Spiritual Milk

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At Hebrew 5:12-14, Paul rebukes the Christians in JeruSalem and Judea for their flagging interest in spiritual things. He said:

‘And although you ought to be teachers in view of the time, you need someone to go back and teach you the basics of God’s Word again.
You’ve become people who need milk, not solid food.
For those that live on milk are babies and they are unfamiliar with righteous teachings, while the adults eat solid food and have trained their senses to recognize the difference between right and wrong.’

What is this ‘milk’ that Paul was talking about? He tells us at Hebrews 6:1, 2:

‘So, now that we’ve gone beyond the basics of the Anointed One, may we be carried on toward maturity. Let’s not go back and lay a new foundation on such matters as repenting over bad deeds and having faith in God.’

Yet, notice that these topics are the very same things that almost all religions spend most of their time discussing, preaching, writing, and arguing about today. How many sermons have you heard or how many articles and books have you read where Christians are being ‘reminded’ not to get involved in ‘bad deeds,’ and that they must have ‘faith in God’ and His greatness?

Many, no doubt.

The rest of what Paul described as milk (baptisms, ordinations, the resurrection of the dead, the judgments on this age), are what many Christians today consider advanced spiritual food. Some might even call it a ‘great spiritual banquet.’ Yet Paul still called it milk, and he said it was like wet-nursing for spiritual babies.

As you can see, Paul’s words are a major condemnation of religious leaders who consider such light spiritual fare important. It reflects their own lack of spiritual growth and their inability to properly feed their flocks.

So, is it wrong to become disgusted with bland spiritual food? Shouldn’t we appreciate any spiritual food that we receive, no matter how poor? As Paul said (at Hebrews 5:14):

‘Adults eat solid food’

Yes, mature Christians require solid spiritual food in order to maintain their spiritual health!

What did he consider the ‘meat’ of God’s word? Well, just read the rest of the book of Hebrews and see if you can follow it.

For a related discussion, see the commentary, What Is Truth?