Catholic Commentary
Press On to Maturity: Beyond the Elementary Teachings
1Therefore 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,2of the teaching of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.3This will we do, if God permits.
Hebrews 6:1–3 exhorts believers to move beyond foundational Christian teachings—repentance, faith, baptism, laying on of hands, resurrection, and judgment—toward spiritual maturity and full communion with God. The author emphasizes that progress toward perfection depends on divine grace and cooperation, not human willpower alone.
The Christian life is not a destination you reach at baptism but a ladder you climb your whole life—and you cannot climb it alone.
Hebrews 6:1 — "Therefore leaving the teaching of the first principles of Christ, let's press on to perfection"
The word "therefore" (διό) connects this exhortation to the preceding rebuke in Hebrews 5:11–14, where the author chides his audience for remaining spiritual infants, still needing milk rather than solid food. The phrase "first principles" (ἀρχή, archē) carries the sense of a foundational beginning — the ABC's of the faith — not something to be discarded, but something to be transcended by building upon. "Perfection" here renders the Greek teleiotēs, from telos (end, goal, completeness). This is the same root used in Hebrews 12:2 of Christ as the "author and perfecter" of faith. For the author of Hebrews, teleiotēs is the goal of the entire Christian life: full communion with God through Christ the High Priest. The imperative "let us press on" (pherōmetha, literally "let us be carried") is notably passive, suggesting that this movement toward perfection is not achieved by sheer willpower but by allowing oneself to be borne forward — a profound image of cooperation with grace.
The author lists two foundational elements in verse 1: repentance from dead works and faith toward God. "Dead works" (nekrōn ergōn) is a striking phrase. In the broader context of Hebrews, it refers both to the ritually impure acts that required Levitical cleansing (cf. Heb 9:14) and more broadly to any action disconnected from the life of grace — sin, in its deepest sense. Repentance and faith together constitute the gateway of conversion, the threshold of the Christian life. They are not dismissed here but identified as the starting point, not the summit.
Hebrews 6:2 — "of the teaching of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment"
The list continues with four more foundational teachings. "Baptisms" (baptismōn, plural) likely refers to the distinction between Jewish ritual washings, John's baptism, and Christian Baptism — a catechetical clarification essential for converts from Judaism. For Catholic commentators such as Cornelius à Lapide and modern scholars like Albert Vanhoye (S.J.), this plural signals that early Christian instruction carefully differentiated Christian initiation from its antecedents. "Laying on of hands" (epithesis cheirōn) in the New Testament context encompasses healing, ordination, and the conferral of the Holy Spirit — what would develop doctrinally into the sacraments of Confirmation and Holy Orders. "Resurrection of the dead" and "eternal judgment" round out the eschatological horizon of basic catechesis: these are the last things, the framework within which all moral and spiritual life takes meaning. These six elements constitute a remarkably coherent sketch of early Christian initiation and catechesis — a proto-catechumenal syllabus.
Hebrews 6:3 — "This will we do, if God permits"
This brief clause is theologically dense. The author's conditional — "if God permits" — is not mere rhetorical humility; it is a theological statement about the primacy of divine initiative in all spiritual progress. No advance toward maturity happens apart from God's enabling grace. This echoes James 4:15 ("If the Lord wills") and reflects the consistent New Testament insistence that growth in holiness is synergistic: genuinely human, yet utterly dependent on grace. The phrase also prepares the reader for the severe warning that follows in verses 4–8, suggesting that divine permission for progress presupposes genuine receptivity — a heart not hardened against grace.
Typological/Spiritual Sense
Typologically, the movement from "foundations" to "perfection" mirrors Israel's journey from Sinai (law, initial covenant) to the Promised Land (rest, fulfillment). Hebrews develops this typology extensively: the "rest" of Canaan prefigures the eschatological rest of union with God (Heb 4:1–11). The six foundational teachings of verses 1–2 correspond loosely to the preparatory stages of Israel's formation — Passover, circumcision, the giving of the Law — while the telos toward which the author presses is the Holy of Holies, entered once for all by Christ (Heb 9:12).
Catholic tradition illuminates this passage at several key points. First, the six foundational elements listed in verses 1–2 map remarkably onto the structure of sacramental initiation as understood by the Church. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explicitly links Baptism, Confirmation (laying on of hands / anointing with chrism), and the Eucharist as the "sacraments of Christian initiation" (CCC 1212), which together lay the foundation of "the whole Christian life." Hebrews 6:1–2 offers a Scriptural warrant for understanding initiation as a beginning, not a terminus.
Second, the concept of teleiotēs — perfection or maturity — resonates deeply with the Catholic doctrine of sanctification and the universal call to holiness proclaimed by the Second Vatican Council in Lumen Gentium §11 and §40: "All the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status are called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity." This is not the perfection of Pelagian self-achievement, but the perfection of charity wrought by grace.
The Church Fathers were attentive to this passage. Origen saw in the movement from "milk" to "solid food" (Heb 5–6) an allegory of growth from moral catechesis to mystical theology. St. John Chrysostom (Homilies on Hebrews, Homily 9) warned against a false complacency that rests in foundational knowledge while neglecting growth: "It is not enough to have learned; one must advance." St. Thomas Aquinas, commenting on this text, tied teleiotēs to the theological virtue of charity as the form of all virtues — the ultimate goal of Christian life (Super Epistolam ad Hebraeos, lect. 1, cap. 6).
The conditional "if God permits" is a direct affirmation of the Catholic understanding of actual grace: God's enabling assistance without which no meritorious act is possible, yet which never bypasses human freedom (CCC 2000–2001).
Contemporary Catholics face a particular temptation that Hebrews 6 directly addresses: sacramental complacency. It is possible to receive Baptism, make First Communion, be Confirmed, and yet remain permanently encamped at the elementary stage — returning year after year to the same shallow spiritual ground without ever pressing deeper into prayer, Scripture, the sacraments lived intentionally, or the works of mercy. This passage is a pastoral challenge to treat the sacraments of initiation not as finish lines but as launching pads.
Practically, this might mean moving from passive Mass attendance to lectio divina and contemplative prayer; from occasional Confession to an examined conscience and a genuine rule of life; from knowing about the faith to the costly, luminous practice of it. The phrase "if God permits" is also a daily invitation to surrender — to ask each morning not for self-directed spiritual progress, but for the grace to be carried forward by the Spirit into whatever depth of union with Christ God intends for us today. Spiritual direction, a practice deeply rooted in Catholic tradition, is one concrete means of pressing on beyond the elementary.