Hebrews 6:5

“For when for the time ye ought to be teachers” means that enough time has passed since they believed for them to be instructing others. Didáskalos is the ordinary word for a teacher or instructor. Their actual state is the reverse, for they need someone to “teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God.” The oracles of God, logia tou Theou, are the things God has spoken. For these readers that meant first of all the Old Testament Scriptures, the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms. They had those Scriptures, and still they needed the first lessons drawn from them taught again, when they should have been learning how those oracles are fulfilled in Christ. The words “are become” tell us that they had slid back, or at the least stood still.

Gála, milk, is the food of infants, and here it stands for the elementary teachings the writer lists in 6:1–2. Strong meat is stereós trophḗ, solid food: stereós means stiff, solid or firm, and trophḗ means nourishment. It stands for the deeper truths, such as Christ’s priesthood, the new covenant and the full meaning of his sacrifice. The picture of milk for beginners and solid food for the grown was a common one for elementary and advanced teaching, so the readers understood it at once. Paul uses it the same way with the Corinthians: “I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able” (1 Corinthians 3:2).

Verse 13 gives the reason, with gár, “for”. Everyone who lives on milk is ápeiros, “unskilful”, inexperienced or unacquainted with “the word of righteousness”. The word joins a negative to a word for experience, so what such a person lacks is practice and skill in handling God’s truth. The word of righteousness is the whole of that truth, which shows what is right and trains us to live it. Scripture is profitable “for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). Such a person is a nḗpios, a “babe”, the word for an infant, which is traditionally explained as one still too young to speak. “Useth milk” describes a habit, a diet kept up long after the first days of faith.

People ask whether a believer can go backwards in this way. These verses show that a believer can stall and even slip back, for the writer is speaking to people who “for the time” ought to be teachers, and the warning that follows shows where such drifting can lead. An immature believer is easily “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14), while God’s goal for his people is “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13–14).

Strong meat belongs to those “of full age”. The word is téleios, complete or mature, from télos, an end or goal. It describes a grown believer, complete in the sense of fully developed.

The writer tells us how they grew: “by reason of use have their senses exercised”. Gymnázō, the verb behind our word gymnasium, meant to train, and Strong’s explains it from the athletes who stripped to practise for the games. The senses (aisthētḗria) are the powers of perception and judgment. Discernment is learned the way an athlete gains strength, by steady practice: weighing teaching against Scripture, choosing what is right, refusing temptation. Paul writes, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21), and “exercise thyself rather unto godliness” (1 Timothy 4:7–8). He prays that love may abound in knowledge and judgment, “That ye may approve things that are excellent” (Philippians 1:9–10).

“Good and evil” covers moral choices, and it covers truth and error as well, sound doctrine and false. This discernment is the Spirit’s work in us as much as ours, for “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ... because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

The strong meat these readers were still unready for was the truth about Christ’s priesthood, and so the growth this passage calls for is growth in knowing him. He is the bread of life (John 6:35), the Word who was with God in the beginning (John 1:1), the one by whom “all things consist” (Colossians 1:16–17). He came “to fulfil all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15), and in him we are “made the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21), so to be skilful in the word of righteousness is to understand and live out what he has done. He is the light of the world (John 8:12), and we are to grow “up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ” (Ephesians 4:15), with his mind in us (Philippians 2:5). Our high priest “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Through him we come boldly to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:14–16) and draw near “in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:19–22).

Verses 1 and 2 list six teachings, the first instruction given to new believers in the early church. Each of them still stands under every believer’s faith.

