The Nugget:
Heb 6:10 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. (KJV)
Heb 6:10 God is fair. He won’t forget what you’ve done or the love you’ve shown for him. You helped his holy people, and you continue to help them. (GW, God’s Word translation)
Heb 6:10 For God is not so unjust as to forget the work you have done and the love you have shown His name in the service you have rendered for your fellow-Christians, and still are doing. (Williams NT)
Heb 6:10 For God is true, and will not put away from him the memory of your work and of your love for his name, in the help which you gave and still give to the saints. (BBE, Bible in Basic English)
Heb 6:10 God is always fair. He will remember how you helped his people in the past and how you are still helping them. You belong to God, and he won’t forget the love you have shown his people. (CEV, Contemporary English Version)
My Comment:
It is easy in life to get discouraged. It may be that we do not see answers to prayer that we feel we need. What good does it do to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:18) if we don’t see any answers to our prayers? It may be that in our present situation we cannot do anything that seems significant for God.
As for our prayers, God delights in the prayers of the righteous (Proverbs 15:8). And as for God’s remembering anything we may have done for Him, even the smallest matter (Mark 9:41), God will never forget. Not everyone can be in the spotlight and have all this world’s attention, and for some who seek and attract such attention, Jesus warned that “they have their reward” already (Matthew 6:2). Remember that Jesus taught that we should pray in secret and for that God will reward us openly (Matthew 6:6), not always here and now, but certainly hereafter.
It is easy, if you are the one who does all the work in the kitchen, to misunderstand the words of Jesus to Martha (Luke 10:41, 42) when Martha complained (Luke 10:40) that Mary, who was sitting at Jesus’ feet (in the place where she could hear and concentrate on what He taught), –that Mary was shirking her duty to help in the kitchen. Martha’s efforts in the kitchen in that day may well have been much more burdensome without the modern electric conveniences we enjoy today! Jesus seems to have rebuked Martha for attempting to distract Mary from listening to Jesus. What if Martha followed Mary’s example and did not make any preparation for a meal? Yet we read in Luke 10:38 that it was Martha who received Jesus into her home.
But we are told explicitly, if not emphatically, that Jesus loved Martha (John 11:5). The New Testament writers portray these individual persons as real persons, not mythology developed over many years after these events happened.
The character traits of these individuals are consistent as recorded across the New Testament writings, which is positive evidence for their historicity. So the proper interpretation of the words of Jesus to Martha faithfully recorded by Luke must be understood by the equally faithful record in John’s Gospel who gives us the “rest of the story” about the resurrection or resuscitation of Lazarus after Lazarus had been dead for four days.
Recall the consternation of Martha who said, when Jesus commanded the stone to be removed which blocked the tomb, “Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days” (John 11:39). Jesus replied, “Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?”
Jesus lovingly corrected Martha on both occasions, not to disparage those who do the necessary work of the household kitchen, but lovingly to help Martha overcome her tendency to be worried and upset about so many things: “Martha, Martha! You are worried and upset about so many things,” (Luke 10:41, CEV). There is nothing in the New Testament account to suggest that Martha was unable to handle her task alone. The double use of the name Martha involves a Figure of Speech that conveys the emotion and caring concern of this tender reply.