Getting On With It

“Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God’s ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong…So come on…Grow up in Christ…Let’s get on with it!  Hebrews 5:13 – 6:3.  (Message)

When my children were young I was always amused at their faces when I introduced new things to their diet.  After milk, there was cereal with its thickness and change of consistency they had to get used to.  Then once cereal was mastered bacon and eggs were introduced followed by the sweet treats of pop tarts and donuts.  As their appetites became more mature the flavor of their foods satisfied them to new levels, leaving behind the blandness and flavorless foods of infancy.  As adults we seldom reach for soy milk and flavorless cereal when selecting meals.

Yet, in our spiritual lives we constantly reach for baby food.  We have received Christ but we are satisfied with a bland spiritual existence.  We live safe and comfortable lives leaving our testimonies lacking flavor and seasoning.  Why do we pursue the grown up things in the flesh but are satisfied with baby’s milk in the spiritual?  Paul was exhorting the early Christians to match their actions with their talk.  Christ made some very grown up spiritual decisions for our good, and now it is time for us to make some grown up decisions for the good of His kingdom.  Every one of us needs to choose the solid food of our fellowship with Christ not doing things we know are wrong.  We need to serve where the needs are regardless of the inconvenience.  We need to love the unlovely and forgive the unforgivable.  We need to be people who live up to our word, and don’t mind the sacrifices required of us. 

When the solid food of honesty, compassion and generosity is ours for the choosing, we cannot be Christians who reach for milk.  When life got rough for Jesus He didn’t turn back to the easy things of this world – He reached further to the cross…He got on with it!

…and so should we…