Let’s take our Bibles together and turn to the Book of Hebrews. We are continuing our series today, “Christ Supreme in All Things.” And today we are dealing with the issue of spiritual immaturity in the local church. That’s what the author of Hebrews confronts head-on in this passage. It’s what you might call a kind of “perpetual adolescence” in the church. And the author of this book is telling the church to grow up. 

A few years ago, there was a string of books that came out that dealt with an emerging problem in American culture. All of them tried to address the issue of kids who were failing to grow up. And it wasn’t just an American problem. I read a while back about an Italian man who was in his thirties who sued to force his parents to continue supporting him and won. 

Probably the best book written during that period was a book by Ben Sasse entitled The Vanishing American Adult. In that book, Sasse addressed a two-fold problem. He said that we’ve got an issue with infantilizing adults and adultifying children. In other words we treat adults like kids, and we treat kids like adults. 

Now the issue of adultifying children is another topic for another day. But what intrigued me in that book is how Sasse confronted the issue of how we infantilize adults. Instead of teaching young people to grow up and be self-sufficient, we coddle them and baby them and perpetuate their immature behavior. This has given rise to what we call helicopter parents, that is parents that hover over their children and never give them enough freedom to make mistakes and learn on their own. 

Well similar issues can exist in the church. And the author of Hebrews is not happy with what he sees as the infantilizing of mature Christians. “Instead of growing up in Christ and leading others,” says the author, “you are still nursing off others, like a baby.” Instead of solid food, you are still gulping down milk. It’s an amazing metaphor that he uses here. And it’s as vivid as it is insulting. “Stop being a baby. Grow up and grow your appetite for solid food.” 

And what caused this regression in the church? What led to this infantilization? Well, some within the church had become (here’s the expression the author uses) “dull of hearing.” 

11 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 

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Let’s talk about that this morning. Let’s talk about the consequences of being dull of hearing. Go ahead and write these down in your notes. I want to give you today, “Four Dangers for the Dull of Hearing.” And here’s the first. 

1) Dullness prevents understanding (5:11)

The author says in verse 11,

11 About this 

What’s the “this” in verse 11? Do you know? Well, the “this” is a reference to the previous passage in 5:1-10. In that passage, the author spoke about the Aaronic priesthood. He spoke about Yom Kippur. He spoke about the fact that OT high priests had to offer up sacrifices for themselves before they offered up a sacrifice for others. He talked about Jesus and how Jesus is superior to those OT priests and those OT sacrifices. 

And then at the end of that passage, he spoke about how Jesus is a “high priest after the order of Melchizedek.” That is a fascinating statement. And good Bible students want to know more about that. And the author of Hebrews will talk more about that. In fact he will spend all of chapter 7 talking about Melchizedek. But before he does that, he pauses here and rebukes the church congregation. 

11 About this we have much to say, 

About “the order of Melchizedek” we have much to say…

and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 

In other words, “I want to talk to you about these things. I need to explain these things to you. But you don’t have ears to hear it. You have become dull of hearing.” Let’s talk about this designation “dull of hearing” and how to avoid it. 

The word “dull” is the Greek νωθρός. It’s a word that means “lazy” or “sluggish” or “lax.” It shows up only twice in the NT, and both of those occurrences are in Hebrews. In extrabiblical literature it referred to a slave whose ears were closed off to his master’s call because he was incessantly lazy. Also it was used in the sphere of athletics to refer to some who was slothful and out of shape. It was also used of people who were negligent with their responsibilities. George Guthrie says about this word: “nothros connotes culpable negligence or sluggishness in some aspect of life. Moreover, that the recipients of this letter are lazy ‘in hearing’ (akoais) points to their inattention to the public proclamation of biblical teachings.” They weren’t just “dull.” They were “dull of hearing.” Hearing what? Hearing the Word of God! They were lazy with it. They were inattentive to it. They were unresponsive to it. They were negligent of it.

Can Christians get that way sometimes? Can believers become lazy with the Word of God? I remember the rude awakening I had when I was in college. After my freshmen year, I took a job as a youth leader for a local church in Longview, Texas. And I was supposed to lead a Bible study twice a week for this group of teenagers. And I was way overconfident. And I remember thinking to myself, “I know the Bible. This’ll be a piece of cake. Just a bunch of teenagers.” 

