Chapter 6:10. And labor of love, etc Though Griesbach and others have excluded tou chopou, "labor," from the text, yet Bloomfield thinks that there are sufficient reasons for retaining the words. The greatest number of MSS. contain them, and they seem necessary to render the passage complete, though the meaning without them would be the same. There is here an instance of an arrangement similar to what is found often in the Prophets, as will be seen by putting the verse in lines, --

"For not unrighteous is God, To forget your work, And the labor of that love Which ye have shewed to his name, Having ministered and ministering to the saints."

Excluding the first line, we see that the first and last are connected, and the two middle lines. Their "work" was to minister to the saints; and in addition to this there was "the labor of that love" which they manifested towards God. He would not forget their work in aiding the saints, nor the love which they had shewn towards his name by an open profession of it, and activity and zeal in God's service. Grotius says that "the labor of love" was in behalf of the Christian faith.

Stuart says that "work" was the outward act, and that "love" was the principle from which it emanated. Examples of this kind no doubt occur often in Scripture, the not being first stated, and then the inward principle or motive; but if "labor" be retained, this view cannot be maintained.