The analogy of building is used throughout Scripture as symbolic of spiritual growth and development. It is an especially apt image with respect to the church.

Christian teaching is built on maturity not celebrity. Gray hair not star power is the guide for leadership in the church.

The ”young prodigy” and ”famous star” syndromes represent constant temptations for modern Christendom, especially in an era of worldwide entertainment and media exposure.

We climax this series of commands to build mature beliefs (Hebrews 6:1: Let us...go on to maturity) with an exhortation that expands maturity out of the merely personal.

It has been mentioned before that Jesus occasionally uses overstatement and exaggeration to get his point across. This is obviously again the case here. No one seriously believes this Command is to be obeyed literally. None of Jesus’ own disciples, to our knowledge, obeyed this Command as it stands, nor did Jesus expect them to.

The two ”D’s” we considered earlier are intrinsically linked--Discernment and Deception. Obviously they are opposites. It is discernment that guards against deception.

What was the favorite intellectual pastime of Christians? We all know the answer because we’ve engaged in it ourselves probably more times than we can count--arguing over doctrine.

It has been customary in recent years to equate what we call ”discernment” with the spiritual gift mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:10. But discernment exists in a much broader and more life-encompassing context than what might be evidenced in a worship setting as a singular ”gift.”

Three kinds of shallow beliefts are constant internal battles for the serious Christian. If we are not alert, they will infiltrate at every opportunity, and turn rigorous, practical, dynamic, growing faith into shallow, dogmatic, formularistic religion.

The Commands of Jesus seem to come in two broad categories: Those that are straightforward and relatively simple to obey...and those that are impossible to obey.