Hard to be Uttered - Hebrews 5:11-14

If the word of righteousness was easy, everyone would be skillful in weilding it, but many of us are not. Why is that?

Author: Randy Pritts

Today's Text

kjv@Hebrews:5:11 @ Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.

kjv@Hebrews:5:12 @ For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

kjv@Hebrews:5:13 @ For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.

kjv@Hebrews:5:14 @ But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

The Milk and the Meat v13

It is always the responsibility of the preacher or bible teacher to make the hard things easier to understand. That being said, there are certain things said in the Bible that even then are difficult to digest and make use of. The truth of this is that, this responsibility becomes even more difficult when we consider that there often are a good many people that aren't at all listening, at least not to the difficult. These people avoid the difficulty, they have not the stomach for it, their ears have grown dull.

There are times recorded in the Bible, several times in fact, even entire generations, where God's people heard what they wanted to hear, made out of God's word what they wanted to make out of it, replaced the meat of God's message with the milky white smoothness predigested already for them by teachers and false prophets, of who were not much more than toothless babes themselves. Accounts like this are numerous in the bible, entire generations, often several generations in length. God of course would save HIMSELF a remnant, but there were times when that remnant was so hidden or few in number that God's true prophets would wonder themselves the only ones left.

The topic of milk and meat is an important one as it applies to our generation today. We live in a generation where several churches line the street, each one professing to be a bible teaching church. This is a bible teaching church, that is a bible teaching church, every where a bible teaching church. Which church is it however that is teaching the meat of the bible? or are they all, like the entire generations recorded before them, teaching the milk of God's word to and from ears grown dull of hearing?

Of the Difficulty

I am not so sure that the word of God comes in two or many different varieties. No, the problem instead is in what man himself is expecting to hear said from it. It is the preconceptions we as speakers and listeners place upon it before we even step forward to receive it's very first precept. It is as if the word of God is ingrained within us beforehand, and we are to judge what is being read/taught by the way that we innately know to feel about it. If so, then it is the job of a good teacher to confirm back to us the feelings we innately know. In other words, it is the preconceptions of the congregation that has become the teacher, teaching the good teacher, not the teacher revealing something that until now has been mysterious from out of God's mysterious word.

The proverbs tell us that "fear of the LORD is the beginning of instruct" not the deceptive heart of man. If there is anything that should come to us so naturally it should be the trembling stuttering awe and reverence being felt toward the God of this word's mighty revealing. From there onward it should be of this fear's and this Holy Spirit's full and intended proceeding. Where did the notion ever come from that we know even the first thing about all this, that we should say to this Holy Spirit "no I think that you Spirit have got it wrong because because this other way is the way my heart is telling me to feel about all this".

The other thing that is problematic is the "this is the way it has always been handed down" method of teaching. Don't get me wrong, there is something very positive to be said about longstanding doctrine and interpretation. Given how each generation feels itself superior to the rest, it is admirable that something (call it anything) has the lasting power to last more than a couple generations. The problem is when that which has been made tradition wasn't exactly right from the outset, or that which is being presented to us a tradition isn't what was initiated originally in the slightest. How many times have we been told that such and such is the way the early church understood such, and we go back to their writings to find out that it was much more than such that they believed or a different such and such they were actually speaking about when they wrote that? You see, not only do our ears hear what they want to hear about the Bible, they hear what they want to hear about our present and past. That ladies and gentlemen is a very clear and present danger that each one of us must be on guard for.

Perhaps we should more be ruled by the fear that God is all knowing, HE well knows the many tricks we intend to play with this!

"For when for the time ye ought to be teachers" v12

In context, we are talking about a letter written to mostly Messianic Hebrew converts being trained up to speak to other unconverted Hebrews. The objective of said training is to make each one of them skillful in the use of the "word of righteousness" v13. Unlike the Gentles who were completely new to it, the Hebrews have been raised in close proximity to this "word of righteousness"; as close to it as one can get without having taking a full solid bite from it. The fall of Ephraim into captivity, the fall of Judah into captivity, the four hundred or so turbulent years since, are the proofs most convincing that Israel as a whole had stepped aside from the meaty plate of righteousness not to take another bite. The efforts by some since then to reform, like the Pharisee, to bring the religion back were failed. Remember Jesus has said "unless your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Pharisee, you shall in no way enter...". The shocking crucifixion of the "Righteous Branch" and now the persecution of "His" faithful adds only more proof of this "dull ear". It's an ear that had been dull, over and over, and now had been dull for several hostile to this "word" generations.

