The writer of Hebrew was astonished at how neglectful Christians had become: “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Heb. 5:12) In other words, God expects us to GROW UP! And the way we do that is by studying God’s word! That is our source of knowing what is right and wrong. Then the thing we should be doing once we’ve grown up is to decide to teach others.Now back in the days of the first century, the church did not have the advantages that we have. There were no publishing companies that could produce inexpensive copies of Scripture, or study guides, or books. They did not have large church buildings with classrooms and all the comforts we want. So, how do you teach if you don’t have that stuff?You don’t need a fancy building or a classroom to teach. You just need to talk—have a conversation with a friend. Maybe you ask: WHY should we want to teach?The answer is found in a core function of the church. During the days of Joshua and the leaders, the people were faithful to God. But when those leaders died, things fell apart. So that that next generation failed to be faithful to the God. They didn’t teach others. (Read Judges 2:7 & 10.) That is WHY we should teach the next generation of believers.An objective of the church is to teach the next generation to be faithful to God. But let’s break this down. Who is the church? It is each individual member, so this becomes a responsibility of each believer. Each believer must read and study the Bible and make it a part of his or her thinking so that it becomes part of daily conversation.A good way of thinking about the church and this process of teaching is to compare our journey with God as walking up a staircase. Some folks are just beginning, taking their first step, others may be up 4 or 5 steps, others up much farther, while some may ...
