A couple of years ago, I attended a meeting with some Asian teachers who passed the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence. The lady who presided the meeting was talking about how non- Americans should culturally prepare for American classrooms. Then  from out of the blue, she singled me out from the group and asked me if I knew Hannah Montana. The question caught me off guard for a second. I was about to say something when she quickly dismissed me by saying, “So you don’t know Hannah Montana? You see, if you guys are not even familiar with…” Blah blah blah…

As she prattled about preparedness and American teen culture, I sat there fuming about how she made me look like an idiot in front of the whole group. No one wants to look like an idiot, not even the real idiots as long as they can help it.  For people who consider themselves well-informed, it is infuriating when someone makes you look like an idiot.

This is kind of what happened in Heb. 5:11-14; 6:1-2. The Hebrews were the only group of people on the face of the earth who had an unbroken awareness of God in their bloodlines, from the time of their ancestors down to the time this text was written. The entire Bible happened in their own backyard  so we can assume that they really knew better than the rest of us. However, despite their more advanced spiritual knowledge, the Bible called them immature babies who are unable to digest solid spiritual truths. Ouch!

If I were to translate these verses, it would read something like this: There’s so much to say but it’s hard to explain because you are too dumb to understand. You should have been teachers by now but it looks like you need to go back to first grade and re-learn your ABCs. You’re just like a bunch of babies, you need milk rather than solid food! (Okay, that sounds a little off, thank God I’m not a translator.)

We never know how the Hebrews reacted to this letter but it’s really not that hard to guess. Imagine you were in their position. How would you react if somebody insinuated that you are a spiritual idiot, that you are such a baby incapable of understanding serious stuff?

Many times we overestimate our spiritual condition, falsely believing that we have reached a certain level of maturity. But when our lives get measured against the basics of Christian faith and we find ourselves lacking in certain aspects, may we have the grace to admit that we need to learn elementary stuff again.

There’s an even greater catch than simply knowing about God. It’s this thing called obedience. It is true when they say that you only know the part of the Bible that you obey, not the parts that you’ve memorized. Maybe this is the reason why so many people have limited spiritual growth. They think that by “knowing” (read: familiarizing) certain passages and doctrinal stuff, they automatically grow and become mature. There is a huge difference between growing old and growing up. Sadly, some people simply grow old; they never grow up.

If obedience is the basis of really knowing God, then we we know so little. I believe it’s time that we re-evaluate ourselves lest we unknowingly fall into the category of over-sized babies in our churches.

And if we ever find that we’ve been acting like babies and idiots after all these years,  at least we can just go back to our roots and re-learn the ABCs of our faith once again.

Photo Credits: Hannah Montana and child: http://www.picapp.com/; ABC: http://www.victorycaloocan.org/

Tags: basics of faith, Hannah Montana, idiots, immaturity, spiritual babies, spiritual growth
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