Moving
Toward Maturity (March 16, 2003)
Last July a Champaign mother stirred up a great deal of controversy when it
was discovered that she was still nursing her eight year-old son. When
interviewed on "Good Morning America" the mother said, "Kyle is my only son and
he's very important to me and he's going to be allowed to nurse until he decides
to finish weaning himself." After the show aired the State of Illinois pressed
charges, the boy was put in temporary foster care, and the mother was subjected
to counseling and evaluations. Despite all she went through, at last report the
mother was still nursing the boy on occasion and passionately defending the
practice!
Why was there such an uproar over a mother nursing her eight year-old son? The answer is obvious. We instinctively believe that at some point children must move beyond milk, Gerber food products, diapers, and Fisher Price toys! A child must grow to eat solid foods and to become less dependent on mom. In our culture refusing to move beyond infancy is virtually a crime!
Some Christians never mature.
I appreciate the Amy Grant song you just heard titled "Fat Baby". She exposes an outrageous problem. The problem is that there are Christians who never move beyond infancy and toward maturity. Christians who have been drinking out of baby bottles their entire lives. Christians who cannot stomach much more than an occasional Sunday spiritual lunch. Christians who have sampled the deeper, solid food, but who prefer milk instead.
Christians who know John 3:16, who tote around their King James Bible, who know all the books of the Bible, who have even knelt at the altar, and who weekly go through all the motions, but who are lacking any real spiritual center. Christians who are baptized, sanctified, and redeemed by the blood, but whose daily devotions are stuck in the mud. Christians who are alive and saved, but who turn their noses at doctrine, who rarely feed on anything substantive, and who spend their whole lives being momma's boys.
Talk about outrageous! Outrageous is the fact that Christians can spend years, even decades in the Church, but never move beyond infancy. Yet this sad fact rarely makes the headlines. We don't talk about it. There is an elephant in the room, but no one wants to talk about it! Hebrews 5:11-14 (NIV) rebukes us. "We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil."
Notice how the writer of Hebrews describes the problem in Hebrews 5:11. They were, "slow to learn". Literally, the Greek text says that they were, "hard of hearing" or, "dull to hear." And it wasn't that these Christians needed hearing aids. Their ears were perfectly fine. They weren't hearing impaired. Their problem was that they were selectively listening to the counsel of God. Year after year they kept wearing out the verses and pages of the Bible. They kept regurgitating the same old worn cliches that once enriched their lives. Their problem was that they kept eating, eating, and eating, but they never digested the word of God. They attended Bible studies and classes, they listened to sermon after sermon, they tuned into Christian radio all day long, but never truly absorbed what they heard.
A few months ago Lara and I were talking about our female dog, Addie. Lara joked that Addie seemed to become hard of hearing. We would come home and instead of greeting us, Addie would stay downstairs on the couch, snoring away, oblivious to our arrival. Or we would be going to bed and call out for Addie to come, but she wouldn't! We finally got to the heart of the problem. Addie doesn't have a hearing problem. She has a selective hearing problem. Her ears are fine. She can hear the slightest crinkle of a potato chip bag. She can hear the slightest bounce of a ball anywhere in the house. From anywhere in the house she can detect the closet door (the closet which contains her leash) being opened. But call her to get in her cage and sure enough, her hearing short-circuits.
This is the problem the writer of Hebrews is driving at regarding the Hebrew Christians. It isn't that we are hearing impaired. Instead we selectively hear and obey what we want to hear and obey, nothing more and nothing less. We prefer milk over solid foods because it is so much easier on our stomachs. We are comfortable being saved, and we are content with being nursed along. We are terrified at the thought that maybe it's time to grow into spiritual adulthood and start contributing to the nourishment of others instead of just feeding and sponging and demanding and nursing and consuming.
Still being fed.
This is the author of Hebrews second point. He says, "In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!" Let me amplify this verse. The Greek text says, "By this time you ought (are indebted to be, owe it to be) teachers, but, you still need milk!"
The writer of Hebrews is lamenting all the squandered potential he sees in the Church. He sees all these accomplished professionals in his midst. People who had risen to prominence in their community, in their workplaces, and among their peers. People who in their every day lives had taken enormous risks, had stretched themselves, had taken on challenges, and had demonstrated their ability. But these were the same people who in their spiritual lives had remained comfortable, had squandered their potential, had remained idle and unproductive, and had wasted away opportunity after opportunity to grow. They had refused to be challenged, to soar to new heights, to move on toward maturity, and to walk by faith. They could have and should have been teachers, but they were still stuck in kindergarten, in elementary school, learning their spiritual ABC's!
