Hebrews 5:14, commentary and pictures

Strong meat belongs to those of full age, while babes in Christ still need milk because they must be taught again the first principles of the oracles of God and are unskilled in the word of righteousness. Discernment between good and evil comes by reason of use, as the senses, understanding, and perceptive faculties are trained through faithful practice and exercise to judge rightly. This maturity grows through conversion and entire change of heart, increasing knowledge of Christ in Scripture under the Holy Spirit's teaching, and keeping connection with God with mind kept clear and pure. Food must be matched to readiness, giving simple milk to new believers and dealing out strong truth gradually in portions they can digest, though those who held the urgency of present truth taught that even souls weeks old must hear and endure all straight truth to stand in the time of trouble. Those who ought to teach and bear sacred trust are not fit to guide others while they remain babes needing basic instruction, for full-grown guardians must have sanctified judgment and eyes enlightened to distinguish righteousness from sin and truth from error.

Milk and Strong Meat

Strong meat belongs to those of full age who are ready for deeper instruction in God's word, while those who still need milk are as infants who need to be taught again the first principles of the oracles of God and are unskilled in the word of righteousness. Through practice their spiritual judgment is trained until they become able to distinguish good from evil. Basic teaching pictured as milk leaves church members weak and helpless when they should receive strengthening food suited to spiritual maturity. Instruction is therefore to be given with discernment, matching it to the hearers' maturity without mixing God's truth with personal ideas or traditions, and new believers as babes need to be taught and fed the truths suited to their growth in simple lessons rather than difficult arguments.

Strong meat is all the straight truths of the Word of God about the straightness of the way and what it is to be a Christian. Milk belongs only before conviction, and as soon as conviction of truth is yielded to and the heart is willing there is no need of milk, for the truth should then have its effect. Even souls weeks old and a month or two old in the truth must hear all the straight truth and endure the strong meat. Those who embrace the Third Angel's Message must learn in a few months truths that took years of searching and waiting to open, because now the truth is plain with its rays brought together in blazing light to be brought to bear upon the heart. Received, it works like leaven to purify and purge away the passions of the natural heart. Those who embrace it are about to enter the time of trouble such as never was and must know how to stand in the day of battle, so they must step fast with a breaking up and rending of heart before the Lord and not of the garment. To keep feeding months-old souls upon milk is a disgrace showing ignorance of the leadings of the Spirit and of the time being lived in, and those who cannot hear and endure the straightness of the way were better cut off from Israel.

Strong meat is the deep, nourishing truth of the gospel that builds spiritual life and forms a character approved by God, beyond mere knowledge that comes from books. Mature believers are to seek this solid food so they can grow strong in Christ, and this growth calls for effort and cooperation with God. It requires searching God's Word to learn true godliness, for studying how to control another person's mind is no substitute. True education in the knowledge of God and Christ renews the mind and strengthens it to recognize God's voice and discern good and evil. Churches are famishing for the Word of God, and their people need to be taught how to become Christians and fed sound spiritual truth instead of having church life consumed by the mechanics of missionary work.

Learning the first principles of present truth, believing God's messages for the time, and becoming settled in the faith belongs to this growth from milk to strong meat. Remaining in doubt and unbelief prevents unity with those who have accepted the truth.

How Discernment Matures

Discernment between good and evil develops by reason of use, through faithful practice and exercise by which the senses, the understanding, and the perceptive faculties are trained to judge rightly. Diligent study of the Scriptures exercises the understanding until it becomes able to decide correctly, with quickened perception, deepening knowledge of truth, and evident growth in grace. Those whose understanding is not cultivated may be unable to distinguish right from wrong, while those who keep learning and faithfully carry out their duties become fitted for service.

Believers must keep advancing in experience, exercising their spiritual powers so they can understand the deeper things of Scripture. Capacity grows as Christians receive instruction from the Word and impart it to others, for exercising that work enlarges capacity to receive. Young converts who are not put to work for others remain like babies needing milk and never advance beyond the ABC of divine things. Serving at home, in the neighborhood, and in the church carries experience beyond that stage, just as students should share what they learn and teachers need engagement with advanced subjects so their minds continue to grow.

Increasing knowledge of Christ through Scripture, under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, develops this ability to distinguish good from evil for the affairs of life. Earnest study of the Bible with prayer for divine wisdom enables a person to distinguish righteousness from sin, and growing spiritual knowledge brings greater ability to tell good from evil. Those thus rooted and grounded in truth will keep the way of the Lord by doing justice and judgment.

