Hammer on Anvil '

Heb 5:11-14 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. (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. Heb 6:1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God

A few weeks ago at a bible camp, I challenged a chapel full of with these verses in Hebrews. The author of this letter to some persecuted Jewish Christians was attempting to rekindle a flame of faith in Christ, where there was apparently some wavering and falling back of some believers. We all know Christians who were once zealous for the Lord, and then watched them fall away. In trying to spur these believers on to continue pursuing Christ, the author begins to wag his finger at them a little about being such stubborn simpletons in the faith. It wasn’t that they were ignorant about the things of Christ, it’s that they just… stopped growing. They were becoming spiritual dwarfs. They grew so far, and then… stopped.

One of the most subtle and common dangers of Christian living is not falling into blatant sin, or even departing from the faith… it’s becoming dull of hearing. We rarely notice it happen. When you were young in the faith, you might have noticed that you were hungry to get into the word, to learn all you could, to take in knowledge and information, and then turn that new knowledge into application and obedience to God. But when we are not diligent and careful, something can begin to happen… over time, you can begin to cease taking in biblical truth for the purpose of life application, and instead, take it in as more information to store away. We can become what James calls “hearers only”, and we cease to become “doers of the word”.

Do a quick check on yourself. Examine your life in the last few weeks, months (maybe even years.) Can you see a noticeable change in maturity in your walk with Christ, or do you seem like nothing has changed much lately? Can you recall, in detail, the last time that, in your bible reading or in being taught from the bible, you were confronted with a biblical command and you were moved to begin walking in obedience to that command? Do you recall the last time that you were confronted by the Holy Spirit about a sinful behavior or attitude and began taking active steps of confession and repentance? Have you noticed a particular selfish or unChristlike attitude begin to disappear in your heart in some area, and be replaced with fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, etc.)? If your answer is “no” to most (or all) of these questions, chances are, this passage was written for you. To the reader, it says “you have become dull of hearing.” This doesn’t mean that you have stopped taking in bible information. You may be drinking it up like a sponge. But to be “dull of hearing” means that you have stopped applying, your heart has become hard, and that tenderness that once dwelled in your heart has become calloused.

If that’s you, and it bothers you, that’s good. Let it bother you. James says this to those believers who have recognized their own hardness of heart:

"Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. (10) Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you." (James 4:9-10).

Next week, we’ll dig a little further into this challenging passage, to see how we can overcome “spiritual dwarfism”.