I still remember my half-day kindergarten classes, do you? The highlight of kindergarten was that every day just before noon, we'd march single file down the hallway to a refrigerator where we would line up to receive a small carton of milk and a freshly baked cookie. It was the same every day. Line up. Get milk. Get cookie. That's all I remember!
But oh, how I loved those days! That milk and cookie would make me feel so warm and full. Life back then was so easy and uncomplicated. My biggest challenge was learning to write my full name, Jonathan Edward Morrissette. But I'm glad Im not in kindergarten anymore, aren't you? I got bored singing the alphabet a long time ago, counting and drawing letters and learning to tie my shoes, and saying the names of the months in order. I'm glad I moved on! There is so much more to life than lining up at the refrigerator waiting for my daily milk and cookie!
Beyond spiritual kindergarten.
And I'll tell you something else. I'm glad I'm not in spiritual kindergarten anymore. I enjoyed those first steps of faith, learning how to read the Bible, how to pray, how to memorize scripture, and how to understand basic Christian doctrines. I sometimes think about those days when I could go to church and not worry about having a lesson prepared, or a sermon, or having an answer to a question, or being concerned how someone else was doing. But I'm glad I've moved on from those days, and I don't mean that in a prideful or self-congratulatory way. It's just that there is so much more beyond the elementary teachings and more to life than waiting for spiritual milk and cookies.
The writer of Hebrews is telling us rather candidly I think, that we are long overdue. Enough time has elapsed that we should all be teachers, but as it is, some of us are still waiting in line to get a milk mustache and to feel warm and full. When will some of us ever get around to moving toward maturity? That is the concern of the author of Hebrews and of every reasonable Christian.
The author of Hebrews is concerned that we move beyond milk and to put it bluntly, that we grow up. He's saying that it's time we develop a taste for steak. It's time that we develop a voracious appetite and feast on the deeper things of Christ and his kingdom. Hebrews 6:1-3 (NIV) says, "Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so."
Beyond spiritual milk.
Let's pause here for a moment and rehash some of what we have been talking about. The problem is not that the author of Hebrews is a dull or boring teacher, because this has always been a common complaint Christians make of their teachers. The problem is that the Hebrew Christians were dull hearers. They were slothful. They were lazy. They were apathetic about the deeper things of Christ. They selectively listened and did not fully obey the whole counsel of God. As a result, their spiritual development was stunted. They were stuck on milk! Their immaturity was evidenced by their inability to share spiritual truth with others. They had been Christians long enough to be able to share God's truth, but they were again in need of learning the basics concerning the Christian life.
Have you ever stopped to consider what milk is? Warren Wiersbe comments that milk is predigested food. As such milk is especially suited to babies and those who are sick or to those who do not have teeth! A sign of spiritual immaturity is Christians who need everything predigested. The mark of spiritual immaturity is Christians whose first question when they come to church is, "Got milk?"
Spiritual immaturity is Christians who always need someone to read and interpret the Bible for them. It's parents who are unable to teach their children about Jesus. It's church leaders who do not know how to share the gospel or cultivate deeper life in other Christians. It's older men and older women who have never taken it upon themselves to mentor younger men and younger women in the faith. It is Christians who have to be entertained with music and drama and instruments and special lighting and sound effects and powerpoint and all the frills in order to get an ounce of enlightenment.
Spiritual immaturity is Christians who are most concerned about staying comfortable, singing the same songs, quoting the same Bible verses, following the same liturgy, and having everything their way. These folks are never looking beyond themselves at the opportunities to disciple young people and young families which are abounding in their midst.
The writer of Hebrews is raising the bar for church leaders, for parents, and for Christians. There is a time when every Christian must crave pure spiritual milk. Just as everyone has to come into this world as a baby, so everyone has to be born into God's kingdom as a baby. But it is tragic when a baby doesn't move on to maturity. As Wiersbe says, "No matter how much parents and grandparents love to hold and cuddle a baby, it is their great desire that the baby grow up and enjoy a full life as a mature adult. God has the same desire for his children. God wants us moving beyond infancy into maturity."
Marks of true maturity.
We're going to move on to cover the additional verses in Hebrews, but let me briefly sketch out what spiritual maturity looks like and then you can judge whether you are moving toward maturity.
First, a mature Christian is unshakably devoted to Jesus Christ.
