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Amen. Well, if you would turn in your Bibles to Hebrews, Chapter 5,
continuing our series in Hebrews.
Hebrews, Chapter 5, and we’ll be reading verses, starting in Verse 11 through Chapter 6,
Verse 3. Give your attention to God’s Word.
For context, in Verse 10, the writer references a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
Verse 11, about this we have much to say and is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing.
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic
principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk
is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature,
for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good
from evil. Therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity,
not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
and instruction about washing, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead,
and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. Amen. You may be seated.
Let’s pray. Our Father in Heaven, we would ask that you would come. That you would come and visit
your people. You’ve given us your Word written before us as we have read. We ask that you would
also pour out your Spirit that we might hear and understand that we might take it into our hearts,
that it might change us, that we might discern what is true and what is not. Even this morning of what
is said, Lord, we ask that you would give discernment to the hearers, that they might
treasure that which is true and reject that which is false. We ask, Lord, that you would be present,
you would be glorified. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen.
Well, I’ve titled the message this morning, The Essence of Spiritual Maturity.
What separates the men from the boys? In the animal kingdom, we often see a sharp distinction
between young and mature offspring. Sometimes they can look radically different. Caterpillars
turn into butterflies. Tadpoles turn into frogs. There’s examples all around us.
The appearances change, the physical structure changes, the diet changes, even the means of
mobility changes. But as humans, we look for something beyond physiological changes when
we assess true maturity. It takes more than time for a boy to become a man. Manhood means
embracing responsibility, courage, self-control, putting others before yourself.
I’ve heard it said that anyone can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a dad. Now,
this is an attempt to say that there’s a biological reality and there’s a fulfilling a role and they
don’t always go together. Siring a child is a biological reality, but taking responsibility
for the care and raising of that child is a role that must be courageously embraced.
Our passage this morning is talking about spiritual maturity. You’ve already heard the
language when I read the passage of infants versus mature, milk versus solid food. And just as
physical maturity is the trajectory in biology, spiritual maturity is to be the goal of every
Christian. Of course, the question is, what is spiritual maturity? Or perhaps since spiritual
gets used so broadly today, what is Christian maturity? Well, just as biological maturity is
partly a factor of time, spiritual maturity can be a factor of time, but it’s more than time.
In our passage, we’re going to find the author is chiding his readers for their spiritual
immaturity, making it hard for him to explain some things about Jesus. He’s going to get to
that in chapter seven, but in chapter five and six, he has an excursus to look at
that we’re looking at today. At first, that might lead us to think that the essence of
spiritual maturity lies in intellectual ability. But as we look at this passage closely,
we’re going to find that the author’s concerns lie elsewhere. In our passage this morning,
we’re going to find three contrasting concepts involving listening, eating, and choosing.
We have number one, sluggishly hearing versus actively listening. Number two, drinking milk
versus eating solid food. And number three, naively selecting versus maturely choosing.
And we’ll see that Christian maturity has more to do with consistent obedience than intellectual
prowess. And ultimately, discernment to distinguish good from evil not only comes from constant
practice. Let’s begin. Number one, sluggishly hearing versus actively listening. And we find
this contrasting pair in verse 11. About this, we have much to say and it is hard to explain
since you have become dull of hearing. Now, when we talk about active listening, what we usually
mean is engaging our minds with what’s being said and offering small examples of what’s
said and offering small encouraging verbal feedback. Uh-huh. But what I’m talking about
here is a little bit different. I’m talking about the contrast with sluggish listening.
And where does that come from? Well, the ESV’s translation of the word dull here in verse 11
is where I get it. Now, I don’t know all the reasons for why the ESV translates it dull.
Probably because the word dull of hearing sounds like better English than sluggish of hearing.
I get it. But the problem is that it makes us harder for us to see the connection between this
verse and chapter 6 verse 12. Take a minute to look down to verse 12 of chapter 6.
So that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience can hear
the promises. This is the same Greek word. And there’s only two places that the word shows up
in the New Testament. In chapter 5 verse 11 and chapter 6 verse 12. So it looks like a clearly
intentional bookend by the author. He’s intending for us to focus on the content of the book.
