Lesson 9: Hebrews 5:11-6:3
A Literary Digression: Faith Seeking Understanding
About this we have much to say that is hard to explain, since you have become dull in understanding. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food; for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.
Therefore let us go on toward perfection, leaving behind the basic teaching about Christ, and not laying again the foundation: repentance from dead works and faith toward God, instruction about baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And we will dothis, if God permits.
One of the most fundamental definitions of theology is an ancient one: “faith seeking understanding.” Believers seek to understand the faith they profess more deeply so that they might more fully practice the faith with healthy (sound) words and good deeds. At this point in his sermon, the preacher interrupts his argument for a side comment. It is one of those asides that a congregation does not want to hear but must if they are to continue the journey of seeking understanding. It is important for them to understand their faith more deeply in order to more securely profess it and persevere in it.
After a generation of living out their faith, some—if not many—had become “dull of hearing” which makes it “hard to explain” the faith in ways that would ground their confidence in Christ. The preacher wants to explore the meaning of Psalm 110:4 (“you are a priest according to the order of Melchizedek; you are a priest forever,” quoted in Hebrews 5:10), but the congregation is not prepared to hear that message. The preacher wants to say a lot about Melchizedek; he wants to speak a “word” (logos, as in Hebrews 4:12). But it is a difficult word that needs some maturity to hear well.
Perhaps the first step in pressing forward with the search for understanding is to recognize where we are. This means we are called to humbly recognize our deficiencies, our prejudices, and our inability to hear well or listen attentively. We may hear the sounds, but the meaning escapes us because we perhaps don’t want to learn, our faith is weak, or we are distracted by the cultural hostility or preoccupations that surrounds us.
The preacher contrasts where they are with where they should be after this much time in the faith. We don’t know how long of period this is, perhaps a generation: something like 20-30 years in the faith. I understand his contrasts as the difference between immaturity and maturity. The following chart represents some of the key ideas in the text.
Immaturity and Maturity (5:11-14)
| First Principles of Word | Word of Righteousness |
| Infants | Mature |
| Milk | Solid Food |
| Untaught | Teachers |
| Unskilled | Skilled |
| Untrained | Discernment |
The distinction is most clearly seen in the contrast between “infants” and “mature,” and this entails various characteristics. Infants need milk, need to be taught, are unskilled, and are untrained. They must grow up. The mature, on the other hand, eat solid food, teach others the faith, are skilled in the understanding of the faith, and employ wise discernment to distinguish between good and evil.
Immature believers are not cast from the community; they are still part of it—and the preacher is even hopeful about them as we will see in Hebrews 6:7-20. Instead of exclusion, they are called to grow up into the faith and become mature. The expectation has been there from the beginning. The danger is not exclusion but weakness. A weak faith may ultimately lose confidence and drift way or reject the work of Jesus altogether.
The community needs mature believers who have the wisdom to discern through their own practice of the faith and who are able to teach others—not only with milk but solid food. The health of the community depends on mature leaders who are skilled in the “word of righteousness” rather than remaining stuck in the first principles of the word (or literally, “the first elements of the words of God”). Both refer to the word (logos) of God. One word consists of the initial principles (perhaps the roots of saving faith in conversion through the gospel), and the other word—which is a deeper grasp of God’s work of redemption—refers, in this sermon, to the preacher’s exposition of Melchizedek (which will begin in Hebrews 7). The word of righteousness is the word of God that more fully explores and explains the righteous acts of God to redeem the world, secure our confidence, and give victorious life over death.
But what are the first principles (elements) of the word? Our preacher explicitly identifies them. The following chart interprets the preacher’s language. Generally, repentance and faith function as a comprehensive description, and the following four elements (baptisms, laying on hands, resurrection, and judgment) are specifications that fall under the initial comprehensive language. It seems to me this is the language of conversion: faith and repentance, which involves baptism, laying on of hands, resurrection, and judgment.
Moving from Basics toward Perfection (6:1-3)
| Comprehensively, | |||
| repentance from dead works | καὶ (and) | faith toward God | |
| Specifically, | |||
| (asyndeton; no conjunction) | teachings about baptisms | τε | laying on of hands |
| τε | resurrection from the dead | καὶ (and) | eternal judgment |
The structure of this list is shaped the use of the conjunction καὶ (and): repentance from dead works καὶ (and) faith toward God, teachings about baptisms, τε laying on of hands, τε resurrection from the dead, καὶ (and) eternal judgment. Repentance and faith are comprehensive descriptions of conversion, but the preacher particularizes those teachings that are important for the experience of conversion: baptism, laying on of hands, resurrection, and judgment. More specifically, baptism and laying on of hands are joined together by the particle τε (usually untranslated but functions as a conjunction) and resurrection and judgment are also joined together by an additional use of τε.
This movement is not a movement beyond Judaism but within the Christian Faith. It moves from immature believer in Christ to a matured believer in Christ (from milk to meat). To understand that movement in its full and profound depth one must understand the theological point that lies behind the declaration of Psalm 110:4 about Melchizedek.
As such, “dead works” does not refer to the works of Judaism or the Mosaic covenant, but to sinful deeds that characterize all who come to Christ in faith and repentance. “Baptisms” (baptismon; sometimes translated “washings”) probably refers to the distinction between the various washings that were part of both Jewish, Gentile, and Christian religiosity (cf. Hebrews 9:10). “Laying on of hands” probably refers to the blessing of the Holy Spirit associated with baptism, much like the hands of God (the dove) descending on Jesus at this baptism; the preacher links baptisms and laying on of hands with the particle τε. “Resurrection” refers to the future of believers who share in the resurrection of Jesus himself. “Eternal judgment” refers to the future adjudication of the righteous and the wicked before the throne of God. The preacher links resurrection and judgment with the particle τε.
These six elements reflect the emphases of apostolic preaching in the book of Acts. I think they represent the basic elements of a conversion narrative: repentance from sin, faith in God, baptism into Jesus and the reception of the Holy Spirit, and salvation through resurrection and the function of judgment. This is how believers responded and began their journey in the Christian faith as followers of Jesus.
But it is insufficient to understand the “word of righteousness.” Believers must pursue “perfection,” and the preacher urges them to do so. Building on the foundation of their conversion, believers must journey toward perfection.
I don’t think “perfection” here only means maturity or completeness. While it includes those aspects of our present pilgrimage in the wilderness (we do seek maturity), it points ultimately to the perfection that God will work in our lives through participation in the perfection (resurrection) of Jesus. As perfected people, we will serve as priests in the heavenly courts alongside Jesus. And that is what the preacher wants to explain in Hebrews 7:1-10:18.
For more discussion on this text as it relates to conversion, maturity, and fellowship among believers who disagree about important questions, see my (now ancient) piece from the 1980s. :-). Here is the link: https://johnmarkhicks.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2009/02/heb6.doc