The Absolute Need For Spiritual Growth, Heb 5:11-6:4

The passage before us presents a very serious need for a believer’s spiritual growth. The writer’s argument proceeds along the line that spiritual maturity is a condition that is to be expected. The opening statement in v. 11, “About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain ..” takes us back to the teaching of Jesus Christ as a High Priest in the pattern of Melchizedek, whose name means King of Righteousness and whose title is King of Salem. Melchizedek is the mysterious personage to whom Abraham, the father of the Jews and the father of our faith, submissively offered tithes, after Abraham’s defeat of Chederlaomer, king of Elam, and his allies from whom Abraham rescued his nephew, Lot. See Heb 7:1-2; Gen 14:13-16.

The writer or preacher to the Hebrews affirms that the extraordinary character of Jesus’ High Priestly ministry lies not in its pattern of the Aaronic priesthood but after the similitude of this strange Melchizedek whose beginning and ending of his life are mysterious– Old Testament mention of his name is limited to Gen 14:18 and Ps 110:4, the most frequently quoted Old Testament verse in the New Testament. In a figure of speaking therefore, he is considered to be infinite. “He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever.” Heb 7:3. How could Jesus be a High Priest after a pagan king and priest and not in accordance with the cultic requirements showered upon the line of Aaron, is indeed a great Christological teaching that needs to be explained. However the people were not spiritually ready to receive this high Christology.

Of this topic, much needed to be said but this was hard to explain – admittedly, this was a difficult matter – but the difficulty lay not in the subject matter itself or in the proficiency of the teachers but in the condition of the hearers who had become “dull of hearing.” 5:11. This phrase, which literally means slow to understand or sluggish in hearing, while admitting that this teaching runs counter to customary Jewish ideas and therefore will be foreign to their ears, however confirms that the problem of comprehension rests in the spiritual condition of the audience. They were unable to grasp the truths presented because they were stunted in their spiritual growth. Since the time of their conversion they had professed faith in Christ, they had had sufficient opportunity to master the elementary teachings of the Christian faith and had had sufficient time to graduate from the level of student to that of teacher. However, such was not the case for they stood in need of having the ABCs of Christianity constantly repeated to them, v. 12. Yes, God’s Word had been carefully and accurately explicated to their hearts, but yet they were unable to rise above the hooked-on-phonics stage of theology, not because of any obscure element in the teaching but only because they were too lazy to exert themselves to study and learn God’s Word. They were delinquent disciples.

In open opposition to the constant bombardments of the world which seeks to stultify us with its foolish perspectives, mindless sayings, trifling goals and futile thinking, the Lord God requires us to “.. Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. .” 2 Pe 3:18. We are commanded to “…not be children in your thinking [but] Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.” 1 Cor 14:20. This instruction is not only for the individual believer but also for the entire church “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” but that we may “. . grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, “ Eph 2:14-15.

Yes, spiritual maturity into Christ is not an option; we are to pursue Christ and be conformed more and more into his image by his indwelling Holy Spirit. The opposite of growth is not a state of benign neutral non-growth or stagnation but a deadly regression which eventually leads to a turning away from the faith from which we will never be able to be redeemed.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, exhort and “.. encourage one another with these words.” 1 Ths 4:18.