belonging to the order of Melchizedek.
005:011 Concerning Him we have much to say, and much that it would
be difficult to make clear to you, since you have become
so dull of apprehension.
005:012 For although, considering the long time you have been believers,
you ought now to be teachers of others, you really need some one
to teach you over again the very rudiments of the truths of God,
and you have come to require milk instead of solid food.
005:013 By people who live on milk I mean those who are imperfectly
acquainted with the teaching concerning righteousness.
005:014 Such persons are mere babes. But solid food is for adults--
that is, for those who through constant practice have
their spiritual faculties carefully trained to distinguish
good from evil.
006:001 Therefore leaving elementary instruction about the Christ,
let us advance to mature manhood and not be continually
re-laying a foundation of repentance from lifeless works
and of faith in God,
006:002 or of teaching about ceremonial washings, the laying on of hands,
the resurrection of the dead, and the last judgement.
006:003 And advance we will, if God permits us to do so.
006:004 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once for all
been enlightened, and have tasted the sweetness of the heavenly gift,
and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
006:005 and have realized how good the word of God is and how mighty
are the powers of the coming Age, and then fell away--
006:006 it is impossible, I say, to keep bringing them back to a
new repentance, for, to their own undoing, they are repeatedly
crucifying the Son of God afresh and exposing Him to open shame.
006:007 For land which has drunk in the rain that often falls upon it,