The writer will shortly return to Christ's priesthood and Melchizadek, but before he does that he has some strong words for them.
Verse 11 contains a great point on learning. It has hard to teach them because they do not try to understand. This principle can be applied to all learning. Today there is constant emphasis on the quality of teaching in schools and universities, but very little on the quality if learning, very little on the approach of the students and pupils. I lecture in a University and constantly seek (well pretty often, maybe not constantly) to improve the quality of my teaching. However, I could deliver the most wonderful module ever, it would not guarantee that the students would learn anything. Conversely, I could make a complete Horlicks of the job, yet a student could be their own efforts still learn way more than the student with the excellent me.
If we are to learn then we need to make an effort. The writer then goes on to say that they ought by now to know quite a lot. We should seek to grow in faith. Note that the goal is not academic knowledge, but so that we can "distinguish good from evil".
"Teaching about righteousness". This is understanding how we come to have right standing with God. Many of us also lack this understanding. The two most common fallacies are (i) that we achieve it by trying our best; and (ii) that we achieve it by "faith". Now the last bit may upset some of you, but note that, before you decide to stone me, I put "faith" in inverted commas. We do not achieve it by simply having said the right words at some point in our life. The next chapters will reveal a lot more about this.
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