daily java

Daily Java:

There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen. You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong. So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding. (Hebrews 5:11-6:3)

Kids grow at different rates. They mature at different levels. One kid may be very mature and only be ten. Another may be really immature and be nineteen. Everybody is different.

Then occasionally, you have the person who will not grow up. It may be a biological fault, or maybe a mental irregularity. But sometimes it is just a person who is terminally immature. He is like the Toys R Us commercial of a few years back that said, “I don’t want to grow up.” The first category is sad and they are that way through no fault of their own. The second is pathetic and you would like to hit them on the head with a large stick.

It is the same with Christians. There are some Christians who are incapable of maturing in the faith. It is not that they are stupid or anything, it is just that they are not able to grasp strong things. They are sincere and love God as much as anybody, but they are not able to really understand strong Bible meat.

You understand that and deal with them accordingly. They are not the people who you want to get into a deep theological discussion with. It just needlessly confuses them.

Then there are those who almost refuse to grow up. They have been Christians for a long time, and maybe even serve on committees and such, but they were never able to come to a deep knowledge of the Bible simply because they never cared enough to do so.

Many times, the sad fact is that they would have been a great mind in the kingdom. But they couldn’t be bothered to do so. Maybe they had a bias toward things that would not allow them to grow. Maybe they had a strong enough sin in their lives that it took all their thought, took all their focus. Maybe they didn’t care.

Whatever the reason, the writer of Hebrews says that these people are kind of sad. They are like long term babies, always taking, never giving. By now they should be grown and teaching, but still need to be taught.

Whose fault is it? Sometimes it is the fault of the church. They never encouraged people to grow. Some denominations consider themselves to have found the truth so no one feels the need to plumb deeper into the word. What is the point, they will ask.

As one person in a similar situation said, All the buffalo have been killed so why hunt for more? He considered it great to read in his denominational history about how they killed the buffalo (ie, solved the problems of the church), but considered the hunt to be over.

He figured all the theology had been discovered, all the knowledge had been learned. Now he had the task of reading about it over and over and memorizing all the talking points.

Sometimes it is the fault of the preacher. He preaches the same thing over and over, never moving to stronger things. He gives the idea that memorization is the same as knowledge. If you can memorize your key doctrinal verses, you will be mature. Memorization plus the knowledge of all the Bible stories and you are good to go. No depth here.

Sometimes it is the fault of the person himself. He never wanted to be pushed, and he decides that he is fine. He doesn’t need to learn any more. He has the basic stuff down. There is no reason to go further. After all, that Bible stuff is hard. God can’t expect that much from us. This is nothing more than laziness.

Sometimes a person’s mind is made up already and there is no room for new ideas. He doesn’t want to learn anything new.

There are many reasons, but one result. The person who refuses to learn or cannot learn never reaches his potential in the kingdom. And that is sad.