As Christ suffered, he learned to be a compassionate Supreme Priest by obeying God.

1Every Jewish Supreme Priest was chosen by God {God chose every Jewish Supreme Priest} from among ordinary men. They were appointed {He appointed them} in order that they would come before him on behalf of the people. Specifically, God appointed them in order that they would bring gifts to him on behalf of the people, and in order to sacrifice animals to him for people who sinned.

2The Supreme Priests could deal gently with those who ignorantly sinned, since the Supreme Priests themselves tended to sin easily.

3As a result, they had to offer something to God for their own sins, just like they had to offer something to God for other people who sinned.

4Furthermore, it is an honor to be a Supreme Priest so no one honors himself by appointing himself to become a Supreme Priest. Instead, God chose each man to become a Supreme Priest, as he chose Aaron to be the first Supreme Priest.

5Similarly, Christ also did not honor himself by appointing himself to become a Supreme Priest. Instead, God appointed him by saying to him what he never said to any other priest, what the Psalmist wrote in the Scriptures, You (sg) are my Son! Today I have declared that I am your Father!

6And he also said to Christ what the Psalmist wrote in another Scripture passage, You are a priest eternally just like Melchizedek was a priest.

7When Christ lived on the earth [MTY], he prayed [DOU] to God and tearfully cried out loudly to him. Specifically, he asked God, who was able to help him, that he would not fear the sufferings just before he died. As a result, God listened to him, because Christ reverently submitted to what God wanted him to do.

8Although Christ is God’s own Son, he learned to obey God by suffering before he died.

9By becoming ◄all that God intended him to be/perfect►, he has now become fully qualified to be our Supreme Priest. As a result, he is the one who saves eternally all who obey him.

10Furthermore, God has designated him to be our Supreme Priest in the way that Melchizedek was a Supreme Priest.

You are not ready for more advanced spiritual truth.

11Although there is much to say to you(pl) about how Christ resembles Melchizedek, this is hard for me to explain to you because you now understand things so slowly.

12You became Christians long ago. So by now you should be teaching spiritual truths to others. But you still need someone to teach you again the truths that God has revealed. I am talking about the truths that we teach people when they first believe in Christ. You need those elementary truths like babies need milk [MET]. You are not ready for advanced teaching, which is like the solid food which mature people need [MET].

13Remember that those who are still learning these elementary truths [MET] have not become familiar with what God says concerning becoming/being righteous. They are just like [MET] babies who need milk!

14But the more advanced spiritual truth is for people who are spiritually mature, just like [MET] solid food is for people who are physically mature. They can tell the difference between what is good and what is evil, because they have trained themselves to keep doing that.