Hebrews 6:9-11 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

But, beloved In this one place he calls them so. He never uses this appellation but in exhorting; we are persuaded better things of you Than those intimated verges 4-6. This is exactly in St. Paul's manner of softening the harsh things he found himself obliged to write. See Eph 4:20; 2 Thessalonians 2:13. And things that accompany salvation Which argue you to be in a state of salvation, and will in the end, if you persevere, bring you to eternal salvation; namely, sincere faith in Christ and his gospel, love to God and one another, and obedience to his will; though we thus speak Declare the danger of apostacy to warn you, lest you should fall from your present steadfastness. For God is not unrighteous to forget, &c. You give plain proof of your faith and love, which the righteous God will surely reward; and, or rather, but, we desire that every one of you do continue to show the same diligence Which you have used hitherto; and therefore we thus speak; to the full assurance of hope That you may be fully confirmed in your hope of eternal felicity; unto the end As long as you live; which you cannot expect if you abate of your diligence. “The full assurance of faith relates to present pardon, the full assurance of hope to future glory. The former is the highest degree of divine evidence that God is reconciled to us in the Son of his love: the latter is the same degree of divine evidence (wrought in the soul by the same immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost) of persevering grace, and of eternal glory. So much, and no more, as faith every moment beholds with open face, so much does hope see, to all eternity. But this assurance of faith and hope is not an opinion, not a bare construction of Scripture, but is given immediately by the power of the Holy Ghost; and what none can have for another, but for himself only.” Wesley.