Sermon Text: Hebrews 5:11–6:3
Preacher: Pastor Brian Sauvé

Against Doctrinal Infantilism

Last week, the author of Hebrews introduced us to the topic that is going to take up much space here in the middle of the book—the nature and importance of Jesus’ cosmic high priesthood. 

He’s just told us that Jesus is a high priest after an obscure order of priests—one with a single member in all of the Old Testament, but one also with a mysterious and obscure promise attached to his name in the Psalms.

The author of Hebrews is eager to unravel the seven-hundred year-old mystery of Psalm 110:4, but before he can, something forces him to take about a chapter-long excursion on a different topic.

What could be so important as to divert the author from a topic that is important enough to take up the whole middle of the book? If I could oversimplify it for us up front here before we get into the details in a moment, the issue is that the recipients of the book are babies, and he wants to have a grown-up conversation. The issue is what we could call doctrinal infantilism.

Look with me at Hebrews 5:11, if you would, and we will see it together. This is the Word of the Lord:

“About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.” 

-Hebrews 5:11–6:3

Identifying the Problem

Do you see what I mean, hopefully as we get this text in front of us? Hear the eagerness in his voice? He writes at the beginning of verse 11, “About this we have much to say…”

There is a doctrinal feast, ready to be laid out for the Hebrews and for us, but there is an obstacle, something that gives him pause in the way. The obstacle is going to make it hard to get the food on the table the right way.

“About this [this cosmic high priesthood of Christ] we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”

-Hebrews 5:11–14

The topic of Jesus’ high priesthood is apparently something of deep and transformative importance—somethine worth a few chapters of biblical meditation. But the doctrinal immaturity of the Hebrew Christians is making this rich feast a difficult one to serve.

As you all know if you’ve been here for an length of time, I really enjoy a good steak. Ask my wife: Every few weeks on my day off, I’ll pitch the idea of running to the store and grabbing a few ribeyes for dinner. And I won’t feel like we’ve done it right until we’ve gotten that pan hot enough to set the smoke alarms off in the house when those suckers hit the pan.

Now my boys are starting to appreciate a good steak, but let me tell you, the first time I diced up a big hunk of buttery, medium-rare, salt-crusted (ok, I’m getting hungry, let’s wrap this thing up) steak and put it down in front of the kids, they were… let’s just say less than enthusiastic. One of them had the audacity to complain about all the fat that this strange meat seemed to have attached to it.

They didn’t have the tools yet to appreciate the feast. It was an obstacle. How much more if I tried to put that feast in front of baby Cyril, who is something like 5 weeks old? Kid’s got no teeth! He wouldn’t know what to do with the thing.

A Pastoral Rebuke

That’s the problem, here. The Christians to whom the letter is addressed were doctrinal babes, and the author had a big, juicy, doctrinal ribeye sizzling in the skillet, ready to plop down on their plates—but they couldn’t handle it yet.

His response is to issue a loving, pastoral rebuke. Hopefully you have a category for that—for the correct, loving, shepherd-hearted rebuke of a faithful pastor. There is certainly such thing as a pastor who needs to tone down his “exhortations,” to stop beating gup on the sheep, but the pastorate is also no place for men who are unwilling to appropriately rebuke.

There are four parts to his rebuke that will help us understand the text and rightly respond to it. Number one, he says that…

1. They are dull of hearing.

Verse 11,

“About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.” 

-Hebrews 5:11

The dullness of hearing that he’s talking about is specifically, in this context, a dullness to hear the Scriptures. These are Hebrew Christians, Christians who not only have the apostolic teaching of the New Testament, which as they read this letter was still being written and circulated and read in churches—but also the Old Testament Scriptures. 

They knew the Bible—or they should have. But to their shame, they had let their ears get stopped up against the Word of God. What is dullness of hearing with respect to God’s Word? 

Dullness is what is happening when the Word of God is allowed to become routine, then tuned out, then ignored. It’s like, right now you’ve all been sitting in this room for maybe 20 or 30 minutes, and most of you have no conscious awareness anymore that the heating system is humming at a pretty constant thirty or forty decibels in the background.

