Therefore Seeing that most of you have continued so ignorant, although you have been so long favoured with the light of the gospel, and various means of edification, it is high time for you to labour for more knowledge and grace, and for me to instruct you further; leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ That is, saying no more for the present, of those things in which those who embrace Christianity are wont to be first instructed. The original expression, τον της αρχης του Χριστου λογον, is, literally, the word of the beginning of Christ, as in the margin; and signifies those parts of the Christian doctrine which men were usually and properly first instructed in; and which the apostle immediately enumerates. They are the same with the first principles of the oracles of God, mentioned Hebrews 5:12. But it must be observed that the signification of the words must be limited to the present occasion; for if we consider the things here spoken of absolutely, they are never to be left, either by teachers or hearers. There is a necessity that teachers should often insist on the rudiments, or first principles, of religion; not only with respect to them who are continually to be trained up in knowledge from their infancy, but also those who have made a further progress in knowledge. And this course we find our apostle to have followed in all his epistles. Nor are any hearers so to leave these principles, as to forget them, or not duly to make use of them. Cast aside a constant regard to them, in their proper place, and no progress can be made in knowledge, no more than a building can be carried on when the foundation is taken away.
Let us go on unto perfection Unto a perfect acquaintance with the more sublime and difficult truths, and the high privileges and duties of Christianity; not laying again What has been laid already; the foundation of repentance from dead works That is, from the works done by those who are dead in sin, or who, through sin, are under condemnation to the second death, are alienated from the life of God, and carnally minded, which is death, Romans 8:6. See note on Ephesians 2:1-2. Not only are known and wilful sins, which proceed from spiritual death, and if not pardoned and taken away, end in death eternal, here intended; but even all works, though apparently moral, charitable, and pious, are but dead works, before the living God, if they do not proceed from spiritual life in the soul, or from living faith, even the faith which worketh by love, (Galatians 5:6; 1 Corinthians 13:3,) as their principle, and be not directed to the glory of God as their end.
And faith toward God Looking to, and confiding in him for pardon, holiness, and eternal life, through Christ. Of the doctrine of baptisms The apostle does not speak of the legal washings in use among the Jews, whether by immersion, ablution, or sprinkling; (for why should those who believed in Christ be instructed concerning these?) but John's baptism and that of Christ, which were distinct from each other, and were subjects of disputation with many among the Jews, Mark 7:3-4; John 3:22-26. John admitted the penitent to the baptism of water; and, in obedience to the command of Christ, (Matthew 28:19,) the apostles baptized all that professed to believe in him, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Or, as Whitby thinks, the apostle is here to be understood of the double baptism “of which John spake, when he said, I baptize you with water, but he that cometh after me shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire, Matthew 3:11; and of which Christ spake to Nicodemus, (John 3:5,) saying, Except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. For this, in order, followed the doctrine of repentance, and of faith in God and our Lord Jesus Christ.”
And the laying on of hands The imposition of hands was used by the apostles and first Christian ministers in the healing of diseases, and in setting persons apart for the work of the ministry; but neither of these were common to all Christians, nor joined with baptism; nor were they reckoned among the principles of the doctrine of Christ, or the initiatory doctrines of the Christian faith. We must therefore understand this of that imposition of the apostles' hands which was wont to be used, after baptism, to confer upon the persons baptized the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost. See Acts 8:14-17; Acts 19:6. And this was a matter wherein the glory of the gospel and its propagation were highly concerned; indeed, next to the preaching of the word, it was the great means used by God for bringing both Jews and Gentiles over to the faith of the gospel, or for establishing them therein.
And the resurrection of the dead Namely, of the bodies of the dead; and of eternal judgment The future and general judgment, called eternal, because the sentence then pronounced will be irreversible, and the effects of it remain for ever. In which two last-mentioned articles, the penitent and believing, that had been admitted to baptism, were more fully instructed, as being most powerful motives to engage them herein to exercise themselves to have always consciences void of offence toward God and toward all men. “Interpreters observe,” says Whitby, “that the doctrine of Origen, touching the period of the torments of the damned, is here condemned; and indeed the primitive father's not Origen himself excepted, taught the contrary. ‘If we do not the will of Christ,' says Clemens Romanus, ‘nothing will deliver us from eternal punishment.' ‘The punishment of the damned,' says Justin Martyr, ‘is endless punishment and torment in eternal fire.' In Theophilus it is, ‘eternal punishment.' Irenæus, in his symbol of faith, makes this one article, ‘that God would send the ungodly and unjust into everlasting fire.' Tertullian declares, ‘that all men are appointed to torment or refreshment, both eternal.' And ‘if any man,' says he, ‘thinks the wicked are to be consumed and not punished, let him remember that hell-fire is styled eternal, because designed for eternal punishment; and their substance will remain for ever whose punishment doth so.' St. Cyprian says, ‘The souls of the wicked are kept with their bodies to be grieved with endless torments.' ‘There is no measure nor end of their torments,' says Minutius. Lastly, Origen reckons this among the doctrines defined by the church; ‘That every soul, when it goes out of this world, shall either enjoy the inheritance of eternal life and bliss, if its deeds have rendered it fit for bliss; or be delivered up to eternal fire and punishment, if its sins have deserved that state.'”