Hebrews 6:9  But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
10  For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
11  And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:
12  That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

God began this section with the contrast to what we looked at yesterday. God assures the saints that He is persuaded better things of them. When God saves a person He changes the nature of the person and He knows Jthat new nature will demonstrate characteristics that accompany salvation. New Evangelicalism suggest that a person can be saved but still keep the old ways. That is very appealing to those who are lost and want to have a form of “fire insurance”. However, God does not offer that.
The love of God indwelling the true child of God motivates them to testify of God’s love and grace to others. The attitude of a true child of God will change. Their language will change as will their habits. This is all due to the reality that God’s salvation changes the heart of His child. Growth needs to take place, and growth will take place because the person has received eternal life. Growth is not without effort, but it is not based on self-effort.
God sees the life of every one of His children. He sees where they work and labour in His love. Our labour of love is for the Lord. Christians do not look for the praise of men. The flesh likes the praise of men. The flesh wants an award for this and a plaque for that. The true child of God serves the Lord because the love of God dwells in him and motivates him.
Peter needed to understand this in his life. In John 21 Jesus restored Peter to right fellowship with Him. He also gave Peter instructions for service. Peter looked behind him and saw John there and wanted to know what his service was going to be. Jesus told Peter did not need to concern himself with that. Peter needed to be faithful to the Lord and let Jesus take care of the rest. A true child of God does not serve the Lord because others are serving the Lord. He or she serves the Lord because the love of God dwells in them.
Verse 11 tells us that the apostle desired to see the recipients show the same diligence. As the child of God serves God faithfully, they will also grow in assurance of hope unto the end. We mentioned Charles Templeton yesterday. He was in the lime light. He spoke at large rallies. However the record states that he was plagued with doubt. God says as His child serves Him with diligence, they will also grow in full assurance of hope unto the end. They do not draw back. They grow stronger. They walk faithfully with the Lord and they see His hand of blessing in many ways as they walk faithfully with Him. That was not true of Charles Templeton. He started out as a pretender and grew tired of that and showed who he truly was.
In verse 12 God again needs to remind us that slothfulness cannot be entertained. Slothfulness has to do with laziness. True Christians read their Bibles every day. They pray to God every day. They pray for opportunities to witness for the Lord. They seek out a good local church where they can attend and grow in and learn how to serve through.
No Christian is an island unto themselves. We are called upon to be followers of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. This again points to faithfulness in a true local church. You will never determine who is walking by faith with patience if you do not get to know the person. Anybody can talk a good talk. Is there any substance to what they are claiming? It is true that we have God’s Word to follow. God also designed for Christians to follow other true Christians.

I Corinthians 11:1  Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.

Paul had several different individuals that he trained as he went about his service for the Lord. They were not called to blindly follow him. They followed him and he followed Christ. Timothy was able to carry on after Paul’s death because he had followed Paul during his life. He also had opportunity to work with other true saints to disciple them along the way. One on one training is very important.
Pastor Bartel