In Hebrews 6:12 some scholars believe Paul is addressing the “unsaved” within the believing community. They claim that they made a profession of faith in Jesus as Messiah, but were at the time of Paul’s writing ready to abrogate and return to Judaism. Nevertheless, without a clear distinction between the believers and non-believers, I doubt Paul makes a distinction at all. The problem is that everyone wants to believe he is a mature believer in Christ, whose faith in the Lord is strong. Therefore, if a distinction were being made between believers and non-believers, who among the believers would heed Paul’s warning that they had become dull of hearing (Hebrews 5:11) or slothful (Hebrews 6:12), which is the same Greek word (G3576)? Every believer, no matter what his spiritual condition, would consider himself faithful and diligent. Hence, in such a case Paul’s warning would fall on deaf (dull – G3576) ears.
Paul writes that he is persuaded (G3982) of literally “the better things” (herbs instead of thorns and briars; verse-8). In other words, Paul may have thought otherwise of his readers (Hebrews 5:11-14), but he was won over to a different point of view (Hebrews 6:9). However, his confidence was not in men, but in God (2Timothy1:12; compare Hebrews 6:10). Hence, even though Paul’s readers have become dull of hearing (Hebrews 5:11; same Greek word [G3576] as slothful in Hebrews 6:12), he expects the Lord will bring them through their then present problem into a better relationship with him.
Clearly, Paul’s confidence on the issue of the spiritual condition of the Jewish believers is not in their behavior but in the righteousness and fairness of God (Hebrews 6:10). Paul says God is not unrighteous (i.e. unfair, unjust – G94) to forget his readers’ labor of love, even though they had more recently become dull of hearing. Paul had a dilemma. How could a righteous or just God punish the Jews, because they became dull of hearing (Isaiah 6:10; Acts 28:27; cf. Mark 8:21; Luke 24:25), and forget their good deeds, their labor of love (Hebrews 6:10), which are the works that pertain to life or salvation (Hebrews 6:9)? If God is just, he must take both into consideration, and Paul’s hope is that, in order to reward the good works, God must bring the Jews to repent of the works nigh unto cursing (Hebrews 6:8). How else could the Author of our salvation bring that salvation to fulfillment in us or in these Jews to whom Paul wrote (Hebrews 5:9; 12:1-2)? Therefore, Paul’s trust is in the unfinished work of the Lord (vindication and rewards), which he hoped would perfect their labor of love.
Paul writes that his readers have ministered to the saints, and do minister. In other words their labor of love was not only expressed long ago, but continues into the present. Albeit, their enthusiasm (viz. their slothfulness in verse-12) has waned. Paul doesn’t elaborate here what the Jews had done, but he wrote earlier to the Thessalonians that they had become followers of the churches in Judea (1Thessalonians 2:14), indicating that they had suffered persecution by their brethren. Moreover, later in his letter Paul mentions that the churches in Judea also endured a great struggle of persecution, when they were first enlightened. Sometimes this was due to their being held in contempt by the authorities and oppressed by their peers, and other times because they showed mercy and kindness toward those who were so treated. Moreover, when Paul was held as a prisoner in Caesarea, they ministered to his needs (Hebrews 10:32-35). It was such things as this, that Paul believed a just God couldn’t ignore despite the fact that these believers had become weary in well doing (cf. Galatians 6:9; 2Thessalonians 3:13).
Paul deeply desired that his readers would express the same desire to do good, as they had in the very beginning (Hebrews 6:11; cf. 10:32-33), because the tendency of late had been to become willingly dull of hearing (Hebrews 5:11-14), which was alarming the Apostle, for had they continued in their enthusiasm without losing heart, they would most assuredly have matured in their understanding (cf. Matthew 25:28-29), for Jesus tells us that it is in what we listen to and how we listen to what we hear that develops us in such a way that we are able to receive the abundance he wishes to give us (Mark 4:24-25; Luke 8:18).
The end (Hebrews 6:11) and the salvation (Hebrews 6:9) of which Paul spoke concerned the coming of the Lord in 70 AD (cf. Hebrews 3:6, 14; Romans 13:11). Paul wants his readers to be “followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Hebrews 6:12). In other words, he wants them to fully embrace the work and understanding of those who had preached the Gospel to them, the Apostles (cf. 1Corinthians 4:16; 11:1; 1Thessalonians 1:6). Moreover, they also had Abraham as an example, who, although he didn’t receive the promise himself (Hebrews 11:39), did begin to receive what was promised in the birth of Isaac, after he waited over 25 years (Genesis12:1-4; cf. 11:31 and Acts 7:2-4 and Genesis 17:17; Deuteronomy 1:10). Abraham’s faith in the promise of God was founded in the miracle birth of Isaac, and its final fulfillment was founded in Jesus (cf. John 8:56; Genesis 22:11-14), in whom we have all the treasures of our inheritance (Ephesians 1:3-11).
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