Strong Meat Hebrews 5 Part 2

These things seem both foundational and worth revisiting. What is the apostle getting at? How is it that we should desire meat and not merely milk? What is it to move on to the deep things of God, not spending our time on the foundational principles?

Paul is not telling us to look lightly on these things, as if they are no longer important to us. A baby could never take strong meat without first being fed milk. The milk is necessary but it is for the purpose of growing up and eating meat.

These first principles are meant for us to establish a foundation that can never be moved. He is not saying that we should stop teaching these things. Because they are foundations, they are fundamental. They are necessary to the superstructure. But once the house is built, we stop thinking about how it got so tall, how much it weighs, whether it will fall down. If we laid a good foundation, then we do not have to worry about the superstructure. It is firm. But a house that has fine a foundation only needs one. It would be an odd house if it were sitting on twenty feet of concrete.

The author of Hebrews mentions that these saints ought to be teachers but they are still babies needing milk. He then goes on to give them strong meat. He mentions that Jesus is in the order of Melchizedek and then pushes this theme for the next several chapters.

What is he getting at?

         First of all, although the Apostle gives a small remonstrance to the Hebrews, it is not a strong rebuke. He says in Philippians that it is no problem for him to repeat the same things and it is a safeguard for them. So, for a preacher to often repeat the foundational truths is not a problem. We should often remind ourselves of our foundational truths. But we don’t stop there. We don’t simply continue to lay the foundation. We need to move on to higher things. What are they?