Forty-five years ago, my wife and I spent our vacation in the beautiful mountain resort town of Gatlinburg, Tennessee. As we strolled around the town center, vendors lined the street selling souvenirs. One man with a router was carving people’s names on wood plaques. We agreed this would look great next to the door of our new home. Within a couple of minutes, this skilled craftsman cut our names into a piece of wood. I told Donna, “That looks simple. I can make them and we can give them as Christmas gifts.” So, I bought my first router. But my self-assured attitude quickly ended. Even after reading books on using a router, my attempts produced nothing more than scrapes for the fireplace. I slipped my new tool in the workshop and didn’t touch it for years. Today, I own five routers but worked hard at training myself to use them. After lots of practice, including many failures, I have developed the skills required to make a piece of wood into decorative furniture. But still developing new techniques.
Training is key to the development of any skill. It advances a student beyond the accumulation of information to the practice and use of what they learned. I see Christians with a head full of biblical data but have no clue how to implement it into their daily activities. Believers must understand that Christian maturity is not reaching a designated level of knowledge or a specific spiritual state. It is the process of developing skills that brings God’s word into practical living. The Book of Hebrews gives one of the clearest scriptures concerning Christian training. Who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil (Heb 5:14).
The author does not write the epistle to new believers, rather it targets those who should have been mature and teaching others. For though by this time you ought to be teachers (v12). These believers had already learned the elementary principles of the oracles of God. The elementary principles literally means the ABC’s. Children learn their ABC’s but then they must practice writing them and using them to make words. The reason the Hebrew Christians failed to mature was they had not practiced. They were unable even to discern the difference between good and evil. This led to severe problems because some were considering renouncing Jesus as the Messiah and returning to Judaism.
The author appears a bit frustrated with the Hebrew Church. Concerning him [Melchizedek] we have much to say, and it is hard to explain (Heb 5:11 NIV). He tells them why since you have become dull of hearing (NASB). Other versions say, you are slow to learn (NIV), sluggish in hearing (NET), spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen (NLT). But note they didn’t start out dull of hearing but had become that way. One writer says they were gradually lulled to sleep by neglecting the truth. We can also translate the word dull, indifference, neglect, sluggish, and lazy. He compares them to infants who only drink milk because they weren’t mature enough to eat the solid food of the word of righteousness (v13).
Our six-month-old granddaughter is advancing from just milk to eating rice pudding. We enjoy a nice grilled steak, but it will be several years until she can share a cut of meat with us. Her body must develop; she has to learn how to chew—that is after she gets teeth. Her digestive system must mature in order to handle solid food. In contrast, if she is still drinking milk and eating soft food at sixteen, we’ll know she has a problem. That’s what the writer of Hebrews was addressing—a congregation of ‘sixteen-year-old’ members stills drinking milk.
Besides being dull of hearing, they neglected to combine the truth they learned with faith and action. They had not practiced. Children may desire to play the piano and even learn to read sheet music and identify the correct keys on the piano. However, few of them want to practice for the hours and hours required to play songs. Verse 14 teaches several valuable principles. Training in righteousness is a constant. We never reach a level where we can stop. Imagine an Olympics athlete who trains, wins a metal, and plans on returning in four years to compete again. However, he/she decides since they had already trained for years no further training was necessary. Christians must practice training their senses or perception. Some commentators equate this with our moral conscience. The word trained comes out of the Greek Olympics. It literally means to practice naked. Athletes practiced and competed in the nude. This removed any encumbrance (12:1). No! the writer isn’t telling us we must train naked. Rather it alludes to how serious they took their training and shows we must throw off everything that hinders us from practice.
Good and evil aren’t always obvious. Remember Satan is a deceiver. We live in a time as Isaiah when people call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter (Isa 5:20)! It requires training to discern the difference.
Sustaining Word for the Week: Leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity (6:1). The Holy Spirit will be your training coach.