The Meat and Potatoes of Faith

Learning curves are seldom fun.

But they’re almost always necessary. And becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ is no exception. It’s a skill that must be learned and developed just like a trade.

For example, in his letter to the Hebrews, the author admonished the readers for having such a limited understanding of God’s Word that they could only digest it in the form of milk, like infants do:

“For, because of the time [we live in], you all ought to be teachers, [and] you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, having come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not familiar with the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.

But solid food is for the mature, who, because of practice, have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” [Heb. 5:12-14] [my emphasis]

This was very straightforward. The state of their spiritual infancy had become a barrier to their capacity to determine the difference between right and wrong. But the author didn’t present a problem without offering a solution:

“Therefore, leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of [things such as] repentance from dead works and of faith toward God…” [Heb. 6:1] [my emphasis]

Not being mature enough to develop expertise in anything is a flaw that keeps a man in bondage to his juvenility. I know. I used to be a milk drinker. At one time, I understood a framing square to be a tool used primarily for checking 90 degree angles. I didn’t care about learning how to use it to calculate rafter lengths and roof pitches, which is a critical phase of house framing.  

In the same way, a milk-drinking disciple of Jesus Christ is still on the bottle, similar to an unweaned calf that continues to rely on the very basic nutrition it has clearly outgrown the need for. We need only look around today to realize that too many of His disciples are actually starving for the solid food they need to grow in the complete knowledge of the good news which reveals what Christ fulfilled regarding the promise God gave to Abraham.

Knowledge brings maturity. Maturity yields soundness of faith.

Every day that I live and expand my understanding of what Jesus and His disciples taught in the Bible presents new and challenging situations for me to learn and grow enough to be able to “discern good and evil.”

But beware. The Deceiver peddles his sweet lactose everywhere, especially inside the Lord’s congregations.

There’s no substitute for spiritual protein.