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| Image by Pedro Ivo Pereira Vieira Pedin from Pixabay |
When you are struggling with a problem, when your plans don’t seem to be working out, when you wonder, ‘why is this so intractable, have I missed something?’ there is great wisdom in going back to first principles. This is especially true of Bible understanding.
Writing at some length about the priestly role of Jesus, the writer to the Hebrews goes on:
‘About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 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 5:11-14
We notice several things in this passage:
This is a key teaching, about which much might be said.
It is a mature teaching but, ’it is hard to explain…’ because...
The readers are ill-prepared to receive it, are, ‘dull of hearing.’
The writer is disappointed, ‘by this time you ought to be teachers,’ but faces the facts;
They need to go back to first principles, ‘you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.’
The problem here is, they have been taught the basics, but need to be taught them again. This is censure for people who should know better. It is, and should be, embarrassing for the readers of this letter that they should still need milk because of their immaturity. ‘Solid food,’ they (and we) are told, ‘is for the mature, for those who have the powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.’
The power of discernment doesn’t just happen. It isn’t simply telegraphed from the throne in the moment of need, as some would have us believe. The power of discernment, the Bible tells us, is trained by constant practice. James urges:
‘Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, will be blessed in his doing.’ James 1:22-25
Peter writes:
‘For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ 2 Peter 1:5-8
If we are to be the saints Peter describes, adding virtue to virtue, if we are to be the wise doer of the word James writes about, then we must begin with the word, look into the perfect law of liberty and treasure up in our hearts what we read and hear carrying it into our days,
The tragedy, as we saw in my last post, is that we are awash with Bibles, yet Bible reading is at an all time low. Don’t be misled by recent evidence that the pandemic has driven more people back to their Bibles. This, I am sure, is true but it makes little difference to the shocking Bible illiteracy that marks the church at the beginning of the 21st century.
Indeed, when people are driven back to the Word in times of great stress and insecurity, it is not understanding they seek but comfort. This has its place, but the comfort and strength we need comes not from soothing words but from solid wisdom, foundational teaching, the great truths of the Bible. Perhaps we need to go right back to the most basic principle, this is a Bible, and build from there.
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