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The Barrier to Doctrinal Maturity · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: So you are committed to reading the Bible every day,
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  Speaker 1: which is wonderful. Hopefully with us as we use the
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  Speaker 1: Navigator's Bible reading plan. If you are, you and me
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  Speaker 1: and Pastor John, we are all in Hebrews 5 and
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  Speaker 1: 6 and 7, those three chapters. We're all in those
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  Speaker 1: chapters at the same time now trying to make sense
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  Speaker 1: of this mysterious figure named Melchizedek. Melchizedek. He's like Tom
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  Speaker 1: Bombadil in The Lord of the Rings. He's this mysterious
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  Speaker 1: and timeless character. but he also just kind of appears
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  Speaker 1: and disappears in the plot. So it can be hard
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  Speaker 1: to know what Melchizedek is telling us about the glory
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  Speaker 1: of Christ. It seems important. It seems that those connections
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  Speaker 1: are really important, but they're also hard to pick up
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  Speaker 1: too sometimes. So we sit there with an open Bible
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  Speaker 1: wondering if we were just not smart enough to figure
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  Speaker 1: out all these connections. But what if Bible learning is
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  Speaker 1: not chiefly about IQ? Today on Ask Pastor John, the
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  Speaker 1: primary barrier to doctrinal maturity. We get there from this question.
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John, hello. As a longtime listener and first-time caller,
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  Speaker 1: thanks for taking my question. I am a beginning Greek
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  Speaker 1: student in seminary. How do we understand the flow of
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  Speaker 1: thought between the end of Hebrews 5 and the beginning
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  Speaker 1: of Hebrews 6? In Hebrews 5.12, the author rebukes his
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  Speaker 1: readers for spiritual immaturity, saying they need someone to teach
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  Speaker 1: them again the basic principles of the oracles of God,
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  Speaker 1: and they require milk rather than solid food. But in
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  Speaker 1: Hebrews 6.1, he begins with a therefore to sharpen the tension.
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  Speaker 1: and urges the same people, let us leave the elementary
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  Speaker 1: teaching about Christ and go on to maturity. It seems
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  Speaker 1: both passages include the phrase, although they modify different nouns, elements,
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  Speaker 1: and message word. This suggests at least some conceptual overlap
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  Speaker 1: in reference to the foundational instruction between elements and message word.
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  Speaker 1: So if the readers are so immature that they need
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  Speaker 1: to be retaught the basics, why does the author immediately
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  Speaker 1: exhort them to move beyond those basics?
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  Speaker 2: I love this question. And I love it partly because
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  Speaker 2: of the seminary student who's asking it. And he reveals
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  Speaker 2: a more penetrating attention to the text... than some commentaries do,
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  Speaker 2: because I checked several commentaries that don't even ask this question.
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  Speaker 2: So frustrating. And it's essential. I mean, the question is
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  Speaker 2: essential to understanding the flow of thought between chapters five
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  Speaker 2: and six. So hooray, hooray for assiduous attentiveness to the text,
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  Speaker 2: which is what we try to teach here at Bethlehem
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  Speaker 2: College and Seminary. So here's the problem. And I don't
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  Speaker 2: think it's so technical that it doesn't have any practical implication.
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  Speaker 2: So if you think, oh, this APJ is not for me,
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to go to the next one. No, no, no,
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  Speaker 2: hang on, because I think you're going to be surprised
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  Speaker 2: where this ends up and how practical this is for
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  Speaker 2: your daily life. So hang on.
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  Speaker 1: Here's the issue.
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  Speaker 2: Hebrews 5.12, the writer says, though by this time you
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  Speaker 2: ought to be teachers... You have need again for someone
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  Speaker 2: to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God.
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  Speaker 2: You need to be better taught about the basics. Now,
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  Speaker 2: the question is, how does that fit together with Hebrews 6.1,
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  Speaker 2: which says, leave the elementary teachings and don't lay a
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  Speaker 2: foundation again? That's a good question. And one seems to say,
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  Speaker 2: you need to be taught the basics again, 5.12. And
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  Speaker 2: the other seems to say, don't lay in the foundation
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  Speaker 2: all over again. You keep laying the foundation. Well, does
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  Speaker 2: he or doesn't he want them to lay a foundation
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  Speaker 2: of basics again? You need to be taught the basic
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  Speaker 2: principles of Christianity, 5.12, but then leave the elementary doctrines
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  Speaker 2: and go into maturity and don't lay the foundations again, 6.1.
