In chapter 5 verse 11 the author begins a section we’ve entitled “The danger of spiritual immaturity.” In 5:11-14 we saw the rebuke the author gives to his readers concerning their spiritual immaturity. They were the way they were not because couldn’t understand the truths they were being taught but because they stopped their ears to them. And because they resolutely refused to obey they were in a precarious position in which they were left without any spiritual discernment. They couldn’t understand what the Scripture said was right or wrong because they refused to follow through with what they had already heard. When they refused to listen to God’s Word they closed themselves off from further instruction.
Now in the opening verses of chapter 6 we see the author calls for the readers to move away from their spiritual sluggishness. And in this passage we see the key idea, as the danger of continuing to dabble in introductory spiritual truths must be left behind if we are to press onto maturity. There are three needs the author addresses if the readers are to move into the state of being mature Christians.
1. The Need to Move on
The first need the author addresses is the need to move on. At the beginning of verse 1 the author says, “Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity.” Now the author’s remark takes us somewhat by surprise because of his discourse in the previous verses. In verse 12 he says, “You have come to need milk and not solid food.” Now after he mentions his readers are in need of milk we might expect him to acquiesce to their immaturity and begin pouring on the milk. But this is not what he does. He immediately calls for them to leave behind the elementary principles about the Messiah and move on to maturity.
There was a real need for them to move on to the weightier teachings in Christianity. We will discuss why in the next section. Now this wasn’t a call to forsake these foundational teachings about the Messiah but to go past them. If they didn’t move past them they would remain children in their understanding. We could use an analogy from any area of learning but let’s do so with our own language. The ABC’s are merely building blocks to our language and vocabulary and though we move past them to progress in the use of the language we don’t forsake them. They are necessary. We can’t leave them behind in the sense of not using them for then we would fail to have anything upon which to build our communication. But neither would you ever walk past a college level English class and hear, “A, B, C, D, E, F . . .” So we must move past the foundation if we are to progress. If we really want to communicate in our language we must learn the weightier matters of our ABC’s, namely, syntax and grammar and figures of speech. We must then press on to learning styles of writing and genres if we are to fully grasp the art of communication. I was never so impressed with someone’s use of the English language (and I have heard many good speakers and have read many good books) until I was going through Rudyard Kipling’s “Just So Stories” with my children. Now since a child I was familiar with his “Riki Tiki Tavi,” his story about a mongoose in India, as perhaps many of you are. But what I realized with his “Just So Stories” was he was a master of the English language. Not in just how he followed the rules of his ABC’s but also in how he breaks those rules. He made the language bend over backwards. He caused words to tumble somersaults. He brought into being actions and ideas with lines on a page. He was an artist with the language because he refused to remain content with his ABC’s. He moved on to maturity in using the language.
So too we must press on to maturity in the Christian life. And we must do this by building upon the ABC’s of Christian doctrine while not lagging behind in them. Let us not forsake them as if they were dispensable, for our entire Christian vocabulary is set upon these matters. But it is time to move on. It is time to use these ABC’s to form multi-syllabic words. Let us use these building blocks of the Christian experience upon which we must stand to progress to truths bigger and weightier.
There is a real dearth today in the Christian realm, a real dearth of deep thinking and application of the Word of God. We are plagued with so much mind candy it is sickening. We have these best sellers that really say nothing deep. We have a whole movement around the “Prayer of Jabez” when all the guy wanted was more land. We are substituting candy for healthy food and the church is sick for it. We have exchanged Pilgrim’s Progress, Matthew Henry’s commentary, and Charles Spurgeon’s Treasury of David for 40 Days of Purpose. We have substituted “Isn’t He Beautiful, Beautiful Isn’t He” for “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” We have given ourselves over to devotionals instead of doctrine, sweet minute of prayer instead of sweet hour of prayer and mantras instead of memorizing Scripture. Oh, friends, let us lay aside the elementary teaching about the Christ and move on to maturity.
2. The Need to Let Lie
The next need the author addresses is the need to let lie. In verses 1 & 2 the author says, “Let us press on to maturity 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.” The author calls for his readers to let these basic matters rest and go on from them to the greater truths of the Christian faith.
These matters he discusses, six in all, are basic to both Judaism and Christianity. What was going on with these believers? They were holding on to the basic mutual doctrines between them and their former religion without going past them. They sought to escape persecution of friends and family by emphasizing these doctrines without noting the significant differences between Judaism and Christianity. They were too timid to lay everything out on the table for fear of being rejected by their family but as the author stresses later in his letter, Jesus suffered outside the camp so we too must go outside the camp. We must be willing to suffer the reproach Jesus experienced in our lives. These people were seeking to maintain dual allegiance between Judaism and Christianity. But they could not do this if they were to have a real connection with Christ. Let’s look at the mutual basics both Christianity and Judaism shared.
