Hebrews 5:11-6:6
11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
1 Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death,[d] and of faith in God, 2 instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And God permitting, we will do so.
4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, 6 if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because[e]to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.
Following on from yesterday’s topic, we have the writer of the letter positing two categories of knowledge about spiritual things: elementary (milk), and advanced (meat). He first says that the Hebrews are stuck in the elementary stage and need someone to teach them the easy stuff again. But, hopefully they will soon move on to the advanced topics, leaving the elementary material behind like someone leaves long division behind as they move to calculus. Pay attention to what the “elementary teachings” are: repentance, faith in God, baptism, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgement. Let’s move on from these to Christianity 201.
Is this right? Are these topics the basics? If so, then we’re all stuck in elementary school. Do you fully understand them?
And then, continuing on from that idea, he makes a point about those that have been “enlightened” and have fallen away, saying that they can never return to repentance because their actions have crucified Christ all over again.
That’s an interesting juxtaposition, and I wonder if the significance there is that those who are “enlightened” are those who have moved past the elementary teachings into the advanced stages, the meat-eaters. And what is this teaching that the mature ones learn? It is a teaching about righteousness. That is the mystery that only the initiated know about.