The meaning of this word. And the meaning is a kind of sluggishness, slowness. So dull of hearing
is fine, but sluggish of hearing brings out the connections better. He says his readers have become
sluggish. And so he’s writing so they won’t be sluggish. Now, we aren’t able to look at the whole
passage this morning. So we’re going to save the second part of this section for next week.
We need to see the writer’s intentional use of this same word to bracket the exhortation to his
readers. But that brings us to the question. What might the author be thinking when he says that his
readers or his listeners have become sluggish of hearing? While we might first think of James
exhortation, famously in James 1-22, he says, but be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving
yourselves. Of course, this is a theme that James comes back to repeatedly throughout his letter.
And it ties in with his concept of faith being demonstrated and expressed through works.
Now, James makes an important point. And I think it is relevant to our understanding of how to
respond rightly to God’s word. We ought to actively obey the word that we hear. It’s not enough to
simply nod along in agreement. Deeds of love and obedience in faith are important.
The writer of Hebrews will commend his readers for their zeal in this respect
in chapter six, verse 11, when he mentions that word sluggishness again.
But when we look at verse 12 of chapter five, the next verse in our passage, the writer brings up
the contrast of teachers and students. And I think this is where what he’s getting at. It
ties in with what he’s saying in verse 11 about being hard to explain what he wanted to say because
his listeners are sluggish in their hearing. Verse 12, for though by this time you ought to be
teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.
Being sluggish in hearing appears to correspond to the fact that instead of being teachers as
they ought, they are in need of teaching. Now, don’t misunderstand. Being generally teachable
is a good thing. The problem here in our passage is the focus on the lack of progressing. Anyone
who has ever taught can tell you that it requires more preparation than simply passing
passively listening to a lesson once. Many of us might recall frantically trying to prepare for
that in-class presentation, the teacher asked. The teacher assigned those presentations because
being placed in the position of teaching requires more background research and retention than simply
sitting listening to a lesson. When you’re the teacher, you’ve got to really know your stuff.
In fact, teaching something is one of the best ways to learn it.
But before we get any further, let me just clarify this phrase, the oracles of God,
in chapter, in verse 12. Now, oracle in our language today has at least seven definitions.
Now, in Greek culture and mythology, oracle could refer to a temple, a shrine, a temple,
could refer to a temple, a shrine, a priest, or a wise person. The common thread in all of these
is they are all a means of divine communication and revelation. And in our passage,
the word is simply meant to refer to the revelatory words of God. The Greek word translated
oracles here is simply another word for speaking, so the speakings of God. Other writers in the New
Testament use this poetic description of God’s revelation sometimes as well. We shouldn’t think
that Hebrews is telling its readers to break out their crystal balls or magic dice to get in touch
with God because they need to know the oracles of God. The writer is poetically describing the basic
principles of God’s revelation to us, which we have, of course, in the Bible. When we look down
at verses one and two of chapter six, we might rephrase it as the elementary or fundamental
principles of the faith, the basic principles of the oracles of God. The writer’s concern is not
that the readers haven’t progressed into some special seances or rituals.
He’s concerned that they seem stuck in a posture of sluggish hearing rather than active listening.
To be an active listener in this context means to be a teacher, to become a teacher.
Now, this doesn’t mean that every believer is called to stand up in front of the church and give
a series of lectures or even called to be capable of such a feat. Some of you are probably breathing
a sigh of relief right now, but it does mean that the Christian faith is not intended to be something
that is merely assented to or agreed with. It’s something that must be sought out,
engaged with, shared with others, passed on. Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 2, 2,
what you’ve heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men
who will be able to teach others also. Paul taught Timothy. Timothy is to teach faithful men.
Those faithful men are to teach others. This is the pattern for normal Christianity.
Hebrews 512 is saying that as Christians, they and we ought to be actively engaged with God’s word.
So that we’re becoming more and more capable of sharing what it says with others.
In one sense, we ought to be lifelong students of God’s word.
But in another sense, the writer is saying we ought not to remain only students.
