Has there ever been a time when you stopped believing in God? Or did you make a profession of faith but not seek to grow in knowledge of Him? This devotion, the first in the series, looks at God’s expectation that we are to grow enough in our faith to be able to teach others.
Nuggets
- God expects us to grow in grace and knowledge of Him (II Pet. 3: 18).
- We have to keep growing to have that knowledge and a mature faith.
- God wants us to teach his message, not our own.
We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. Hebrews 5: 11 (NIV)
I saw Hebrews 5: 11 a while back and thought, “Oh, Paul surely wrote Hebrews. This sounds just like what the Energizer Bunny would say.”
Well, doesn’t it? I mean, Paul didn’t pull any punches. He called it like he saw it. Why waste time calling a rose a zinnia? Fix the problem.
Let’s see what the writer was talking about.
Let's Put It into Context
“So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee” (Heb. 5: 5 NKJV)
Jesus didn’t elevate Himself to the position of high priest. God did that.
We don’t get to where we are in life by ourselves. God is in control of all of our knowledge and skills. Anything we do is because He made us to do it.
Just as Jesus didn’t make high priest on His own, we can’t be saved on our own. We are saved by grace through faith (Eph. 2: 8-9) when we repent.
But it doesn’t stop there. We have to be obedient. “And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, called by God as High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek” (Heb. 5: 9-10 NKJV emphasis added).
Then the writer slips in a zinger: “of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing” (Heb. 5: 11 NKJV). The New International Version is even more pointed: “… you no longer try to understand” (Heb. 5: 11 NIV).
Ouch.
No longer try means they made a conscious decision to no longer seek God after they accepted the gift of salvation. They gave up on God. We have to look at the next couple of verses to see what all of this is all about. Doing that is going to take longer than this devotion.
Growth Over Time
“For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat” (Heb. 5: 12 NKJV)
God expects us to grow in grace and knowledge of Him (II Pet. 3: 18). As the writer of Hebrews says, we are to grow from babies to adults.
That is one of the ways we work out our salvation (Phil. 2: 12). We will be held accountable if we do not grow.
Second John 2: 8 provides us with incentive to grow. “Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward” (II Jn. 2: 8 NKJV).
We’ve said that we learn by hooking new knowledge with that we already know. That means a foundation has to be there.
It isn’t like we have to learn on our own. We’ve got the Holy Spirit to guide us. We have pastors and teacher to help interpret meaning. We have all sort of resources in stores for sale and on the internet.
There is no reason why we shouldn’t grow. Remember, James said, “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking” (Jas. 1: 5 NLT).
We give up by not taking advantage of the resources we have. We give up by not putting in the time to do it right.
Ought to Be Teachers
Oh, man. We are supposed to be teachers???? We are supposed to know enough to be teachers??????
Well, yes. We are supposed to have a mature faith. We have to keep growing to have that knowledge.
Remember when we were walking through Ephesians, a Paul gave us a list of church leaders? “And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers” (Eph. 4: 11 RSV).
We give up when we don’t think we know enough to be teachers. The thing is, I have learned so much by teaching my Ladies. What I don’t know, I have to learn first. That is one way I grow in the faith.
Part of the problem is we aren’t disciplined in our spiritual life. We don’t pray as we should. We don’t study His word as He should.
My Ladies and I were talking this morning about how we search for and seek God. The meditating and memorizing trip a lot of us up. Study can also be minimal. We get a devotional book (or, yes, you read what I put out here on the internet), and we call it a day. How many times do we take something that flipped a switch for us and look up the topic? Do we even just look up other translations of that one verse?
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
To read Has God Provided Everything We Need?, click the button below.
Sometimes, we think we should not be teachers because we are committing that same old sin that we’ve always committed. No, that isn’t good.
When we become a disciple of Christ, we are supposed to be changed. Yes, we get to work out our salvation (Phil. 2: 12), but we have to work at it, not just stay status quo.
But we have to realize that we won’t be perfect until we hit the pearly gates. If we use our fallibility to keep us from doing what God is calling us to do, that is a sin. God uses the broken people to expand a His kingdom.
We also have to realize we can be teachers without having the official title. Sometimes, the title is parent. Other times, it is aunt or uncle. Sometimes, it is neighbor.
Yes, it is scary when we think of what experience we might have to share with others that we are teaching. I am a firm believer that we are given experiences to help others come to know the real, loving God.
Really, as disciples, we should be prepared to be teachers. Whether it is a class of one or ten or one hundred, we need to grow our faith to the point where we know what we believe and why we believe it.
Remember our job description. We are to proclaim the gospel (Mk. 16: 15) and make disciples (Mt. 28: 19-20).
The Disciple’s Job Description
Complete Job Description
Individual Descriptions
Job Duty #4
Proclaim the Gospel (Mark 16: 15)
Job Duty #6
Make Disciples (Matthew 28: 19-20)
We are supposed to tell others and help them grow in grace and knowledge.
Oracles of God
An oracle is a representative of an unknown person who carries the person’s message to the masses. The message could include insights into future events. It could also solve some uncertainty or doubts.
Isn’t that what God wants from us? We teach God’s message, not our own. He has told us about the end of this world and our eternal home in heaven. He has given us promises so that we do not have to have the uncertainty that is more and more a fixture in our world. We don’t have to doubt because He has shown us His character.
We give up on God when we don’t carry His message to others. When we allow the worldview to help us form opinions instead of His Word.
We want to be God’s mouthpieces, not Satan’s.
In the next devotion, we will look at whether we are milk babies or steak adults. We will also make the connections and apply this to our lives today.
Father. You have told us time and time again that You want us to grow closer to You. You call this working out our salvation (Phil. 2: 12). You call this growing so that we can become the teachers. Most of all, Lord, You want us to imitate You (Eph. 5: 1). Help us to do just that. Amen.
What do you think?
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