There are five passages in Hebrews where the writer warns us. This is the third of the warning passage. We are warned about arrested spiritual growth. There are people who go so far but then put our spiritual lives into neutral. We grow in our bodies and we are to grow spiritually. To grow spiritually we must feed on God’s Word. See Ephesians 4:13. If we know the Bible then we will know what error is. If we are grown up then we are not tossed by every wind of doctrine.

1 – A description of this arrested development (vs. 11-14)

There are things that the writer of Hebrews cannot say to the people. The people have dull hearing. What does he mean? There are two reasons for their dull hearing.

• They have retarded development (vs. 12). They should be teachers but they need someone to teach them. They had not been learning. If you cannot share the basis of what you believe then your development has not grown. It is possible to be saved for a long time but they can only crawl spiritually. They do not even know the simple A, B, and Cs. Are you closer to the Lord than when you were a couple of years ago? Are you ready to teach others or do you still have to be taught the basics?
• A restricted diet (vs. 12-13). They required milk and not meat. Milk was baby food; meat was solid food for adults. A spiritual baby requires milk. See 1 Peter 2:2. That is not a problem. An adult requires meat. That is not a problem. The problem is if you have been saved a long time and are still on milk. You should have progressed to solids! The person has not progressed because they are carnal. See 1 Corinthians 3:1-3. When you do not grow you stay carnal. You cannot use the Word of God in your life if you are still a babe in Christ. As you grow up in the Lord then you can skilfully use the Word of God.

You can go back to being a baby in the Christian life. Mature Christians can go back to being baby Christians. Some had become people who need milk. Mature Christians can eat the meat. They use the Bible in their practical lives. They can discern good from evil. They can deal with difficult issues and discern what God’s will is. Not all things are black and white in the Bible. You need to grow up!

2 – A prescription for the problem (6:1-3)

There are two things.

• Forsake the milk – Get yourself weaned off the milk. He was not going to give them anymore milk. It was to be a once for all action. They were not to go back to the milk. They were to abandon it once and for all.
• Advance into maturity – You need to get yourself off milk and get yourself into the meat of God’s Word. It is a forward step. It is something that we all need to do.

We are to exercise our lives spiritually. We are leaving behind immature thinking and actions. If you cannot find anything, then it is because you are not growing! There is always something in your life that the Holy Spirit should be convicting you about. It is also likely to be more than one thing! The more you grow, the more you know it’s got to go!

Categories: Hebrews