11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
Ouch. Slow to learn. Spiritual infants. Sound familiar to anyone else? I think, or hope, I've been moving from milk to solid food over the last couple of years. I had a decent spiritual education during the first 18 years of my life, but for the following... oh, I won't say how many... not so great. But in this case, I think slow to learn can also mean quick to forget, instead of just not knowing. Or going over the same ground again and again and not moving forward and building on that foundation. What do you think?
From Matthew Henry's commentary: To be unskilful, denotes want of experience in the things of the gospel. Christian experience is a spiritual sense, taste, or relish of the goodness, sweetness, and excellence of the truths of the gospel. And no tongue can express the satisfaction which the soul receives, from a sense of Divine goodness, grace, and love to it in Christ. (emphasis mine)
Can you imagine eating nothing but baby food your entire life and never moving on to taste a whole strawberry, or a crunchy Granny Smith apple, or whatever your other favourite foods are that babies don't eat? You'd miss out on a lot. I don't want to miss out on the mature, good, sweet and excellent truths of the gospel. I want to continue to learn. Anyone else?
4 comments:
"slow to learn can also mean quick to forget" +1,000!!!
and i'd never looked at it from the perspective of what we are missing out on - just that we're "opting out" of our responsibility to grow and take on more. but you're right - babies can't enjoy cheesecake!!
Great points here Miriam! So true that growing in our faith is both the right thing to do AND an incredible blessing.
I think you are right on in exploring that "slow to learn" can mean different things for different people. The interesting thing to me is that the emphasis on learning seems to be on our part of the process. The Holy Spirit leads us into truth, but we have to follow or He is quenched or grieved.
Another thing that I find miraculous (in a bad way) is that we i this century are still "slow to learn" even though we are highly and uniformly educated. Using myself as example, there were years that I should have been digging into God (both His word and Spirit,) but I didn't even though I was investing my mind and obedience in other pursuits... nothing wrong with becoming an expert in other subjects, but it was not a wise decision to choose to be "slow to learn" about God, His ways, and my place in Him.
Thanks for posting!!
Thanks for your comments, ladies.
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