A. The mutual foundation of the Judeo-Christian heritage
First, the author describes the mutual foundation of the Judeo-Christian heritage. He makes a distinction between what he lists in verse 1 and in verse 2. In verse one he calls, repentance from dead works and faith toward God a foundation. These two matters were the foundation of both biblical Judaism and biblical Christianity. The Old Testament Scriptures speak of a repentance necessary for forgiveness. David in Psalm 51 describes it. He says, “You are not pleased with burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” David is not rejecting the Old Testament sacrificial system but was acknowledging this system was not the means of becoming right with God. God had ordained the system to point to the ultimate sacrifice in the Lord Jesus Christ. But without the right heart, a heart that turned away from sin, it was impossible to be right with God. Repentance was also the foundation of a relationship with God in Christianity. Even Jesus’ message, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” clearly indicates the foundational role of repentance in the new order He ushered in.
Likewise faith toward God was foundational in its importance for the Old Testament saint, for without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith was evident in the life of Abraham, the forefather of the Jews. In Genesis 15 we read, “Abraham believed God and it was credited to Him as righteousness.” Also God issues calls to believe in Him from the Old Testament such as Proverbs 3, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart,” Psalm 37, “Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him,” Isaiah 43, “That you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He.” But if faith toward God was a foundation of the Old Testament surely this is even more clearly established in the New Testament. Passages like, Acts 16:31, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved” or Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith.” These two foundations, repentance and faith toward God are mutually held in the Judeo-Christian heritage.
B. The mutual instruction of the Judeo-Christian heritage
Next the author describes the mutual instruction of the Judeo-Christian heritage. In verse 2 he changes from speaking about foundations to instructions. Here we see, “instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.” Again we note some items mutually held within both groups. The word washings or literally “baptisms” were practiced within Judaism. Baptism was a means of initiation into the group. They would be baptized to acknowledge their association into Judaism. The same was true for Christianity. But what is probably more mutually shared between the Old and New Testament in the way of “washings” are the washings of the heart spoken of in Ezekiel 36 and specially Jeremiah 31 that mentions the cleansing of the heart taking place within the confines of a “new covenant.” Both the Old Testament and New speak of a cleansing that takes place within the heart. The author also mentions the mutual understanding of the laying on of hands. In both communities we have the laying on of hands as a symbol of the dedication of a person for ministry or the coming of the Holy Spirit upon a person.
The last two the author mentions, “resurrection from the dead and eternal judgment” are found in both biblical Judaism and Christianity. The Old Testament is replete with its teaching. Job has confidence of seeing God in the resurrection. Daniel describes it. Except for the Saducees we could probably say the rest of the Jews believed in the resurrection of the dead. We even see Jesus pick apart the Saducees’ false argument against resurrection in Matthew 22 using Scripture. And in the New Testament the resurrection is the wonderful hope of the believer. It is our resurrection that allows the believer to not grieve like others who have no hope. We will be reunited with loved ones again because of the resurrection. And it is clear they both share the fact God will judge the living and the dead and bring them into eternal life or eternal punishment. So we see the author describes for us both the mutual foundations and mutual instructions between Judaism and Christianity.
Now let’s think back again to what was happening? These believers were trying to find the common ground with their previous religion so they could avoid persecution. As one author puts it, “They may have been trying to survive with a minimal Christianity to avoid alienating their Jewish friends or relatives” (George Guthrie, 205). They were maintaining these basic Christian truths common to both biblical Christianity and Judaism and promoting these without presenting those weightier truths that showed the real difference between them. Now the progressive, the weightier truths of Christianity showed historic Judaism missed the boat when they rejected Jesus the Messiah. The readers thought if they could avoid the divisive issue namely, Jesus, they could avoid persecution for themselves.
But consider those in the book of Acts for a moment. In the book of Acts, Paul (and others) always used these basic truths as a ground for reference with which preach the Gospel when speaking to a Jewish audience. Look at these examples; Peter in Acts 2 says, “This is what is spoken of through the prophet Joel.” He began with a context they could understand. Stephen in Acts 7 has a long introductory discourse speaking of all the common ground of Abraham and God’s work through Moses in Egypt. He referred to the Jewish ancestors as “Our fathers.” He delved deeply into the reservoir of commonality to present the Gospel. Paul, defending himself in Acts 23 cries out in the assembly of elders, “Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead.” He clearly used the common ground of resurrection he had with his Jewish friends to present the Gospel. But he never stopped there. Paul and the others went beyond their mutual foundation and instruction to present the complete work of the Messiah to those around them. And it is precisely here they ran into persecution. They might have avoided such persecution by neglecting the differences between their Jewish friends and relatives and themselves but it would have reduced the Gospel to a nice but unnecessary addition to Judaism.