But then I got into it. I started teaching. And these kids were sharp. And they were asking questions I couldn’t answer. And I was forced out of my “dullness” by the task that I was assigned. Sometimes that’s what it takes. 

I have a good friend who got saved as a twenty-something. He didn’t grow up in a Christian home. He didn’t know anything about the Bible, other than the fact that he was a sinner who needed Christ. And after he got saved, his pastor told him that it’s time to serve in the church. So he decided to serve in the children’s ministry. And he talks about how, as he was serving in children’s ministry, he was learning the Bible for the first time just like those kids. In fact, he said he had to study the lesson just to stay a few steps ahead of the kids so that he could answer their questions during the study. Now that’s the opposite of dullness. That’s the opposite of laziness and negligence. That’s someone who was thrust into the deep end of the pool and had to sink or swim. And his activity and service for Christ expedited his spiritual growth. 

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Write this down as #2. Here’s a second danger for “the dull of hearing.” Dullness prevents understanding but also…

2) Dullness becomes unproductive (5:12)

Now before we look at verse 12, look at the language of verse 11. 

you have become dull of hearing.

Does everyone see that wording, “have become?” This is a perfect tense conjugation of the verb γίνομαι, and I think it’s proper to infer here that there was a time when this audience wasn’t “dull of hearing.” They had “become dull of hearing!” In other words, there was a time when they were eager to learn and eager for God’s Word. But something changed that equation. Something dulled their senses and made them apathetic to the things of the Lord.

And the author says in verse 12, 

12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, 

I don’t know what kind of timeframe we are looking at here. Maybe a few years. Maybe a decade. But “by this time” says the author. By now you ought to be teachers. 

Now quick caveat here. Not everyone in the church needs to be able to preach a sermon. There’s a reason that one of the requirements for elders is “able to teach” (1 Tim 3:2). And not everyone in the church is required to teach in children’s ministry. I don’t want to give that impression either. But we do have general expectations in the Bible that all of us should be growing as disciples and making disciples. And we do have an expectation given in 1 Peter 3:15 that we should always be “prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.”

And let me say this too. If you are a parent in this room, you are a teacher. If you are a grandparent in this room, you are a teacher. This is part of our Judeo-Christian heritage. Moses said to the Israelites before the entered the Promised Land, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deut 6:5-7). 

Listen, one of your duties as a Christian parent is to learn God’s Word well enough that you can convey its truths to your children. To say, “I’ll let my son or daughter figure that out on their own” is dereliction of duty. No, you are not responsible for their salvation ultimately. That’s between them and God. But you are responsible for teaching them God’s Word.  

Back to the text. 

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. 

Now the author is going to outline these basic principles in chapter 6. He calls them there “the elementary doctrine of Christ.” He includes 1) the repentance from dead works, 2) faith toward God, 3) the instruction about washings, 4) the laying on of hands, 5) the resurrection of the dead, and 6) eternal judgment (see Heb 6:1-2).

Now hear me on this. This is really, really important. We need the basics, okay? We need them. We need to teach them. We need to be reminded of them, what you might call “the fundamentals of the faith.” Don’t ever grow bored or weary of the fundamentals. It’s like a foundation to build on. You can’t build on a bad foundation. It’s like the fundamentals of basketball. If you don’t have the fundamentals down of dribbling and passing, you can’t move on to the more advanced stuff. In football, if you don’t have the fundamentals down of blocking and tackling, you can’t move on to the more advanced stuff. And it’s important for athletes and Christians to revisit the fundamentals regularly and to never forget the fundamentals.

And this author isn’t saying that fundamentals aren’t important. He’s saying that he has to keep coming back to the fundamentals, because they don’t have them down yet. He has to keep rebuilding the foundation. 

Notice the word “again” in verse 12. That word is really important. 

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.

It’s not that someone is teaching the basic principles. That’s good. The issue is that someone is teaching the basic principles to them again. They are plowing the same ground again, instead of planting seed. Because of their dullness, they are stuck in neutral instead of advancing forward.

And here’s the analogy the author uses. It’s really kind of insulting.  

