I know your works: see the comments at 2.2.

Your love and faith and service and patient endurance: in Greek the singular possessive adjective your comes after the five nouns, thereby describing them all. As in 2.4, love may be for Christ or for one another, but it is better taken to mean for one another; faith is either their faithfulness or loyalty as Christians (Good News Translation, Revised English Bible, Bible en français courant, Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje, Barclay, An American Translation, Moffatt, Phillips) or their personal faith (Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, New Jerusalem Bible), whether in God or in Jesus Christ; the former seems preferable; service is their activity as followers of Christ, especially in their service to fellow Christians (see the same noun in Acts 11.29 [“relief”]; 1 Cor 16.15); and for patient endurance see 1.9.

Your latter works exceed the first: the Revised Standard Version formal equivalence of the Greek is meant to say “you are now doing more than you did at first” (An American Translation; similarly Phillips, Good News Translation, Bible en français courant, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). The meaning of “at first” can be brought out more clearly: “when you became Christians,” “when you first believed in me,” or “when you first became my followers” (see 2.4). This refers to their activity in Christian service, and “more” probably indicates quantity.

An alternate translation model for this verse is:

• I know how you have lived your lives. I know that you love one another and are loyal to me. I know the way you have helped one another, and your ability to endure. I know that you are now doing more than when you first believed in me (or, became my followers).

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .