Introduction

People in the Church have come from different backgrounds. Some people grew up in the Church, and their families were active in Church functions. They learned a lot about the Bible from their youth, like young Timothy:

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 3:14-15)

Other people have had very little experience in the Church before they were converted; they knew almost nothing about the Bible, and everything they learned from that point on would be entirely new to them. Still others have had a lot of “unlearning” to do, because before they were converted they spent a lot of time in the enemy’s camp. All they knew were lies and half-truths. They were experts in the “vain philosophies” of this world.

So at our conversion to Christianity we may already know a lot or just a little bit about what’s going on. The Bible may either be a familiar book to us already, or a perfectly strange book to us. Thankfully, conversion itself doesn’t depend on how familiar we were with God in our past. The moment that Christ personally confronts us and deals with our souls, all he is working on for the moment is the root problem: the fact that we are dead to God, dead in sin, and without hope for eternal life. Conversion is literally a spiritual resurrection from the dead, so that now we walk in the light (1 John 1:7) and can see and know God. Once he gets us to that point of spiritual life, he can start working on other issues.

And one of the things he’s going to start working on after conversion is helping us with knowledge about God’s spiritual world. He wants to lay the necessary groundwork for the things in the future that he has planned for us. It’s like training a soldier for battle: the soldier has to go through drill camp, and specialized training, in order to be ready for combat. God has a lot of work for us to do, and he has high expectations of us. When troubles, temptations and trials come, will we know what to do in order to honor him? When he sends people to us who are in desperate need, will we know what to do to help them? When the enemy launches a furious attack, will we know how to stop him and push him back?

All these future circumstances will require knowledge of the truth. Every Christian has to have a certain amount of knowledge if he/she hopes to “persevere to the end” and be saved. But now we might ask, how much knowledge is necessary? How much should the average Christian know in order to adequately fulfill his responsibilities? Here there seems to be a lot of difference of opinion among Christians! But the book of Hebrews, fortunately, spells it out for us:

We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 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! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so. (Hebrews 5:11 – 6:3)

The author is talking about fundamentals of the faith, the very basics of what each of us have to know in order to get along in God’s Kingdom. We could describe it like this: we live in a new world now – God’s spiritual world – that Christ brought us into at our conversion. These truths describe our new surroundings to us so that we know where we are, the basic rules, and the resources that are available to us. The Bible is literally our roadmap guiding us through this world to our destination: Heaven.

In other words, if we are ignorant about these things, we are like lost tourists in a strange land who don’t know the language or customs. Ignorant Christians are actually wandering around lost in God’s spiritual world, completely at a loss about what’s going on around them. They don’t know where to turn for help, and they wouldn’t know what to ask for if they found someone. They don’t even know much about their Lord – which is obvious when they blunder into God’s presence without the necessary ceremony and blurt out whatever inappropriate thing comes to mind instead of bowing down to the Master in fear and reverence!

And notice that these things listed in Hebrews are just the fundamentals; there’s more to come. The author wishes his students knew more than just the basics! For a life of service to God, in order to fully honor God in all things and bring him the glory he richly deserves, in order to build the Church into a holy and eternal dwelling place for the Lord, and in order to endure persecution faithfully to the end, we have much more to learn than this simple list! These are just the fundamentals of the faith; they’re designed to give us a simplified understanding of the spiritual world that we’re part of now. They are like a basic course in geography – to help us understand the lay of the land we’re in – and a basic course in history – to help us understand how things got to be the way they are. Once we have mastered these basics, we need to move on, to learn more, to “go on to maturity,” in order to carry out our mission on earth.

Unfortunately many Christians don’t even know these basics! “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!” The author thinks it’s a shame that his students know so little about the very basics of the faith. What happened? What went wrong? Did they purposely turn their backs on the teaching in the Church? Did someone fail them and not teach them these things? Whatever the reason behind their ignorance, he feels that his hands are tied: there are more important issues to deal with, issues that will involve the great work of God that we’re going to be involved in, yet his readers are way behind right now. It’s going to be difficult, if not impossible, to bring them up to speed and train them in what they need for coming trials.

In fact, he can see dangers here that perhaps you and I haven’t been aware of. Ignorant Christians are playing dangerous games. It’s quite possible to get “converted,” become part of a church, enjoy the Gospel blessings, fellowship with other Christians, read the Bible, worship God and pray to him – and yet, because of ignorance of the basics of the faith, turn one’s back on Christ in the end. Sadly, many churches have people who do this.

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the Heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. (Hebrews 6:4-6)

That such a thing should happen is a condemnation of our poor educational system in the Church. Christians ought to be required to learn the fundamentals of the faith as soon as they profess Christ as Savior. This would go a long way to prevent the public embarrassment that the Church often suffers when so-called Christians turn their backs on the Gospel and dishonor the “Sovereign Lord who bought them.” (2 Peter 2:1)

Many more Christians in the Church suffer from ignorance in a less tragic way, though any degree of ignorance is nothing to be proud of. Without at least a basic knowledge of God and his Kingdom, the teaching that they do come under – sermons, Sunday School lessons, Bible studies, etc. – will have little or no effect on them. Truth washes over them like rain over an umbrella. In order to assimilate the lessons that church leaders give them, they have to have at least a basic understanding of the truth; but without that, what is said in Church doesn’t mean much to them and they never do get the point.

Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned. (Hebrews 6:7-8)

Jesus told us that not only does he expect this from many that hear the Gospel, but he will also take measures to deny any more knowledge to those who despise the truth.

The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of Heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.” (Matthew 13:11-13)

Ignorance will be rewarded with God’s rejection, not God’s acceptance. Unfruitful professing Christians are as much a curse to the Church as briers in a flower garden.