Our Diet is for babies, Pt. 2

Series:  What is wrong with church?

Imagine going to a buffet where there are all kinds of variety of foods to choose from, but rather than eating the good stuff, a person is given rice and beans? 

This is what often occurs in churches.  The Bible is God’s menu.  It is filled with a variety of all kind of great and awesome doctrines.  But rather than feasting on the meat of the Word, the people are given oatmeal, rice, applesauce, and a few entertaining humorous carrots to munch on. People do not want to hear things they already know.

This much we do know: Input greatly determines output. What a person takes in will be what is often produced or given out. If all a person feeds on crackers and water, don’t expect him or her to be a good strong and enduring athletic runner. Their body cannot endure the stress of having to function with such low nutrition. People need protein, healthy fats, good carbs, and even some essential supplements.  But for some reason, we think we can spiritually feed people crackers and water on Sundays and expect them to fight the good fight of faith and run the race with endurance until we meet again!

I like the way the writer of Hebrews puts it: “You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. ¹³ For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. ¹⁴ Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong” (Heb. 5:12-14). 

What is the milk that the writer is referring to? Let’s read on:  “So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. ² You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. ³ And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding” (Heb. 6:1-3).

“Milk” is the gospel message of why we should repent of our evil deeds and place our faith in God to avoid eternal judgment.  The writer asks a very good question:  “Why are you going over these basic things time and time again?  Why aren’t you progressing?”  Placing our faith and trust in Jesus for salvation is what Christians already know. We have heard it explain hundreds of times. Enough!  Let’s move on to the meat of the Word and stop treating the people in the congregation as sinners who need to be saved rather than saints who need to be sanctified and grow to become overcomers!

We are the converted!  We do not need to be convinced that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. We got it! We embrace it! What we need to know is how to apply our faith in the marketplace where we work and often walk away without answers to the questions people are asking because we have not been equipped by the churches we attend.  If we simply go over the basic things again and again, we in the church will never progress than the simple message we’re being fed.

End of Part 2