Hebrews 5:11-14: Failure to Mature

Hebrews - Jesus is Greater  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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The author wants to continue his reflection on Christ being a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, but faces a dilemma because the congregation is spiritually immature

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Reformed Systematic Theology, Volume 1: Revelation and God The Divinity of God’s Infinite Knowledge

The doctrine of divine knowledge should humble us—especially pastors and theologians, for we may be tempted to intellectual pride. We may think we have deep insights into God, but our minds, compared to God’s mind, are like a spark to the sun and a drop to the ocean.

Introduction

Quote

Lexham Context Commentary
Lexham Context Commentary: New Testament Spiritual Immaturity (5:11–14)

Here the author steps aside from his explanation of Jesus’ Melchizedek-like high priesthood. He will return to this topic soon (in 6:13–20) and then again in earnest in the next major section of the letter. This paragraph begins the exhortation section with a scathing admonition of the readers and their lack of spiritual maturity. They should be ready to hear and appropriate the rich theological message he has for them, but instead they still need to learn what they should be able to be teaching to others. This reprimand is serious, as evidenced by the warning of the next paragraph.

Scripture

Hebrews 5:11–14 ESV
11 About this 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 need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Outline

Hebrews 1-2 - Jesus is Greater Than the Angels

Hebrews 1:1-4 - God has Spoken
Hebrews 1:5-14 - The Son is Superior to the Angels
Hebrews 2:1-4 - A Warning
Hebrews 2:5-9 - Lowliness to Crowning Glory
Hebrews 2:10-18 - Jesus has Delivered His Brothers

Hebrews 3:1-4:13 - Jesus is a Greater Rest

Hebrews 3:1-6 - Jesus is Worthy of More Glory Than Moses
Hebrews 3:7-19 - Disobedience After the Exodus
Hebrews 4:1-13 - A Sabbath Rest for God’s People

Hebrews 4:14-7:26 - Jesus is Greater than Melchizedek

Hebrews 4:14-16 - Jesus is the Great High Priest
Hebrews 5:1-10 - Jesus is the High Priest After the Order of Melchizedek
Hebrews 5:11-6:20 - Warning and Exhortation
Hebrews 5:11-14 - Failure to Mature
Hebrews 5:11-12a - Dull of Hearing
Hebrews 5:12b-14 - Milk vs. Solid Food

Purpose of Book

Christ, who has accomplished salvation through His atoning sacrifice, is greater than all things; therefore, persevere in true faith and encourage others to do likewise

Main Point

The author wants to continue his reflection on Christ being a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, but faces a dilemma because the congregation is spiritually immature

Warning Passages Thus Far

Hebrews 1-2 - Jesus is Greater than the Angels
Warning Passage
Hebrews 2:1–4 ESV
1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, 4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
Hebrews 3-4:13 - Jesus is a Greater Rest
Warning Passage
Hebrews 3:12–15 ESV
12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
Hebrews 4:16-7:28 - Jesus is a Greater Than Melchizedek
Warning Passage
Hebrews 5:11–6:12 ESV
11 About this 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 need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. 1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits. 4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. 7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. 9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. 10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. 11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
5 possible ways to view the warning passages:
Apostasy - Christians can reject/lose salvation
Eternal gifts - Christians can miss out on eternal gifts
Non-Christians - Jews who were listening, but did not claim Jesus as Lord
Can’t reject/lose salvation - Not sure what this means, but I just know you can’t reject/lose salvation
Eschatological Warning - Persevere until the end and be found in Christ

Hebrews 5:11-12a - Dull of Hearing

Hebrews 5:11–12 (ESV)
11 About this 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 need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.

About this we have much to say,

About this
Hebrews 5:5–10 ESV
5 So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”; 6 as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” 7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
The author wishes to write more about Christ’s high priesthood as it relates to Melchizedek
Much

2. much (amount) — a great amount or extent; a lot

And it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.

Hard to explain

to being difficult to tell the meaning of someth.

1. hard to explain — not easily capable of being understood or accounted for.

Since or because
The reason the author is unable to write on Christ’s connection to Melchizedek is because of their dullness
You - PLURAL
Have become
They used to be in a better spiritual condition
Dull

lazy, sluggish

1. slow (dull) — slow to learn, understand, or react; lacking intellectual acuity.

Hearing

5. hearing (recognition) — the ability to hear with understanding (and to act accordingly); understood by the act of hearing.

