Articles

Hebrews / Chapter 6 / V1-3

Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so. ~He 6:1-3

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What does it mean to move beyond the elementary teachings of Christ? Does it refer to the Old Testament laws that the Hebrew Christians were still unable to put away or does it refer to the fundamental teachings of Christianity?

The writer remembers that when he had just received the Lord as his personal saviour, he was amazed by the teachings concerning Christ’s Second Coming. It became so, that whenever a foreign speaker came to preach on the topic, the writer would gather a group of brothers and sisters in Christ to attend the meetings together. However, after a while, being more familiar with such bible doctrines, the writer eventually stopped attending these meetings.

The bible passage above begins with the word “therefore,” a word used to link the passage to the former sentences, in this case, it links up the previous verses from chapter 5, verses 11-14. These verses describe the issue that leads to the conclusion in the passage above.

We have much to say about this [Jesus being high priest in the order of Melchizedek], but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. ~He 5:11-14

It was the author’s original intent to elaborate to the Hebrew Christians the spiritual relationship between Melchizedek and Jesus, however observing their spiritual immaturity, he hesitated from doing so, knowing that they would be unable to understand it. From the passage, we know that the believers had been in the Lord for a significant period of time. Given their duration of training in the Lord, they should have a substantial understanding of the biblical doctrines and should have already become qualified spiritual teachers. On the contrary, they were weak even in their fundamental truths so much so that they required others to teach them. They were like infants with stunted growth who could only live on easily digestible milk and were unable to feed on solid food. To the Hebrew Christians, the doctrines concerning Melchizedek were like solid food that was hard to digest; these were deeper spiritual truths that were more difficult to understand. Hence, the author was worried, wondering if the Hebrew Christians were able to have sufficient spiritual discernment to comprehend the truths that he was about to share with them.

Being in the faith for many years, the Hebrew Christians were still dwelling on the fundamental doctrines of Christ. In seeing that, the author encouraged them to “move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity.” “The elementary teachings” mentioned in the passage refer to the basic bible doctrines pursued by new believers: for instance, dealing with sin, having faith in God, believer’s baptism, eternal life and the judgement of hell. All these teachings are considered infant milk, the elementary school of God’s word, truths that all new believers ought to pursue and understand. After having understood these fundamental Christian doctrines, we ought to pursue truths that are deeper and more profound, to strive towards having a complete understanding of the Bible. Feeding on milk is a necessary phase in every Christian’s spiritual growth; however, if we were to continually feed on milk alone and remain ignorant to more in-depth truths, then we would forever be spiritual infants, being shallow and naive in our spiritual life. This is precisely the problem of the Hebrew Christians, after spending so many years in the Lord, they were still asking questions such as: “What is the significance of baptism?” “Is there a resurrection for believers?” “What about judgment after death?”

In the recent years of the writer’s faith in the Lord, there were occasionally foreign speakers who preached about the Second Coming of Christ, but these messages had lost their appeal to the writer. When the writer fervently attended these meetings in the early stages of his faith, this indeed demonstrated a sign of healthy spiritual growth; but for the writer to remain passionate about attending such meetings after many years in the Lord, it would then reveal a lack of spiritual maturity instead! The Hebrew Christians after many years in the Lord were still found lingering around the elementary teachings of Christ, clearly showed a severe stagnation in their spiritual pursue!