Hebrews 5:12 6/28/22*

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the actual words of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.”

How long have you been a Christian? …Accepting Christ is your spiritual birth, after which you should start to grow.  But in our comfortable, unchallenging churches, we seem to be showing up every Sunday for our bottle.

Paul is frustrated with the lack of growth among believers. He says they should be digesting the meat of the gospel and teaching it to others.

How about us?  How often do we discuss difficult theology?  We speak of the love of God, as we should, but do we ever talk about Hell, repentance, consequences of sin?  Do we even call it sin? Or do we attempt to remove responsibility by calling it a condition, or alternative?

Paul is telling us to grow up.  We must understand and teach others a biblical world view.  It may not be popular, but it is the truth. 

Your first bite of solid food is to understand that there is no such thing as “your truth” or “my truth”. There is only one truth – it is static, nonnegotiable, and established by an omnipotent loving God.

Some truths are hard to swallow, but necessary for growth. The meat of the gospel should always be served with the milk, but it must be served.

If you speak truth without love, you will have theological BO and drive others away.  If you speak love without truth, you offer weak platitudes and help no one. The fact is, you can offer neither, if you don’t offer both.

A mother would never neglect to introduce solid food to her baby simply because it is harder to digest.  She would carefully include the nutrition needed to develop a strong body, because she knows her child must grow to fight off the germs and threats they will face in this world.

You and I must grow for the same reasons. Dig deeply into the scripture.  Tackle the hard questions and study to show yourself approved.  The fight is coming. Will you be strong and lean, or weak and full of milk?

“The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.” - Winston Churchill