This describes a disciple's relationship to God's only Son. A mature Christian is one who has mastered the elementary teachings about Christ, has developed deep convictions concerning the identity of Jesus Christ, and is vitally connected to Jesus Christ through prayer, daily devotions, scripture memorization, Bible reading, meditation, fasting, and Bible study. In other words, this is someone who has an insatiable desire to know Christ and search out the deeper things of God. This is a person who isn't content with what he already knows, but is actively growing and pursuing Christ, even into old age.
Second, a mature Christian is tirelessly committed to developing other Christians.
This describes a disciple's relationship to God's family, the Church. A mature Christian is one who has become accountable to other Christians for his own growth, but who is lovingly holding others accountable for their growth. It is a parent, a mature Christian who is actively discipling his or her children. It is a Church leader, a mature Christian who is actively mentoring an upcoming leader. It is an older man or woman, a mature Christian who is actively investing in the lives of someone younger in the faith. It is an older brother, or sister, or student, or whatever. It's the same. A mature Christian is patiently encouraging and investing in the growth of others.
Third, a mature Christian is consistently modeling Christ's lifestyle.
This describes a disciple's relationship to God's Holy Spirit. I know it is easy for younger people to beat up on their parents, for parents to beat up on church leaders, or for Christians to beat up on pastors. It is easy and tempting for us to question the spiritual maturity of others. But a mature Christian is not someone who is perfect in everything he or she does. A maturing Christian is someone who is becoming increasingly consistent day after day as God's Holy Spirit transforms him or her from the inside out. The question is, are you being transformed? Are you becoming more like Christ? Are you yielding to the leadership of the Spirit of God? Are you obeying your conscience? Are you a doer of the word and not merely a hearer?
Last, a mature Christian is intentionally multiplying new life in the world.
This describes a disciple's relationship to God's world. Hebrews 5:12 mentioned that we ought to be teachers. I pointed out that a more accurate translation is that we are indebted to be teachers. A sign of spiritual maturity is taking the new life we have received in Christ, and then sharing it with the world God loves. It's taking those tell, invite, pray cards seriously and inviting people to come and see Jesus Christ. It is inviting as many friends and family members as possible to our church on Friend Day and Easter so that they can hear the gospel and know Jesus Christ.
There is so much more to spiritual life than mere infancy. God wants to mature us and to accomplish great things through us for his glory. He doesn't want us to spend our entire lives lining up for milk. He wants us to be teachers and disciplemakers who make a difference. But it comes down to one thing. Are you listening?
Are you hearing God's call? Or are you selectively hard of hearing or dull of hearing?
Why was there such an uproar over a mother nursing her eight year-old son? The answer is obvious. We instinctively believe that at some point children must move beyond milk, Gerber food products, diapers, and Fisher Price toys! A child must grow to eat solid foods and to become less dependent on mom. In our culture refusing to move beyond infancy is virtually a crime!
Some Christians never mature.
I appreciate the Amy Grant song you just heard titled "Fat Baby". She exposes an outrageous problem. The problem is that there are Christians who never move beyond infancy and toward maturity. Christians who have been drinking out of baby bottles their entire lives. Christians who cannot stomach much more than an occasional Sunday spiritual lunch. Christians who have sampled the deeper, solid food, but who prefer milk instead.
Christians who know John 3:16, who tote around their King James Bible, who know all the books of the Bible, who have even knelt at the altar, and who weekly go through all the motions, but who are lacking any real spiritual center. Christians who are baptized, sanctified, and redeemed by the blood, but whose daily devotions are stuck in the mud. Christians who are alive and saved, but who turn their noses at doctrine, who rarely feed on anything substantive, and who spend their whole lives being momma's boys.
Talk about outrageous! Outrageous is the fact that Christians can spend years, even decades in the Church, but never move beyond infancy. Yet this sad fact rarely makes the headlines. We don't talk about it. There is an elephant in the room, but no one wants to talk about it! Hebrews 5:11-14 (NIV) rebukes us. "We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil."
Notice how the writer of Hebrews describes the problem in Hebrews 5:11. They were, "slow to learn". Literally, the Greek text says that they were, "hard of hearing" or, "dull to hear." And it wasn't that these Christians needed hearing aids. Their ears were perfectly fine. They weren't hearing impaired. Their problem was that they were selectively listening to the counsel of God. Year after year they kept wearing out the verses and pages of the Bible. They kept regurgitating the same old worn cliches that once enriched their lives. Their problem was that they kept eating, eating, and eating, but they never digested the word of God. They attended Bible studies and classes, they listened to sermon after sermon, they tuned into Christian radio all day long, but never truly absorbed what they heard.
