Where's the Beef?

Talking to my Greek students tonight about Hebrews 5:11-14. The author of Hebrews explains that the immature need milk but the mature need meat. So what is meat really? It has like spiritual maturity, become subjective instead of objective. The author of Hebrews was trying to give an in depth exegesis about Melchizedek being a type of Christ but he had to stop due to the immaturity of his audience. He then tells us in chapter six what isn't meat, repentance from dead works faith toward God, instruction about washings and laying on of hands, resurrection from the dead and eternal judgement. So if these topics are not meat what is? The author of Hebrews gives us principles that can help us to identify meat. First do they provide God's logic concerning justice? The immature is unaccustomed to this. So what is God's logic concerning justice? Jesus tells us in John 13 and 15 that we are to unconditionally love one another. Jesus also tells us if struck to turn the other cheek, if someone asks to borrow something give it to them and not ask for it back, and unconditionally love your enemies. These principles when taught from scripture are not milk and require someone who has experience with spiritual things to understand them. The author of Hebrews also said the mature put God's logic of justice into daily practice. Paul said in Romans 6 we are to constantly present ourselves as weapons of righteousness which requires practice. He says in 1 Corinthians 9:27 that he disciplines his body to make it his slave so he wouldn't be disqualified when he preached. The author of Hebrews says that in this practice the senses are being trained to know the difference between good and evil. Here in the Greek it is kalos, God's characteristic best and kakos, corrupted or subtle evil. In other words the mature who feeds on meat needs what is going to heighten his senses to detect the distinction between the best God has for us and the good man settles for. The good as Voltaire once said is the enemy of the best. The mature understand that obvious sin is what the immature should recognize. However, meat the mature feed on goes much deeper to equip them to recognize the good which is the poor imitation of God's best. Recognizing the corrupt they can pursue God's best and put it into practice. So meat must equip, it must be deeper in content, and it must connect more intimately with Christ. Once a mature believer consumes steak they know the difference between steak and meatloaf. This ability gives the mature even more refined skills and produces the characteristics of Christ in that believer. So the question becomes is the modern church providing meat or is it passing tofu off as meat?