ESV Expository Commentary

Greek had a specific word for “ear” (ous; Matt. 11:15), but the term used here fits Psalm 95’s warning against hearing God’s voice in unbelief.

Hebrews 3:7–11 ESV
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. 10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ 11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ”
Dull of hearing could also be translated as “slow to understand”
The information the author wishes to communication (Hebrews 7) isn’t difficult to understand in itself… though it is complex..., but the author finds it hard to present the information in such a way that the spiritual immature congregation will understand Christ as the high priest after the order of Melchizedek
Instead of radical obedience they’ve chosen sluggish in understanding

For though by this time you ought to be teachers,

For though
Contrasting what should be with the reality of their present situation
There really is not any excuse for their lack of maturity - they have become reluctant to listen
You - PLURAL
Ought
Teachers
They should have been able to teach new believers, but lack spiritual maturity to do so
Hebrews 3:13 ESV
13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
2 Timothy 2:1–2 ESV
1 You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.
New American Commentary
Hebrews (2) Pressing on to Maturity (5:11–6:8)

It was commonly believed that mature people should be able to teach the less mature. “Teachers” as used here probably does not denote the office of teaching, as the word is sometimes used in the New Testament. The meaning here is that mature believers have the capacity to teach, even if they are not filling the office of teacher.

You need someone to teach you again the basic principles

Teach
You - PLURAL
Teach you again
They’ve regressed in their spiritual growth
They should be able to teach others at this point, but need to relearn
Basic principles

fundamental principles

Of the oracles of God

Oracles

1. saying (collection) — a message that is stated or declared by a particular person; especially divine messages that are gathered together to form a collection.

Basic principles of the Oracles of God?
Hebrews 6:1–3 ESV
1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits.
Basic doctrine of Christianity

Hebrews 5:12b-14 - Milk vs. Solid Food

Hebrews 5:12–14 (ESV)
12 You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

You need milk, not solid food,

You - PLURAL
Milk
Elementary instruction in faith
Solid food
Profound truths of the faith and in context here - The high priesthood of Christ

For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness,

For
Explanation of why they need milk and not solid food
Everyone who lives on milk
They can only live on milk, they are unable to eat solid food
Unskilled

to lack of knowledge or capacity to do someth.

Word of righteousness
Reasoning about righteousness
Anchor Yale Bible Commentary

In Greco-Roman culture instruction in righteousness meant being “trained to discern both good and evil” (Heb 5:14b; cf. Xenophon, Cyropaedia 1.6.30–31). Right reasoning meant reasoning rightly about love of neighbors, truthfulness, modesty, and respect for oneself—all of which were basic to virtue (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 11.1, 10; 12.1).

Since he is a child.

Child

1. infant — a very young child; often of a child still nursing.

But solid food is for the mature,

Mature

2. spiritual mature — being at an advanced stage of spiritual development; usually as a result of experience, teaching, and in most cases time.

For those who have their powers of discernment

For those
Mature Christians
Powers of discernment

1. perception (discernment) — the mental ability to understand and discriminate between relations; especially as acquired through experience.

Trained by constant practice

Trained

2. to be trained (state) — to be or become shaped or conditioned or disciplined by training.

Constant practice

1. practice (repetition) — systematic training by multiple repetitions.

To distinguish good from evil

Distinguish

① the ability to distinguish and evaluate

Good - Moral good
Evil - Morally bad or wrong
Imagery of tree of the knowledge of good and evil
Genesis 2:16–17 ESV
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Genesis 3:1–7 ESV
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
Will the congregation use their powers of discernment and recognize God’s authority or will they give into Satan’s lies? Will they discern as mature Christians or no?

Closing Quote

In summary, the congregation is provoked in four areas:
They have become sluggish and cannot understand what the author wishes to write
They are unable to teach, though they should be able to by now
They need “milk” not “solid food”
They are too spiritually immature to discern good from evil
Evangelical Biblical Theological Commentary
Hebrews Bridge

Spiritual maturity, the author teaches, doesn’t depend fundamentally on intellectual ability. It isn’t correlated with theological depth or the ability to grasp theological truths. The readers were spiritual infants because they weren’t putting into practice what they had learned. They needed to be instructed in the fundamentals of the faith because they hadn’t progressed on to spiritual maturity. There is no idea here that we can be confident of the salvation of those who remain “spiritual infants” for years and years. The readers, because of their infancy, are slipping toward apostasy. Those who are spiritual infants can’t remain where they are. They will either go forward or fall away and be destroyed forever. Hence the warning that follows is urgent since death and life are at stake.

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