“Open up, baby. Here comes the choo choo. Open your mouth. It’s good! Woo! Woo! Here comes the choo choo!”
Sound familiar? If you have ever had a baby in your family then it should. Getting those cute little bundles of joy to eat their pureed peas can take all the creativity that you can muster up. Many times as parents, we succomb to talking baby talk, some sort of weird jibberish, in order to get our little ones to eat what’s good for them.
And when they are infants, it’s kind of cute to see all that green goo all over their faces. Or watching them suckle on a milk bottle while blowing little white bubbles is always good for a laugh. But when a child matures and gets older, that kind of behavior would not elicit laughter anymore, but instead perhaps sympathy. No parent wants to see their baby stay a baby forever. We want our children to grow up normally.
I think that’s what the writer of Hebrews was talking about in chapter 5, starting in verse 13: “For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.” The writer goes on to say that by now you should have become teachers, replicating and multiplying your faith throughout the world in accordance with the great commission which we have all received. But instead, you need to learn your abc’s all over again. You never really learned the elementary principles found in the Word of God.
But solid food, he says, is for the mature. Solid Bible teaching is for the mature. Children’s programs may be ok for children. But when you mature you need to develop a taste for the unadulterated Word of God. Unfortunately, our pastors and teachers, in an attempt to be seeker friendly and entertaining, have dumbed down the gospel to the point where it isn’t even like milk anymore, but rather like whipped cream. And the hungry souls that come to eat of it find barely enough sustenance to sustain them through the morning, much less the rest of the week. It produces little more than a temporary sugar rush.
Verse 14 says, “But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” The Word of righteousness produces in us discernment to distinguish between good and evil, as our senses are trained by God’s word and His thoughts become our thoughts. We are able to recognize false teaching, and unholy conduct.
Ladies and gentlemen, let us purpose in our hearts that we will just simply grow up. Let’s put away childish things, things that appeal to our senses and fleshly tastes, and develop an appetite for the things of God and for His Word.
By the way, we are still meeting for another month and a half or so on the beach for our Sunday services. We invite you to continue in our study of Hebrews with us there.