You’ve tuned that out; your brain is very good at that, at focusing its attention on what it deems at the moment to be the most essential, most important sensory input. That’s essential, otherwise you’d never be able to do what you’re doing now and hear a sermon, because you’d be thinking about the way your toes feel in your shoes. Which you’re probably doing now, right?

Dullness of hearing is what happens when we begin to tune the voice of God in his Word into the background. It’s what happens when we make many, mostly small, decisions about what is the most important thing for me to meditate on, think about, and obey day to day. 

When we let the Scriptures become a vague hum in the background of our lives, it is not long before we are ignoring them altogether.

So dullness is what’s happening when we open the service here on Sundays with our Scripture reading, and we let our minds go on autopilot rather than drinking in the words, considering them, ingesting them, and obeying them. Or when we cease striving to chew on and obey and ingest the words of God.

There’s a reason that several times in the Bible, a prophet will be instructed to eat a scroll. We see it in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Revelation—a prophet will receive a vision, for example of a scroll, representing the Word of God, and they will be instructed to consume it.

The picture is straightforward: We haven’t properly heard the Word until we’ve consumed it, until we’ve been strengthened by it as we would by food.  

That was the problem with the Hebrew Christians: They were hearing, but not sharply. Not obediently. Are we like them, or are we made of stronger stuff? I’d say we have the same issues, right? Would you say that the church today is marked more by a rich feast and sharp hearing of God’s Word, or by doctrinal famine and deafness?

Probably the latter. And so the next rebuke is one we, too, ought to heed. Number two, he rebukes them because…

2. They are doctrinal and spiritual infants.

They are the doctrinal and spiritual equivalent of a 24-year-old man pulling out a bottle of warm breastmilk at his job during the lunch hour and (suckling imitation—“What’s wrong with Bill?” “I don’t know. Let’s move to a different table.”). Look at verse 12,

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”

-Hebrews 5:12–14

They are living on milk far past when it is good and proper to do so. They are like overgrown spiritual babies. Now, What does that mean? What does it mean to be a doctrinal baby? He gives two hallmarks to watch out for:

The first hallmark of a doctrinal infant is one who is unskilled in the word of righteousness: “…everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness.” Just as babies babble before they can quote Shakespeare by heart, so spiritual babies are unskilled in God’s words. This is another way of saying, really simply, that they don’t know their Bibles.

Which implies, right, that the Bible is a thing that takes skill to use rightly. Did you know that? You have to grow up into this book. A child can open it and God will wonderfully, simply meet him there. My kids hear and understand as we read it together at home. But as you grow up, you will need to grow up in your understanding and work in this book. 

This will require labor, practice, and diligent study. This will require you to carefully weigh your worldview and presuppositional lenses you are taking with you into the reading of the Word. It will take meditation and humble submission to good teachers. They were unskilled in these things.

The second hallmark of the doctrinal infant is one who has his powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. 

This is a good distinction to make, because someone who maybe knows a lot of facts about the Bible might still be light years from being doctrinally mature. There is a difference between doctrine-as-theological-data and applied, lived theology. The doctrinally mature Christian isn’t one who just knows a lot of stuff. It’s not just a guy who reads a lot of John Owen or Herman Bavinck. I’m all for that! But that’s not everything.

To be spiritually, doctrinally mature, the author of Hebrews wants us to see, means having our “…powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” You can quote Scripture—good! What does it mean? How does it apply? What does the Word of God tell us about politics? Parenting? Living in an idolatrous society? 

What is the righteous pathway in the midst of work conflict? How can I counsel my dad in loving mom through dementia? What does doctrinal maturity look like when my friend is caught in a sin? 

See the difference? Doctrinal parrots may be able to repeat theology ad nauseum, but if they aren’t applying it, if it’s not coming out of their fingertips and mouths and into the real world of Tuesday afternoons, what good is it? Is maturity just knowing things? 

The Hebrew Christians were doctrinal babies because their powers of discernment—to actually look into the world and discern what is good and what is not and what to do about it—were weak.

Number three, he rebukes them because…

3. They weren’t building on the foundation.

Chapter 6, verse 1,

“Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.”

-Hebrews 6:1–3

So there is this thing that the author calls “the elementary doctrine of Christ,” that they ought to have left by now and moved on “to maturity.” Before we make the biggest mistake we could probably make in this, though, let’s make certain we get a critical distinction right.

