NOTES for Heb 5:11-6:8
11 Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. |
12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. |
13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. |
14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. |
1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, |
2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. |
3 And this will we do, if God permit. |
4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, |
5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, |
6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. |
7 For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: |
8 But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned. |
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While reminding his readers of the fundamental truths of Christianity, the author of the letter also expresses bewilderment that his addressees need this kind of spiritual "remedial course" (vv. 11-12). However, he himself finds an explanation for this mismatch: the problem is that those to whom he writes are spiritual infants. In saying this, the author of the letter has in mind not the intellectual level of his addressees, but their inability to distinguish good from evil (vv. 13-14). Indeed, even a very small experience of life in the Kingdom instills this skill easily and quickly: after comparing, in the example of one's own life, the laws of our still untransformed world with the laws of the Kingdom, no one will any longer be mistaken about where good is and where evil is. Anyone who has even once felt the breath of the Kingdom upon himself will never confuse it with anything else. The most beautiful words will not attract him, and the most convincing theological concepts will not make him turn aside from the path, if he does not sense in them this familiar breath.
The addressees of the letter, as we can see, are not hard to deceive, which testifies to their spiritual inexperience: they know too little about the life of the Kingdom to distinguish truth from falsehood, genuine witness from beautiful words that have nothing to do with the truth. And the author of the letter calls them not to tread water, but to move forward, rooting themselves in the Kingdom so as not to lose it (vv. 1-3). Among other things, he reminds his addressees that spiritual life is not a game, but a serious and responsible matter. He does not, of course, deny in principle the possibility for Christians of repentance for sins they have committed and of turning again, but he emphasizes that these are still exceptional cases, each of which must be regarded not as the norm, but as an extraordinary event.
Meanwhile, already, apparently, in the second or third generation of Christians, some were beginning to view repentance and turning again as something resembling the traditional Yahwist rites of purification, which had been a usual and integral part of the life of the faithful before Christ came into the world. The author of the letter directly says that such an approach is real sacrilege and profanation: to view sin as the norm of life means to deny everything the Savior did for people and in fact to crucify Him Himself all over again (vv. 4-8). And a spiritual life that presupposes such an attitude toward sin and repentance will never allow the one seeking the Kingdom to become rooted in it.
Readings for 26 September 2025
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