Hebrews 5:12 – 14
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Paul is chastising believers for not going further with their learning.Think about it, Jesus gave us a model to grow the church, he took 12 and trained them. He didn’t do this to teach our preachers something to feed us every week, he trained them to do as he did. Pour your life into 12 so they can do the same, and so on. Think about how quickly Christianity grew in the early years, it was like wild fire.
Many nations who are Muslim today were considered Christian nations shortly after Jesus walked the earth. What changed? What has the Christian church growth slowed? It seems that we no longer creating disciples’ en mass but rather we define discipleship as inviting to church. James 1:22 really lays down what the church Paul was addressing was doing, and what churches all over the world appear to be doing today:
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves
We are not teaching by doing, we are teaching in a classroom environment and never going to the “lab” and applying what we teach. A quote credited to Confucius really works well here: “I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand.” The churches today do spend time on multimedia presentations so we can “see”, but does that really sink in? Think back to many services you have been to and recall them, it’s difficult. Often the ones that stuck were enhanced by a play or short film to drive home the service.
But even still we leave the 4 walls of our church and rarely apply the Gospel or serve others. We need to be as James is saying and be “doers of the word”. We need to GO and make disciples. Is it not happening in the 4 walls? We get milk, since the message needs to be safe for unbelievers so they can be brought into the body of Christ, but mature believers are not getting their solid food. We need to take an active role in this, no longer praying for your neighbor to accept the invite, but engaging them, helping them and bringing the Gospel to them! Not hoping God will move them to come to church and hear the words that will move them.
Will this be ideal and clean, NO WAY! But it will help us grow in Christ and bring more into the body of Christ. We need more active parts to the body, more hands and feet and less eyes and ears. Be doers and not hearers!