Friday, March 15, 2013

Back To The Basics

"Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits."
Hebrews 6:1-3 (NKJV)

The Bible is a pretty big book; there are 66 books contained in one volume divided between the Old and New Testaments.  But although the Bible is so big there are several main themes we can see repeated over and over again, these could be called the major Bible doctrines or even Bible basics.  If we want to do well in life and have success we need to have a good foundation and that requires learning the Bible basics.  Too many believers do not know and understand the basics of the Bible enough that they are successful in their own lives and effective in teaching and helping others.

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews points out in chapter five that the people being written to should have already been teaching others, but they still needed someone to teach them the "first principles" again.  Then in chapter six we see a list of six "elementary principles" of Christ, these could be called Bible basics.  The idea given here is that if you don't know the basics you can't go any further, this is an area of difficulty for some Christians.  Too often Christians chase every new or seemingly exciting doctrine and these really just lead them away from the Bible basics.  The solution for many Christians is that they need to get back to the basics of the Bible.

As we learn and get a good understanding of the basic Bible doctrines we can continue to move on to what is called "perfection" in Hebrews six.  That word does not mean being flawless but being complete and mature.  If we don't understand the basics we will stay where we are spiritually until we do learn them.  This could be compared to studying a subject in school, you don't go on into advanced mathematics until you really know and understand the basics of math.  Until we know the Bible basics we will be limited in the amount God can use us due to our spiritual immaturity.  Let's build ourselves up on the Bible basics and go on with God to spiritual maturity and maximum spiritual effectiveness.

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