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  Speaker 1: And I think.
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  Speaker 2: The answer is something like this. 5.12 says they need
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  Speaker 2: teaching about the basics. 6.1 says they should not lay
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  Speaker 2: a foundation against. So evidently, there's a difference between what
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  Speaker 2: they need in 5.12, the teaching that they need in 5.12,
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  Speaker 2: and the laying again of the foundation. There's a difference
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  Speaker 2: between those two things. They're not the same. He's not
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  Speaker 2: saying you need it and you don't need it. The
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  Speaker 2: it is different. One they need and the other they don't.
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  Speaker 2: So what's the difference? And I think the teaching they
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  Speaker 2: need about the basics in 512 is how to use
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  Speaker 2: the basics to become mature Christians in everyday life so
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  Speaker 2: that they can eat meat, solid food. The focus of
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  Speaker 2: their failure is not intellectual or doctrinal even. It's moral.
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  Speaker 2: It's practical. You can see this in verses 13 and 14.
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  Speaker 2: These are the two verses that come next. He calls attention.
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  Speaker 2: He calls the basic doctrines milk, but says, solid food
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  Speaker 2: is for the mature. So how do you move from
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  Speaker 2: milk to solid food? Babes will choke on solid food.
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  Speaker 2: So they have to be mature before they can swallow
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  Speaker 2: and digest solid food. So the answer seems to be
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  Speaker 2: It's the way you use the milk. That's how you
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  Speaker 2: become mature so that you graduate to the solid food. Milk,
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  Speaker 2: it's how you handle milk, how you're taught to use
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  Speaker 2: the milk is what grows you to maturity. Otherwise, you
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  Speaker 2: can't eat the meat that only mature people can eat.
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  Speaker 2: You can use milk in a way that leaves you
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  Speaker 2: a baby, or you can use milk in a way
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  Speaker 2: that makes you mature. And what is that right way?
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  Speaker 2: of using milk. Verse 14 gives the answer. You graduate
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  Speaker 2: to solid food when you, quote, have your powers of
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  Speaker 2: discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good and evil.
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  Speaker 1: Wow.
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  Speaker 2: That's not what we expected. Not what I expected. We
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  Speaker 2: thought this was all about doctrines. and having enough brain
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  Speaker 2: power to handle Melchizedek.
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  Speaker 1: It's not.
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  Speaker 2: If you're going to move from milk to solid food,
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  Speaker 2: from babe to mature, you have to use the milk
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  Speaker 2: a certain way. You have to so love the milk,
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  Speaker 2: be so deeply changed by the milk that you can
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  Speaker 2: distinguish good and evil. maturity is a deeply moral issue,
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  Speaker 2: not just an intellectual one. So I think Hebrews 5.12
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  Speaker 2: means that you need to press on to maturity by
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  Speaker 2: going so deep with the basics that they transform your
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  Speaker 2: life and fit you for solid food. In that sense,
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  Speaker 2: you need to be taught, taught better. So what does
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  Speaker 2: the writer mean in 6.1 then, when he says, Let's
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  Speaker 2: get beyond the elementary doctrine and go on to maturity,
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  Speaker 2: not laying again a foundation.
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  Speaker 1: Of what?
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  Speaker 2: Foundation of what? What are these elementary doctrines? And he
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  Speaker 2: lists six things. Repentance from dead works, faith toward God,
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  Speaker 2: instruction about washings, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead,
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  Speaker 2: eternal judgment. And the striking thing about that list is
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  Speaker 2: they're not distinctively Christian. It's made up of foundational Old
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  Speaker 2: Testament truths and practices. These readers who were Hebrews probably
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  Speaker 2: built on the foundation when they were converted. When these
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  Speaker 2: readers were converted, these Jewish people were converted to Christianity.