A good student is able to share what he’s learning. Hebrews 512 is talking about bad students
that continually need to be taught the same basic lesson again and again. Now once again,
don’t misunderstand the nuance here. This is not meant to beat down Christians that feel as though
God has to keep teaching me things like patience, humility, humbleness, gentleness, courage,
generosity, or love. The Hebrews 512 student is the student of Christianity who never quite
knows enough to fully embrace it. Or perhaps the biblical scholar who lectures and writes books
about the Bible and theology but completely misses the gospel and the God he’s writing about.
The gospel is our foundation. Look at verses one and two of chapter six. It says,
Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity. Not laying again
a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instructions about
washing, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. He’s talking
about the basics. We have a whole list here which he describes as elementary. Now unlike Sherlock
Holmes, the writer of Hebrews does mean this as a reference to the basic realities of the Christian
faith. The phrase dead works will show up again in Hebrews chapter nine where it says Christ’s death
cleanses us from dead works through his death and resurrection. Dead works is everything that
the spiritually dead do. And because as Hebrews 11 six says, without faith it is impossible
to please God. Repentance and faith are the foundation of our life in Christ.
Now it’s not completely clear what the writer is referring to with washings and laying on of hands
but we shouldn’t let that distract us from what is clear. And he finishes off his list
with the final resurrection and judgment, which is part of Christianity 101. Apart from the
eternal implications of our sin, there’s no urgency for the gospel message that Jesus saves sinners.
Taken altogether, we see that the writer of Hebrews is concerned that his listeners not remain
passive sluggish hearers but committed and active listeners who’ve embraced the gospel
and are able to share it with others. Now the writer moves from student imagery into baby imagery
in verses 12 and 13. We find another pair of contrasting descriptors. So number two, drinking
milk versus eating solid food. You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is
unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature.
In our second pair of opposites, we have to pay close attention so that we don’t misunderstand
what’s being said. The author is making a contrast between infants and adults, those that can only
drink milk and those that can eat solid food. Now humans are part of a class of creatures
in which the babies rely on milk entirely until they grow up and become adults.
They reach sufficient maturity to begin eating solid food. Hebrews is using this physical
phenomenon to make an analogy to a spiritual reality. Now one of the reasons we have to look
at this slowly and carefully is because other authors in scripture use this physical reality
of infants needing milk in different ways. Look with me at 1st Peter chapter 2 verses 2 and 3.
You can find that on your pew bible on page 1204. 1st Peter 2, 2 and 3. Peter says,
like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk. That by it you may grow up into salvation,
if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. In this passage, Peter is saying it’s a good thing
to have spiritual milk. He’s picturing an infant which has to rely entirely on the rich,
nutritious, life-giving milk provided by its mother. In that same way,
Christians ought to be entirely dependent upon God and his word. So being spiritual
infants who need milk is used by Peter to mean a good and right dependence on God and his word
that Christians ought to have. But turn over to 1st Corinthians chapter 3 verses 1 through 3.
This is on pew bible page 1132. If we look at 1st Corinthians chapter 3 verses 1 through 3,
Paul uses the analogy of spiritual infants differently. He says, but I brothers could not
address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with
milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not ready, but you are
still of the flesh. For while there’s jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh
and behaving only in a merely human way? Here, Paul says spiritual infancy is a bad thing.
Rather than commending their need for milk, he rebukes them for it. It is passages like this
that have given the rise to the term you may have heard carnal Christian. Carnal just means,
is Latin for flesh. Another way to say it would be fleshly Christian. But it would be a mistake
to think that Paul is attempting to create another category of Christian that isn’t quite there all
the way. When Paul calls the Corinthian believers fleshly, of the flesh or infants,
he means they’re not acting like Christians at all. Indulging in sinful rivalry and jealousy
is not the behavior that some Christians are permitted while others are forbidden.
Acting carnally or fleshly means sinning, acting like an unbeliever. Now Paul’s use of the analogy
of infants is very similar to what the author of Hebrews is doing in our passage this morning.
The author of Hebrews is saying there are two kinds of people spiritually.