You need milk, not solid food,

In other words, you are stuck in a state of perpetual infanthood. You are a baby. Can I just state the obvious? That is not a compliment. That is not a term of endearment. 

Sanja and I were driving around the other day, and I put the Spotify on hits from the nineties. We were taking a trip down memory lane. And Sanja and I were both amazed how many songs in the nineties were “baby, baby this” and “baby, baby, that” and “hit me baby one more time.” It was a term of endearment back then. Maybe still is today with some music? But this is not a term of endearment in Hebrews 5. 

You need milk, not solid food, 

In other words, you are babies. The author is saying implicitly here, “It’s time to move on. It’s time to grow up. It’s time to eat solid food. But you are still nursing like a child. And your childishness is inhibiting spiritual growth in the church.” 

Now two comments here, before we move on. Let me just clarify this analogy. The first thing I want to say is that milk is good. For a first century person, there was no such thing as formula. All babies had mother’s milk. And I’m sure you’ve seen studies that show, even in our modern-day world, that nothing is better for babies than mother’s milk. And there’s a time for that as a new Christian. There’s a time for feeding on the fundamentals. There’s a time for learning the ropes as a Christian. There’s a time for getting the basics down. And there’s nothing wrong with that. 

The issue here isn’t milk for newborn Christian babies. Babies need milk. It’s good for them. In fact, it would be crazy to give a newborn baby a meal of steak and potatoes. That’s not healthy for them. So the issue here isn’t milk for baby Christians, it’s milk for Christian adults who should be moving on to other things. 

And here’s the other comment I want to make. Part of the reason that this author is upset with the church is that their childishness has stymied the spiritual growth of the church. Their dullness of hearing has become unproductive. They should be teaching others by now. They should be discipling others now. The church should be growing and flourishing and multiplying disciples. But instead they are in a vicious cycle of learning the same old things over and over again.

I heard a pastor say once that he was discipling this man who came to his church. And he would spend like six months with him, and then after a time the guy would bolt and disappear from the church. But then he would come back and apologize. And they’d start the same thing all over again. He had to relearn what he was already taught. And then after six months, he would disappear. Over and over again this happened. So now instead of a disciple making a disciple who then goes on to make other disciples, you’ve got the same disciple sucking up resources again and again and again. That’s not the way Christ envisioned it when he said, “Go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” (Matt 28:18).

Al Mohler said the following about this passage: “The more we know, the more we should want to learn. We are called to do this not only for ourselves but so that we can teach those who are less spiritually mature. Our spiritual growth has both inward and outward dimensions. We grow in the faith for our own sake and for the sake of others.” 

The problem with churches who are stuck in a state of perpetual infanthood is a problem of missed opportunity. In the business world, they call this “opportunity cost.” You miss out on opportunities elsewhere if you are too heavily invested in something else. That’s the issue with the church that the author of Hebrews is writing to. 

So ask yourself the following questions, church. 1) Do I know the elementary truths of God’s Word well enough to help others? 2) Have I become “dull of hearing” in my Christian walk? 3) Am I a growing, learning Christian? 

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Go ahead and write this down as #3. Here’s a third danger for “the dull of hearing.” 

3) Dullness leads to immaturity (5:13)

Look at verse 13 with me.

13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.

Do me a favor, put your finger in Hebrews 5, and turn with me to 1 Corinthians 3. Let me show you quickly a parallel passage for this text. In the book of 1 Corinthians, Paul was addressing a really unhealthy church. They were immature. They were carnal. They were unhealthy. The church leadership was unhealthy. And Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 (this sounds awfully close to Hebrews 5): “But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh” (1 Cor 3:1-3). 

Now doesn’t that sound just like Hebrews 5? In fact, the authors use the same word for “milk” (Greek: γάλα) in both passages. It’s because of parallels like this, that so many people think that Paul wrote the book of Hebrews. I don’t think that’s the case, but I won’t be shocked in eternity if Paul turns out to be the author. 

But I do want to point out that the issues in the two churches aren’t the same. The church in Corinth was having an issue of divisiveness. They were fighting over who to follow: Paul or Apollos? Also they were tolerating other sinful behavior in the church. Their immaturity was manifested in a kind of carnal Christianity.

