Hebrews 6

Hebrews 6:1-14 . WARNING AGAINST RETROGRADING, WHICH SOON LEADS TO APOSTASY; ENCOURAGEMENT TO STEADFASTNESS FROM GOD'S FAITHFULNESS TO HIS WORD AND OATH.

1. Therefore--Wherefore: seeing that ye ought not now to be still "babes" ( Hebrews 5:11-14 ).
leaving--getting further forward than the elementary "principles." "As in building a house one must never leave the foundation: yet to be always laboring in 'laying the foundation' would be ridiculous" [CALVIN].
the principles of the doctrine--Greek, "the word of the beginning," that is, the discussion of the "first principles of Christianity ( Hebrews 5:12 ).
let us go on--Greek, "let us be borne forward," or "bear ourselves forward"; implying active exertion: press on. Paul, in teaching, here classifies himself with the Hebrew readers, or (as they ought to be) learners, and says, Let us together press forward.
perfection--the matured knowledge of those who are "of full age" ( Hebrews 5:14 ) in Christian attainments.
foundation of--that is, consisting in "repentance."
repentance from dead works--namely, not springing from the vital principle of faith and love toward God, and so counted, like their doer, dead before God. This repentance from dead works is therefore paired with "faith toward God." The three pairs of truths enumerated are designedly such as JEWISH believers might in some degree have known from the Old Testament, but had been taught more clearly when they became Christians. This accounts for the omission of distinct specification of some essential first principle of Christian truth. Hence, too, he mentions "faith toward God," and not explicitly faith toward Christ (though of course included). Repentance and faith were the first principles taught under the Gospel.

2. the doctrine of baptisms--paired with "laying on of hands," as the latter followed on Christian baptism, and answers to the rite of confirmation in Episcopal churches. Jewish believers passed, by an easy transition, from Jewish baptismal purifications ( Hebrews 9:10 , "washings"), baptism of proselytes, and John's baptism, and legal imposition of hands, to their Christian analogues, baptism, and the subsequent laying on of hands, accompanied by the gift of the Holy Ghost (compare Hebrews 6:4 ). Greek, "baptismoi," plural, including Jewish and Christian baptisms, are to be distinguished from baptisma, singular, restricted to Christian baptism. The six particulars here specified had been, as it were, the Christian Catechism of the Old Testament; and such Jews who had begun to recognize Jesus as the Christ immediately on the new light being shed on these fundamental particulars, were accounted as having the elementary principles of the doctrine of Christ [BENGEL]. The first and most obvious elementary instruction of Jews would be the teaching them the typical significance of their own ceremonial law in its Christian fulfilment [ALFORD].
resurrection, &c.--held already by the Jews from the Old Testament: confirmed with clearer light in Christian teaching or "doctrine."
eternal judgment--judgment fraught with eternal consequences either of joy or of woe.

3. will we do--So some of the oldest manuscripts read; but others, "Let us do." "This," that is, "Go on unto perfection."
if God permit--For even in the case of good resolutions, we cannot carry them into effect, save through God "working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure" ( Philippians 2:13 ). The "for" in Hebrews 6:4 refers to this:I say, if God permit, for there are cases where God does not permit, for example, "it is impossible," &c. Without God's blessing, the cultivation of the ground does not succeed ( Hebrews 6:7 ).