Hebrews 5:13

 

Hebrews 5:13

Teaching infants about righteousness

How many of us realise that there are numerous levels of Biblical teaching and understanding? For instance, someone who has recently been born again and has just discovered the wonder of a relationship with Jesus might well sum up their faith in a few, expressive sentences that make complete sense to another person who has never heard the message before. That is why new converts are the best evangelists. However, if we have been on the road with the Lord for 50 years, and during that time we have studied the Word and preached on it many, many times, when we try to share the Gospel in simple terms it becomes a very difficult task! What to leave in? What to leave out? What are the essentials? Does this doctrine need a fuller explanation?  

It is not arrogant to find it difficult to express something that one was simple but now is not, because we’ve had a lifetime of exploring its complexities! Perhaps that is why pastors and teachers appear at the end of Paul’s list of ministries in Ephesians 4.  Our verse today gives us one illustration of the kind of subject matter that an infant in the faith will find difficult. That is, the teaching about righteousness.  Would it not be correct to say that such teaching must first start with the righteousness of God and His Son, Jesus Christ? Then it might embrace the expectations of the Law and a definition of what true righteousness is. From there we might want to explore the origins of sin and how all human beings wrestle with the world, the flesh and the devil! Surely now we are ready to explain how righteousness cannot be earned or bought, it is God’s gift and is only available through faith in Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Imagine teaching that to a class of 4–5-year-olds! Sadly, this is the kind of scenario often found in churches where believers are untaught, unwilling and have no hunger for the meat of God’s Word. How lovely it is to spend time with those who are ravenous for truth and who eagerly digest the Word of God. 

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