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Heb_6:11-12. To that which the author hopes with regard to the readers, he now attaches that which he wishes to see performed by them.
ἐπιθυμοῦμεν δέ ] now we long, most ardently desire. Stronger expression than θέλομεν or βουλόμεθα [to set one’s heart on it, Mat_13:17; Act_20:33; 1Ti_3:1, etc.].
ἔκαστον ὑμῶν ] More emphatic and accentuating than the mere ὑμᾶς would be. There is denoted by it, on the one hand, that the heart-felt interest which the author cherishes in the readers extends to every single one of them. On the other hand, there lies in it the thought that if haply single individuals among the readers already correspond to the demand here made, it is still of supreme importance that every one of them should so comport himself as is mentioned.
In the sequel, τὴν αὐτὴν ἐνδείκνυσθαι σπουδήν is not in such manner to be taken together with ἄχρι τέλους that the main stress should fall upon this, and πρὸς τὴν πληροφορίαν τῆς ἐλπίδος be regarded as a mere subsidiary factor. In connection with this mode of interpretation, adopted by Chrysostom, Theodoret, Oecumenius, Theophylact, Grotius, Seb. Schmidt, Limborch, and others, the demand of the author would amount to this, that the readers should manifest the same zeal which, according to Heb_6:10, they have already displayed, even to the end or in all future time. But in such manner it is assumed that the author has every reason for being satisfied with the Christian condition of the readers, and desires nothing more than a continuance of the same, whereas the whole epistle testifies that the state of things with the Hebrews was very different from this. Hence it is evident that the emphasis rests quite as much upon πρὸς τὴν πληροφορίαν τῆς ἐλπίδος as upon ἄχρι τέλους . The thought must thus be: the author longs for the readers to display the same zeal which they have already manifested in regard to an active love, in equal measure also in another relation, namely, in regard to the πληροφορία κ . τ . λ . (so Bengel, Cramer, Chr. Fr. Schmid, Böhme, Stuart, Bleek, Ebrard, Delitzsch, Alford, Conybeare, Maier, Moll, Kurtz, and others), in connection with which, however, ἄχρι τέλους is best taken, not, as is generally the case even with this correct determination of the thought, with ἐνδείκνυσθαι , but in close juxtaposition with πρὸς τὴν πληροφορίαν τῆς ἐλπίδος .
πρὸς τὴν πληροφορίαν τῆς ἐλπίδος ἄχρι τέλους ] in regard to the full certainty of conviction concerning the Christian’s hope, unto the end, i.e. in such manner that ye cherish and preserve to the end the Christian’s hope of the Messianic kingdom to be looked for at the coming again of Christ, as a firm confidence of faith, untroubled by any doubts. Comp. Heb_3:6; Heb_3:14. Opposite is the wavering conviction that the subject of the Christian hope is one founded in objective truth; the standing still upon the path of Christianity before the goal is reached, and the tendency to fall away again from Christianity and to relapse into Judaism.
πληροφορία ] We have not, with Cornelius a Lapide, Grotius, Schulz, Bleek, de Wette, Stengel, and others (after the example of the Vulgate: “ad expletionem spei”), to apprehend in the active sense of “perfecting, making full or complete;” but to take it, as everywhere in the N. T. (1Th_1:5; Col_2:2; Heb_10:22; comp. also Rom_4:21; Rom_14:5), with Erasmus, Vatablus, Zeger, Calvin, Beza, Estius, Jac. Cappellus, Schlichting, Calov, Wolf, Abresch, Heinrichs, Böhme, Tholuck, Ebrard, Delitzsch, Alford, Maier, Moll, and the majority, in the passive sense.
ἄχρι τέλους ] unto the end, i.e. until (at the Parousia of the Lord) hope passes over into the possession [of the kingdom] itself.