1Therefore, leaving behind the elementary teaching about Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
2the teaching about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
3And this we will do, if indeed God permits.
4For it is impossible, in the case of those who were once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly gift and became partakers of the Holy Spirit,
5and who tasted the good word of God and the powers of the coming age,
6and then have fallen away — to renew them again to repentance, since they are crucifying again for themselves the Son of God and holding him up to public disgrace.
7For land that drinks the rain that often falls upon it, and produces vegetation useful to those for whom it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God;
8but land bearing thorns and thistles is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is for burning.
9But concerning you, beloved, we are convinced of better things, things that belong to salvation, even though we speak in this way.
10For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love you have shown for his name, in having served the saints and in continuing to serve them.
11And we desire that each of you show the same diligence toward the full assurance of hope until the end,
12so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
13For when God made his promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater to swear by, he swore by himself,
14saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you”;
15and so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise.
16For people swear by one greater than themselves, and for them the oath is a confirmation, an end to all dispute.
17In this way God, wanting to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, guaranteed it with an oath,
18so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.
19This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both secure and firm, and reaching into the inner place behind the curtain,
20where Jesus has entered as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
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