Quit Bottle Feeding! - Hebrews 5:11-6:3

"We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so."
Hebrews 5:11-6:3

Wow! Sometimes the truth hurts. You begin to get the sense of the author's frustration because of the lack of understanding by the people. He knows they need to move on in their walk with Christ, but they are stuck at the elementary teachings of the faith. It seems to me that they elementary things are...

1. Repentance: Yes an essential truth, but foundational. If we don't get this one we certainly can't move toward a deeper relationship!

2. Faith: Rehashing over and over again what it means to be a people faith was critical but because of their "slowness" they could not move on.

3. Instructions about baptisms: Baptism was a foundational practice of the church, but the text seems to indicate that the people were not understanding it.

4. The laying on of hands: This is a subject that I am going to be looking into deeper. There are many ways that this phrase is interpreted and practiced. By the text in Hebrews, it seems to be foundational, therefore important for us to look into.

5. The resurrection of the dead: Culturally speaking, there were many Jews who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. That was an obstacle when the resurrection of Jesus is so important, not to mention our promised resurrection.

6. Eternal Judgment: I tend to think that many in the church are stuck on this one as well.

These teachings were the bulk of the content and the author wants them to move on to meat. What are the teachings for the mature? They are teachings about righteousness and distinguishing good from evil in our daily lives. It's about learning the character and heart of Jesus! It is becoming one with Christ who is our righteousness! It shifts from the "what has God done for me" mentality to the "What does God want from me" mentality. It is less of a focus on the work of Christ (though so incredibly important) and more of a focus on the person of Christ! It is a shift from the intellectual knowledge of Christ to the intimacy of knowing Christ.

What about you? Do you concern yourself with righteousness? Do you seek intimacy with Christ? Do you hunger to know the heart of Jesus? Do you wake up in the morning offering yourself to God and His purposes? Or are you still feeding off the bottle? The challenge given was to "leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity." God permitting... we will do so!

Comments

David said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
October 18, 2011 at 1:05 PM
David said…
Biblical perspective - was punctuation inspired when a lot of what was detailed on scrolls didn't contain any from the original author? I'm studying Melchezedek in 5:11 of Hebrews. See from KJV vs NASB the differences in the objective pronoun and to whom, whom apply's. I think it vary's on the punctuation and if they were truly talking about the audiance being ignorant to the teachings it would make a plausable argument the author was intending to refer Salems King object recepient in the prepositional phrase.
October 18, 2011 at 1:06 PM
David said…
Rightousness has been around since the covenant and many should of realized it, your correct... Amazingly, the author makes no inference to an Eastern Coalition or how Abram has had the assistance of Egypt based on a pure and utter lie allowing his "wife" to be known as his sister. How selfish of Abram to loan out the beautiful companion God has made for him for fear of becoming a slave. Talk about entrappment, this guy really proves the frailty of mankind - yet, God makes a promise to him!
October 18, 2011 at 1:09 PM
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