Hebrews 6

1So let us leave behind the first message about Christ and be carried forward to maturity. Let us not be laying a foundation all over again: turning away from dead works and putting faith in God, 2teaching about ritual washings and the laying on of hands, the raising of the dead and eternal judgment. 3And we will do so, if God allows.

4There are those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the gift from heaven, who have received a share in the Holy Spirit, 5who have tasted that God’s word is good and have tasted the powers of the coming age, 6and who have then fallen away. It is impossible for them to be brought back again to repentance, as they crucify the Son of God over again for themselves and put him to open shame. 7When the ground drinks in the rain that falls on it again and again and yields plants that serve the people who work it, it shares in God’s blessing. 8But if it brings up thorns and thistles, it is rejected as worthless and a curse is close at hand; it will finish by being burned.

9Yet about you, dear friends, we are confident of better things, things that come with salvation, even if we talk this way. 10For God is not so unfair as to forget your work and the love you have shown for his name by serving his holy people, and by serving them still. 11Our desire is that each of you show the same eagerness right to the end, until your hope is fully assured. 12Then you will not grow sluggish; you will follow the example of those who, by faith and patience, are receiving the promises as their inheritance.

13God made a promise to Abraham, and having no one greater to swear by, he took an oath by himself, 14saying, “Truly I will bless you richly and multiply you greatly.” 15And so, after waiting with patience, Abraham obtained the promise. 16Human beings swear by one greater than they are, and for them an oath settles every dispute, because it confirms what is said. 17So God, wanting the heirs of the promise to see all the more clearly that his purpose would never change, added an oath to guarantee it. 18He did this so that through two things that cannot change, and in which God cannot possibly lie, we who have fled for refuge would have strong encouragement to seize the hope placed before us. 19This hope is ours as an anchor for the soul, one that holds safe and firm and reaches into the inner place behind the curtain. 20There Jesus entered ahead of us and for our sake, as a forerunner, having become a high priest forever, of the order of Melchizedek.