Hebrews 6:10

τῆς� אABCDE. The beautiful phrase of the rec. τοῦ κόπου τῆς� is a gloss from 1 Thessalonians 1:3.

10. ἐπιλαθέσθαι. The aorist implies “to forget in a moment.” Comp. Hebrews 11:6; Hebrews 11:20. God, even amid your errors, will not overlook the signs of grace working in you. Comp. Jeremiah 31:16; Psalms 9:12; Amos 8:7.

καὶ τῆς�. “And your love.” The words τοῦ κόπου of the Text. receptus should be omitted. They are probably a gloss from 1 Thessalonians 1:3. The passage bears a vague general resemblance to 2 Corinthians 8:24; Colossians 1:4.

εἰς τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ. Which name is borne by all His children.

διακονήσαντες τοῖς ἁγίοις καὶ διακονοῦντες. “In your past and present ministration to the saints,” i.e. to your Christian brethren. It used to be supposed that the title “the saints” applied especially to the Christians at Jerusalem (Romans 15:25; Galatians 2:10; 1 Corinthians 16:1). This is a mistake; and the saints at Jerusalem, merged in a common poverty, perhaps a result in part of their original Communism, were hardly in a condition to minister to one another. They were (as is the case with most of the Jews now living at Jerusalem) dependent in large measure on the Chaluka or distribution of alms sent them from without.

διακονοῦντες. The continuance of their well-doing proved its sincerity; but perhaps the writer hints, though with infinite delicacy, that their beneficent zeal was less active than it once had been.