6:1 – Therefore leaving the teaching of the first principles of Christ, let’s press on to perfection—not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, of faith toward God, (2) of the teaching of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. (3) This will we do, if God permits.
The basic teachings of the faith are essential: without them we would have no understanding of our sin and our need for a Savior, nor of how to take hold of the grace that is extended to us in Christ. These things are the foundations on which our faith is built, and the writer is not at all suggesting that we should forget about them. Even as mature Christians there are times when we need to “get back to basics”, reminding ourselves of the essentials of our faith. Even as mature Christians we need to repent of anything in our lives that is not of God; and we need to stir up our faith to new levels. We need to remain aware of the resurrection and subsequent judgment, not only for ourselves but to stir up our compassion for others.
So why is the writer saying we must “leave” these things and “go on” to perfection? All these things are important, but they are only the beginning of the things that God has for us, and that He wants to teach us. Yet it seems that many churches, then as now, focused on nothing but going over and over these same teachings. We often find this when the “pastor” is an evangelist – the church hears nothing but the salvation message, in 101 different flavors, repeated endlessly each week. Whilst it is good that the Gospel of Salvation is being preached, and often the church will see many people coming to salvation, once they are saved there is nothing to help them grow. Often such churches see a stream of mature Christians exiting to pastures where they can find food.
The word translated “perfection” here is maturity. The Gospel of Salvation – the message for baby Christians – is all about us: we are sinners who stand in danger of God’s judgment; we need someone to save us from that judgment; God provided that Savior in Christ, who died in our place paying the penalty of our sins; if we repent and receive Him we are forgiven and assured of eternal life in heaven with Him. All of that is true and wonderful; and every baby believes that the world is all about him. (Ever noticed how babies have to be the center of attention at all times, and how they make their voices heard loud and clear if they are not?)
As we go on to maturity in God, however, we learn that the Gospel is really not all about us. We learn that the grace and forgiveness that we received so freely came at an awful cost. We learn that God is not our servant, running behind us to clean up all our messes, but the King and Lord of the universe who demands our service. We learn that salvation is not just for “me” but for “the world”, and that we have a part in taking it to the world. We learn that the most important thing is not that “I get to heaven when I die”, but that the Kingdom of God is established. If we try to embrace these concepts without having laid the foundations properly, then we are in danger of moving into legalism and works; but if, having laid the foundations, we do not move on to these deeper levels of understanding, then we condemn ourselves to remain in immaturity.
An even greater danger is that a lack of growth will see our faith shrivel and die. It is a rule of nature that nothing remains constant: we are either going forward or backward, either growing or shrinking. To remain at a baby level in the faith, failing to grow to maturity, could result in us eventually falling away from the faith altogether.