Thu May 14

Listen up, little ones

Especially for the littles in your household.

Listen for the words milk and solid food.

Reading

Hebrews 5:12-6:3—It’s Time to Grow Up

Optional Reading

Col 1:24–29

Keys for kids

Also for the littles. Young households might choose, after Keys for Kids, to go directly to praise and prayer.

Babies drink only milk.
As they grow up, they eat solid foods too.
The spiritual life should be like a baby growing up.

Questions

(Some read the ?s before the notes/ ask them after.)

What should happen as Christians grow up?
What immaturities grieve the author of Hebrews here?
What is a mark of spiritual maturity?

Notes

(See Saturday for authors.)

There is nothing wrong with a child being a child—even when they do immature things. Often parents have to discern between simply childish behavior and sinful behavior. It’s not easy.

But we don’t want a child to remain a child. When growing up is stunted from physical and/or mental disabilities, we grieve. The author of Hebrews is grieving at the spiritual immaturity of these Hebrew Christians. And the Holy Spirit is calling through the human author of this book to these Christians, and us, to grow up! The immaturity that grieves him is laziness in trying to understand, inability or unwillingness to learn the basics of Christianity, inexperience in applying the message of righteousness, and inability to discern between good and evil. Because of this, they still need milk, like a baby at its mother’s breast. But now it’s time to start eating meat.

Hughes comments that spiritual maturity—being full-grown—is possible if we simply take God’s Word seriously: By listening with all we have; By becoming fully acquainted with its “teaching about righteousness” and living it out; By constantly applying God’s Word to the decisions of life.

Notice that spiritual maturity is measured not by how much doctrine you know, but by how that doctrine helps you discern between good and evil (and choose the good).

How are your spiritual eating habits?

Swedish Method questions

See the Sunday notes for meaning of the symbols.

Praise

Psalm 144b, 111a

Prayer

Ask God to help you continually grow to Christian maturity.
Pray for the preparation for preaching God’s Word this Lord's Day.
Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.