A few months ago Lara and I were talking about our female dog, Addie. Lara joked that Addie seemed to become hard of hearing. We would come home and instead of greeting us, Addie would stay downstairs on the couch, snoring away, oblivious to our arrival. Or we would be going to bed and call out for Addie to come, but she wouldn't! We finally got to the heart of the problem. Addie doesn't have a hearing problem. She has a selective hearing problem. Her ears are fine. She can hear the slightest crinkle of a potato chip bag. She can hear the slightest bounce of a ball anywhere in the house. From anywhere in the house she can detect the closet door (the closet which contains her leash) being opened. But call her to get in her cage and sure enough, her hearing short-circuits.
This is the problem the writer of Hebrews is driving at regarding the Hebrew Christians. It isn't that we are hearing impaired. Instead we selectively hear and obey what we want to hear and obey, nothing more and nothing less. We prefer milk over solid foods because it is so much easier on our stomachs. We are comfortable being saved, and we are content with being nursed along. We are terrified at the thought that maybe it's time to grow into spiritual adulthood and start contributing to the nourishment of others instead of just feeding and sponging and demanding and nursing and consuming.
Still being fed.
This is the author of Hebrews second point. He says, "In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!" Let me amplify this verse. The Greek text says, "By this time you ought (are indebted to be, owe it to be) teachers, but, you still need milk!"
The writer of Hebrews is lamenting all the squandered potential he sees in the Church. He sees all these accomplished professionals in his midst. People who had risen to prominence in their community, in their workplaces, and among their peers. People who in their every day lives had taken enormous risks, had stretched themselves, had taken on challenges, and had demonstrated their ability. But these were the same people who in their spiritual lives had remained comfortable, had squandered their potential, had remained idle and unproductive, and had wasted away opportunity after opportunity to grow. They had refused to be challenged, to soar to new heights, to move on toward maturity, and to walk by faith. They could have and should have been teachers, but they were still stuck in kindergarten, in elementary school, learning their spiritual ABC's!
I still remember my half-day kindergarten classes, do you? The highlight of kindergarten was that every day just before noon, we'd march single file down the hallway to a refrigerator where we would line up to receive a small carton of milk and a freshly baked cookie. It was the same every day. Line up. Get milk. Get cookie. That's all I remember!
But oh, how I loved those days! That milk and cookie would make me feel so warm and full. Life back then was so easy and uncomplicated. My biggest challenge was learning to write my full name, Jonathan Edward Morrissette. But I'm glad Im not in kindergarten anymore, aren't you? I got bored singing the alphabet a long time ago, counting and drawing letters and learning to tie my shoes, and saying the names of the months in order. I'm glad I moved on! There is so much more to life than lining up at the refrigerator waiting for my daily milk and cookie!
Beyond spiritual kindergarten.
And I'll tell you something else. I'm glad I'm not in spiritual kindergarten anymore. I enjoyed those first steps of faith, learning how to read the Bible, how to pray, how to memorize scripture, and how to understand basic Christian doctrines. I sometimes think about those days when I could go to church and not worry about having a lesson prepared, or a sermon, or having an answer to a question, or being concerned how someone else was doing. But I'm glad I've moved on from those days, and I don't mean that in a prideful or self-congratulatory way. It's just that there is so much more beyond the elementary teachings and more to life than waiting for spiritual milk and cookies.
The writer of Hebrews is telling us rather candidly I think, that we are long overdue. Enough time has elapsed that we should all be teachers, but as it is, some of us are still waiting in line to get a milk mustache and to feel warm and full. When will some of us ever get around to moving toward maturity? That is the concern of the author of Hebrews and of every reasonable Christian.
The author of Hebrews is concerned that we move beyond milk and to put it bluntly, that we grow up. He's saying that it's time we develop a taste for steak. It's time that we develop a voracious appetite and feast on the deeper things of Christ and his kingdom. Hebrews 6:1-3 (NIV) says, "Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so."
Beyond spiritual milk.
Let's pause here for a moment and rehash some of what we have been talking about. The problem is not that the author of Hebrews is a dull or boring teacher, because this has always been a common complaint Christians make of their teachers. The problem is that the Hebrew Christians were dull hearers. They were slothful. They were lazy. They were apathetic about the deeper things of Christ. They selectively listened and did not fully obey the whole counsel of God. As a result, their spiritual development was stunted. They were stuck on milk! Their immaturity was evidenced by their inability to share spiritual truth with others. They had been Christians long enough to be able to share God's truth, but they were again in need of learning the basics concerning the Christian life.
