Hebrews 6:1a
"Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrines (or the teachings) of Christ, let us go unto perfection…."
I’m going to stop right there. Because I’m thinking, there is so much right there, that the casual reader just reads over it. Here's what many tell us "You’ve taught me how to read!" Well, not that they couldn’t read as reading goes. But, people don’t stop to analyze what it really says, see? And this is what we have to do. So, "Therefore," since we have to come away from that milk-bottle, the signs, miracles and wonders environment and get into the deeper things that we can share with other people, we have to start someplace and what’s the next word? "Leaving." Now what do you suppose leaving means? Well, it means what it says!
Come back with us to Ephesians chapter 5 and here we have the whole marriage situation for us in this Age of Grace. The husband and wife relationship, so I want you to drop in at verse 31. And all I’m doing this for is so that you get the meaning of the word leaving.
Ephesians 5:31
"For this case shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh."
Let's look at that a little more than just seeing a beautiful wedding ceremony. What really happens when a young couple gets married and sets up their own home? What happens between them and their parents? Well, they don’t forsake them. They don’t say, "Bye, Dad! I’ll see you in Glory!" That isn’t what marriage does. Marriage is still connected to both generations.
In short order what does that young couple suddenly realize? The rent is due, car and insurance payments have to be made. Groceries have to be bought. The electric bill, and the phone bill are staring them in the face. Hey, they’ve never had this before, for the most part. And so what is it? It’s a whole progressive step from living in the home nest, to all of a sudden establishing a home of their own. But they don’t forsake that which has gone before, they merely move on away from it, still keeping the ties to the home folks. Now isn’t that understandable?
This all started back in Genesis. You have the same word; "therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and cleave to his wife." This is the whole concept. But the point we're trying to make, it’s not a matter of totally forsaking the parents, it’s simply moving on. In fact, the more we study Hebrews, the more we’ve come to the conclusion under the heading of the Epistle to the Hebrews, they could have added a letter promoting progression, because that’s what Hebrews is all about. To keep moving and moving. And as we were studying a little bit, we couldn’t help but think, that in the world around us, isn’t that exactly true? There is no status quo, at least not until you retired. And Glenda and I have talked on what it’d be like to be retired? We now have an idea! But for the average person going through life, there is no status quo if you’re going to succeed in life. Now this was some time ago as now we're retired and we have more time to spend in our studies of scriptures. It's amazing what we're learning as now we can take our time to slowly research words and phrases and then ask a few questions where and when needed of the Holy Spirit to get what He means or meant.
What am I saying? Whether it’s a sports team, a pro-football team, a college program, a business, a marriage, or an education, you have to either keep moving forward, be it ever so infinitesimal, you’ve got to keep moving forward or else what? Back you go! We stall out and we become slothful.
We’re using the analogy of a salmon swimming up stream or if in this application we're in canoe and paddling up stream. Oh, you may not be making much headway but I’ll tell you what, the minute you pull that paddle out of the water you’re going to make some movement! But it’s going to be back down stream.
Alright, now that’s exactly the way we have to look at Scripture. There is no such thing in this progressive unfolding of the Word of God as a status quo. We have to either keep moving on and learning and getting deeper into the Word or we're going to get careless and lose interest. And so it always holds that we have to leave that which has gone before for the purpose of moving on. And that’s exactly what it’s talking about. Now, let’s look at the verse again.
Hebrews 6:1a
"Therefore leaving…" In other words, don’t forsake it. You don’t turn your back on it saying, "I don’t want anything more to do with that." You move from that one place into a progressive unfolding of that which lies ahead. But what is the Apostle admonishing these people to leave?
Hebrews 6:1a
"…the principles of the doctrine of Christ…."
All the Greek that I can find and the various dictionaries and commentators, all use the same thing. And if you have a good marginal help in your Bible, it would be in your margin. This word principles is better translated "the words of the beginning of Christ."
Think about that for a minute.
No comments:
Post a Comment