Hebrews 5:11
Verse
Context
Milk and Solid Food
10and was designated by God as high priest in the order of Melchizedek.11We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain, because you are dull of hearing. 12Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to reteach you the basic principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food!
Sermons
Bill McLeod
Ralph Shallis
C.H. Spurgeon
W.H. Griffith ThomasSummary
Commentary
- Adam Clarke
- Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
- John Gill
- Tyndale
Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
Of whom we have many things to say - The words περι οὑ, which we translate of whom, are variously applied: 1. To Melchisedec; 2. To Christ; 3. To the endless priesthood. Those who understand the place of Melchisedec, suppose that it is in reference to this that the apostle resumes the subject in the seventh chapter, where much more is said on this subject, though not very difficult of comprehension; and indeed it is not to be supposed that the Hebrews could be more capable of understanding the subject when the apostle wrote the seventh chapter than they were when, a few hours before, he had written the fifth. It is more likely, therefore, that the words are to be understood as meaning Jesus, or that endless priesthood, of which he was a little before speaking, and which is a subject that carnal Christians cannot easily comprehend. Hard to be uttered - Δυσερμηνευτος· Difficult to be interpreted, because Melchisedec was a typical person. Or if it refer to the priesthood of Christ, that is still more difficult to be explained, as it implies, not only his being constituted a priest after this typical order, but his paying down the ransom for the sins of the whole world; and his satisfying the Divine justice by this sacrifice, but also thereby opening the kingdom of heaven to all believers, and giving the whole world an entrance to the holy of holies by his blood. Dull of hearing - Νωθροι ταις ακοαις· Your souls do not keep pace with the doctrines and exhortations delivered to you. As νωθρος signifies a person who walks heavily and makes little speed, it is here elegantly applied to those who are called to the Christian race, have the road laid down plain before them, how to proceed specified, and the blessings to be obtained enumerated, and yet make no exertions to get on, but are always learning, and never able to come to the full knowledge of the truth.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
Here he digresses to complain of the low spiritual attainments of the Palestinian Christians and to warn them of the danger of falling from light once enjoyed; at the same time encouraging them by God's faithfulness to persevere. At Heb 6:20 he resumes the comparison of Christ to Melchisedec. hard to be uttered--rather as Greek, "hard of interpretation to speak." Hard for me to state intelligibly to you owing to your dulness about spiritual things. Hence, instead of saying many things, he writes in comparatively few words (Heb 13:22). In the "we," Paul, as usual, includes Timothy with himself in addressing them. ye are--Greek, "ye have become dull" (the Greek, by derivation, means hard to move): this implies that once, when first "enlightened," they were earnest and zealous, but had become dull. That the Hebrew believers AT JERUSALEM were dull in spiritual things, and legal in spirit, appears from Act 21:20-24, where James and the elders expressly say of the "thousands of Jews which believe," that "they are all zealous of the law"; this was at Paul's last visit to Jerusalem, after which this Epistle seems to have been written (see on Heb 5:12, on "for the time").
John Gill Bible Commentary
For when for the time ye ought to be teachers,.... These Hebrews had had great advantages; they were not only descended from Abraham, and had the law of Moses, and the writings of the Old Testament, but some of them had enjoyed the ministry of Christ, and however of his apostles; and it was now about thirty years from the day of Pentecost, in which the gifts of the Holy Ghost were bestowed in such an extraordinary manner, and a large number were converted, and a church state settled among them; and therefore considering the length of time, the opportunities and advantages they had enjoyed, it might have been expected, and indeed it is what should have been, that they would have been teachers of others, some in a private, and some in a public way: from whence it may be observed, that to have time for learning, and yet make no proficiency, is an aggravation of dulness; moreover, that men ought to be hearers, and make some good proficiency in hearing, before they are fit to be teachers of others; also, that persons are not only to hear for their own edification, but for the instruction of others, though all hearers are not designed for public teachers; for to be teachers of others, requires a considerable share of knowledge: to which may be added, that the churches of Christ are the proper seminaries of Gospel ministers. But this was so far from being the case of these Hebrews, that the apostle says of them, ye have need that one teach on again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; by the oracles of God are meant the Scriptures, not the law of Moses only, but all the writings of the Old Testament, which were given by the respiration of God, and are authoritative and infallible; and by the "first principles" of them are intended, either the first promises in them, concerning the Messiah; or the institutions, rites, and ceremonies of the law, which are sometimes called elements, Gal 4:3 where the same word is used as here; and which were the alphabet and rudiments of the Gospel to the Jews: or else the apostle designs the plain doctrines of the Gospel, which were at first preached unto them, in which they needed to be again instructed, as they were at first; so that instead of going forward, they had rather gone back: and are become such as have need of milk; of the types, shadows, and figures of the law, which were suited to the infant state of the church, who by sensible objects were directed to the view of Gospel grace; or of the plain and easier parts of the Gospel, comparable to milk for their purity, sweetness, nourishing nature, and being easy of digestion: and not of strong meat: such as the deep things of God, the mysteries of the Gospel; those which are more hard to he understood, received, and digested; such as the doctrines of the Trinity, of God's everlasting love, of eternal election and reprobation, of the person of Christ, the abrogation of the law, &c.