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  Speaker 2: These six things, it seems, had been made foundational as
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  Speaker 2: a way of helping them. understand the work of Christ,
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  Speaker 2: because Christ is the goal and the fulfillment of all
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  Speaker 2: those things. So when verse 1 says they should leave
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  Speaker 2: these elementary teachings about Christ, what I think it means
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  Speaker 2: is that they should not occupy themselves so much with
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  Speaker 2: the pre-Christian foundational preparations for Christ that they neglect the
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  Speaker 2: glory of the gospel and how to use it to
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  Speaker 2: grow into maturity and holiness. So, in summary, what Hebrews 5.12
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  Speaker 2: says they do need is help in using the milk
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  Speaker 2: of the basics to grow spiritually and morally into maturity
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  Speaker 2: so that they can digest solid food. And what they
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  Speaker 2: don't need is to keep on occupying themselves with Old
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  Speaker 2: Testament and Jewish truths that were used as the foundation
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  Speaker 2: for presenting and understanding Christ. That's my basic understanding of
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  Speaker 2: how they fit together. And maybe the most surprising and
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  Speaker 2: relevant thing, this is what I said you'd be surprised
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  Speaker 2: by when you get to the end of this APJ,
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  Speaker 2: the most Surprising and relevant thing to learn from Hebrews
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  Speaker 2: at this point is that the primary obstacle to doctrinal
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  Speaker 2: maturity is spiritual and moral, not intellectual. The startling truth
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  Speaker 2: is that if you stumble over Melchizedek, it may be
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  Speaker 2: because you watch questionable TV shows. If you stumble over
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  Speaker 2: the doctrine of election, it may be because you still
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  Speaker 2: use some shady business practices. If you stumble over the
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  Speaker 2: God-centered work of Christ on the cross, it may be
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  Speaker 2: because you love money. and spend too much on yourself
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  Speaker 2: and too little for others. The pathway to maturity and
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  Speaker 2: to solid biblical food is not first becoming an intelligent person,
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  Speaker 2: but becoming an obedient person. What you do with alcohol
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  Speaker 2: and sex and money and leisure and food and computer
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  Speaker 2: have more to do with your capacity for solid food
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  Speaker 2: than where you went to school. Or what books you read.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, the key to getting our heads around doctrine is
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  Speaker 1: a matter of making sure our hearts love what they
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  Speaker 1: should love. It's about daily habits, daily faithfulness, feeding the
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  Speaker 1: right daily appetites. Because Hebrews teaches us the primary obstacle
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  Speaker 1: to doctrinal maturity is spiritual and moral, not intellectual. That
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  Speaker 1: is a really good word from this text of Hebrews.
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  Speaker 1: Especially as we try to think through Melchizedek. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: that doesn't mean there are not other challenges to Bible reading.
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  Speaker 1: There are. There are a lot of other challenges to
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  Speaker 1: Bible reading as it's been covered over the 13 plus
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  Speaker 1: years of Ask Pastor John. And you can see all
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  Speaker 1: that in the Ask Pastor John book. We look at
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  Speaker 1: all sorts of challenges beyond personal holiness and look at
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  Speaker 1: spiritual opposition and spiritual warfare in our Bible reading. That's real.
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  Speaker 1: That's very real. We talk about the challenges of reading
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  Speaker 1: an ancient text by the biggest and oldest book we'll
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  Speaker 1: ever try to read to the intrusions of a busy life.
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  Speaker 1: to the struggles with boredom with the text. We just
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  Speaker 1: find it boring. It's hard to engage. And of course,
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  Speaker 1: with intrusive social media habits, the pings, the buzzes, the notifications,
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  Speaker 1: and then you've got seasons of depression that we go
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  Speaker 1: through or just plain laziness with literacy. That's another problem.
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  Speaker 1: Not to mention all the physical limitations like dyslexia and
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  Speaker 1: aging eyesight. Those are serious challenges to reading. You can
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  Speaker 1: find those and more factors packed into that first chapter
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  Speaker 1: in the Ask Pastor John book, a little section I
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  Speaker 1: called on Bible reading, Bible neglect, and Bible memory. I
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  Speaker 1: let off with it because I think this is a
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  Speaker 1: particular highlight of the history of this podcast. Bible reading
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  Speaker 1: helps with so much to consider, so much advice, so
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  Speaker 1: much from Pastor John's life wisdom that he has picked
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  Speaker 1: up along the many decades that he's been reading his Bible.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Pastor John. And next time, the joy that
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  Speaker 1: sustained Jesus. I'm Tony Reinke, Pastor John, and I will
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  Speaker 1: see you back here on Monday.