“In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!” — Hebrews 5:12
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I had the privilege of playing professional baseball for 15 years, spending my last eight years at the Triple-A or MLB level. After retiring, I became a minor league pitching coach.
I was assigned to coach in rookie ball, and I was reminded early on by older, wiser coaches to lower my expectations of what players at this level would be able to retain from our instruction. Many were just out of high school. They were great athletes, could throw hard, but most didn’t truly know how to pitch. They were throwers that needed to mature and learn how to pitch in order to advance to the next level and, hopefully, up to the major leagues. I was able to give them pieces of advice and wisdom in small increments because they weren’t yet able to handle the knowledge of how to get major-league hitters out.
In Hebrews 5:12-14, the writer is admonishing the people he is writing to because of their lack of spiritual maturity. To admonish means to strongly reprimand someone for their actions or lack of certain actions. They had become complacent. They should be teaching others, yet they still needed someone to teach them simple things in the faith.
Spiritual maturity is achieved when we put into practice the disciplines of reading the Word, praying, fellowshipping and sharing Jesus with others. Maturity comes with training.
Milk is good for babies, but as we mature, we need solid food. Seek some solid food today.
— Mickey Weston, Chicago White Sox chaplain
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