Tyndale Open Study Notes
5:11–6:20 After beginning to discuss Jesus’ appointment as High Priest (5:1-10), the author confronts his audience with a series of exhortations (5:11–6:20). Such a shift in a sermon or discourse was meant to focus the hearers’ attention. 5:11–6:3 This exhortation deals with the recipients’ spiritual lethargy. 5:11 spiritually dull: The Greek term means “sluggish, dimwitted, negligent, lazy.”
Hebrews 5:11
Milk and Solid Food
10and was designated by God as high priest in the order of Melchizedek.11We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain, because you are dull of hearing. 12Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to reteach you the basic principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food!
- Scripture
- Sermons
- Commentary
(Deeper Spiritual Life): Deeper Spiritual Life - What Is It?
By A.W. Tozer13K49:08Deeper LifeHEB 5:11In this sermon, the preacher describes a group of people who are hungry for a deeper relationship with God. These individuals are not interested in false doctrines or extreme excitement, but rather in knowing God and growing in holiness. They are dissatisfied with mere form and are seeking genuine content and substance in their faith. The preacher emphasizes the importance of seeking after God and thirsting for perfection, and encourages listeners to engage in meaningful conversations about God and Christ.
(The Church Needs to Know) 3. God and Music
By Miki Hardy1.5K55:30Contemporary Christian MusicMAT 6:33JHN 16:13HEB 5:11In this sermon, the speaker addresses the issue of young Christians being influenced by worldly music and entertainment. He emphasizes the importance of resisting the temptation to be carried away by the flesh and urges listeners to examine their behavior and body language. The speaker compares the celebration of God to the celebration of the world, highlighting the need for humility and brokenness before God. He cautions against indulging in secular music genres and encourages young people to gather together in a way that glorifies God.
Shuffling Saints
By Bill McLeod1.4K55:56LukewarmnessACT 19:18HEB 5:11In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of being free and loose in our lives. He uses the analogy of a calf being let loose from a stall and running and kicking its heels. The speaker also mentions the need for Christians to have a solid foundation, comparing it to deer jumping with joy on solid ground. He warns against causing others to stumble or be offended by our actions and reminds us that we are constantly being watched by various entities, including angels and demons. The speaker concludes by highlighting the need for self-reflection and willingness to listen to God's guidance in order to overcome obstacles and experience true freedom.
The Spirit of God Pt3
By Ralph Shallis1.1K1:04:10Spirit Of GodMAT 6:33ROM 12:21CO 3:1EPH 4:14HEB 5:11JAS 4:61PE 2:2In this sermon, the speaker addresses the Corinthians, a church that has failed to mature spiritually. The apostle Paul writes to them with a broken heart, expressing his disappointment that they are still behaving like carnal and immature believers. He compares their spiritual growth to infants who can only handle milk instead of solid food. The speaker emphasizes the need for God's grace and the teaching of the Holy Spirit to help believers endure future challenges and sufferings. The sermon also references the story of Elijah being sustained by God's provision of bread for forty days and nights, highlighting the importance of relying on God's strength in difficult times.
Question Answer Session (River of Life 2016)
By Zac Poonen6281:16:45DEU 1:3PRO 27:19ISA 50:4LUK 4:23ROM 8:6EPH 6:1HEB 5:11
This sermon emphasizes the importance of seeking God's guidance through prayer, maintaining a clear conscience, and being sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. It highlights the need for parents to create a heavenly atmosphere in their homes, balancing love and discipline in raising children. The role of obedience, humility, and seeking God's will in daily life is emphasized to live a godly and purposeful life.
Greatness of Christ
By C.H. Spurgeon01KI 18:46JOB 38:3JER 1:172CO 10:5EPH 6:14PHP 4:8HEB 5:11HEB 6:111PE 1:13The preacher emphasizes the importance of being mentally prepared and ready for spiritual battle, drawing from various biblical examples where individuals were instructed to gird up their loins as a symbol of readiness and resolve. This metaphorical girding of the mind signifies the need for courage, resolve, and preparedness in facing challenges and conflicts in the Christian journey. Just as physical girding removes hindrances for action, believers are called to remove mental hindrances like worry, fear, and impurity to allow the Holy Spirit to work effectively in their lives. The sermon highlights the necessity of disciplining one's mind, focusing on truth, and taking every thought captive to Christ to live a life of holiness and obedience.
