Trained to discern good and evil

Hebrews 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Today, I hope to offer you more solid food to satisfy your spiritual appetites. We learned yesterday that the word of righteousness is solid food. I believe the encouragement to live to love with Jesus is solid food because that’s what righteousness looks like. We learn today that solid food is for the mature, and we also learn what maturity looks like. Those who are mature and who have experienced the love and righteousness of Christ first hand didn’t get to that place of maturity through their hard work and determination. They have their senses trained over and over again by God. Let’s not miss the verb tense. The training isn’t something the mature do. It’s something that has happened to them in the past, the results of which they experience in the present. This is how Jesus learned obedience through the things which He suffered. He received well the training of the Father as He received suffering as from His hand for His good and not for evil. The discernment of good and evil comes from the heart attitude of trust in God’s righteousness—namely, that He wouldn’t allow anything into His life that wasn’t for the purpose of glorifying His name and revealing the life of God in Him. Knowing that He is living to love with His father put Him in the position to train His senses to experience and know the love of God, and then express His love in any given situation. Every situation was a training experience given to Him by His Father so He could learn obedience. Or to put it another way, every situation was an opportunity for Him to trust and love His Father, and every relationship was an opportunity to love with His Father. His senses were trained because of practice. That’s how Jesus was trained, and that’s how the mature are trained. Let me contrast the mature with the immature or the infant, as the author called them. The immature have not been trained yet to discern the good and evil when things happen. Because it’s not settled in their hearts that there is only one God from whom are all things and that He is love, they don’t receive well circumstances or relationships that bring about suffering. They think suffering is evil and anyone who causes suffering is evil. They haven’t learned obedience yet because they reject God’s way of training them. Like infants, they are only happy when they are clean, cuddled, and their stomachs are full. When they don’t get what they want or things aren’t easy, they can’t discern what could be good about that. They think their discomfort or inconvenience or suffering is bad. As a result, they worry, get anxious, complain, and blame whoever’s causing what they think is evil. Do you get it? Can you see the difference between the spiritual infant and the mature in Christ? One hasn’t been trained by God and the other has. The mature has learned that every day is filled with practice given by the Father to trust and love so their senses can be trained to discern good and evil. They know that every situation is an training opportunity to trust and love God and every relationship is a training opportunity to love with Jesus. So, which are you? Do you relate more to the infant or to the mature? I’m thinking, because you are listening to this podcast that you relate more to the mature. You are learning and growing accustomed to the word of righteousness. Let us give thanks to our Father in heaven who because of practice has trained us to discern good and evil.