Immaturity

So then, leaving the elementary teachings about Christ, we must advance toward maturity, not again laying a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God . . .

Hebrews 6:1ff is an instructive passage.  In it there is a strong encouragement to grow in the knowledge and experience of the more advanced doctrines of the Christian faith.  It is interesting to note that there are those today who want to linger with the elementary teachings of Christianity. Indeed, they insist that these are all we need to grow.  They tell us to keep on preaching the Gospel to ourselves, for instance. They believe by contemplating the Good News, we will be sanctified. The writer of Hebrews, on the contrary, would have us move on to other things as well. Obviously, he would not want us to ignore, or forget, the elementary truths of our faith, but neither would he wish us to linger with them, never going on to where we can handle more advanced ones.  There were things the writer couldn’t talk to his readers about because they were still babes in Christ, needing milk and not meat. The whole counsel of God was preached by Paul at Ephesus. It ought to be preached in our churches today. Unless we teach all of the word, instead of merely touting the idea of a Gospel-orientation to all we teach, we will fail to urge our people to “leave the elementary teachings.”

Think about this if you are the member of a church that fails to urge you to advance in your knowledge and life for the Lord. To be caught in such a trap can be dangerous to your spiritual growth. It may seem (and sound) spiritual to say that I will grow by preaching the gospel to myself every day, compare that idea with the text before us in Hebrews 6!

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Institute for Nouthetic Studies Blog on 31 July 2012