Hebrews 5:11-6:20 The Road to Maturity
Outline
Introduction
Signs of spiritual infant 5:11-14
Two choices:
· The right choice 6:1-3
· The wrong choice 6:4-8
The road to maturity:
· Remember the past 6:9-10
· Act on the present 6:11-12
· Look for the future 6:13-20
Introduction
John Stott, a prominent Christian spoke in Canberra last year. He asked: “what is the greatest need of the church today?” His answer was: “the church needs greater number of deep Christians – Christians that are not shallow nor superficial but deep and committed”.
Richard Foster made a similar point in his book “Celebration of Discipline” - “Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people”.
This is also the message of today. The author of Hebrews called for his audience to grow up in their Christian lives.
Some of you may think then this message is not for you. However, we should note that the address was directed to the entire Christian community, the entire house church, it was not addressed to selected individual in that church. So, it is a message for everyone.
The author of Hebrews made it very clear. They should be mature (5:14). They should eat solid food.
However, sadly speaking, they were still spiritual infants, they still needed milk rather than solid food.
We as parents love our babies. They are cute, lovable, enjoyable and innocent. But they are also ignorant and dependent. We always have fond memories when our sons and daughters were lovable and cute babies. However, if after 10-20 years, they still behave like babies. Our joy will surely turn to sorrow.
Illustration: In the course of their conversation at a dinner party, Albert Einstein’s young neighbour asked the white-haired scientist, "What are you actually by profession?"
"I devote myself to the study of physics," Einstein replied.
The girl looked at him in astonishment. "You mean to say you study physics at your age?" she exclaimed. "I finished mine a year ago."
Some Christians, like the little girl, are often content not to grow up. They are content to be a spiritual infant all our lives.
Signs of spiritual infant
There are four signs of a spiritual infant according to the author:
First, they were sluggish with regard to hearing (v11). There is an amazing similarity in the Greek, Hebrews and Chinese vocabulary – “to hear” and “to obey” are the same word. The author said in 5:11 “We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn”. Literally, the term “to learn” means sluggish with regard to hearing (God’s words). DeSilva in his commentary on Hebrews says it is “not merely of nodding off during his sermon, but failing to respond honourably and wisely to the message of God. Not giving that message its due attention with all diligence”.
Second, they ought to be teachers. We may not be all bible study teachers or Sunday school teachers. But we are all teachers in the sense that we should demonstrate our faith and our conviction to those around us through our deeds and our words. He does not mean that they ought all to become public teachers, or preachers of the gospel, but that they ought to be able to explain to others the truths of the Christian religion. As parents they ought to be able to explain them to their children; as neighbors, to their neighbors; or as friends, to those who were inquiring the way to life.
To be teachers can also be a blessing. It means a community of individual members reinforcing (and supporting, and challenging) one another’s hold on the minority culture’s value and goals.
However, instead of teaching others, they still needed to go through the elementary teaching (the milk diet) again (v12).
Third, they were unskilful (inexperienced) in the word of righteousness (v13). Some commentators understand this as a technical term and associate “word of righteousness” with martyrdom (Polycarp – letter to the Philippians). It is a term associated with discipleship. In other words, the author is telling his audience, they are unskilled and uncommitted to the call of being a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Fourth, they lacked discerning power (v14). They couldn’t tell right from wrong, good from evil. Similarly, the spirit of discernment is especially important in the modern society, there are many grey areas in our lives, in our society. We need the spirit of discernment to guide us.
Two choices:
After providing a diagnosis of the spiritual condition of his audience, the author presented them two options: either move forward (and become mature – attain perfection) or fall back (and become ineffective of being a Christian at best or even out right renouncing our faith).
The right choice:
6:1 “Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity”
What are those elementary teachings?
· Repentance from acts that lead to death – repentance lies at the heart of invitation to seek God. What were they supposed to repent from? “Acts that lead to death”, literally it means death works. Some commentators believe they (death works) refer to idols and later the author contrasted death works with the living God (9:14).
· Faith in God.
· Instruction about baptisms – initiation into the Christian faith.
· The laying on of hands – it was another early Christian rite referring to confirmation of reception of the Holy Spirit through baptism, of God’s anointing.
· The resurrection of the dead – eternal reward.
· Eternal judgment – eternal punishment.
These elementary teachings cover conversion (repentance), conviction (faith), confession (baptism), confirmation (laying of hands) and consummation (resurrection of the dead). These are important truths. But they are only elementary teachings. The author of Hebrews told us we should leave these behind. We should be enrolling in advanced class. There are much more to learn instead of regurgitating the elementary truths. Many Christians (even becoming a Christians for 20, 30 years) still can only remember what their pastors taught them when they first become a Christian.
Like paddling a canoe upstream, we can’t stay still, we try hard to move forward, if not, the current will carry us downstream. Hence the author exhorted his audience to strive for maturity/perfection, if not, they risked backsliding.
Rick Warren, the senior pastor of Saddleback Valley Community Church, also the author of the popular Purpose Driven Church gave us a model how to grow in Christian maturity.
According to Rick Warren, there are five circles of commitments:
Community – unchurched we want to reach.
Crowd – Sunday worship attendees.
Congregation – official members of the church.
Committed – members serious about their faith.
Core – dedicated minority of workers and leaders. Committed to ministering to others.
We need to turn the community to crowd – We need to reach out to those around us and bring them to the knowledge and commitment of God’s good news.
We need to turn crowd to congregation – In Saddleback Valley Community Church (SVCC), there is class 101-membership class. This class helps Christians who want to join the church to understand the significance and commitment of being part of a Christian community.
We need to turn congregation to committed – SVCC offers class 201 “discovering spiritual maturity”. For members who attended the class, they signed a maturity covenant and committed to having regular quiet time, tithing and active participation in small groups.
