Bible Discussion Thread

Hebrew 5:14 What is maturity according to this verse?

When a child is very young, they can only consume milk. Foods with more substance are beyond them; they can only process something specifically meant for infants. In the same way, those who are spiritually immature can only deal in simpler spiritual matters. This is not bad, when a person is a new convert. However, if a person remains in this state of spiritual infancy, when they should have grown enough to handle more solid spiritual "food," then they have only themselves to blame ( Ephesians 4:11-15). According to the writer of Hebrews, his target audience is going to miss some of the deeper meanings he will describe ( Hebrews 5:11), since they are "dull of hearing." In this context, that "dullness" means laziness and apathy.

Just as a child has to be trained to grow beyond milk to eating solid food, so too must a Christian's spiritual maturity grow through effort and experience. The prior verse used the term apeiros to describe these spiritual babies, meaning they are inexperienced or unskilled. Spiritual maturity has nothing to do with age, since it's possible to remain an immature Christian for a long, long time. Rather, maturity involves developing the ability to put our faith to practical USE.

In the context of the book of Hebrews, this has everything to do with making a purposeful effort. It requires that a person "pay much closer attention" to the faith ( Hebrews 2:1). It means Christians are to follow God's will without fear and without disobedience ( Hebrews 4:11). Maturity requires that a person learn to use our greatest spiritual tool, the Word of God ( Hebrews 4:12), in order to aid our discernment. The end result, according to this verse, is a person who can distinguish between good and evil. This is about more than just moral dilemmas-it's also a reference to knowing the difference between truthful, godly teaching and worldly, false faith.

It is also producing the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

Galatians 5.

But strong or solid meat belongs to them that are of full age, that is, mature. And then he describes what maturity is: even those who by reason of use, and that's the word habit, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.



Here's what he's saying. A mature believer is someone who has had their inner senses exercised through the hearing of the word of God, to where their inner faculties and inner senses are sensitive to the spiritual things of Christ.

So here's what the writer of Hebrews is saying:



The same way a person would plan out a schedule for getting in shape, if you wanted to start running and get into shape, you start out slow. You might just walk because you're not ready to run yet.



After a couple of weeks you start running. This is something that you have to do every day. If you leave off for a while, you can't just pick right back up where you left off. You have to start slow and build yourself back up again.



I think it's interesting that the writer of Hebrews would spend this much time in detail for us sharing that if we understand what an athlete goes through, every day, exercise, exercise, exercise, building up the endurance, and building up the condition of the muscles so that we can handle larger amounts of distance.



So we build up our endurance, and we become what we reach as a place of being in shape. And we consider ourselves being conditioned.

What the writer is saying is that when you put yourself under the hearing of God's Spirit through His word, God's Spirit is exercising your inner senses to the spiritual things of God.



And the more consistent you hear the word, the more sensitive you become to the spiritual things of Christ. But if you leave off, the inner senses become dull, and we become more in tune with the world around us.

Whereas, as often as we would like to submit ourselves to the study of God's word, we become ready for the solid food, and for the in-depth detail of God Himself.