How long have you been a believer? Has believing in Jesus resulted in your transformation?
I came across a passage of scripture in my morning reading that should be a bit convicting for the church. I hope you realize that by “the church” I am not talking about one specific building. No, I am talking about the global church – the people – each one of us who would say that Jesus Christ is our LORD and Savior. I am speaking to those of us who have been faithfully attending worship on Sunday mornings with a body of believers that we would consider ourselves to be a part of. Is that you?
Hebrews 5:12-14 “You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.”
There is so much meat held in these 2 verses.
Let’s start with verse 12. “You have been believers so long that you ought to be teaching others…” Our job as believers is to be teaching and mentoring others about God. I am a teacher. I went to school to become one and to obtain my license. As a teacher who is not currently assigned to a classroom – strictly runs behavior interventions school-wide – I am in every classroom. What is glaringly obvious to me is that some teachers are very prepared. They have put in hours of time and preparation to make sure that all the materials are ready and that they are familiar with what will be taught. They have developed detailed lesson plans that, for the most part, they will be the only ones to see. However, I also see the opposite. Those who appear to look more like a guest in their own class. They are confused by the material. They lack the preparation. They look like they are flying by the seat of their pants. Please hear me when I say this has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the number of years they have been teaching. It has ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING to do with the investment. The preparation. The front-loading.
This preparation leads to knowing what to teach and being ready to teach when the opportunity presents itself. What’s interesting is that I believe all teachers can get to the point where they could be quality, prepared teachers. They could present the basics of reading, math, science, writing, and social skills skillfully… if they wanted to. If they weren’t content with a lazier, easier route.
Back to the church for a minute. How is the church doing? People are coming. That’s good. They need to start by just coming and learning of Jesus. But then what? Is that enough? Is it enough for me to allow my pastor or a small group leader to do the “prep” for the lesson and call it a week?
I cannot speak for you, but I would invite you to do the same kind of soul-searching that I am doing myself. Far too often I see men and women – who claim to be all in for God – and who honestly want to be all-in for God – living like babies eating from a jar. Happy to be spoon-fed. They don’t know what they’re eating, but it’s all mashed up and easy to digest. This group doesn’t have anything to do with the length of time in a church or identifying as Christians… it’s about investment and preparation.
You see, God wants us to teach. He wants us to talk about him, but he wants us to do this accurately. He wants us to spread truth, not deception. How can you do this without eating from the table of knowledge that God has provided for us? This is not something we must make up our minds to do and then sit down – much like a toddler – and begin learning to feed ourselves. Please understand, just as toddlers would be malnourished by eating one time a week, so too, we will be malnourished if that is the extent of our preparation and investment.
Learn to eat. Eat. Teach others to do so, too. This is how we learn what is right and what is wrong.
Neither God nor the world needs the church to be filled with a bunch of babies. God has called us to something bigger. Something better. Something greater. So let go of the bottle and reach for the solid food.
Blessings.