1 Therefore, having left the discourse of the beginning of Christ, let us go on to full growth, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
2 of the baptisms, of doctrine, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
3 And this we will do, if God permits.
4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
5 and have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come,
6 and who have fallen away; it is impossible, I say, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify the Son of God afresh to themselves and put Him to an open shame.
7 (For the earth which drinks in the rain that comes often upon it, and brings forth plants fit for those by whom it is dressed, receives blessing from God.
8 But that which bears thorns and briers is rejected and is a curse, whose end is to be burned.)
9 But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this way.
10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
11 And we desire that each one of you show the same eagerness to the full assurance of hope to the end,
12 that you be not slothful, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, He swore by Himself,
15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
16 For men truly swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
17 In this way desiring to declare more fully to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, God interposed by an oath,
18 so that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us,
19 which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil,
20 where the Forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.