• Repentance from dead works. Repentance is a turning away from sin and from trust in ourselves. Dead works, nekrós érgon, are lifeless deeds, religious effort that is lifeless because it is done apart from living faith in Christ or as a way of making ourselves righteous. For these readers that may well have included the rituals and law-keeping they were tempted to return to. Christ’s finished work is the one ground of our peace with God: “a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law” (Romans 3:28).
• Faith toward God. Faith is trust and reliance, the turning toward God that answers the turning away of repentance. It is faith in God through Christ, who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
• The doctrine of baptisms. Didachḗ means teaching, both the act of teaching and what is taught. Baptismós means a washing, ceremonial or Christian. The plural is most likely explained by the many washings these Jewish believers already knew, the “divers washings” of the old covenant (Hebrews 9:10), proselyte baptism and John’s baptism, which new believers had to be taught to tell apart from Christian baptism. Some also see in it Spirit baptism or baptism into Christ’s death. Christian baptism was part of the first gospel call, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 2:38), and it pictures our burial and rising with Christ (Romans 6:3–4).
• Laying on of hands. In the early church hands were laid on believers to receive the Holy Ghost (Acts 8:17), on those set apart for ministry (1 Timothy 4:14), and on the sick and those being blessed. It points to Christ, who “hath shed forth” the Spirit (Acts 2:33).
• Resurrection of the dead. Anástasis means a standing up again, a coming back to life. Pharisees and Sadducees argued over it, and the gospel settles it in Christ, who is “the resurrection, and the life” (John 11:25) and “the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:20). Paul shows how much rests on this truth (1 Corinthians 15:12–20) and how “the dead shall be raised incorruptible” (1 Corinthians 15:51–52), in the chapter given over to it (1 Corinthians 15).
• Eternal judgment. Kríma means a decision, verdict or sentence, and “eternal” tells us that this sentence stands forever. God will judge every person, and “the dead were judged ... according to their works” (Revelation 20:11–15). “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:10), for the Father “hath committed all judgment unto the Son” (John 5:22), as Jesus taught in Matthew 25.

These remain the foundation for Christians today. A house keeps its foundation as long as it stands, and these truths hold up all the deeper teaching that rests on them.

“And this will we do” is the writer’s resolve to go on to maturity with his readers. “Do” is poiéō, the everyday verb to make or do, and the resolve lies in “will we”. The resolve is followed at once by eán, “if”, and epitrépō, to permit, allow or give leave: “if God permit.”

People ask whether this shows doubt. It shows humble faith, the confidence of a man who makes his plans and lays them before God. Paul spoke the same way: “I will return again unto you, if God will” (Acts 18:21), and “I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will” (1 Corinthians 4:19). James teaches us to say, “If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that” (James 4:15), and Proverbs says, “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps” (Proverbs 16:9).

Our growth rests on what God has already willed and done. He is “bringing many sons unto glory” (Hebrews 2:10) through a high priest who is “holy, harmless, undefiled” (Hebrews 7:26–28), and “by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14).

The writer names five things, each one adding to the last, to show how much would be thrown away.

• “Once enlightened”. Phōtízō means to give light or to illuminate. These people had received a clear understanding of the gospel and of who Christ is, the brightness of God’s glory (Hebrews 1:3). The letter uses the same word of the readers’ own early days, “after ye were illuminated” (Hebrews 10:32), and in the early church it was linked with conversion and baptism. Believers are now “light in the Lord” and called to walk as children of light (Ephesians 5:8).
• “Tasted of the heavenly gift”. Geúomai means to taste, by implication to eat, and figuratively to experience something, good or ill. It describes a real, personal experience. The letter uses it of Christ, who by the grace of God should “taste death for every man” (Hebrews 2:9), and Peter writes, “If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious” (1 Peter 2:3). The heavenly gift is salvation itself, secured by Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice (Hebrews 9:26–28), or else the gift of the Spirit.
• “Made partakers of the Holy Ghost”. Métochos means a sharer, participant or associate. The letter uses the same word for those who share in Christ: “For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end” (Hebrews 3:14). The Spirit was given by the ascended Christ, as he promised (John 16:7).
• “Tasted the good word of God”. “Good” is kalós, “word” is rhēma, that which is said, a word or saying, and “God” is theós. This is God’s spoken message, the gospel, and they had found it good. God “hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:1–2).
• “The powers of the world to come”. Dýnamis means power or might, and it is often used of mighty works. “World to come” joins aiṓn, an age, to méllō, to be about to come, and means the coming age of the Messiah’s reign, “the world to come, whereof we speak” (Hebrews 2:5). That age has already broken into the present through Christ’s coming and the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2:1–4), as Joel foretold for the last days (Acts 2:17–18). God bore witness to the gospel “with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost” (Hebrews 2:4). Jesus said, “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20–21), and the Spirit is “the earnest of our inheritance” (Ephesians 1:13–14) until the new heaven and the new earth (Revelation 21:1).

