Hebrews 5:13-6:3 (3.4.07)

today i read about taking steps to becoming a mature christian. the author of hebrews uses the analogies of milk vs. solid food to illustrate a scale of maturity. there were a couple of things i found interesting about this brief passage:

1. the author says that immature believers are characterized by their inability to distinguish good from evil, while mature believers have trained themselves to have quite an eye for the two. i think that's interesting . . . mature believers are quite discerning. i agree with that, but it does raise some questions. how discerning am i? how discerning could i be? can i somehow come up with a "discernment goal"? i hate never knowing where i am along the paradigm about anything. i guess i could quantify all this by saying I don't think mature christians can really afford to be lax at all. mature christians are wise and they are also confident in their decisions about right or wrong actions. maybe a mature christians doesn't really say things like, "i guess it's okay" or "i can't see why not" or "why shouldn't i choose this action?" and stuff like that.

2. the second thing that the bible instructs about the transition from immaturity to maturity starts in chapter 6. the author suggests that we should move on from the issues of sin and repentance, faith in god, laying on of hands, baptism, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. i don't know very much about very many of those issues. hebrews calls mature believers to move on from those topics. is the author saying this because we should have those objectives met, like a basic standards test, or is it because those debates and conversations permeate the thoughts of immature believers? are we expected to have those items covered? i reckon that is not the case because the chapter doesn't really go on to say what we should be thinking about after having accomplished those initial tasks. i think that maybe many of the conversations that come up surrounding those talking points generally just end up being pointless, redundant, and unproductive. on the other hand, mature believers are good at discerning right from wrong. maybe mature believers get together at the coffee shop and when these items come up they all just know where in the bible their answer comes from and they all agree with each other or agree to disagree with each other in a matter of minutes before moving on to figuring out the road to peace in the middle east and an end to global warming (which they can also do very succinctly). anyway, i need to be smarter and maybe a good first step for me would be to read up on those biblical issues and then be able to justify my answers with quick references to scripture. and then never talk with anyone about it again, but if i do, i should begin and end the conversation inside of 5 minutes.