Hebrews 6:1-12

v1-3: The elementary teachings of Christ include repentance, “making sure you do not return to your former way of sin,” faith in God, baptism, laying on of hands which possibly refers to the means of acknowledging someone has become a church member, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. “People should be well instructed and established in these,” but in order to grow we must leave them. Leaving them does not mean losing them, despising them, or forgetting them. Rather it means that we don’t stay in them, by “doing the beginners’ course every year,” and instead we build on them.

v4-8: “Spiritual growth is the surest way to prevent that fearful sin of apostasy from the faith.” Though “true saints may fall frequently and corruptly,” they “will not totally or finally fall away from God.” This warning about falling away is a means to encourage us to “persevere and grow in grace, for fear that if [we] do not go forward, [we] will go backwards.”

v9-10: It is appropriate for preachers to warn those they are confident are truly saved, about the possibility of apostasy, so they “seriously consider how fatal a disappointment it would be if they were to fall short,” that this would spur them on to “endure to the end”.

v11-12: Full assurance of hope is not a different kind of hope but a great certainty that we will endure to the end. This is obtained by following “the good examples of those who have gone before... on the path of faith and patience.” If we do that, we can confident that we “will be with them in the end and share in the same blessedness” they are now enjoying.