Warning and Encouragement

1 Therefore, leaving the elementary teaching about the Messiah, let us go on to perfection, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
2 of instruction about baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

3 And God permitting, we will do this.

4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit,
5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the coming age,
6 and then have fallen away, to renew them again to repentance, since they are crucifying again for themselves the Son of God and exposing him to public shame.

7 For the ground that drinks the rain that often falls on it, and brings forth plants useful to those by whom it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God.
8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is rejected and near to a curse; its end is to be burned.

Exhortation to Perseverance

9 But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this way.
10 For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you showed toward his name, having served the saints and still serving.
11 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence for the full assurance of hope until the end,
12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself,
14 saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.”
15 And thus, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise.

16 For men swear by one greater than themselves, and in all their disputes the oath is the end of them as confirmation.
17 So God, desiring to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath,
18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to grasp the hope set before us.

19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and entering into the inner place behind the veil,
20 where Jesus has entered for us as a forerunner, having become high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.