This maturity comes through conversion and an entire change of heart, through receiving the divine nature, continual conversion, and yielding the will to God in obedience. A will in harmony with Him is shown by actions that obey His Word and overcome evil, and day-by-day advancement in self-knowledge strengthens weak points of character. Such practiced discernment is needed to recognize error and the consequences of deceptive teachings, and those who would be of full age must cultivate keenness of perception to know how to choose the good and refuse the evil. It belongs to true children of God who make the Word their study and yield the will to Christ, giving ability to help one another and to live as happy, consistent Christians entrusted with responsibility.

Teaching Suited to Readiness

Spiritual food must be matched to maturity, with strong teaching reserved for those mature enough to receive it and milk for spiritual babes who have not yet learned the first principles of truth. Laborers are to use discretion in what they teach, giving learners only what they are prepared to understand and holding some things back until they are ready, presenting further truth gradually while searching Scripture so they can faithfully declare the whole counsel of God without mixing truth with personal ideas or traditions. New believers as babes in Christ need the sincere milk of the word in simple lessons of faith rather than strong meat or difficult arguments. Those entrusted with their care need Christlike character and wisdom, shown first in their homes and then in the church.

The truth itself is strong meat to those hearing it for the first time, so different in character and work from the errors preached from popular pulpits that it almost overwhelms them. It is weighty and difficult for people new to it to grasp, and because minds cannot grasp too much at once it must be dealt out judiciously in portions they can digest, with time to comprehend before more is given. Some minds catch an idea quickly while others are slow to comprehend new and startling truths, because they involve great changes and present a cross at every step. Therefore understanding and sympathies must be carried along without soaring too high to follow, giving point after point slowly and distinctly in only a few essential points at a time and stopping with no more at once than can be comprehended and profited by. Lengthy discourses should be cut into shorter parts, so the truth stays fixed like a nail in a sure place and leaves hearers eager for more with interest sustained, instead of losing two thirds through weariness and confusion.

Giving a difficult doctrine to hearers who are unready and prejudiced can deepen their opposition and drive them farther from the truth, so teachers should meet people where they are rather than force strong teaching on them. This applies to teaching about the nonimmortality of the soul in Christ, which is strong meat belonging to those whose experience has trained them to discern good and evil. Given to prejudiced hearers who are not ready for it, it can increase their resistance. Ministers should meet people where they are and teach with wisdom rather than a combative spirit.

Work of True Discernment

True discernment works by using the mind to weigh evidence rather than deciding by impulse, comparing Scripture with Scripture until the harmony is seen between prophecy and its fulfillment in the life and ministry of Jesus. In religious things maturity learns by such use to tell good from evil, what is genuine and substantial from what only appears valuable, substance from shadow.

Clear spiritual sight is necessary to choose the good and to reject everything that tends to confuse the understanding, including false science. Those entrusted with grave responsibilities must possess this sight, for blindness and walking like blind men comes from disregarding the light given in the Scriptures and in warnings sent. It is needed to recognize evil that is mingled with good or disguised as light, and to separate evil from good.

Readiness to do works of righteousness keeps a person from being deceived by the enemy's allurements, because actions guided by an exalted sense of right give power to discern right from wrong and exalted truth from error. When truth illuminates the heart this discernment becomes necessary for making right decisions. It belongs to those who will enter the kingdom of heaven because they have reached the highest standard of moral obligation, who do not hide the truth or deceive, who exalt God and defend His word, and who do not misapply principle to vindicate the wiles of Satan. God's faithful workers, tested in past conflicts and taught by the Spirit, have their experience strengthen this discernment so they can recognize the right way and reject teachings that do not come from God.

Helps and Hindrances

Discerning good and evil requires the eyes of the mind to be enlightened by the Holy Spirit, and this belongs to those who once had knowledge of the truth but backslid, that they return to their first love and become reformed and regenerated. Wrongdoing is the overflowing of an unclean, unconverted heart, so repentance for particular acts is not enough, and the heart must be cleansed through Christ's blood, through the blood of sprinkling. When sin is thus removed the soul is melted by the love of Jesus and responds with love for Him and abhorrence of sin. True discernment exposes cherished malice and the root of bitterness that springs into intense life and bears poisonous fruit when human plans and ideas are not followed, and uproots the evil plant, for partial concessions that only pluck off the tip are not thorough work.

Discerning right from wrong depends on keeping connection with God, for Satan stands on the ground where God's instrumentalities for His work in the earth are established, exercising his ingenuity to embarrass and hinder. He comes with temptations to men and women connected with them, whether in responsible positions or doing the humblest work, and if he ensnares them with his devices they lose their connection with God, become confused in judgment, and are unable to discern between right and wrong. The time will surely come when the spirit that has controlled the life will be made manifest, and lives thus controlled will testify that they are not co-workers with Christ. The mind must therefore be kept clear and pure to distinguish good from evil by cleansing the soul, examining conscience, turning the mind away from earthly things and opening it to heaven, and refreshing the memory with Bible principles. Praying the prayer Christ taught and living by it allows the Holy Spirit to renew the mind and heart and give strength to carry out holy purposes.