We need to turn committee to core – SVCC offers class 301 “discovering my ministry”. This class encourages and equips those who are prepared to serve and at the end of the class, they are commissioned as lay ministers.
The wrong choice:
What about the wrong choice then? This is what happens to those described in 6:4-8. Arguably, it is one of the most difficulty passages in the Bible:
Questions: are they Christians? Are they saved? If they are, how can they be lost?
Who are they? They are those “who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age”
A plain reading of this passage can only lead to one conclusions, those are the people who have been “enlightened” – they have received God’s word, they “tasted the heavenly gift” – received redemption, shared in the Holy Spirit – experience of the conversion (there are many examples in Acts), they tasted the goodness of God’s word and the power of coming age. All these can only point to one conclusion, these were Christians that had received the Gospel message, experienced the Holy Spirit, experienced God’s word and God’s power.
Dallas Willard’s book “the divine conspiracy” commented the greatest danger facing Christians is the attitude of consumer Christianity.
Christians are treated as consumer/customers when they come to church. They thought they could pick and choose. They thought they are always right. They thought once they make the cut, they will be saved and are safe. They thought if they don’t like what they see, it is OK to take a break and come back later. They thought it is OK to take the word of God lightly and to treat the grace of God cheaply.
To these attitudes, the author of Hebrews sounds a warning, if we are not careful, we may run the risk of drifting away and losing our salvation altogether.
Ray Stedman, the senior pastor of Peninsula Bible Church mentioned an example: “Years ago, at the close of World War II, I frequently attended Saturday night meetings in the Church of the Open Door in Los Angeles, sponsored by Youth For Christ. A brilliant young man was the leader of the meetings and a frequent speaker at them. His name was Chuck. He had a gift for articulation and I heard him gave several wonderful messages, simple, clear expositions of the meaning of the cross of Christ, and the offer of life in Christ Jesus. Saturday after Saturday I saw young people come down the aisles to receive Christ in those meetings. But some time after that Chuck entered a seminary, where he began to drift from his faith. He served for a while as a national evangelist for his denomination. Finally, he quit the ministry entirely, and later openly and publicly renounced all faith in Jesus Christ, and went back into secular work. I do not know where he is now, but he no longer makes any Christian profession. Is he a case like this? Only God knows the answer, but he could be”. We probably have encountered similar examples in our lives as well.
The author said that if they fall away, “it is impossible for them to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace” (6:4-8).
How does this reconcile with other passages in the Bible that clearly states that our salvation is secure, look at Rom 8:38-39: “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor power, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Or John 10:27-30: ”My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.”
These passages indeed give assurance and comfort to many Christians, how can we reconcile these passages with the warning of Hebrews?
Often scholars try to interpret the passage in two ways:
1. Some believe the author was describing a hypothetical situation.
2. Some believe those in Hebrews 6:4-8 are really not Christian.
Neither of these explanations is satisfactory. I believe the audience was real and the issues were real. It also defies common logic to say those described in Hebrews 6 are not Christians (at least in appearance as far as we can tell).
I believe the author was indeed suggesting those that have professed the Christian faith, if they openly and willingly denounce their faith, if they openly deny the Lordship of Jesus, it will be impossible to bring them back again to repentance.
The passage only becomes difficult to explain if we try to impose other passage from the Bible and our doctrinal belief (i.e. eternal security of believer) to this passage.
We should let the plain meaning of this passage speak to us first. The meaning is clear – if we are not careful, if we do not persevere in our faith, we run the risk of losing it altogether. It is indeed a very stern warning from the author of Hebrews.
The passage only becomes a problem if we wish to take on the prerogative to decide who are saved, who are “real” Christians? However, it (the determination of who is saved) is surely the prerogative of God and God alone.
For me, I thank God for the assurance that I will never be separated from the love of God as promised in Romans and John. But I also do not take my salvation for granted. If I think now I am saved, and no one can take my salvation away and this gives me the licence to do what I like including sin against God and including opening denouncing Jesus, there is only one conclusion, my initial conversion is not real and I run the risk of falling away from the grace of God.
So, I accept both the teaching of eternal security of believers and the possibility for “believers” to fall away. I leave the prerogative to determine who is saved to God, only he knows and only he can decides.
The author then used an agriculture illustration to contrast the two choices: 6:7-8 “Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned”.
According to DeSilva again in his commentary on Hebrews, the author’s decision to end his illustration of the fate of soil that makes a bad return for God’s blessing with burning does not leave much hope for new growth and replanting, even if that is a known practice for soil renewal in the ancient world. Burning is a common image for God’s punishment of the unrighteous.
The road to maturity
After the author painted the stark contrast of moving forward to become a mature Christian or staying behind and run the risk of falling away, he did not leave us in despair and helpless. He offered us a number of sound advices to move forward in our Christian faith.
1. Remember the past 6:10. Think of our God, think of His faithfulness, think of our first love to Him and our first love to others. This will help us to reaffirm our faith and commitment to Him.
2. Act on the present 6:11-12. Persevere to the very end, don’t give up, be diligence, don’t be lazy – which is the root cause of backsliding. Learn from others – our more mature brothers and sisters.
3. Look for the future 6:13-20. The author used Abraham as an example. Abraham looked for the promise and the hope from God. He took comfort in God’s faithfulness and was patient and waited for God’s promise. Just as Abraham received what God promised him, we will also receive God’s promise if we remain faithful.
Finally, our greatest hope and assurance is what Jesus has accomplished for us. 6:19-20 “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek”. What Jesus has accomplished in becoming a high priest in the order of Melchizedek will need to wait for next time. But we can truly give thanks to God, for the achievement of Jesus and our hope in Him is firm and secure.
Let’s us pray.
