Grow Up! – Hebrews 5:13-14

Hebrews 5:13-14 Anyone who lives on milk, being still and infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

We have a responsibility to grow up. We mature physically as long as we get enough food, water and exercise. That is a given in most circumstances. But there are other kinds of maturity other than physical maturity. Our bodies may be adult bodies, but are we mature mentally, emotionally and spiritually?

If we still have temper tantrums at age twenty five, we have a problem. Temper tantrums are more appropriate for someone who is two or three years old. We accept that behavior at that age. But when a person who is in an adult body throws a temper tantrum, we know there has been a stunting of their emotional growth.

We also expect someone in an adult body to know certain things about how the world works. Expect them to know that the Earth rotates around the Sun, that the moon affects the tides, that clouds are made up of water, that the moon is not made of cheese. We expect adults to be able to use some level of logic to discern false statements, although this one seems to have been missed by a large portion of the US population.

So if we expect growth toward maturity for the mental and emotional parts of us, why would we allow spiritual growth to stagnate? For some, spiritual growth never went past the birth canal. There was an elementary pray at some point for help, but then there was no growth beyond that point. But spiritual growth is necessary.

Our text speaks to this very point. The author uses food as a metaphor, a measure of growth. Milk is something that infants need. It forms the core of their diet. He lets us know that spiritually you can’t thrive when all you eat spiritually is the most basic truths. Being a Jesus-follower requires growth. It is not enough to know that Jesus died for our sins. That is a great start, but the Christian life demands growth.

The author points out two characteristics about spiritually mature people. They know about righteousness and they can distinguish between good and evil. These two are very much connected to each other. If they know the teaching about righteousness, then they can enter the training program to learn how to distinguish between good and evil.

When we apply what we have learned, then we grow. And as we grow, our skill level rises and we can do more complex tasks. The first level is knowing that God is righteous and that we as His children are called to follow His example. We are called to live a righteous life, to reflect His character to the world.

But there is another level available. We can practice living a righteous life and by this practice we gain the ability to distinguish good from evil. The more we live it, the more we are able to discern for ourselves what is good. It is as though we have become wine connoisseurs. We have tasted the best, so we know what the best tastes like. We have experienced God’s righteousness, so we know what righteousness looks like.

But too many Christians stop their growth at some point. They “arrive” at a certain maturity level and they become satisfied with their spiritual growth. For some, the growth stops while still in the spiritual diaper stage. This is not acceptable to the LORD, who calls us to be mature believers, faithfully reflecting Him to the world.