Spiritual Imaturity
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Hebrews
Hebrews
5:11–14
5:11–14
Apostasy
9. Pastoral problems
5:11–6:8
It must be plain to us already that the author of our letter has compassionate pastoral concern. Physically he is at some distance from this church and longs to come to them (13:23), but spiritually he is as close to them as he can possibly be. In this section we have another parenthesis or digression, a further pastoral ‘aside’. At the end of 5:10 he has stated that the eternal priesthood of the Lord Jesus is ‘after the order of Melchizedek’. His reference to this Old Testament character leads him to reflect on this congregation’s inability to benefit by the ‘solid food’ of deep Christian teaching. So he digresses to discuss three closely related spiritual problems confronting some of his readers. In studying these verses we shall find that we are considering issues which have a strangely modern ring about them.
1. The problem of ignorance (5:11–14)
The writer of Hebrews is convinced that his readers’ ignorance stems from laziness (5:11). How can he begin to explain what it means for Christ’s priesthood to be ‘after the order of Melchizedek’ when they have lost their appetite for Christian truth? Instead of giving their best mind to sound doctrine and its practical application, many of these early Christian readers have become dull of hearing. The word really means ‘sluggish’; it is used in the Septuagint of ‘slothful men’ who refuse to tackle hard work, and occurs again later in this letter describing ‘sluggish’ people who need a good shake-up (6:12). It here describes those who develop a ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude to the study of holy Scripture, and have failed to give themselves to a regular, methodical, and painstaking study of its teaching and its relevance in everyday life.
Secondly, he has observed that their ignorance has led to ineffectiveness (5:12). Turning their backs on strenuous study and diligent application to spiritual teaching, they remain like babies when they ought to be adults, pupils when they might be instructors, Christians in need of help when they could be offering it to others. Paul says something similar about the Corinthians. It is not merely that they do not benefit personally but, even more serious, other people are denied the help which they might have received from them had they been strong and resourceful believers.
Thirdly, he knows that spiritual ignorance results in carelessness (5:13–14). The people who have not begun to master the ABC of the Christian life (first principles, cf. 6:1) can hardly hope to enrich the lives of others. Their own faith is far too insecure to be able to communicate confidence and assurance to other people. They cry for babies’ milk when they ought to have passed on to a more varied and substantial diet. But what is most serious about their spiritual ignorance is that, being unfamiliar with God’s word, they do not know his mind on important doctrinal, ethical and spiritual issues. His truth is a word of righteousness and those who master its message learn how to distinguish good from evil. This does not come to anybody without effort. These spiritual faculties have to be trained (gegymnasmena) as in a gymnasium, an idea that returns later in the epistle (12:11), also in the context of discipline.
These Jewish Christians had certainly not intended to get into this indolent, useless state, but this is clearly what has happened to them. When he says that their spiritual hearing has become dull, he uses the perfect tense; it describes the abiding result of a past act. However well intentioned they may have been at the beginning, this is what they have allowed themselves to become. It is a warning no believer can ignore. Many people casually drift into a low standard of Christian life simply because they minimize the importance of Christian instruction and disciplined Bible study. Quite possibly on most days they quietly ponder a few verses and say a quick prayer, but it does not occur to them that this is not nearly enough. Failing to acknowledge their need of it, they slowly lose their desire for it. Somehow or other, however busy he or she may be, every Christian needs to find a regular opportunity for serious study of the Bible.
2. The problem of immaturity (6:1–3)
‘Solid food is for the mature’ (5:14). Ignorance leads to immaturity. First, we must establish ourselves in the elementary doctrine of Christ and then acquire an appetite for the more solid food (5:12) of other aspects of Christian teaching. We must go on to maturity. The solid foundation of Christian truth is of immense importance but, once that is well and truly laid, there is no need to go on repeating that process, laying again a further foundation. Six basic aspects of Christian teaching are enumerated here. They may well have been regarded in this particular church as the essential features of catechetical instruction for young converts.
a. Repentance from dead works
The message of repentance was an essential aspect of the teaching of John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus, and the apostles. When, through his servant John, Christ gave his final message to the church, he called upon his people to repent.5 In many New Testament contexts he call is to repent by turning from personal sin, but here, doubtless because of its Jewish background, the call is to repent from dead works, from man’s futile attempt at self-salvation.
b. Faith in God
Merely to leave dead works is not likely to accomplish anything; it is a purely negative act. The positive aspect of faith demands forceful emphasis. It is repentance from and faith towards. Paul says a similar thing when summarizing his evangelistic ministry in mid-first-century Ephesus. Repentance and faith are inseparable elements of the Christian gospel. It is not only that the old has to be abandoned; the new must be appropriated.
c. Baptism or washings
Technically the term is in the plural, baptisms; possibly a reference to the importance of correct teaching about baptism, especially in view of the variety of teaching which is reflected even in the New Testament. For example, the difference between John’s baptism and Christian baptism might well have troubled young Jewish converts to Christianity. Or it could be a reference to religious washings prevalent among Jews, and the essential difference between these lustrations, or ablutions (it is the same word as in 9:10) and the ‘one baptism’ of the Christian church.
d. Laying on of hands
This simple form of Hebrew prayer symbolism became part of the Christian initiatory rite. It was obviously related to the gift of the Holy Spirit. The reference here may even be to ordination for ministry.10
e. Resurrection of the dead
One gets the impression from 1 Corinthians 15 that some first-century Christian congregations had difficulties about the resurrection and its highly important implications for believers. The particular churches known to our writer believed in good teaching about the future. Death is not the end; it merely marks the physical conclusion of our only opportunity to live for God in this world. For believers, the best of all is yet to be.
f. Eternal judgment
‘It is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment’ (9:27). Resurrection and judgment were clearly linked in the teaching of Jesus and in early Christian doctrine. The future implications of the faith were an essential aspect of early Christian instruction. The doctrinal and spiritual importance of all these topics cannot be denied, but the author regards these foundational truths as basic Christian knowledge. It has been observed by some scholars that these six elementary doctrines can be paralleled in Judaism. Perhaps some of these first-century readers were retreating back into these aspects of faith which, in some measure, Christians had in common with their Jewish neighbours. To go on to maturity, these believers must develop an appetite for more ‘solid food’ (5:12, 14) which their leaders have endeavoured faithfully to impart in the past (13:7) and which our author intends to expound in the remaining chapters of his letter.
3. The problem of apostasy (6:4–8)
There are clear hints at this point and elsewhere in the letter that doctrinal ignorance and spiritual immaturity have led to serious disasters in this church. Some believers, who made an apparently excellent beginning in their Christian lives, are now not merely chronic invalids or spiritual casualties, but have become fierce opponents of the Christian gospel. Understandably, some members of this church may have become worried about the destiny of apostates, and the writer finds it necessary in the course of his pastoral involvement to say something about those who have not only drifted away (2:1), or fallen away (3:12), but have with hardened hearts (3:12–13) become active rebels against the way and work of Christ. In describing these sad apostates the letter mentions three characteristic features: they despise God’s gifts, they reject God’s Son, and they forfeit God’s blessing.
a. They despise God’s gifts (6:4–5)
Raymond Brown, The Message of Hebrews: Christ above All, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 103–108.