service was not, it will not be, forgotten.
That God remembers is an encouragement, not a wage. One writer keeps the two apart:
God would have us learn from this that He "is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love." Not that crowns of reward are to be our object. Christ should be our only object. But the Lord would encourage our hearts to true devotion to Himself, as a wise teacher or fond parent might try to encourage diligence in a child by a prize or present.
Older English versions read "work and labour of love" here. One writer explains where those extra words came from:
The Received Text adds "labour of," probably from 1 Thess. 1:3. The best authorities are against it.
- Warning turns to comfort. After the thorns and briars, the writer shows the opposite soil: fruit that the Spirit grows in a heart alive to God.
- Righteousness is the ground. God is not merely kind here; He is just. The character that rejects empty profession also refuses to overlook real fruit.
- The name is the target. Christ identifies with His people. Serve them and He counts it as kindness to His name. But if they, not He, are our object, the Lord cannot commend the service.
- Ordinary and ongoing. They shared what they had with believers in need, then and now. God recorded such service, and He will not forget it.
- Reward, not motive. Crowns encourage us, as a wise parent's prize encourages a child. Still, Christ alone should be our object.
But we desire earnestly that each one of you shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end;
Warning gives way to confidence: the writer has seen real fruit in these believers, and wants that same energy poured into hope. But why does hope need diligence, and what does "full assurance" add?
The earnestness asked for here — older translations call it diligence — is not a new quality. It is the same energy these believers already spent on caring for others. Now the writer asks them to spend it on their own confidence about the future.
All that we desire, he says, is that you show the same devotedness in increasing measure, right up to the full assurance of hope. In other words, he says, You have not yet entered upon your possession. You have shown, and are showing, the fruit of a Christian life, the effect of that rain from heaven upon your souls. God is not unrighteous to forget the fruit of His own Spirit in your lives. But he wants them to have the full assurance of hope... Everything was still in the future. He reminds them that they must hold on until what they have laid hold of in hope is seen.
Fruit like that settles the question of life. The writer's remaining concern is their confidence.
There was the proof of life, and that which God would not disown... and he further desires for them full, undivided confidence in the Lord, and about themselves.
The appeal is to each person, and the test of it is staying power.
Diligence was there, but he wanted it from every individual among them. Only such endurance would show "the full assurance of hope". "The hope" is of course looking forward to the future, but with "full assurance" — no element of uncertainty.
One writer draws out how far this is from the world's use of the word:
Note that in the New Testament hope never means uncertainty. It means certainty that has not yet grown up, or has not yet arrived. So confidence marks it as much as expectation... The world has its hopes, but they are so full of uncertainty that the word hope has become almost a synonym for doubt. The believer, though, is so confident about what makes up his hope that he can say, "But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."
Hope has its own kind of full assurance, and it reaches the heart.
I get another "full assurance," and that is "hope" (Heb. 6:11), for there you have the affections engaged, and the things realised. It gives much greater reality — the very acquaintance imparts great reality. I am going to be in the same glory with Christ, and that is the full assurance of hope.
Faith's assurance is not the whole of what God intends:
Not only "the full assurance of faith" but "the full assurance of hope" also is what God designs for us. This is peace as to the past, the present, and the future; and this is alone true peace.
Nothing in the verse suggests hope fades on its own. It fades because something else takes its place in the heart.
Clinging to earthly hopes destroys the divine hope God gives, just as trusting other things is completely at odds with living faith. Nothing less than the full assurance of hope could satisfy the apostle's heart for the saints... And the glory Christ gives is certainly bright enough to call for full assurance of hope. It keeps the blessed end in full view. Otherwise we become sluggish or dull where we ought to be eager and wide awake.
How far does "until the end" reach?
The end in Hebrews 6:11 is clearly the end of responsible life down here.
Diligence decides how much of our inheritance we actually enjoy. The test is an ordinary one:
Is there not a great lack of diligence with believers in the things of God? We are diligent enough in the things of this world. But sadly, the things of the Lord too often get only the odd moments of our lives. Are we diligent in the study of the Word? Are we diligent in prayer?... If we desire to enter into the enjoyment of our inheritance we must be diligent.