By “leaving” this doctrine, the author of Hebrews doesn’t mean that we move beyond it—as if the basic doctrine of Christ is something we grow out of—but that we build on it. Notice what he calls these basic doctrines: “a foundation.”

That’s so important, because what we’re not trying to do as we grow out of doctrinal infancy into doctrinal manhood is to leave Christ behind and move on to something beyond Christ. No, it’s all Christ. It’s more of Christ. Doctrinal maturity cannot, and it cannot by definition, move beyond Christ, because Paul tells us in his letter to the Colossians not only that in Jesus Christ is all the fullness of the godhead pleased to dwell, but also that in Christ are hidden all the treasrues of wisdom and knowledge.

What that means is that there is not one particle of wisdom, truth, doctrine, or anything that is not to be found in Christ. Doctrinal maturity isn’t advancing past Christ, it’s building on Christ. The picture is of a house with a foundation.

The foundational doctrines are those that hold up the structure above. Just as you don’t start building a house by putting the shingles on, you don’t start your theological discipleship by settling the dispute between infralapsarianism and supralapsarianism.

We don’t start by making someone a Calvinist or a Paedobaptist or a Covenanter or whatever—we start by getting the whole “Christian” thing right. The author tells us that these foundational doctrines—and I don’t think he’s trying to be exhaustive, here—include the doctrines of

1. Repentance from dead works and of faith toward God: This is the gospel, that we are saved by grace alone and through faith alone in the work of Christ and his work alone—not on our own dead works or on our keeping of the Law.

2. Instruction about washings (or baptisms): This may either be a reference to the issue for these Jewish Christians of how to think about ceremonial washings of the Jewish Old Covenant era, which come up later in the letter. Or he may be referring to the difference between the baptism of John and the baptism of Jesus. Either way, these are foundational issues.

3. Laying on of hands: Again, this may either reference the laying on of hands which would occur by a priest as he imputed the sin of the people to a sacrificial animal, or to the laying on of hands to ordain biblically qualified elders—either way, a foundational issue.

4. The resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment: Here is the basic hope of the Christian—that our bodies are not husks that blow away in the wind when we die, but seeds planted in hope of fruit. That we will be raised bodily to immortal life by the Lord Jesus at his coming. And eternal judgment, that those outside of the covenant of grace will be raised, not to eternal life, but to eternal judgment.

These doctrines are the foundation of the house. But you don’t lay a foundation and then leave! You lay a foundation to build! So here’s the question for you: Are you building? Are you adding doctrinal timbers and plumbing and drywall and paint and furniture to your theological house? 

Are you refusing to be content with a bare foundation? How’s your Bible reading going? What’s your plan to live in this book and know this book and search out its treasures and make them your own? Finally, he rebukes them, number four, because…

4. It’s not that they haven’t had enough time.

Looking back to Hebrews 5:11, 

“About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.”

-Hebrews 5:11–12a

We’re not talking about new Christians, here. You don’t rebuke a new Christian for not being a fully mature, doctrinally robust, theologically sophisticated person yet. One thing this text means is that there is such thing as a Christian with whom we ought to be very patient and understanding and slow and gentle with—the new believer. 

When someone is saved out of Mormonism, and comes up after the service or walks into my office during the week with a really basic, easy question about the Bible, I would be in sin to be frustrated. Just as you wouldn’t spank a 3-month-old baby for not being able to tie his own shoes, you shouldn’t rebuke a new Christian for getting something wrong or needing basic training.

I’ve seen doctrinally robust Christians go nuclear on new Christians in Bible studies and other settings for saying something that was way off, and I want to caution us on that. New Christians say crazy stuff sometimes, sometimes they say something and you’re like, “Hmmm, that’s actually a heresy. That’s functional Socianism.”

And my caution to us is to slow down, be gentle, not try to “fix” the doctrine of new believers in one conversation. This take gentleness and humility, not a flamethrower approach.

But here’s the issue: The doctrinal infantilism we’re talking about in this text has nothing to do with time. There are many in the Church today who are the equivalent of a 29-year-old who can’t tie his shoes! The author says that they ought to have been teachers by now! 