Those who have to rely on milk and those who rely on solid food. It’s important to understand that
this is different from talking about different kinds of Christians. The writer is writing to
a community of believers, just as Paul was when he wrote to the Corinthians. But that doesn’t
mean he’s intending to create a two-tiered division of believers. We can see this in the
fact that he doesn’t tell his readers to gradually increase their tolerance for solid food and
decrease their dependence on milk. Even though he’s accusing his readers of being infants,
he’s presenting the options as binary. One is either an infant who can’t tolerate solid food
or one is an adult who eats solid food. Now we’ve seen this type of strong exhortation already in
Hebrews in chapters three and four. The author calls them brothers in chapter three, verse 12,
but he warns them against harboring an evil, unbelieving heart. The author is not trying to
suggest that there are two kinds of Christians, some with good believing hearts and Christians
with evil, unbelieving hearts. Chapter four is also full of exhortations that his readers take care
not to miss God’s eternal salvific rest. And we’re going to see going forward in chapter six next
time that the perpetual spiritual infant hood he’s warning against has eternally damning
consequences. The author’s accusation of spiritual infant hood is meant to be a serious wake up call.
Today we might call someone like this a seeker, someone who finds Christianity, Jesus, and the
Bible fascinating and intriguing, but finds themselves unable to commit just yet. Jesus once
told a Jewish Torah scholar that he was not far from the kingdom when he correctly answered
what the greatest commandment was. We might say the same thing about a seeker.
They’re not far from the kingdom of heaven,
but in the last day there will be an eternity of difference between in the kingdom and close to it.
I’m always thrilled to meet seekers whether in church or on the street. I love that they’re
interested in Jesus and the things of God. I love that they’re asking good questions,
but the writer of Hebrews wants to remind us that one cannot remain a seeker or an infant forever,
perpetually. Almost doesn’t work in terms of eternal salvation. To be almost saved is still
to be lost. Spiritual seekers must become finders, embracers of Jesus, and surrenderers
to Jesus in order to be saved. Now in terms of what milk or solid food is specifically,
I’m not sure that the author is intending to be that specific in his analogy in our passage.
I don’t think he has a list of books or teachings that are milk and others that are solid food.
I think his point is more general about those that eat one or drink the other. That being said,
when I look at Christian literature, I do think it fits into two kinds of categories.
There is Christian literature, which I would call milk, not because it’s addressing the basics of
the Christian faith, but because it shies away from addressing challenging spiritual truth. Solid
food literature, on the other hand, whether written for children or scholars, presents the
difficult truths of scripture rather than making excuses for them or obscuring them.
There are Bible scholars who are spiritual infants writing milk, because despite their obtuse
language, they reject the Bible’s claims about reality, salvation, sin, and judgment.
On the other hand, there’s children’s literature, which embraces the Bible’s teaching that God is
sovereign, that we’re all sinners, and entirely dependent upon God’s grace. And that’s why I
would call that solid food. Milk literature dabbles around the edges of Christian teaching,
but avoids confronting sinners, while solid food unabashedly provides the confrontation and comfort
that can only come from facing our sin honestly and presenting a sovereign, saving God truthfully.
As we’ve been observing, spiritual infants are happy to live on this milk, because it doesn’t
challenge them and their view of themselves, whereas spiritual adults are willing to be
challenged by solid food that they are reading. Literature embraces even the challenging truths
of scripture. And we find our final contrast of images of the Bible, and of the Bible itself,
and we find our final contrast of images of spiritual maturity in chapter 5 verses 13 and 14.
Number three, naively selecting versus maturely choosing.
Hebrews 5, 13, and 14. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness,
since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of
discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. We’ve seen how the
Christian life can be viewed in terms of listening and learning, and in terms of our spiritual diet.
Unbelief can be described as lazy listening and infantile imbibing.
Finally, we’re considering how it relates to our choosing. The word translated unskilled in our
passage is a Greek word which means unacquainted with, or inexperienced. So I’m using the word
naive. The idea goes along with a child who doesn’t know what’s good for them. Pastor Jeff
has been preaching through the book of Isaiah, and he recently preached on Isaiah chapter 3,
Isaiah chapter 7, 15, which describes an event happening before the boy, quote,
knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. Now, unlike the philosopher Rousseau,
who insisted that children are born as clean slates with a preference for good
before being corrupted by society, we understand that moral discernment must be parentally
instilled. If anything, children are born with a preference for that which is not good for them.
Ask any parent battling over snack and meal choices with a toddler whether children really
do know what’s best for them. We have a word for children that are treated as though they always
know what’s best for themselves, spoiled. Children have to be guided and taught and encouraged and
disciplined. And even then, they don’t always check out the way we might prefer.
