“GROW UP”—in Your Faith!
“For though by this time you ought to be teachers,
(The Letter to the Hebrews 5: 12-14 NASB)
you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God,
and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness,
for he is an infant.
But solid food is for the mature,
who because of practice
have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”
If we have ever heard these words, accusingly exclaimed toward us, then more than likely we remember the way these words HURT our pride.
“You’re too small; you’re just a baby.”
OUCH!
Words spoken aloud & directed toward us—do hurt, and quite frankly, sometimes the words cut to the quick (as the idiom goes). Hastily spoken words do have the power to cut deeply into the fiber of our being—sometimes because of their untruth & sometimes because of their truth.
In The Letter to the Hebrews, the author speaks to Jewish Christians who were tempted to leave the Christian church and return to the ritualistic practices of old, of their original Jewish worship. They wanted to leave the ‘new’ and return to the ‘old.’ Therefore, this letter was sent to them in order to remind this early group of believers of these points:
- Jesus Is WHO GOD SAYS HE IS!
- Jesus Is GOD IN THE FLESH!
- Don’t drift away from your faith but PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO YOUR FAITH-WALK!
- THE HOLY SPIRIT of GOD Is at-work in YOU—THE CHURCH of GOD!
- Jesus came as God’s Supreme & ONLY SPIRITUAL SACRIFICE, the only atonement you will ever need!
- JESUS Is the GREAT HIGH PRIEST!
- If you did not believe God loves you—BELIEVE NOW!
- If you did not believe one could approach God in prayer—BELIEVE NOW!
- If we thought grace was cheap grace—SEE HOW COSTLY GOD’S GRACE IS THAT HE HAS LAVISHED!
- Don’t remain a ‘baby’ Christian but Grow Up in godly wisdom & understanding as a CONTINUAL STUDENT of GOD’S WORD!
Now, maybe we will think this is a weird analogy to offer, but earlier today, there was a scientific article that came to me through an email. I follow this group of Christian scientists, & yes, they do exist. Within this article, the author gave evidence that has been discovered proving the earliest forms of snakes have small extensions (bodily legs) surrounding the underpart of their bodies. We who know the Bible immediately recall the Garden of Eden and the way the serpent (Satan) enticed Adam and Eve to leave what they knew to be truth (what God said) and to believe, instead, the lies of the devil.
“The LORD said to Satan,
(The Book of Job 1: 7 NASB)
“From where do you come?”
Then Satan answered the LORD and said,
“From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.”
Today, thousands of years later, the devil remains true to his nature—he is a snake in the grass, a liar, a thief, a deceiver, the arch-rival of Almighty God.
- The devil roams about, searching for those he may tempt, seeking whom he may devour.
- Let us not be foolish (we who believe in Jesus)!
- Satan seeks to devour us too—our witness, our testimony, our faith!
BUT GOD! Hallelujah, those who have studied God’s Word recall the end of days—the way God overcomes & how God will chain Satan forever in the eternal lake of fire.
So, we know the beginning & we know the ending, but unfortunately, it’s the middle that oftentimes gives us the most struggle.
So, the writer of The Letter to the Hebrews reminds us too:
- Don’t drift away from your faith but PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO YOUR FAITH-WALK!
- THE HOLY SPIRIT of GOD Is at-work in US (You & Me)—THE CHURCH of GOD!
We must GROW UP—in Our Faith Through a Continuous Study & Through a Daily Application of God’s Word!
- We Must Stand Firm!
- We Must Daily Be in God’s Word!
- We Must Become Teachers of God’s Holy Word!
- We Must Desire the Word of Righteousness & Not Remain Infants in our Faith!
- We Must Mature—Becoming “trained to discern good and evil.”
- We Must Be Teachers of God’s Word, Disciplining Others!
We who believe—MUST!
The Bible tells us so!
&
Jesus Himself tells us so!
The apostle Peter wrote in his first letter to the believers who were scattered around the known world (of that day). Peter spoke of God’s Word, differentiating the first milk a baby receives from that of the “pure milk” that deeply instructs us in the way we should walk in faith. In doing so, we become precious & useful “living stones” in the kingdom of God.
“Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander,
(The 1st Letter of Peter 2: 1-5 NASB)
like newborn babies,
long for the pure milk of the word,
so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,
if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.
And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men,
but is choice and precious in the sight of God,
you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood,
to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”