That’s a strong statement, since we know from elsewhere in the New Testament that not many should be teachers, since teachers will be judged more strictly. Teachers are responsible to handle high theology with a clean conscience and a ready mind. That’s where the Hebrew Christians ought to have been; this wasn’t that they didn’t have enought time.

Have you been a Christian for a decade and yet couldn’t tell me where in the Bible we’re taught that Jesus is God? That salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, to God’s glory alone? That humans are in bondage to sin and helpless without grace? 

What key texts have you put to memory? What disciplines have you instituted to know the Scripture, systematically learn it, hide it in your heart, pray without ceasing? If you have been a Christian for 5, 10, 15 years and haven’t read through the Bible at least 4 or 5 times, but you have watched all nine seasons of The Office eight times, what’s your excuse?

That’s the issue that the author of Hebrews is addressing: Doctrinal infantilism that has more to do with dullness of hearing, hardness of heart, slackness of hand than it does with needing more time.

Do you see how all of these issues really find their nexus in the knowledge and love of the Word of God? That’s it, right, that’s the needful thing. Do you want to be mature? Do you want to be able to discern good and evil? Do you want to be able to teach others and help others mature? Then love and live in this book! It’s all here.

A Critical Juncture

This brings us to the most important point in the sermon, and that is what we do with it. I mean, this is just a blistering pastoral rebuke, 100-proof, served neat, no qualifications or escape routes or asterisks for us to hide behind.

Now, the Bible is full of rebuke and exhortation. And because cultures vary across time and space, and the general patterns of our sin along with that variation, some of those rebukes land in the bullseye of our current sins and some of them are more peripheral to our current popular sins. Where does this rebuke land? 

I think we all know that this rebuke lands at the very heart of the Church’s current sin. If life is a war, doctrinal infantilism is one of those places along the wall where the enemy is currently concentrating his forces and attacking with vigor.

So the critical juncture is how we will deal with this critical rebuke. Will we receive it as a grace of God, part of his love for us, receive it by faith and walk in repentance? Will we obey the instruction of the previous section and with confidence draw near to the throne of grace for his forgiving mercy and ask for his strong help?

Will we be humble, admit that we have languished far too long in doctrinal infancy, and ask for our Father’s help to grow up to maturity, to the full stature of manhood? Will we take up our Bibles, blow the dust off of them in repentance, unplug our televisions, and get to work plowing the fields we’ve left fallow?

The alternative is to get defensive, maybe protest that “Knowledge puffs up! We don’t want to be one of those cold, dead, religious Pharisees!”

Except the Pharisees’ main problem wasn’t that they knew too much, it was that they didn’t obey what they knew. As our Lord rebuke them, “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” They were disobedient, not overly theological.

So let me leave you with a practical encouragement: If this pastoral rebuke lands, first respond in faith—that you are not justified by your theological knowledge. Go to the throne of grace for mercy and help. And then I would point you to three very ordinary practices to begin growing up into maturity:

1. Be here every Sunday. Not twice a month. Not when-my-kids-baseball-team-isn’t-travelling. The Lord has given to elders the duty to feed you on the Word of God, rightly handled.
   When your elders stand back and prayerfully, with Bibles open, craft the weekly worship service, we aim to do so in such a way as to lay a feast before you every week. We want you to look at what is served here, week in and week out, the way you would look at a big platter with a dry-aged, 32 oz. ribeye, served with the kind of mashed potatoes that got a stick of butter and a tub of cream cheese mixed in before it hit your plate. Some weeks, I know we fall short, but the table is set out every week. Come eat. Don’t starve. Don’t settle for a bottle of milk.

2. Get in a Sunday School class. About two years ago, we identified this is a general weakness in our midst, and so we began working to provide more contexts to learn doctrine. The podcasts we put out are for that. Sunday Schools are the best, though. 8:30 on Sunday mornings, for three 12-week semesters a year, you can learn some meaty theology. Be here. Next semester starts January 12th.

3. Cultivate a love for reading—especially the Scriptures. Be in them daily. Just read. Even if you don’t understand everything, read. And when you have Bible reading rhythms down, ask your pastors, and we will give you some good books to read outside of the Scriptures as well.

May we have the reputation of being a people who love the Word of God and the God of the Word. May people insult us, even, as that Church that reads too many books.