1 So, we (inc) must not keep discussing the elementary principles about Christ. Instead, we must proceed to the teaching that will make us spiritually mature [MTY]. We must not be people who always need someone to teach them the elementary truths about Christ that are like [MET] a foundation. I am referring to the teaching that people who do sinful things must turn away from their sinful behavior, things that those who are spiritually [MET] dead do. I am referring to the teaching that people must believe in God. 2 I am referring to the teaching about what various Jewish and Christian rituals for purifying people signify. I am referring to the teaching about how elders enable people to receive spiritual gifts by laying hands on them [MTY]. I am referring to the teaching that God will ◄cause those who have died to live again/raise people from the dead►. And I am referring to the teaching that God will judge some people and punish them eternally. 3 Instead of continuing to discuss these elementary truths, we (inc) (OR, I) will go on to give people mature teaching, if God allows it. 4 I will explain why it is important to do that. Some people have at one time fully understood the message about Christ [MET]. They have experienced a relationship with Jesus Christ that God [EUP/MTY] gave to them. They have received the Holy Spirit the same as others have. 5 They have experienced that God’s message is good. And by what they have experienced now, they know how God will work powerfully in the future. If those people reject the message about Christ, it will not be possible for anyone to persuade them to turn away from their sinful behavior again! 6 What those believers who later renounce the message about Christ do is as though [MET] they themselves are nailing the Son of God to a cross again! They are causing others to publicly despise Christ. 7 Think about this: It is land on which rain has frequently fallen [PRS] and on which plants grow [PRS] that is useful for the people who prepare the land that God has blessed. Similarly, it is those believers who have received many good things from God and who do good deeds/things that please God, whom God will bless [MET]. 8 But what will happen to believers who do deeds/things that do not please God will be like what happens to land on which only thorns and thistles grow [MET]. Such land is worthless. It has almost become land that God will curse, and eventually he will burn its vegetation [MTY].

9 Although I am writing to you like this as a warning, I am certain concerning you whom I love that you are doing better than that. Specifically, I am sure that you are doing the things that are appropriate for those whom God has saved. 10 Since God always acts justly [LIT], he will not overlook all you have done for him. He will also not overlook [MTY] your showing that you love him by the way you helped your fellow believers and by the way you still help them. Instead, God will reward you for doing good deeds. 11 I very much want each of you to diligently continue to fully expect to receive what God has provided for you, until you finally receive everything that you have confidently expected to receive. 12 I do not want you to be lazy. Instead, I want you to imitate those who, because they patiently continued to trust in God, are receiving what he promised them.

13 When God promised to do things for Abraham, he said that he would punish himself if he did not do that, because there was no one of greater importance to ask to punish him if he did not do it. 14 He said to Abraham, “I will certainly bless you (sg), and I will certainly increase the number of your descendants [SYN].” 15 As a result, after Abraham patiently waited for God to do what he promised, he received what God promised him. 16 Keep in mind that when people promise something, they ask a more important person to punish them if they do not do what they promise. Furthermore, when people ask God to punish them if they do not tell the truth, that causes people who are disputing to stop disputing. 17 So, when God wanted to demonstrate very clearly ◄to us/to those people► who would receive what he had promised that he would not change what he had purposed to do, he solemnly guaranteed that he would declare himself guilty if he did not do what he promised. 18 He did that to strongly encourage us as a result of our knowing that God has done two things that cannot change. Namely, he promised to bless us, and he solemnly declared that he would declare himself guilty if he did not bless us. We know that God, who did those things, cannot lie. We have fled to him in order that we might continue confidently to expect to receive what he promised us. 19 Our confidently expecting [SYN] to receive what he has promised is like an anchor [MET] that very firmly [DOU] holds us fast. The one we confidently expect to help us [SYN] is Jesus, who goes into God’s very presence, just like the Supreme Priests went behind the curtain into the innermost part of the tent in the barren area [MET]. 20 Jesus went into God’s presence ahead of us (inc) to help us when he became a Supreme Priest eternally in the way that Melchizedek was a Supreme Priest.