Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And this we will do, if God permits. (Hebrews 6:1-3) (NASB)
A young mother shared her testimony in church. She said she was converted when she was twelve years old. Years later, at the age of twenty-nine, a tragedy occurred in her life. Then she realized that at the age of twenty-nine she was still a twelve-year-old Christian. She had been born again seventeen years earlier but had failed to grow.
Retarded growth is tragic in any area of life. One of the most wonderful things in the entire world is birth. It is a mystery that no one really understands. But while birth is a wonder, if there were to be no growth after birth we would worry. If we learned that one out of every two babies born this year would die before reaching maturity, we would become alarmed. We would call on our doctors, our health officials, and government agencies to do something about this terrible waste of life.
For people to be born and never to grow into maturity is a terrible waste. Yet something like that happens in spiritual life all the time. People are born again. They become a part of the family of God through faith in Jesus Christ. But they fail to go on from that initial experience of birth to maturity in the Christian life. What a tragic waste.
This passage of Scripture is a challenge for God's people to move from their initial Christian experience to maturity in their Christian lives. These verses are written against the backdrop of the writer’s scolding of people for failing to grow. His readers had been Christians long enough to become teachers by this time, but they hadn't grown and they still needed to be taught by somebody else. At this point in their spiritual journey they should have been eating the strong meat of God's Word. But they weren't able to digest it spiritually. They were still bottle babies so far as the spirit was concerned.
They had experienced new birth. They had been born into the kingdom of God. But there is more to the Christian life than a birth experience; more to the Christian life than being saved. So we are challenged in Hebrews 6 to grow up spiritually.
Paul told the Church at Ephesus that the very purpose of all of the gifts was to mature believers.
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, (Ephesians 4:11-15)
Many families have a doorway or wall that is marked with the height of their child and the date they attained it. It is rewarding to the child to see the progress and how they have grown. The Word of God is our yardstick. It is the measurement we use to see how we have grown. It is worth checking to see how you are measuring up.
Scripture to Claim:
...but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. 2 Peter 3:18