Reason and perception are given so that people may discern good from evil, right from wrong, and the sacred from the common, and discerning in spiritual things requires a clear mind and body. Habits of intemperance that injure mind and body destroy that discernment, leaving the mind confused and the conscience defiled. Stupefying the faculties with narcotics impairs this ability, while refusing temptation preserves the ability to distinguish. One whose discernment is thus destroyed yields readily to temptation and passes into Satan's power to be led away from God by deceptive temptation.

Yielding to temptation and refusing God's voice can harden the heart until a person loses the ability to discern good from evil. Hardening the heart and refusing to heed God's word weakens discernment, and repeatedly rejecting light can leave a person unable to recognize the difference between good and evil and between righteousness and unrighteousness. Men can thus blind their own spiritual eyesight so that they fail to discern and carry on underhand work against God's institutions even after plain testimonies have been given, and whoever does such work will meet the rebuke of God. Mature Christians develop this discernment between good and evil through practice, and young people need to learn the Word of God and build firm moral decision through practice, so they can recognize wrong conduct even when it comes from professed Christians and remain faithful rather than be swayed by others.

Fitness for Sacred Trust

Strong teaching belongs to those grown in understanding whose judgment has been trained by practice to tell good from evil, and the rebuke falls on church leaders who for the time ought to be teachers yet still need to be taught again the first principles because they refuse correction and follow their own way. Such are babes unskilled in the word of righteousness who still need milk, and the question to be put to them in that state is who entrusted them with the responsibilities of the church. Without trained discrimination between good and evil they are not fit to guide others, to advise, or to hold authority in matters requiring sound judgment.

Those supported as ministers in the field should be teachers skillful in the word of righteousness and not babes needing milk and needing to be taught again the first principles. Their responsible position requires feeling the burden of the work, considering how to devise more effective methods to bring truth to the mind, and desiring and seeking to improve in teaching, with the promise that God will reveal methods that make their ministry bear more fruit. The same standard exposes those claiming to labor in ministry who preach fanciful, imaginary doctrines and productions of perverted imagination instead of God's Word, showing lack of maturity and discernment. Such ministers need to return to first principles, study Scripture closely with experienced believers, and reject fanciful ideas that have no foundation in God's Word.

Full-grown believers exercise sanctified judgment to discern between good and evil, and this maturity is urgently needed as the work advances. Men in positions of trust must be faithful guardians of the purity of the church, its households, churches, institutions, and conferences, keeping out worldly, commercial and corrupting influences and wrong principles and keeping present truth central. Such discernment requires knowing God, consecration, transformation by grace, vital connection with heaven, prayer instead of self-reliance, and eyes anointed with heavenly eye-salve for clear spiritual eyesight. The discerning leader does not cherish self-esteem, seek self-glorification, or grasp for supremacy and control, but prays for an understanding heart to glorify God, approves what God approves, manages large interests with intelligence, even temper, Christlike forbearance and self-control, and trains others to trust God directly.

Full age means having the senses exercised to discern good and evil as the ability to distinguish righteousness from unrighteousness, right from wrong, and truth and righteousness from error and falsehood. Those who spoil God's flock by words and works bring confusion that leaves many unable to make this distinction. Selfish, ambitious projects deceive and keep deceiving, and placing more confidence in one's own judgment than in the message God has given proves loss of spiritual discernment. Those who have lost the gem of discernment while holding specious unbelief and accepting wages as if trusted guardians cannot distinguish truth from falsehood, and if after light they still fail in betraying God's cause they are to be disconnected from the work and not serve another year, for unless they repent evil angels will be their teachers and they will mislead those without discernment, confirming some in unbelief and leaving others needing to be retaught the right way.

God never leaves the world without men who can discern between good and evil and righteousness from unrighteousness. These are experienced pioneer workers and aged standard-bearers whom He appoints to stand in the forefront in emergency and crisis. Through the Spirit's testimonies He has spoken to them, pointing out the right way and condemning the wrong and exercising their senses by many past conflicts. Their work is to strengthen and teach young workers linked with them, recount past experiences when crises came and truth was questioned, defend the old waymarks and monuments against the effort to make them of no account, and remain steadfast through evil report and good report as builders on solid rock, not sand. Full-grown believers have clear spiritual eyesight to weigh matters wisely and discern what is needed both nigh and afar off, and there is need of such workers whose fuller consecration makes their work much more effective. Believers who remain dependent on basic teaching are weak and helpless while mature believers are ready for stronger instruction, so continued preaching to church members without sending workers to seek the lost leaves them fed with milk rather than meat, and ministers should trust God and go after the lost sheep instead of merely consuming the church's resources.