But the idea in our passage goes beyond adulthood independence. It uses the word trained,
which is a Greek word from which we get our word gymnasium. We’re meant to picture an elite
athlete for whom the feats of strength and agility are subconscious reflexes, muscle memory.
This is a mature Christian who can discern good from evil.
Elite athletes don’t go to sleep one day and wake up with athletic abilities. They practice
constantly. Inherent skill or knack is far less important than drive and dedication to continually
practice. Muscle memory only comes through mind-numbing repetition, but in the end,
it results in great ability. We live in a culture of quick fixes. We want pills for everything,
even exercise if we could. This even includes our attitude towards spirituality.
But what we see here is that the key to Christian maturity is not some out of reach technique
or secret knowledge. It’s simple faithfulness, constant practice,
distinguishing good from evil makes perfect. Daily, through prayer, with faith upon God,
choosing to obey him one decision at a time. This is what creates mature Christians
who instinctively can discern good from evil rather than agonizing in a muddle over every
little decision. This may be why we see eloquent preachers, high-profile Christian leaders
suddenly fall to temptation. No amount of studying, learning, teaching, or speaking
can substitute for the constant practice of choosing good over evil.
It goes the other way too. Choosing evil has a habit-forming effect, a doling of our senses.
Leads to more compromise. Small and secret, choosing evil repeatedly will have an effect
that will dull your discernment. You won’t be so quick to see the difference between good and
evil. What seemed evil before will start to look less and less clear, more and more gray.
It won’t have that sharp distinction. Spiritual maturity is not about how much you know.
It’s about discerning good and evil. It’s about demonstrated and advanced in obedience.
It’s easy to start thinking that spiritual maturity is a matter of understanding theology
and our intellectual prowess in biblical matters is what sets apart the mature from the immature.
That’s not what the passage says in Hebrews 5-14. The mature, those who have their powers of
discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Spiritual maturity is not just being able to eat solid food, but being able to choose it on your
own. And ultimately this comes down to a matter of moral preference. Not that morality is based on
subjective preferences, but that we need new spiritual preferences that align with objective
good and evil. See, naturally we have a problem. We don’t start out neutral. We’re born with a
preference for evil. I’ve never known a child to require training in selfishness, yet somehow they
seem to be proficient at it early on. We call this sin nature, original sin. We’re born with
internal dispositions that prefer thinking, speaking, and doing what God hates, considering
ourselves as most important. We need a new heart. The heart of our problem is that we don’t need
more information or technique. We need a new heart that can only come from Christ who died for our
sins and rose to give us new life. And this is why we see that phrase inserted in verse 3 of chapter
6 at the end of our passage. And this we will do if God permits. The writer understands that all of
what he’s been calling his hearers to do is not within their power alone. We have neither the
ability to give ourselves a heart transplant nor the pure and holy heart donor that we need.
We need a sovereign God who can do this to us and for us, and he’s delighted to be asked.
Ultimate spiritual maturity is not a matter of memorizing information or mastering techniques,
although those things can be very helpful in promoting spiritual maturity.
The essence of spiritual maturity is discernment, obedience, the ability to distinguish good from
evil. This only comes from constant consistent practice, but it doesn’t ultimately come from us.
It is God alone who can first give us a taste for what is good and then give us the ability
to daily distinguish good from evil by faith. If you try to do it on your own, you’ve already
chosen evil. That’s what Satan told Adam and Eve to do. But when you embrace Christ by faith,
you find new desires and new power to love and choose the good and hate the evil. Amen.
Let’s pray.
Our Father in heaven, we thank you that you have,
as Christ said, hidden these things from the wise and revealed them to babes.
That spiritual maturity is not some out of reach intellectual PhD level requirement,
but it is something supernatural that you give to every believer of your word, that ability
to distinguish good from evil, which we have naturally lost in the fall from Adam.
That you restore to us and you give us the power by your spirit to walk daily in that distinguishing
power. Lord, we ask that you would help us as we follow you, walk by faith, keep in step with the
spirit, that you would change us more into the likeness of Christ, give us eyes to see what you
see, how you see it, and to love what you love. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.