Hebrews 5:11-6:12
New Living Translation
A Call to Spiritual Growth
5:11 There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to
explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to
listen. 12 You have been believers so long now that you ought to be
teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic
things about God’s word.[c] You are like babies who need milk and cannot
eat solid food. 13 For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t
know how to do what is right. 14 Solid food is for those who are mature, who
through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and
wrong.
Hebrews 6
6:1 So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and
again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding.
Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of
repenting from evil deeds[a] and placing our faith in God. 2 You don’t need
further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection
of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And so, God willing, we will move
forward to further understanding.
4 For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once
enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and
shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of
God and the power of the age to come— 6 and who then turn away from
God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting
the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again
and holding him up to public shame.
7 When the ground soaks up the falling rain and bears a good crop for the
farmer, it has God’s blessing. 8 But if a field bears thorns and thistles, it is
useless. The farmer will soon condemn that field and burn it.
9 Dear friends, even though we are talking this way, we really don’t believe
it applies to you. We are confident that you are meant for better things,
things that come with salvation. 10 For God is not unjust. He will not forget
how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to
him by caring for other believers,[b] as you still do. 11 Our great desire is that
you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain
that what you hope for will come true. 12 Then you will not become
spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those
who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and
endurance.
My thoughts and observations:
Before this, in chapter 5, the author of this letter has been talking about
Jesus being our High Priest. That is what he is referring to in verse 11
where we begin this lesson.
It is interesting to me that the author suddenly stops talking about that
subject and begins to tell them they are not spiritually mature enough to
handle what he is talking about.
At the beginning of chapter six the author begins to suggest it is time to
move on to some deeper truths.
He then encourages them to keep on loving others.
Teaching Points from https://studyhebrews.com/hebrews5-7-14.html
- Concerning him – Another possible translation here could be “of which
we have much to say.” Either way, it means the same thing. Him refers to
Melchizedek. The author has a lot of points he wants to make about the
relationship between Christ and Melchizedek. These points are deep and
harder to grasp than the basic teachings they had received before. - Since you have become dull of hearing – The listeners were not very
sharp spiritually. They had a hard time understanding and grasping biblical
concepts. The author is rebuking them for their dull hearing. Dull hearing is
not a normal or proper state for believers. No outside forces cause a
person to be this way. Rather their own actions (or inaction) render them
this way. They are dull of hearing by their own choice. Because of their own
lethargy and laziness, they don’t understand the weightier principles of
God. Instead of progressing, they have either stayed on the same spiritual
level or have regressed. - By this time – This indicates that a period of time has passed since they
have first been exposed to biblical teaching. During this time they should
have been learning and obeying and growing. But they were stuck. - You ought to be teachers – They had been listening to teaching long
enough that they should have become teachers themselves at this point.
This verse has a very subtle, but very important, point which we need to
explore. The implication is that after a period of time every believer should
become a teacher in at least some capacity. The author (inspired by the
Spirit) says that at this point they should be teachers. They should be
passing on what they have learned and modeling it for others. Yet instead
they are stuck in first gear and need to keep learning and re-learning the
same basic points. Although there are certain people who have been
blessed with the gift of teaching, it doesn’t mean that those without the gift
of teaching are not supposed/required to teach. Deuteronomy 6 and
Colossians 3:16 show that every believer should be teaching others.
What can you teach? You can start off by teaching others what Christ has
done for you (Mark 5:19). God does not want believers to merely be pew warmers. - His blueprint is not for a small select number of super-teachers
who do all the teaching while everyone else listens. Our job is not just to
bring people to the church to listen to others teach them. It is our
responsibility to teach others what we have learned about Christ. This
demonstrates the principle of reproduction found in 2 Timothy 2:2, which
shows us that believers should disciple others to disciple still another
generation.
It means that the world is reached by training people (or you taught the
disciples and told them that the Holy Spirit would remind them of the things
Jesus had taught them so that they could teach these things to others
(John 14:26). It’s the model of apprenticeship. Each apprentice learns from
his master. After a while he starts his own shop and takes on his own
apprentice.
a) Application: Are you doing this? Are you teaching others from what you
have learned? Are you a HOT Christian (Hearing, Obeying, and Telling)?
We should make the habit to tells others about what we are learning in our
daily life. Tell your roommate, friend, or family members about what you
have learned in study today. Share your quiet times with others. - 12b – Instead of pushing forward by obeying and passing on what they
had learned, they needed constant reviewing, constant reminding.
Illustration: The image is something like that of a piano student. The
student goes to lessons regularly and sits through “listening” to his teacher.
She gives him homework and asks him to practice during the week. The
next week she finds that he hasn’t improved at all. Not only has he not
improved, but he doesn’t even seem to remember the previous week’s
lesson. This happens over and over and over. Eventually the teacher feels
like teaching the student is just banging her head into a wall repeatedly
because no matter how hard she tries, he is not paying close attention and
he is not practicing and he is not improving. In this case it was necessary to
teach them the basic principles (milk) again because they weren’t doing it.
Perhaps when they heard these principles they thought it was good to do
and even planned to it. But they didn’t obey. They could have been like the
man in James 1:19-27. - Verse 13 – Babies are supposed to grow up. This is a natural part of life,
a natural progression. Sometimes babies do not ever grow, perhaps
physically or mentally. In 100% of those cases there is a problem. Perhaps
a disease or birth defect. Either way, it is an abnormal condition. Spiritually
speaking, it is also abnormal, like a disease, to be stuck as a spiritual baby.
There is no shame in being a baby spiritually. Everyone is after they just
receive Christ. However, no one should be a baby forever. If a thirty year
old man is still dependent on his parents and behaving childishly, people
will call him a “big baby” or “immature.” The one point we can get from this
passage is that God wants all believers to grow to maturity in Christ - Verse 14a – God wants us to grow up to maturity and partake of solid
food. This basically means we need to obey the things we know we should
do while digging deeper and deeper into God’s Word. This can enable us to
understand more of His character and apply the principles we learn from
Him to every aspect of our life, sometimes parts of our life or principles we
wouldn’t have thought of when we first came to Christ.
Application: Can you give any examples of applications you can make
from God’s Word in deeper areas (beyond salvation)?
8.14b – This shows us that practice makes perfect. We have to train
ourselves to chew on the meat of the Word. A baby is not born knowing
how to chew meat. The first time it is a bit difficult, but after doing it several
times it becomes second nature. When we are adults we don’t even think
about how to chew (do you?), we just do. Almost every learned ability is
like this including: language learning, walking, riding a balk, math, etc. We
can challenge ourselves mentally. Listen to sermons. Read books.
Meditate on Scriptures (even ones that seem tough to understand.) Engage
in each of the five ways we can use to understand the Bible (hear, read,
study, memorize, meditate). At the very beginning when a person starts to
read the Bible, he may find that it is difficult to understand. But the more
you study it, the easier it will become until it becomes second nature. - To discern good and evil – What is the purpose of this solid food? Of this
practice and this training? The purpose is so that we can become
righteous. Discerning good and evil is not just a mind game. It is the way by
which we make decisions. Discernment is like wisdom. It is seeing into the
heart of a matter. A discerning person will discover the truth and then he
will act on that truth. - Application? Are you growing in Christ as much as you would like? Do
you sometimes get “stuck” at a certain spiritual level? What are some
causes why you don’t grow as much as you should? What can we learn
from verse 14 that is essential for growth in Christ? How can you begin to
partake of more solid food instead of milk? How can you train your spiritual
senses and sharpen your spiritual discernment? What can you do to “chew”
on the meat of the Word?
Steve Holder 