- Same — the diligence asked for is not new work, but the love already shown, now spent on hope. God does not forget fruit He Himself produced.
- Sure — "full assurance" takes the uncertainty out of hope. In the Bible, hope is never doubt — only certainty that has not yet arrived.
- Felt — assurance of hope engages the heart and makes the coming glory real. Faith gives peace about the past; hope gives peace about the future.
- Threatened — earthly hopes crowd out the hope God gives. When the end drops out of sight, we go dull.
- Finished — the goal is the end of responsible life here. Diligence now decides how much of our inheritance we enjoy.
that ye be not sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience have been inheritors of the promises.
The readers of this letter had grown dull. This verse tells them what to do about it. The cure is not fresh knowledge but imitation — copying people who already walked the road of faith and patience to its end.
The same word appears earlier in the letter. There it describes readers who had grown slow to take truth in:
The word seems to imply a more habitual slothfulness. It occurs only twice in the New Testament. The Hebrew believers were "dull of hearing" when they ought by diligence to have been teachers (Heb. 5:11), and are urged not to be slothful, but imitators of those who inherit the promises (Heb. 6:12).
So the problem is not one bad day. One commentator weighs what mattered about their condition:
It was their present, and not their original, state which stood in their way. How they had got into it is not explained, nor was that needed. Their state was the important thing, and it is described with complete clearness. "You have become dull of hearing." Progress in divine teaching had certainly not marked them, nor had they, it seems, wanted it.
Hope and energy rise and fall together:
Why are men dull and heavy in the service of God? Truly because their hopes are so. Hopeless and lifeless go together. No wonder the work goes hard when men have no hope of being well paid for their labour... Nothing is better to clear the soul of sloth and listlessness in the service of God than hope well strengthened. It is the very medicine the apostles prescribe for this disease. They write: "We desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish."
Hope can also be crowded out:
Feeding on earthly hopes destroys the divine hope God gives, just as trusting other things is completely at odds with living faith... Otherwise we become sluggish or dull where we ought to be earnest and wide awake.
The verse pairs the two, but they do different work:
Abraham shows faith in Genesis 15, and yet he fails in patience in Genesis 16. This is the force and beauty of the apostle's word in Hebrews 6: "imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." God makes a promise. Faith believes it. Hope looks ahead to it. Patience waits quietly for it.
The examples come from both halves of the Bible:
Others had avoided slothfulness and had kept faith and endurance. These include New Testament believers, such as the leaders mentioned in chapter 13:7, and the grand examples of faith in the Old Testament seen in chapter 11. Such faith is worth our wholehearted following. The promises were given only to faith, and faith alone will inherit them.
We copy their principle, not their portion. What lies ahead of us is larger than what lay ahead of them:
But that does not say our prospects are limited to what these promises cover. The hopes of those in the past age, whose followers we have become, never entered within the veil... but we become imitators of their faith, and by its power they overcame every obstacle that rose up to block their progress toward the goal.
Abraham shows how long the waiting can run:
Abraham not only got the promise in Genesis 15, but went on in patience until it was confirmed by an oath in Genesis 22. We are called not only to faith, but to the patience of faith.
The exhortation lands on ordinary habits:
Is there not a great lack of diligence among believers in the things of God? We are diligent enough in the things of this world, but the things of the Lord too often get only the spare moments of our lives. Are we diligent in the study of the Word? Are we diligent in prayer?... Small wonder we make so little progress in our souls. We find time for the daily news and the light reading of this world, yet no time to glean in the rich pastures of God's holy Word.
- Sluggish. The word marks a settled dullness. It is the same condition as being "dull of hearing" — a state the readers drifted into, not one they began with.
- Hope. Sloth is a hope problem before it is an effort problem. Hopeless and lifeless go together, and earthly hopes kill the divine one.
- Faith. The promises were given only to faith, and faith alone will inherit them. So faith, not achievement, is what we copy.
- Patience. Faith believes the promise. Hope looks ahead to it. Patience waits quietly for it. Abraham showed faith in Genesis 15 and failed in patience in Genesis 16.
- Inheritance. Abraham went on until God confirmed the promise with an oath. Waiting is not wasted. We are called not just to faith, but to the patience of faith.