Hebrews 5:11-13
About this we have much to say, and it 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.
Tag: Maturity in the Word Avoids Apostasy
In the above passage the writer of Hebrews is about to give a warning to the readers of this book. He is about to warn them about “apostasy” (the falling away from the faith). The premise of this section of the book is that if we hold fast to God’s Word, it will produce fruit in our lives. If we don’t hold fast to God’s word, we will not have fruit and risk “falling away from the faith” (giving up on Christ to find something else for our salvation).
In these verses he uses the illustration of the teacher and the child-student. He believers (we have no idea why he believes this) that the readers SHOULD, at this time, be mature in God’s Word. He believes they should be, by this time, “teacher” status. Again, we have no knowledge as to why he believes this. We know so little about the background of this book. However, the truth the writer states still stands. When we are given truth we are responsible for that truth. In this case, to grow and become mature.
Yet, this group of believers has, for some reason, still remained in “infant” status. They truth they have been given has not produced the maturity this writer thought they should have. He is not chastening them for this. But, he is explaining that their growth in the “word of righteousness” is key to their growth. It is important to see what he had just written to understand this. Note a few verses just before this section:
Hebrews 5:8-9
Although he (Jesus) was a son, he learned “obedience” through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who “obey” him, (parentheses and quotation marks added for affect).
In God’s Word, the word “obey” is a simile for “believe”. When someone says they “believe” in Christ, it comes with an inherent “obey.” Simply believing is not what the Scriptures talk about. It is about believing to the state of obeying that the growth in Christ happens. The “word of Righteousness” is about obeying what God says in His word. When we do that we grow and become strong and produce fruit and have lives pleasing to Christ. We don’t grow when we don’t consume God’s Word.
This writer is warning the readers (and us) that the failure to believe and obey the “words of righteousness” will result in us staying in “infant” status and risk falling away in our faith. We are to trust AND obey ... not just believe and hope.
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