Step Up

One of the most amazing things is to watch a baby grow. More specifically to watch them grow in their eating habits. As babies, we only give them milk so that they can develop in their early stages. From there, we move to purees and other soft foods to build up their eating and chewing muscles. Finally, they are eating us out of house and home with the sheer amount of food that they consume. But it was a process to get there. However, if our children reach an age where they should be eating, but are still only on milk, we would think there was something wrong. Probably take them to the doctors to see what may be the matter. The natural course of a child’s life is that they would grow in the way they eat. Their bodies would need more than milk as they grow up. 

But do we see the same concern in our faith journey? Have we grown beyond the milk being fed to us on a Sunday morning. The author of Hebrews didn’t seem to think so in the early church. And in some ways, his strong words still ring true. 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, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5:12-14 ESV).

The author suggests that there are those in the church who received salvation but over the years have not grown to mature believers. Leaders of the next generation of believers. In essence, he calls them infants still needing to be fed by someone else. They lack maturity in the faith. And if we took a hard look at our lives, how many of us could say that this is true of us? John Piper has gone further to say that the problem with these Christians is not that milk is weak or that babes can't eat steak. The problem is that babes are not exercising with the milk they have. You see the key word there in verse 14: you become mature by "practice" or exercise or habitual responses to the milk (John Piper, By this Time You Ought to Be Teachers).

The milk is given to give us strength to practice our other spiritual muscles. To exercise the habits and practices of the faith that will lead to maturity. Where we then become the leaders of the church. Leading a new generation in the ways of the faith. The milk is not supposed to be our only sustenance. It’s a springboard to something better. To deeper faith. To growth. To aid us in walking the life that’s worthy of our calling as believers to make disciples of all nations. 

Take a step this week toward growth. Step up and move towards maturity. Exercise. Practice. As believers in the risen Lord, it’s time to move from milk to meat.