The issue in Hebrews is a little different. The church wasn’t struggling with overt sinfulness per se; they were struggling with temptation to abandon Christ and return to Judaism. They were being persecuted as Jewish Christians, and they thought maybe the best solution is to return to the religiosity of their youth. And this waffling back and forth between Christ and Judaism, and Judaism and Christ led to infantile beliefs and behavior. It made them “dull of hearing.” 

My point in pointing this out is that Christian immaturity is manifest in different ways. Some immaturity is manifest in overt sinfulness (e.g. the Corinthian church). Some immaturity is manifest in laziness and apathy concerning God’s Word (e.g. the church that the author of Hebrews is writing to). They weren’t carnal, but they were “unskilled in the word of righteousness.” 

13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.

They are unskilled in the λόγος δικαιοσύνη, the “word of righteousness.” What does that mean? Well λόγος δικαιοσύνη is a reference to Scripture. This is the only place in the Scriptures where the Bible is referred to as the “word of righteousness.” We read already in Hebrews 4, that “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (4:12). The Bible is likened unto a sword. It is sharp and powerful. It is not a weapon that should be wielded by a child. A child needs to learn how to wield it.  

And “word of righteousness” suggests that Scripture helps us produce righteousness. Not fake righteousness produced in the flesh. Isaiah calls that righteousness “filthy rags” (64:6, NIV; “polluted garment” in ESV). No, the Bible helps us produce real righteousness, “slaves to Christ” righteousness which comes from a transformed heart and someone who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. New believers have those things too, but they are unskilled. They are “unskilled” in this (ἄπειρος in Greek). They are “unskilled” and “inexperienced” and “immature” in the use of God’s Word.   

Now once again, that’s okay for a young believer. That’s okay for a baby Christian. But that’s not who this author is addressing. He’s addressing the believers who should be mature by now, but they are not. They should be eating solid food not milk. And that’s because they are “dull of hearing.” They aren’t sensitive to the truths of God. They are stuck in a state of perpetual adolescence. 

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Go ahead and write this down as #4. Here’s a final danger for “the dull of hearing.” 

4) Dullness makes one undiscerning (5:14) 

Warren Wiersbe said the following about this passage, “A baby will put anything into its mouth. An immature believer will listen to any preacher on the radio or television and not be able to identify whether or not he is true to the Scriptures.” 

Look at verse 14 with me.

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. 

What does the “word of righteousness” help us to do? It helps us to discern good from evil. It helps us to discern right from wrong. It helps us to mature as followers of Christ and grow in Christlikeness. And for those who know God and study his Word, this becomes something like a sanctified intuition. We know instinctively how to distinguish good from evil. It’s an instinct. 

It’s like an athlete. I know how to execute a layup because I’ve done it a thousand times. Football players know how to execute a ten yard out route because they’ve done it a thousand times. Volleyball plays know how to bump, set, and spike, because they’ve done it a thousand times. Soccer players know how to execute a one-timer, because they’ve done it a thousand times.   

There was a great moment last week in the semifinals of the World Cup, where this Moroccan striker executed a bicycle kick and almost scored a goal with it. And everyone oohed and aahed over it. But that guy’s probably done that a thousand times in his life. And it was just instinct. He had the shot. The ball came to him, and he just reacted.

It’s like a musician. How does a guitarist contort their hands to play chords and pick notes? How does a pianist walk down from one key to another when switching songs? How does a drummer keep a beat with his foot with the kick and then accentuate the rhythms with hi-hats, snares, toms, and cymbals. It takes practice. But eventually practice becomes instinct. 

And that’s the goal with Scripture. That’s the goal with God’s Word. You’re training your instinct to discern good from evil. Your training your “powers of discernment.” 

And there’s a cumulative effect in play too. The more you practice, the more you study, the more you spend time in God’s Word, the more your powers of discernment will be trained. The more you come to church and hear the preaching of God’s Word, the more you will be able to differentiate good from evil. 

