The Dangers of Christian Minimalism: Bare-Minimum-Bible People

Introduction

According to a 2022 survey with Ligonier and Lifeway, 100% of evangelicals believe the Bible is the highest authority for what they believe. On its face, this is a good thing. However, the closer I looked into the survey, some bad news emerged. 38% of evangelicals believe God accepts the worship from other religions (e.g., Judaism, Islam). And 37% believe gender identity is a matter of choice. The Bible may truly be American evangelicals’ highest authority. But authority only means something when you’re willing to submit to it.

The Passage

Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Hebrews 5:11–14

Explaining the Passage

Paul desires to explain the supremacy of Christ in greater detail, but he can’t. Paul desires to show these Christians a stunning scene on the top of a summit, but the church can barely walk to the next room without getting out of breath. Paul wants to spend more time talking about Jesus, but he can’t. Why? Because the Jewish Christians desire an uncomplicated but comfortable faith. Paul rebukes these Christians four times in this passage: first, for being dull of hearing (lit. “lazy of hearing”) when they should be sharp (v. 11), second, for not being able to teach by now (v. 12), third, for needing to be reminded of the basics (v. 12), and fourth, for needing milk instead of solid food (v. 13). Notice, Christians like this are babies and are untrained for the word of righteousness (v. 13). Those who eat solid food are able to discern good and evil (v. 14), which seems to be the goal of the Christian life.

In the next chapter, Paul lists the doctrines that the church should have matured past by now. He defines milk as the doctrines of repentance and faith (6:1), baptisms, laying on of hands, the resurrection, and the judgment (6:2). That is milk, but solid food gives you the ability to discern ethical distinctions. We all know it’s wrong to murder. But is it wrong to attend a gay wedding? Is it always wrong to get a divorce? What if your spouse converts to Islam? Should Christians support IVF? Should women wear yoga pants? Should Christian children receive a non-Christian education? Does the government have the authority to shut down public worship? Do all Christian songs count as worship? Should charitable giving replace tithes? Should women be workers at home or not?

Baby-doll Faith versus Child-like Faith

The knowledge of the Lord is expensive and expansive. So why are so many Christians content with cheap and microscopic knowledge? I asked some men in ministry this week some answers to this question. Here are answers we’ve heard: “I’m not a reader.” “I have the faith of a child.” “I read my devotion.” “I listen to His Radio.” These kinds of responses reveal a baby-doll faith. A baby doll faith prides itself in looking like a baby. But unlike a real baby, it remains looking like a baby. This kind of faith is dangerous. This kind of faith may not be faith at all. James says that true faith works, has calluses, and builds faithful things (James 2:14-26). False faith is like the wax statue of Vladmir Putin I saw in China—lifeless. Your baby-doll faith may be apostasy in hiding. So, make your calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10) A second reason this baby-doll faith is dangerous is that it weakens the church. The Bible is the sword of the Holy Spirit which fights our spiritual battles. Are you too weak to hold the sword? A weak church is unable to pass the faith to the next generation. I’ve said that your children’s faith will either be multiplied or divided; it doesn’t matter which id the faith you pass down is zero.

But God doesn’t want us to have a baby-doll faith, but a child-like faith. A child-like faith is always hungry and looking to grow. A child-like faith always grows and matures. Peter said in 1 Peter 2 that we should hunger for the word like infants long for milk. Hebrews says we should long for the word no longer like infants. Is this a contradiction? No. Just like it’s not a contradiction for little Johnny to need milk when he’s an infant and to need a cheeseburger when he’s fourteen. It’s expected that living boys mature from eating milk to eating beef. It’s also expected that living Christians mature from the basics to the experienced.

Discernment

The purpose of knowledge of the word is so we can make wise discernments between good and evil. As you grow and mature in wisdom, you should also expect to grow in understanding (Prov 4:7; Ps 49:3). But you grow in wisdom through faith and patience. A few verses later, Paul says the antidote to laziness with the word is faith diligence, faith, and patience.

And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Hebrews 6:11–12

Here are some exhortations for you as you mature in the word. First, read and digest the word daily. I would rather you read a few verses per day than read multiple chapters sporadically. But read the word as someone responsible for applying what it says (cause you are). Read the word diligently every day. Apply every word faithfully. Trust the word in all circumstances patiently.

Second, resolve to have no problem passages. After reading the Bible faithfully for a few years, you may reach a point where you think “I get it. I’m a sinner. Jesus saved me. I got it!” Meanwhile, the Old Testament is like a foreign planet, Paul says things you don’t like, and you wonder why the genealogies are in the Bible. We think that just because we understand the parts we like, that we’ve gleaned most of what scripture has to teach us. But if all we focus on in our Bible reading are the parts we like, we never have to deal with the parts that we should deal with. (For example, some people don’t know what to do with the language surrounding Jonathan and David in 1 Samuel. Leithart dismantled the liberal interpretation by counting some of the dates)

Third, be humble enough to be wrong. In the parable of the talents, the unrighteous steward plays it safe with the Lord’s investment by burying it in the ground (Matt 25:18). He didn’t want to risk a bad investment, so He despised the investment. When we pride ourselves in not “changing” as a Christian, instead, we may be proud of not growing and risking being wrong. It’s like refusing to eat because you may use one of your calories to sin. We put limits on scripture’s authority and sufficiency in our life. Then we act humble; “I don’t want to be legalistic.” Notice, I’m not saying you should be a heretic. I’m saying that if you should never be afraid of applying all the Bible to all your life.

Conclusion

God’s word is strong enough to endure us making mistakes and learning from those mistakes. Who is more biblical? The guy who tries to apply all of scripture to all his life and gets a lot of things wrong or the guy who applies a few verses of scripture to some of his life and gets never has to apologize for getting it wrong? One is a Biblical maximalist and the other is a Biblical minimalist.