Have you ever stopped to consider what milk is? Warren Wiersbe comments that milk is predigested food. As such milk is especially suited to babies and those who are sick or to those who do not have teeth! A sign of spiritual immaturity is Christians who need everything predigested. The mark of spiritual immaturity is Christians whose first question when they come to church is, "Got milk?"
Spiritual immaturity is Christians who always need someone to read and interpret the Bible for them. It's parents who are unable to teach their children about Jesus. It's church leaders who do not know how to share the gospel or cultivate deeper life in other Christians. It's older men and older women who have never taken it upon themselves to mentor younger men and younger women in the faith. It is Christians who have to be entertained with music and drama and instruments and special lighting and sound effects and powerpoint and all the frills in order to get an ounce of enlightenment.
Spiritual immaturity is Christians who are most concerned about staying comfortable, singing the same songs, quoting the same Bible verses, following the same liturgy, and having everything their way. These folks are never looking beyond themselves at the opportunities to disciple young people and young families which are abounding in their midst.
The writer of Hebrews is raising the bar for church leaders, for parents, and for Christians. There is a time when every Christian must crave pure spiritual milk. Just as everyone has to come into this world as a baby, so everyone has to be born into God's kingdom as a baby. But it is tragic when a baby doesn't move on to maturity. As Wiersbe says, "No matter how much parents and grandparents love to hold and cuddle a baby, it is their great desire that the baby grow up and enjoy a full life as a mature adult. God has the same desire for his children. God wants us moving beyond infancy into maturity."
Marks of true maturity.
We're going to move on to cover the additional verses in Hebrews, but let me briefly sketch out what spiritual maturity looks like and then you can judge whether you are moving toward maturity.
First, a mature Christian is unshakably devoted to Jesus Christ.
This describes a disciple's relationship to God's only Son. A mature Christian is one who has mastered the elementary teachings about Christ, has developed deep convictions concerning the identity of Jesus Christ, and is vitally connected to Jesus Christ through prayer, daily devotions, scripture memorization, Bible reading, meditation, fasting, and Bible study. In other words, this is someone who has an insatiable desire to know Christ and search out the deeper things of God. This is a person who isn't content with what he already knows, but is actively growing and pursuing Christ, even into old age.
Second, a mature Christian is tirelessly committed to developing other Christians.
This describes a disciple's relationship to God's family, the Church. A mature Christian is one who has become accountable to other Christians for his own growth, but who is lovingly holding others accountable for their growth. It is a parent, a mature Christian who is actively discipling his or her children. It is a Church leader, a mature Christian who is actively mentoring an upcoming leader. It is an older man or woman, a mature Christian who is actively investing in the lives of someone younger in the faith. It is an older brother, or sister, or student, or whatever. It's the same. A mature Christian is patiently encouraging and investing in the growth of others.
Third, a mature Christian is consistently modeling Christ's lifestyle.
This describes a disciple's relationship to God's Holy Spirit. I know it is easy for younger people to beat up on their parents, for parents to beat up on church leaders, or for Christians to beat up on pastors. It is easy and tempting for us to question the spiritual maturity of others. But a mature Christian is not someone who is perfect in everything he or she does. A maturing Christian is someone who is becoming increasingly consistent day after day as God's Holy Spirit transforms him or her from the inside out. The question is, are you being transformed? Are you becoming more like Christ? Are you yielding to the leadership of the Spirit of God? Are you obeying your conscience? Are you a doer of the word and not merely a hearer?
Last, a mature Christian is intentionally multiplying new life in the world.
This describes a disciple's relationship to God's world. Hebrews 5:12 mentioned that we ought to be teachers. I pointed out that a more accurate translation is that we are indebted to be teachers. A sign of spiritual maturity is taking the new life we have received in Christ, and then sharing it with the world God loves. It's taking those tell, invite, pray cards seriously and inviting people to come and see Jesus Christ. It is inviting as many friends and family members as possible to our church on Friend Day and Easter so that they can hear the gospel and know Jesus Christ.
There is so much more to spiritual life than mere infancy. God wants to mature us and to accomplish great things through us for his glory. He doesn't want us to spend our entire lives lining up for milk. He wants us to be teachers and disciplemakers who make a difference. But it comes down to one thing. Are you listening?
Are you hearing God's call? Or are you selectively hard of hearing or dull of hearing?
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