David Bahn – Reflections

Hebrews 5:11-14

About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 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, ¹³ for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

It’s a subtle reference, but the implications are profound: we are not meant to be perpetual infants, feeding only on spiritual pablum.  We are to become mature feeding on the solid food of God’s word, so that we may become teachers. I am not inclined to make this an overly-literal truth: we are not all teachers. Some are apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, some teachers (cf. Ephesians 4).

I visited the Angola State Penitentiary in Louisiana last week. This was once known as the bloodiest prison in North America. But an incredible change has come over this place due to the influence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And here’s the kicker: these men (85% of whom will die there in prison) have not only been converted to faith in Jesus, they are now being trained through a Bible College curriculum to become pastors in the prison. Those who are not on that path are nevertheless seeking to influence others for the cause of Christ.

Not only has violence gone down, but purpose, hope, civility, decency, and all other manner of good things have begun to take root in the prison there. Some graduates of the seminary have volunteered to go to the out-lying “camps” on the 18, 000 acre prison to start churches in those prison camps (self-contained facilities within the Angola prison grounds). They lose some of their privileges by this move (the main prison camp has a level of freedom that is difficult to fathom in a maximum security prison). But they do this because they realize that God has called them to a life beyond spiritual infancy.

We are not to remain spiritual babies. We are to become mature, feeding on the meat of the word, having an impact on others. This is easily misunderstood; some would say that we must never abandon the simple Gospel of God’s love for us in Jesus Christ. To be sure, that is true. But that is not our stopping point, it is God’s launching point for our life as Jesus’ disciples.

Oh that more people in the free world would realize that!