Adýnatos means unable or impossible, and it is a strong word. It returns a few verses later, where “it was impossible for God to lie” (Hebrews 6:18). To renew, anakainízō, is to restore something, to make it new again. The writer gives his own reason in verse 6: “seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”

Parapíptō, “fall away”, means to fall aside or, in Strong’s words, to apostatize. The word itself simply means to fall away, and what kind of falling is meant comes from the words around it. Those words describe a turning against Christ himself. Anastauróō means to crucify again. “To themselves” lays it at their own door: for their own part, they side with those who condemned and crucified him. “Put him to an open shame” means to make a public example of someone, to expose him to disgrace, and crucifixion was exactly that kind of public spectacle. To turn away like this is to treat Christ’s one sacrifice as worthless, when he entered once into the holy place “having obtained eternal redemption for us” (Hebrews 9:11–12). His blood “cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7), and it is our one way into God’s presence (Hebrews 10:19–20). For the one who throws that away, “there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins” (Hebrews 10:26).

Other warnings speak in the same terms. Of those who escape the world’s pollutions through knowing Christ and are entangled again, Peter says, “the latter end is worse with them than the beginning” (2 Peter 2:20). Jesus warned of the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost (Matthew 12:31–32).

Stumbling, doubting or going through a cold season is another matter. Peter denied the Lord three times, “went out, and wept bitterly” (Luke 22:61–62), and was restored. A believer who stumbles is still able to repent and be restored.

The danger in this warning is real, and the writer gives it so that his readers will hold fast to Christ. Believers differ on whom it describes.

• Believers who fall away. Arminian and Wesleyan churches read these verses as describing true believers, who can fall away and be lost if they abandon Christ after so much.
• People who shared in the church’s blessings, or a warning God uses. Reformed churches hold that the passage describes people who shared in the church’s life, its teaching and its gifts, and tasted its blessings, while never being born again. John says of some, “They went out from us, but they were not of us” (1 John 2:19), and those who believe are “sealed with that holy Spirit of promise” (Ephesians 1:13). On this reading, the impossibility lies in hearts so hardened that they will refuse to repent, while God’s power to save is unchanged. Others in this tradition hold that the warning is one of the means God uses to keep his people persevering, and some read it as a case put in order to show where turning back would lead.

Both readings treat the danger as real, and both see the warning as a call to persevere. “But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul” (Hebrews 10:39). The faith that endures is the faith shown by those in Hebrews 11.

For anyone afraid of having gone too far to return, two things in the passage itself help. The writer speaks of falling away in a way that crucifies Christ afresh and holds him up to shame, and he goes straight on to say that he is persuaded of better things concerning his readers (Hebrews 6:9).

Verse 10 gives the ground for the writer’s confidence: “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love”. Ádikos means unjust or unfair. The phrase is a litotes, a strong way of saying that God is perfectly just by denying the opposite. Érgon, work, is their deeds, and “labour” is toil. “Of love” names the motive behind it all. They showed it “toward his name”, and God’s name stands for God himself, so their service was done for him. “Ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister” uses diakonéō, to serve, wait upon, care for or supply, the word also used of a deacon’s service. They had served and were still serving, and it had become the pattern of their life. Their fellow believers were likely under the same pressures as they were, so this ministry would have meant practical help, hospitality and real cost.

Our works are the fruit of salvation, which comes by grace: “For by grace are ye saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8–9). God sees and keeps account of every deed of love done for his people. Paul remembered the Thessalonians’ “work of faith, and labour of love” (1 Thessalonians 1:3), and Jesus said, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:40). The dead who die in the Lord rest from their labours, “and their works do follow them” (Revelation 14:13), so “your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58). Such works bring glory to our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16).

Christ himself is the faithful Son over God’s house (Hebrews 3:1–6), and his death was the greatest labour of love: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). God remembered that work and “highly exalted him” (Philippians 2:9–11).