Hebrews 5:12-14 “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.”
These guys were pretty far behind. Paul said, ‘hey, you ought to be teachers by now.’ Teachers are full grown adults, but these folks were still on bottles. They were not at the spiritual level that they should have been at. And why was that? Well, I don’t know, but apparently Paul laid the blame on them: “you ought…”
This same problem is very true today, and probably much worse today then it was in Paul’s day. Most of the church is full of bottle sucking spiritual babies. Even the ministers are, many times, spiritual babies. We must learn to grow up spiritually.
When Paul uses the terms ‘milk’ and ‘solid food’ he is referring to christian doctrine. We can see that in the beginning of the next chapter. This shows us that some christian doctrine is too much for some christians to handle. They are not mature enough for it. Maybe they will abuse it or misuse it, or maybe it, combined with immaturity, will make them susceptible to sin or cause them to act foolishly.
“But solid food is for the mature.” Not only is solid food more interesting than milk, but it contributes to the strength of your person. You can’t become strong to fight battles only on milk. You need the deep things of God. You need the meat of the Word. It’s so important for christians to progress in their spiritual maturity so they can become strong to fight and win their own battles, and not only theirs, but also to help fight the battles of their fellow christian brothers who are still on the bottle – to bring them to maturity.
Hal Chaffee 