Look, I realize that you won’t remember everything that I preach week to week. I don’t even remember everything I preach from week to week! That’s why I store it on my computer so that I can search it from time to time. But don’t underestimate the cumulative effect of coming to church on Sunday, and on reading your Bible every day, and singing these songs about Jesus every week. There is power in that. There is power in repetition and training that comes with that. There is power in repeatedly eating a good meal. I can’t remember every good meal I’ve ever eaten, but I can see the effects of a healthy diet. 

And let me add a bit of urgency to this for you. When I was in college there was a real debate about whether we could even discern good and evil. That was way back in the days when postmodernism and relativism were running amok. What’s good? What’s evil? We don’t know. It was like the spirit of Pontius Pilate had infected everyone. “What is truth?” (John 18:38). 

So the conclusion for everyone was just do whatever you want and don’t judge anyone else. Well that mentality has shifted. We don’t really live in a relativistic world anymore. We live in a world of moral absolutism now. The problem is that good is derived from something other than Scripture in our world. And people are calling that which is good evil and that which is evil good. 

We live in a world where gender transition surgery for children is called good, and the biblical definition of marriage is called evil. We live in an Isaiah 5:20 world. “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (Isa 5:20). And if you don’t have your bearings… If you don’t have your “powers of discernment trained” by the truth of God’s Word, you will get swept up in this topsy-turvy Isaiah 5:20 world. 

Yes, dullness can make one undiscerning, and a lack of discernment can be devastating in our world today. “What can we do about that, Pastor Tony? What do we do?” Well you get to church on Sunday, for starters. And by the way you go to a church that isn’t always feeding people milk. Al Mohler says this, “Sadly, many congregations drink nothing but milk because that is all their pastors are feeding them. In other cases, congregations stubbornly refuse the solid food their pastors are offering them. Christians cannot accomplish what the author of Hebrews envisions if both of these barriers are not overcome.” God help us to avoid that here at Verse By Verse Fellowship. 

And by the way, there’s more to hearing God’s Word than just going to church. The puritan, Richard Baxter said the following, “Make it your work with diligence to apply the word as you are hearing it… Cast not all upon the minister, as those that will go no further than they are carried as by force… You have work to do as well as the preacher, and should all the time be as busy as he… you must open your mouths, and digest it, for another cannot digest it for you… therefore be all the while at work, and abhor an idle heart in hearing, as well as an idle minister.” 

And here’s another application for how to avoid dullness. Stay sharp in your knowledge of the Truth. Keep serving Christ. Keep growing as a Christian. Keep growing as a disciple and keep discipling other people. The great enemy of the Christian faith isn’t apostasy; it’s stagnancy. It’s not deconversion; it’s regression. It’s stasis. 

R. Kent Hughes writes, “The truth is, there is simply no such thing as a static Christian. We either move forward or fall back. We are either climbing or falling. We are either winning or losing. Static, status quo Christianity is a delusion!” And on the other side of the equation, the person who keeps growing and never stagnates is a person who is in no danger of abandoning Christ.

“How do you battle dullness of hearing, Pastor Tony. How do I do that?” You stay sharp. You keep growing in Christ. You keep moving forward. You mature from milk to solid food. And you don’t ever grow tired or bored of with truths of God’s Word.

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A few years ago, there was a word that forcibly entered into our English language. It was actually put on the short-list for “word of the year” in 2016 in the Oxford Dictionary. It’s the word “adulting.” It’s often connected with a hashtag, therefore #adulting. And according to the Oxford Dictionary, “adulting” is “the practice of behaving in a way characteristic of a responsible adult, especially the accomplishment of mundane but necessary tasks.” 

Now, full disclosure, I don’t really like that word. But I’m not above using it for my purposes this morning. What would “adulting” look like in the spiritual realm? What would “adulting” look like according to Hebrews 5:11-14?

Well I think, if the author of Hebrews was here this morning, he would say it involves the opposite of what he warned against in this passage. In other words, Christian adulting means not being “dull of hearing.” Christian adulting means being productive (not unproductive) as a follower of Christ, discipling other people as you grow in Christ. Christian adulting means mature men and women seeking solid food not milk. Christian adulting means being discerning not undiscerning. It means being sensitive and attentive to the truths of God’s Word, the “Word of Righteousness,” and living that out. Right? And it means having our powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. 

There you go, church. 

#Christianadulting. 

Let’s go for that together.