Faithfulness
By W.H. Griffith Thomas01CO 3:1PHP 1:9HEB 5:11HEB 6:11JN 2:12W.H. Griffith Thomas preaches on the four classes of Christians: babes, growing Christians, mature Christians, and invalids, emphasizing the dangers of spiritual degeneration and the importance of continuous growth in faith and maturity. He warns against becoming stagnant in spiritual growth, highlighting the need to discern between good and evil, and the harmful effects of remaining spiritually immature. However, he also provides hope by outlining how spiritual degeneration is remediable through prayer, daily study of the Word, and active trust, love, obedience, and hope in God.
Undeveloped Capabilities
By John Hames0JOS 5:121CO 3:21CO 13:1EPH 5:182TI 2:15HEB 4:12HEB 5:11HEB 6:1HEB 12:141PE 2:2John Hames preaches on the importance of progressing from spiritual babyhood to Christian Perfection, as outlined in the letter to the Hebrews. He emphasizes the need to move from a state of dullness in hearing God's voice to having senses exercised to discern good and evil. Hames highlights the dangers of remaining stagnant in spiritual growth, such as being unskilled in the word of righteousness and lacking progress in maturity. He urges believers to transition from a milk diet to solid food, symbolizing a deeper understanding of God's truths and the ability to distinguish between human and divine aspects of faith.
How Life Is Maintained - the Principle of the New Covenant
By T. Austin-Sparks0New CovenantSpiritual LifeJHN 16:9ROM 1:181CO 12:122CO 4:6GAL 2:20EPH 4:15HEB 2:10HEB 5:11HEB 6:1HEB 12:5T. Austin-Sparks emphasizes the necessity of maintaining spiritual life within Christianity, warning against reducing it to mere 'dead works' or systems of doctrine. He explains that the New Covenant is not a set of beliefs but a living relationship with Christ, revealed through the Holy Spirit. Sparks highlights the importance of personal revelation of Christ in the believer's heart, which is essential for true Christianity to thrive. He argues that all practices and doctrines should be seen as expressions of the Living Person of Christ, rather than rigid systems. Ultimately, the sermon calls for a continuous, growing understanding of Christ to keep faith vibrant and impactful.
God Hath Spoken - Part 4
By T. Austin-Sparks0Living FaithNew CovenantJHN 16:9ROM 1:182CO 4:6GAL 2:20EPH 4:15HEB 2:10HEB 5:11HEB 6:1HEB 12:51PE 2:9T. Austin-Sparks emphasizes the necessity of maintaining spiritual life within Christianity, warning against reducing faith to mere 'dead works' or systems. He explains that the New Covenant is not a set of doctrines but a living relationship with Christ, revealed through the Holy Spirit. Sparks highlights that true Christianity is characterized by a personal revelation of Christ in the believer's heart, which must be continually deepened. He cautions against confining the vastness of Christ to rigid frameworks, advocating for a dynamic understanding of faith that grows through spiritual principles. Ultimately, the essence of the New Covenant is a living experience of Christ, not a mechanical adherence to doctrine.
Day 224, Hebrews 6
By David Servant0HEB 5:11HEB 6:1HEB 6:4HEB 6:9HEB 6:18David Servant emphasizes the importance of not becoming 'dull of hearing' in our spiritual journey, urging believers to grasp the foundational truths of repentance, faith, baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection, and eternal judgment. He highlights the risk of falling away from the faith and losing salvation, as outlined in Hebrews 6:4-8, stressing the seriousness of backsliding and the impossibility of renewing repentance for those who have turned away. Servant encourages believers to demonstrate genuine faith through love for fellow believers and to persevere in faith and patience to ultimately inherit God's promises, drawing inspiration from the example of Abraham.
