I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for – we have God’s love lavished on us, and that’s worth getting stoked about!
This Sunday we’ll be continuing our study in Hebrews, reading chapter 5:11-6:12. This is a passage that contains another of the “warning verses” of this letter. You will do yourself a great favor by reading this text in the Message version from the link I provided.
The writer of this letter is emphatic in saying that we are expected to mature in our walk with Christ. What do you think he means that we should be teachers by now? What do you think it means to be “skilled in the word of righteousness“? How do you think we can mature in those areas of our Christian journey?
In chapter 6, the writer begins describing what he considers baby-food – the elementary aspects of our faith. Do you consider them elementary? How would you paraphrase what these “foundational” truths are?
v4-8 have been scary warnings for people all throughout church history. Instead of being challenged, people get frightened of losing their salvation. As you read this in the Message version, you may get a clearer picture of what the writer is getting at. What do you think the writer is trying to say in this section? (we’ll unpack it more carefully on Sunday)
In what ways does the writer seem to indicate that we can avoid spiritual sluggishness (v12)? How do we balance the truth that we are saved by grace alone, yet we are called to good works?
This will be a challenging study, but one that’s well worth our time. Let’s submit our lives the the Living Word and see how we can enter into a greater sense of wholeness in God – cool? Hope to see you Sunday!
WONDERWHAT 
Being a teacher suggests you understand a subject well enough to instruct others. If we’ve walked with Christ for awhile, embraced His love, and are seeking Him in his word we begin to understand His will as it relates to our daily lives. Skilled in the way of righteous indicates having a working knowledge of walking His ways out. We grow in discerning his will by continuing to study His word comparing it to our own responses and following His promptings and adjusting our lives as He leads.
The foundational truths are descriptive of what we claim to believe almost like a definition or statement of faith.. We all know actions speak louder than words though…I think that’s what the author is getting at… Most people know the precepts of Christianity but what they need is to see them in action in our lives…we can say we love God and people but can we actually demonstrate that love in the face of conflict, crime or calamity…if we walk with Him long enough desiring to truly demonstrate His love to a desperate world He tempers us helping us to not respond with typical knee jerk reactions.. At least not as frequently!!!
I don’t think the author is so much warning us about loosing our salvation as he is saying if we’ve really experienced his life changing grace and love we won’t be able to deny Him anyway and that if we do maybe we just haven’t quite grown from head knowledge to heart experience..
His love changes us from the inside out and it is a process of maturing.. We will always struggle with knee jerk responses the key is desiring to do differently… Drawing near to Him and His word will keep us ever heading in the right direction!!