However, the necessity to move on past the common ground to that in which they differed would show the others they were lost without a genuine faith in the Messiah Jesus. And today the divisive issue is still the divisive issue. Jesus is still at the core of biblical Christianity. When Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father but by Me I think it really meant it. Today the issue isn’t just Jesus but it is, “who is Jesus and what has He accomplished.” Many people today love a Jesus but they do not love the Jesus of the Bible. And they need to know they are lost without a genuine faith in the Jesus of Scripture.
The answer to this is to move on to maturity and be able to biblically define who Jesus is. He is not the Jesus of the Mormons who was the brother of Satan and conceived by a physical relationship between God the Father and Mary. He is not the Jesus of the Jehovah Witnesses who was merely one of God’s creations albeit a special one. And He is not the Jesus who is subservient to Mary, the mother of God (even that title of her is not accurate). People do not need to come to the Jesus of the Bible through Mary. The Jesus of the Bible is He who has completed the work of salvation with nothing left for us to do. Nor is He the Jesus of the Muslims who never did die on the cross. For they say he was exchanged with a thief on the way to die and ascended to heaven without paying the penalty for our sin.
There is a positive spin Christianity existing today that does not acknowledge the narrow position of biblical Christianity. They would much rather speak of its inclusiveness than its exclusiveness. They would present the Gospel for all but neglect to describe it in terms of being for all who believe. And they refuse to declare those who will not receive the Christ of the Bible alone as Savior will perish in eternal torment. People try to steer clear of the negative side of Christianity to avoid the criticism that inevitably comes (criticism that biblically is called persecution). When Peter stood before the ruling body of Jews and said, “There is no other name in heaven, except Jesus, given among men whereby we must be saved” he stood the chance of receiving a quick trial and a sudden death sentence from the council. But he did not back down to buy himself a little comfort.
There is an ecumenical spirit today that says we must ignore the differences and just focus on the similarities. But we cannot do this without losing the Gospel in all its purity. The National and World Council of Churches have done this, the ECT movement (Evangelicals and Catholics together) has done this and they all have lost the Gospel in the process. But if we ignore the differences to avoid discomfort and persecution then the warning of verses 4-8 which we will see next week awaits us.
People may accuse us of not being loving because we refuse to bend on the truth and say there are people who will go to hell because they refuse to give up their own way of salvation and trust in Christ alone. But I tell you it is most loving to tell them the truth. Why? If I balk at speaking the whole truth and allow someone I love to have a false sense of security about their future destiny, then I am most hateful because I am letting them go to their eternal destruction where they will never know anything but suffering forever.
3. The Need for God’s Intervention
The final need the author addresses is the need for God’s intervention. In verse 3 the author says, “And this we will do, if God permits.” We must recognize if we are to get past our sluggishness and spiritual immaturity God must actively be working in our lives. We cannot think we will somehow gain this strength of character and confidence in God by our own effort. We must cry out to God for His intervention. We need to cast ourselves before God in utter dependence upon Him.
I have seen this again and again in people who do not have this trust (this rest) in God. They think they can somehow, by their own effort, overcome their lack of Christian experience by doing more. They think, “Maybe I should try joining this Bible study or take on two or three more ministries or work in a soup kitchen but my counsel to them is always to cry out to God for His grace to know Him, not to divert their restless energy into more pursuits. Now I am not saying that being involved and ministering to those around us in not important but it is not the way to find a deep trust in God if we do not have it in our spiritual life. Being involved in church things without a firm confidence in your salvation will only make you frustrated. John Wesley found this out. Before his conversion he went to Georgia to preach his gospel of works and piety to the people there. He left for England some years later frustrated without any assurance from God about his eternal security. In fact, he was frightened about dying in the midst of a storm at sea on his way home and began to wonder why some other passengers on the boat, who were real Christians were not fearful. Doing more things will not give you assurance of a right standing before God. Perhaps you are seeking to do everything else because you do not have this assurance. Go back to chapter 4 and look at the rest God promises his people.
But for the remainder of us we can go on to maturity if God permits. If you are frustrated with where you are in your relationship to God because you have been neglecting His Word you have to go back to Him. You need to repent and humble yourself before Him and recognize in Him the strength to overcome in your struggle not to hedge on clearly presenting all the Word of God.
Even the author’s words in verse 1, “Let us press on to maturity,” describe this need for God’s intervention. The word translated “press on” is best understood as “moved along.” It was a word used of sailing ships carried by the wind and Peter uses the verb in his second letter to describe the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the prophets, where it is translated, “men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”
Please don’t miss your responsibility in the midst of God’s sovereignty. If you have been neglecting His Word then unstop your ears to it. Stop being cynical toward Him. Stop doubting His power to transform both yourself and those you know. For without faith it is impossible to please Him. Let us move on to maturity so we need not fear the warning of verses 4-8 we will see next week.