- Adam Clarke
- Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
- John Gill
- Tyndale
Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
Of whom we have many things to say - The words περι οὑ, which we translate of whom, are variously applied: 1. To Melchisedec; 2. To Christ; 3. To the endless priesthood. Those who understand the place of Melchisedec, suppose that it is in reference to this that the apostle resumes the subject in the seventh chapter, where much more is said on this subject, though not very difficult of comprehension; and indeed it is not to be supposed that the Hebrews could be more capable of understanding the subject when the apostle wrote the seventh chapter than they were when, a few hours before, he had written the fifth. It is more likely, therefore, that the words are to be understood as meaning Jesus, or that endless priesthood, of which he was a little before speaking, and which is a subject that carnal Christians cannot easily comprehend. Hard to be uttered - Δυσερμηνευτος· Difficult to be interpreted, because Melchisedec was a typical person. Or if it refer to the priesthood of Christ, that is still more difficult to be explained, as it implies, not only his being constituted a priest after this typical order, but his paying down the ransom for the sins of the whole world; and his satisfying the Divine justice by this sacrifice, but also thereby opening the kingdom of heaven to all believers, and giving the whole world an entrance to the holy of holies by his blood. Dull of hearing - Νωθροι ταις ακοαις· Your souls do not keep pace with the doctrines and exhortations delivered to you. As νωθρος signifies a person who walks heavily and makes little speed, it is here elegantly applied to those who are called to the Christian race, have the road laid down plain before them, how to proceed specified, and the blessings to be obtained enumerated, and yet make no exertions to get on, but are always learning, and never able to come to the full knowledge of the truth.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
Here he digresses to complain of the low spiritual attainments of the Palestinian Christians and to warn them of the danger of falling from light once enjoyed; at the same time encouraging them by God's faithfulness to persevere. At Heb 6:20 he resumes the comparison of Christ to Melchisedec. hard to be uttered--rather as Greek, "hard of interpretation to speak." Hard for me to state intelligibly to you owing to your dulness about spiritual things. Hence, instead of saying many things, he writes in comparatively few words (Heb 13:22). In the "we," Paul, as usual, includes Timothy with himself in addressing them. ye are--Greek, "ye have become dull" (the Greek, by derivation, means hard to move): this implies that once, when first "enlightened," they were earnest and zealous, but had become dull. That the Hebrew believers AT JERUSALEM were dull in spiritual things, and legal in spirit, appears from Act 21:20-24, where James and the elders expressly say of the "thousands of Jews which believe," that "they are all zealous of the law"; this was at Paul's last visit to Jerusalem, after which this Epistle seems to have been written (see on Heb 5:12, on "for the time").
John Gill Bible Commentary
For when for the time ye ought to be teachers,.... These Hebrews had had great advantages; they were not only descended from Abraham, and had the law of Moses, and the writings of the Old Testament, but some of them had enjoyed the ministry of Christ, and however of his apostles; and it was now about thirty years from the day of Pentecost, in which the gifts of the Holy Ghost were bestowed in such an extraordinary manner, and a large number were converted, and a church state settled among them; and therefore considering the length of time, the opportunities and advantages they had enjoyed, it might have been expected, and indeed it is what should have been, that they would have been teachers of others, some in a private, and some in a public way: from whence it may be observed, that to have time for learning, and yet make no proficiency, is an aggravation of dulness; moreover, that men ought to be hearers, and make some good proficiency in hearing, before they are fit to be teachers of others; also, that persons are not only to hear for their own edification, but for the instruction of others, though all hearers are not designed for public teachers; for to be teachers of others, requires a considerable share of knowledge: to which may be added, that the churches of Christ are the proper seminaries of Gospel ministers. But this was so far from being the case of these Hebrews, that the apostle says of them, ye have need that one teach on again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; by the oracles of God are meant the Scriptures, not the law of Moses only, but all the writings of the Old Testament, which were given by the respiration of God, and are authoritative and infallible; and by the "first principles" of them are intended, either the first promises in them, concerning the Messiah; or the institutions, rites, and ceremonies of the law, which are sometimes called elements, Gal 4:3 where the same word is used as here; and which were the alphabet and rudiments of the Gospel to the Jews: or else the apostle designs the plain doctrines of the Gospel, which were at first preached unto them, in which they needed to be again instructed, as they were at first; so that instead of going forward, they had rather gone back: and are become such as have need of milk; of the types, shadows, and figures of the law, which were suited to the infant state of the church, who by sensible objects were directed to the view of Gospel grace; or of the plain and easier parts of the Gospel, comparable to milk for their purity, sweetness, nourishing nature, and being easy of digestion: and not of strong meat: such as the deep things of God, the mysteries of the Gospel; those which are more hard to he understood, received, and digested; such as the doctrines of the Trinity, of God's everlasting love, of eternal election and reprobation, of the person of Christ, the abrogation of the law, &c.
Tyndale Open Study Notes
5:11–6:20 After beginning to discuss Jesus’ appointment as High Priest (5:1-10), the author confronts his audience with a series of exhortations (5:11–6:20). Such a shift in a sermon or discourse was meant to focus the hearers’ attention. 5:11–6:3 This exhortation deals with the recipients’ spiritual lethargy. 5:11 spiritually dull: The Greek term means “sluggish, dimwitted, negligent, lazy.”