Answer: The Christians to whom he wrote. In the last of the preceding chapter he contrasts the "infant" with the "fully grown," and by this he illustrates the spiritual condition of the one who knows but the "elements" the beginnings, of the life in Christ and those "skillful in the word of righteousness." And he urges the beginner on to the "fully grown," saying, "For this reason, we should go on to the full growth, having left the teaching of the beginning of the Christ; not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, and faith in God; of the teaching of baptisms, and the laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment; and this we will do, the Lord permitting it," that is, go on, on, on, the Lord willing.

He goes right on, showing the danger of apostasy on the part of those who remain noothros (sluggish). He encourages them with God’s promise and love, and the noble example of Abraham. On, on, on he urges, lest they sicken and die (spiritually).

Hands were laid on in bestowing spiritual gifts; dead works were such as man devised, not God, which made them "workers of iniquity" (Mt. 7:23). Baptisms.—John’s, that commanded of Christ, Mt. 28:19; that promised to the Apostles in the Holy Spirit, which they received, Acts 2:1-4, the antecedent of "they" being "apostles," in the preceding chapter; that in fire; that of suffering. The resurrection, that of Christ, and "the just and the unjust." Judgment.—Acts 10:40-42; Acts 17:31; 2 Cor. 4:10, 11.