But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (Heb. 5:14)
Got milk? The iconic dairy ads of the 1990s and early 2000s were designed to show the relevance of milk in a rapidly progressing society. Adult celebrities flashed their milk mustaches as a way of saying you are never too old to drink milk. Even Kermit the Frog got in on the action. The ads provided a much-needed boost for the dairy business and were seen everywhere from magazines to bus stop benches.
The writer of Hebrews seems to be posing another question: Got solid food? It may seem like an odd place for the writer to bring up this metaphor of milk and solid food. He had just stressed the significance of Christ as our High Priest and source of eternal salvation. But the writer knew that his audiences’ ignorance of this was further evidence that they had not progressed in their faith. They were still living on simple teachings, refusing to grow deeper in understanding. He challenged them to mature in their faith.
The passage offers us the same challenge today. Are we content with a superficial understanding of Jesus? Perhaps we have been a follower of Jesus for a long time but are still immature. Our spiritual life should be marked by maturity not stagnation. Allow this challenge to encourage you to further growth and maturity as a follower of Christ.
Mature in wisdom and faith.
Mark Moore is the spiritual formation pastor at Faith Legacy Church in Sacramento, California, and an auxiliary professor of theology at William Jessup University.
© 2019 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission.
Back to Basics
You need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. (Heb. 5:12)
A child’s first efforts at mastering the alphabet can be humorous, encouraging, and even endearing. A friend who was away from home for an extended time tells about receiving a “letter” from his preschooler. The child was just learning the alphabet. The letter was actually unintelligible. Some of the letters were backward, the letters were strung together forming “words” that did not exist in the English language, and some configurations were not letters at all, but just the child’s scribbles.
Yet the “letter” warmed a daddy’s heart. It meant the preschooler was thinking of him while he was in a distant place.
Imagine the difference in the father’s reaction if he had received a “letter” like that from a teenager. If the teen was a victim of arrested development, it might be understandable. But if the teen was a “normal” fifteen-year-old, it would be sad to think their development had not progressed beyond the level of a preschooler.
God wants us to grow up too. If we’re not growing, maybe we need to go back to the basics and learn the “elementary truths of God’s word all over again.”
Every believer’s spiritual life should show growth over time. Healthy things grow and healthy Christians mature. Don’t remain a spiritual infant. Be determined to grow, develop and mature in Christ—in your understanding of his Word and your relationship with him.
“Grow in God’s grace and knowledge.”
Mark Moore is the spiritual formation pastor at Faith Legacy Church in Sacramento, California, and an auxiliary professor of theology at William Jessup University.
© 2019 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission.
Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