Now surely, these Messianic converts are beginning to see the light, having experienced the liberation and are nearing the point of being weaned from the mere milk, but there is something yet holding them back. Many things could be holding them back, perhaps none greater the fear of what their unconverted brethren might reject. Perhaps they lack the confidence to make a personal firm stand and want first to study the skill set even more. Perhaps this retreat will go on another year or else for a lifetime. Perhaps the fear is that they do not yet know everything that they preconceive that they should know before stepping out. Rather, the fear should be that they never ever step out, they never dive into it, they never wield the "righteousness" sword that they should be wielding, ever learning from their books and from each other, but never really coming to the knowledge that comes from pushing the banner of faith forward into the ever reaches and all that is learned of God from just that.

The meat I believe being spoken of here is not a meat bitten into at the seminary or institution, it is the meat of putting faith out there on the line where everybody else can see and react to you/it, the "senses excercised" "by reason of use" in the process of being obedient out there. It is not the books upon books of well researched doctrine, although that might assist one here and there as the encounter calls for it. What more can really be learned from doctrine if it isn't being used in-conjunction with the actual "word of righteousness" wielding.

The "word of righteousness" wielding.

What then is this "word of righteousness"? It is simply none other than the good news "Gospel" of our blessed savior Jesus. We have two different descriptions of it within two verses of each other, v13 logos (word) of dikaiosunÄ“ (equity of character/act), and 6:1 logos (now doctrine) of Christos (anointed/messiah); the two are one in the same. The Apostle Peter described this "the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" kjv@2Peter:1:1, it being what God has righteously accomplished through the obedience of Christ on our behalf that gives us our apostle like faith.

In addition, 6:1-2 also states for us the foundations of this principal oracle :

foundation of repentance from dead works
(foundation) of faith toward God
(foundation) of the doctrine of baptisms
(foundation) of laying on of hands
(foundation) of resurrection of the dead
(foundation) of eternal judgment

We will get into a deeper explanation of these 6 foundations when our commentary comes to the sixth chapter. For now let it be known these essential foundations point us directly to the "logos of righteousness = Christ". These are the essentials that our senses should be exercised by reason of use thoroughly in in order to "go on" from not having to keep replaying withinin ourselves the same repetitive foundation over and over. Let's use the word milk again here, those who are such as need milk are unskillful at this righteousness = Christ logos as exhibited in these core foundations. Good is anything we are able to discern and wield concerning these six, Evil is all the other directions we could discern to and go not having the the skill of each. The ultimate evil is indicated in 6:4-6 is to have become enlightened with these foundations and to then fall away from them because then you are needing to re-crucify our Lord Jesus.

So this is the general sense of the precise logos or word/doctrine that we are supposed to put to use, exercise our senses in, wield, become skillful in, move forward unto perfection with. It is about Christ Jesus, who He is/why He came/what God the Father was righteously able to do because of that.

In addition :

It means that we now have the ability to repent from our previously dead (even religious) works.
It means that we now have a very detailed description of God and HIS doings drawn out for us to believe in and rely upon in the person of HIS Son Jesus Christ.
It now means of all the many baptisms/washings given us, the baptism of Christ lowered into His death/raised into His glory first born from the dead is most important to our true eternal soul cleansing.
It means now the the Holy Comforter and Guide is given to the redeemed by Christ, authority has been distributed in His perfect name to go out into the world and spread His gospel's liberating message.
It means now that like Christ first rose from the grave, His redeemed shall rise into a entirely new kingdom and join Him in His eternal mansion.
It means now that Christ is in possession of the keys, He is the way, the door, the gate, no one will be allowed to enter without being one of His adopted and called. All unrighteousness will receive it's just reward, will be paid for either by our own bankrupt accounts or by Christ's direct and merciful substitution; no other such way exists.

The oracle of God doesn't get much more simple to bask in and wield than that, but that has to be in place and in effect personally before anything beyond this can be matured into. This is the milk. Now it is time for the use of it, the putting it out there, the interactive skill of using it being developed. Too many people nowadays are too stuck at the very beginning of this essential process, looping back and forward over just the initial preface to this, too many trying to construct a righteousness of their own from the stolen pieces of just this. That is not the journey that our LORD has scheduled for us.

"Hard to be uttered" is often so hard still to be uttered because we so often grown dull of hearing this message. This is because the thing being uttered is a call to arms, a call to duty, a call to obedient service. It is so much easier to hang out together in the church foyee and sociably mingle or get lost in a stack of books somewhere at our desks or institutional closets. I speak to my own self in this regard, this is something that I too have to be very mindful of, this is something that we all have to be very mindful of for our savior insists upon it. Learning is good. Ever learning but never coming to the knowledge is not. How much learning need there be in order to become discerning and skillful? How old need we be spiritually in Christ before we put the "logos" out there for all to see, be exercised by reason of use, before we are able to bite into the tastier and stronger meat?

Knowing the power of the Spirit of Christ.... not all that long, I do wholeheartedly expect!

Comment Board: HardToBeUttered Tags: Christ, Righteousness, Maturity, Principal, Foundations, Oracle, Milk, Meat,

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