Solid Food

 From Hebrews 5: 

11 Concerning him we have much to say, and it is difficult to explain, since you have become poor listeners. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the actual words of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unacquainted with the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to distinguish between good and evil.

And continuing in Hebrews 6:1a

Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity,

    When a baby is born, he or she is completely dependent on others for food.  A baby must be nursed or fed a bottle each time he is hungry.  As he grows, he starts eating other foods, "pre-chewed" or mashed, still cooked and fed to him by another.  Eventually, he can feed himself food that someone else has prepared, plated, and cut up for him.  Then, he learns to plate and cut up the food himself.  Finally, he learns to not only prepare the food himself but even to shop for the ingredients and becomes completely independent in his food.  This is way of growth, of moving towards physical maturity, learning to provide your own nourishment.

    Let's compare this to spiritual nourishment.  When we are first born again, we begin with spiritual milk, mostly being taught by other, more mature, Christians.  We listen to sermons which are usually at best "pre-chewed" food.  We join a Bible study, which is somewhere along the "pre-chewed" to preparing food yourself spectrum, depending on the study, usually somewhere in the middle at best.  It seems as if we believe that only someone with a seminary degree and a paid job as a pastor can really cook the steak and eat it.  

    Now, don't get me wrong.  Just like physical food, we have to move along the spectrum of spiritual food in progression.  We can't just jump to cooking for ourselves.  But, when it comes to spiritual food, too often, we settle for food prepared by others, cut up by others.  Why do we stop there?  Because going further along towards maturity takes work.  Let's face it.  We are lazy people, especially when it comes to spiritual development.  So how do we keep pressing on to maturity, as the writer of Hebrews encourages us to do?  

    Sorry, I don't have five steps to spiritual maturity.  This is something that I am working out in my own life as we speak.  I do have a few thoughts, though.  First, to grow to maturity we must realize that the most important aspect of our maturity is that we know God, not just know about Him.  Faith is about relationship, not head knowledge.  This is something we have to combat as we grow because, while getting to know Him, we naturally learn more about Him.  The knowing about cannot be the focus, though.  It is a fine line.  Furthermore, to grow to maturity we must learn to really study the Scriptures to know God.  We study to listen to Him teach us, speak to us, guide us, and grow us through His Word.  This means we have to exegete the Scriptures rather than look for ourselves in the Bible.  It also means that we have to be willing to put in some work - making solutions in our schedules rather than making excuses.  We have to stop being lazy and letting the pastors and teachers do all the work for us (not that there isn't value in what they have to teach us in sermons, books, and prepared lessons, but that is another discussion).  

    So, let's step up, stop being lazy, and dig into the meat of the Word, pressing on toward spiritual maturity.