{Thoughts below were drawn and paraphrased from footnotes of Newell in his commentary on Hebrews, so he must be given some credit here.}
EVERYONE DELIGHTS IN A NEW BORN BABY. BUT NO ONE DELIGHTS IN A MAN, OR EVEN AN OLDER CHILD, WHO REVERTS IN HIS BEHAVIOR TO CHILDISH ACTIONS AND EMOTIONS. EVERYONE DELIGHTS IN A NEW BORN CHRISTIAN. THEY ARE EAGER, HUNGRY, TRUSTING, DISCOVERING A WHOLE NEW WORLD. BUT IF THEY STAY BABES, THEY BECOME A BURDEN. USELESS TO THE BODY. REPUGNANT.
Let’s look at their identifying marks:
1. They are ‘tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine’. Eph. 4:14
2. They ‘belong’ to some particular denomination, which they call, like a baby with a toy, ‘MY CHURCH”.
3. They exalt men. They don’t know what the church of God is; the Body of Christ; and that ‘membership’ is IN CHRIST. “I am of Paul. I am of Apollos I am of Cephas”.
4. They need a lot of sleep. Only a preacher can know the heartache of having studied and prayed for hours over a sermon, wishing to impart truths of an eternal value...truths that should usher the spirit into the very presence of God, with joy and renewed hope...and as he looks out he sees people sleeping, checking their watch, looking out the window, fussing with a child, digging through a purse; not even attempting to follow what he is saying. These same folks would hardly dare blink in a movie theater, for fear they might miss something.
5. They ‘fuss’. Like little babies who, never shedding a tear, kick and grow purple in the face and clench their little fists and scream until they get what they want. These are the people who quarrel and cause division and sulk and threaten to ‘go to a different church’ or stop going altogether (as though they would really be removing something valuable from the church if they went). They want their own way.
6. Finally, there are those who are ‘church members’. They may as well be ‘club members’. Knights of Columbus. Shriners. Boy/Girl Scouts. They may have at one time been on fire for the scriptures, fervent in prayer, full of thanksgiving, zealous for the lost. But they have become ‘church members’. Respectable. Unspiritual. Unfruitful. Dull. Soft. Disinterested in study of the scriptures and the deeper things of God; unwilling to take any of their own very important time to serve others or reach out to the lost.
Let us bow our heads and hearts in a moment of silent grief, for those who have come to need milk.
What marks the difference between babes and the spiritually mature?
they...”because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil”.
How do they ‘train their senses’ (spiritual senses that is...)?
1. Prayer
2. Study of the scriptures
3. Walking according to understanding.
Then what would be the ‘good’ and ‘evil’ the writer is talking about?
It would have to be the good and the evil choices of everyday life for the Christian. Having his spiritual senses practiced and sharpened, he would be prepared to discern the difference between the voice of God and the voice of the world. The philosophies of man and the truths of scripture, that he might order his steps aright.
