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Heb_6:10. Reason for the good confidence expressed Heb_6:9.
οὐ γὰρ ἄδικος ὁ θεός , ἐπιλαθέσθαι ] for God is not unjust, that He should forget. God exercises retributive righteousness. Since, then, the readers have performed, and do still perform, actions worthy of Christian recognition, it is to be expected that God will be mindful thereof, and, provided they will only perform their own part fully (comp. Heb_6:11-12), will conduct them with His grace and lead them to the possession of salvation. A claim to demand salvation of God, on account of their behaviour, is not conceded by the words of Heb_6:10; only as a factor which God, by virtue of His retributive righteousness, will take into account in connection with the final result, is this brought forward for the consolation and encouragement of the readers; while, moreover, reference is at once made anew, Heb_6:11 f., to the still unsatisfactory character of their Christian state, and in general to the peril of falling again from their state of grace.
ἐπιλαθέσθαι ] The infinitive aorist expresses the mere verbal notion, without respect to the relation of time. See Kühner, II. § 445, 2. It is to be taken neither in the sense of a preterite (Seb. Schmidt: ut oblitus sit) nor of a future (Bisping and others).
τοῦ ἔργου ὑμῶν ] your work (as lying completed), i.e. that which you have done. The expression is quite general. A more precise limitation thereof may be found in the following καὶ τῆς ἀγάπης , by taking καί as the epexegetic “and indeed,” “and that.” So Peshito, as also Kurtz and Woerner. But since, in any case, the passage Heb_10:32 ff. is to be compared as a real (though not verbal) parallel to the statement Heb_6:10, and there, in addition to the love displayed, the stedfastness manifested by the readers under persecutions is lauded, it is most natural, with Schlichting, Grotius, and others, to suppose that just to this the general τοῦ ἔργου ὑμῶν in our passage also more especially alluded.
τῆς ἀγάπης ] has not in itself alone the notion of love “to the brethren,” in such wise that εἰς τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ would have to be translated: “for His name” (Mat_10:41-42; Mat_18:20), i.e. to His honour (Vulgate: in nomine ejus; Böhme and others: ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι αὐτοῦ , Mat_18:5). On the contrary, τῆς ἀγάπης acquires its object in the εἰς τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ , to be construed in relation to ἧς ἐνεδείξασθε (not to διακονήσαντες κ . τ . λ ., to which Beza was inclined). Thus: the love which ye have shown to His name (sc. God’s name, not Christ’s, Ernesti and others). This is the more general object, which only then obtains its more special reference and indication of purport by διακονήσαντες κ . τ . λ . A love exercised towards Christian brethren, inasmuch as Christians, as God’s children, bear the name of God.
διακονήσαντες τοῖς ἁγίοις ] in that ye have rendered service to the saints (the fellow-Christians), have aided them when they were in distress and affliction (not specially: in poverty). But that this was not merely a virtue exercised once for all, but one still continuously exercised, is clearly brought out by the addition καὶ διακονοῦντες .