Hebrews 5:11-14

Heb. 5:11 – “About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.”

Q: What does “this” refer to?

A: Jesus and the Order of Melchizedek

“Dull,” Gk. νωθρός (nōthros), “slow, sluggish, or lazy” (Heb. 6:11-12)

“Dull of hearing” – Spiritual sluggishness

“You have become,” Perfect Tense (Past)

Koine Greek Past Tenses

a. Aorist: simple past

b. Imperfect: past action with continual results

c. Perfect: past action with completed results

Heb. 5:12-13 – “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.”

American Worldview Inventory (2025)

“Born-again Christians”:

a. 10% agrees that “God” refers to the total realization of personal, human potential or a state of higher consciousness that a person may reach.

b. 77% agree that there is only one supreme spiritual being, and that He created and rules everything in existence.

c. 4% agree that there are many gods, each with different purposes and authority.

Heb. 5:14 – “But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”

Milk: “novice learners”

Solid food: “advanced learners”

“righteousness,” Gk. δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosynē), root of “justify, justification”

“Word of righteousness” = Christian ethics and morality

1 Corinthians 3:1-3 – “But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?”

1 Peter 2:1-3 – “Therefore, put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

Barna (2022): Christian Morality

a. 48% believe that illegal drug use is wrong

b. 36% say that homosexuality is wrong

c. 23% say they believe sex before marriage is wrong

d. 34% believe that abortion is wrong

Sanctification

a. The Head: “Knowing”

b. The Hands: “Doing”

c. The Heart: “Being”

1 Jn. 4:20 – “For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”

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