Hebrews 5:11-14

It is a little tough to start in with such a passage without laying out the context and really getting into the grit of why the author of this great book would say these words:

"About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil."

At best we have another controversial passage that many might disagree with my exegetical treatment of by the time I am done. As we begin I want you to be aware what the writer of the book of Hebrews up to this point is talking about. A brief overview would demonstrate Christ as preeminent over the angels in chapter one. In chapter two we are charged with grave sin if we neglect Christ's message. Following is what I call the threefold proof in 2:3 & 4. Here we have described the reliability of the Word of God that is Christ's mission for us. The chapter ends with the necessity of Christ coming in flesh dying for our sins. Chapter 3 discusses the position of Moses in God's house as a servant, but Christ as a Son over God's house. Then in 3:12 we have an important verse that I will connect to the passage we are studying. This passage is key to those who content themselves to sit in the pews and drink in the milk but never have any desire to get up and get down on their knees. Chapter 4 turns to the discussion of entering God's rest. God's rest is for the children of God who are the faithful. Those who do not believe cannot enter that rest and so remain hardened to the things of God. The chapter finishes with Christ suffering as He did thus identifying with us who remain in order that we might find confidence in our time of suffering.

The warning of Hebrews 5:11-14 is as follows: The warning is in the danger of falling away from sound doctrine. For as the text states in verse 14 those who are constantly trained by the Word of God are able to discern good from evil. But those who neglect such practice are immature regarding the things of God. The author calls these individuals unskilled in the word of righteousness; he calls them mere children. Like Peter Pan these individuals never want to grow up. But the man or woman of God desires to know God in ever increasing measure. So those who are content to remain as pew warmers we might question whether they ever have entered God's rest. 3:12 states that those who remain as "milk sippers" may in fact have an evil, unbelieving heart, hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For if they truly grasped the love Christ manifested for them, they could not help but to change.

-Joe