“On this topic we have much to say and it is difficult to explain, since you have become sluggish in hearing. For though you should in fact be teachers by this time, you need someone to teach you the beginning elements of Godʼs utterances. You have gone back to needing milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced in the message of righteousness, because he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, whose perceptions are trained by practice to discern both good and evil. Therefore we must progress beyond the elementary instructions about Christ and move on to maturity….teaching about baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this is what we intend to do, if God permits.” (Hebrews 5:11-6:4)
As I mentioned in my post yesterday, this Sunday I will have the joyous honor of baptizing 5 teenagers in a friend’s swimming pool.. They will each become a new child of God. The thought of a new infant comes into my mind.
For a new born baby to survive it is completely reliant on their mother. They are too young to feed themselves. To be fed they need to be embraced and coddled and the mother needs to place her infants mouth to her breast to receive milk. A mother breast feeds her child for a season out of necessity however, her child’s continued relying on her to breast feed it is not her goal. A mother’s goal is to ween and encourage her child into eating solid food and to grow into being self-sufficient. The season a mother breast feeds her child is around a year to 18 months. These days some mothers have extended this season to two years or so. However breast feeding a child for 4-5 years would be very questionable, weird and not in the child’s best interest. A mother breast feeding her child for 9-10 years would not be damaging to the health of the now grown child and discouraged. If a mother breast feeds her child when they are 15-18 years of age or older, they are both going to jail! Can you imagine a mother still breast feeding her 20, 25 or 30 year old child?
The author of Hebrews in these verses above applies this illustration of breast feeding to the Christian congregation in the church. When a person falls in loves with Jesus and accepts Him as their Lord, like the teenagers I will baptize Sunday, they become a new child in Christ. For the first year or so they need to be “breast fed” by the church. They rely on the church to teach them what their baptism entails and the Gospel; how to pray and seek out the Holy Spirit; how to read their Bible and search Scriptures, how to live out their Christian faith by tithing, serving others, sharing their faith and loving their neighbor as themselves; the need for repentance and being accountable to each other. However, just like a mother, the goal of the church is not to continue to breast feed its members, it is to disciple them, train them up to be able to self-feed themselves in the Word and prayer, to train them up to release them to share their faith and the Gospel with others, to grow them out of being a consumer in the church who asks, “What does the church and programs offer for me? Into a contributor who ask how can I offer and lead now in the church like leading small groups, leads and participates in ministries, gets in solved in community outreaches, mission trips, and begins to function as an adult, mature in their faith. This season of breastfeeding a new Christian varies from a few months to a year or so. However, Christians who after 4-5 years has not been weened by the church from consumer into contributor, those Christian are not healthy in their faith. And if a Christian who has been in the church for 10 years or more, who is not self- sufficient and mature in their faith, leading small groups and ministries, sharing their faith and baptizing others, and functioning as an adult, both the church and that Christian needs to be held accountable.
Yet unfortunately, I see way too many in the church today who have been members for 5, 10, 20, 30 years of more who still have to be breast fed by the church and have not matured from consumers to contributors in their faith. They still think, “Why has the pastor not called me to check on me” instead of “I need to call the pastor and check in on how I can help.” Or like a needy child they attend a church for what programs or ministries it has to offer them, instead of offering to lead a program or ministry. Or expect to be fed the Gospel from someone from a pulpit on Sunday’s, but fail themselves to share the Gospel and feed others Monday-Saturday.
My family, I pray over this weekend you will reflect on this. If you have been a Christian for 5 or more and attend a church family I pray you read and meditate on these verses this morning. “For though you should in fact be teachers by this time, yet you still need someone to teach you the beginning elements of Godʼs utterances! You have gone back to needing milk, not solid food! Therefore we must progress beyond the elementary instructions about Christ and move on to maturity….teaching about baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment! In Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your comments, reflections, and prayers from today’s reading with us in the comments box below.
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