Learn How to Eat Spiritual Food and Feed Yourself
The author of Hebrews (who I suspect was Paul) warns the young church, the followers of Jesus, that they need to grow up.
Though many of them should be mature enough to teach others, they still haven’t grasped the basics themselves.
They persist in drinking spiritual milk when they should have graduated to solid food.
A Baby Christian
When most people hear about this passage, they assume the baby Christians, those subsisting on milk, are other people. They reason that this verse couldn’t be a reflection on their own spiritual status—or lack thereof.
The truth is that I fear the church of Jesus is comprised of too many spiritual infants.
If you don’t believe me, let’s unpack this analogy. In the physical sense, babies drink milk and are wholly dependent on others to feed them.
As babies grow they graduate to solid food and begin to feed themselves, first with help and then alone.
This is how things function with our physical bodies and how things should function with our spiritual selves.
The Sunday Sermon
So when people go to church on Sunday to hear a sermon, they expect their pastor to feed them. They subsist on spiritual milk. They are a baby Christian.
Instead they should feed themselves and don’t need to hear a sermon every week in order to obtain their spiritual sustenance.
When pastors feed their congregation each Sunday, they keep their people in an immature state (albeit with more head knowledge) and help justify their continued employment.
But pastors should teach their church attendees how to feed themselves, to not need a pastor to teach them.
If ministers do this, they could work themselves out of a job. But that’s okay, because there are plenty of other churches in need of this same teaching.
Some might infer this means that the mature Christians, those who can feed themselves, don’t need to go to church. This is only half correct.
Mature Christians can feed themselves and don’t need a sermon every Sunday, but they do need to meet together and be in community with other believers.
[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Hebrews 5-7, and today’s post is on Hebrews 5:12-14.]
Read more about this in Peter’s thought-provoking book, Jesus’s Broken Church, available in e-book, audiobook, paperback, and hardcover.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.