11 Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.
14 But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.
1 Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
2 of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.
3 And this we will do, if God permits.
“Concerning Him we have much to say”, for there is much to be said about Him. He is the great high priest and the Son of the living God. Neither this book nor all the books written can fully capture all that can be said about Jesus. For He is infinite in all ways, especially in His person and His work. “And it is hard to explain these things” for they are rich with meaning. I knowledge of Him is greater than our minds can fathom. The joys of the heart are rich with the person who begins to sense who He is, yet understands how weak his knowledge of Him is. “But these things are even more difficult to explain “since you have become dull of hearing.” You have lost the sense of joy in knowing Him more fully and thus you have become ill equipped in your pursuit knowing Him more. Your mind has become slow and not ready for the great things of God.
“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God”. You should be full of the wisdom of God by now. When it comes to the Word of God revealed in the Old Testament you should be so well equipped with logic and reason to how they reveal the Son of God people should be coming to you seeking this great learning. You have had so much time to study the Law and the Prophets that there should not be an unstudied word within it. Yet, you still need someone to teach them to you. The things that are so elementary you still don’t understand. Oh, why are you so slow to learn? Why do you not heed to the Word of God spoken by the angels? Give heed to the Word of God delivered by the Spirit of God. For “you have come to need milk and not solid food.” Your teeth are not prepared for the great riches of the Word. Your stomachs will become ill by the solidness of the meat of God’s Word.
“For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.” You are like a baby not yet weaned from his mother’s breast. All you know is milk and you think it is all you need. Like an infant, not only is your stomach not yet prepared, your mind is ignorant to the riches of solid foods. You have yet to come to the knowledge of strength found in the meat of the Word. You know nothing of the energy for service you can obtain in the Word. You think little of the Word and this is seen by the way you show so little attention to it, but in it is the great satisfying taste your soul longs for. Oh, ignorant man, you are truly like an infant.
“But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” It is only when the infant becomes a toddler that he is given cereal to eat, but this is still only mushy. But when the child grows older and becomes mature, then he is given solid meat to eat. Only then are his teeth and stomach able to handle the toughness of the solid foods. But you ask, “What is the advantage of this being able to eat solid foods? I have Jesus and that is all I need.” Oh, silly man, do you not know that it is the Word of God that makes you wise? Is it not the Word of God that gives direction to the man’s hearts and desires? Is not the Word of God a light unto our feet? If you want to live a life to the glory of God you must have the Word of God as your guide. It is only through the study of God’s Word that we are able to train our minds to discern good and evil. We like an athlete must practice over and over to become strong and have the endurance we need to finish the race set before us. For us to live for God we must practice over and over by studying the Word of God over and over so that we will know what the will of the Lord is and how we are to serve Him more fully.
“Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity”. You are not ready to move on, but we must move on. And not because I will push you, but because God will bring us through together. No infant wants to leave the milk of his mother, but the mother must take away her milk for the good of the child. When the child comes of age she must remove him for her breast and make him eat solid food. Otherwise she would be neglecting her child and so God would be neglecting us if He were to leave us as infants in the Word. So let us press on to becoming mature in the faith.
To do this we must press on, “not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.” These things constitute the foundation of our faith and we don’t need to deal with them again. We know that we must repent from the works of evil and the works of the Old Covenant because Christ has come. We know that we do not try to merit our salvation, but we find peace with God through faith toward Him. We are quite aware of the baptism we received when we confessed Christ as a symbol of the baptism of our soul with the Holy Spirit and we know of the laying on of hands as the fellowship of the saints was passed on toward us. And we have no confusion about the resurrection of the dead that will come in the end and then the eternal judgment of Christ, both of the living and the dead. This we all know and we now know we must go on past it, “and this we will do, if God permits.”
The Word of God is our only source of knowledge in this wicked and fallen world. Of those things tangible, it is the only thing in this world that is truly pure. The author of Hebrews challenges us to press on with our Bibles toward maturity. He challenges us to be a people of the Book. Our great God has chosen to be a God of communication (Hebrews 1:1-2) and He has chosen to give us His revelation in Word. We are foolish if we choose to neglect the value of this resource and waste our efforts on less profitable things. If a man offered you a book and within it was the ability to make millions, how many of us would not set it aside. But God gives us a book with eternal life and a life of joy and peace before Him…should we not pay as close attention to it?
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