A Word about the Greatest Mentor

Today I want to share a word about Jesus as the Greatest Mentor as I comment on Hebrews Chapther 5 and 6.

From time to time, someone will be described as an overnight success. In other words, like we saw in our last episode with Melchizedek, a character will suddenly appear in the spotlight, seemingly from out of nowhere and make a huge splash. One example was basketball player Michael Jordan.

Michael Jordan burst on the scene when he hit the game‑winning shot in the 1982 NCAA championship as a freshman at University of North Carolina. Suddenly, commentators began talking about his seemingly natural abilities, his maturity, and his poise during clutch moments. It was as if he appeared from nowhere as a fully formed basketball star. Most people viewed him as a phenom, with unnatural talents and skills.

What many people didn’t know was that Jordan had been cut from his high school’s varsity basketball team by his Coach, Clifton “Pop” Herring. But instead of tossing Jordan to the side, Herring became his mentor.  Herring played him on the junior varsity team and demanded that Jordan become a disciplined player who focused on the fundamentals, not flashy and risky movements and actions. Jordan later said that Herring’s insistence on complying with his standards were the first time someone treated Jordan like a player who could be great, and not just a kid who liked basketball.

Like Mike, mature Christians do not appear from nowhere. Like Jordan, we are blessed to have a mentor who will coach us into maturity. In our Scripture for this episode, we will see that Jesus is the Greatest Mentor. Let’s begin with Hebrews 5:11-14:

We have a great deal to say about this, and it’s difficult to explain, since you have become too lazy to understand. Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic principles of God’s revelation again. You need milk, not solid food. Now everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced with the message about righteousness, because he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature—for those whose senses have been trained to distinguish between good and evil.

We Need Milk:

One thing that we can overlook in this passage of Scripture, is that we all start our life in Christ as babies, as spiritual newborns. Of course, it follows then, that newborns need milk.

A baby cannot thrive if it is not fed the milk that it needs, because nothing else will do. Babies don’t have teeth, so they cannot eat solid food. Also, babies can’t digest solid food, so even if they could eat it, it would not help them grow, and they’d probably become ill. In fact, if honey is fed to newborns, it can make them grievously ill with a disease called infant botulism. So, babies need milk.

Not only do babies need milk, but they also need the right kind of milk. Immediately after birth, mother’s milk contains colostrum, which helps to reinforce a baby’s immune system. Besides that, some babies need special formula mixtures to thrive or overcome colic. Both of my children needed to be shifted to a soy-based formula enhanced with a dollop of Cairo syrup before their stomachs settled down and before their mother and I could get any sleep! So, what is the proper milk for a newborn Christian?  It is nothing more than the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

• The newborn in Christ must know from John 3:16 that God loves everyone in the world.
• The newborn in Christ must know from Romans that all of us have sinned and that we have fallen short of God’s perfection.
• The newborn in Christ must know from Ephesians that the wages of sin is spiritual death, but that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
• The newborn in Christ must know from John 3:16 that God loved everyone in the world so much that He gave His Only Begotten Son as a sacrifice for our sin.
• The newborn in Christ must know from Romans 10 that if they trust in what Christ did for us, and confess that openly, that they will be saved.
• The newborn in Christ must know, that like the thief on the cross, we can be with God in heaven only because, “The man on the middle cross said I could come!”

So, today, before we go any further, let’s ask each of us: have we got milk? Have we drunk the milk of the Gospel? We must do this before we can move on to anything else!

Now, let’s read verses 6:1-8:

Therefore, leaving the elementary message about the Messiah, let us go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, faith in God, teaching about ritual washings, laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And we will do this if God permits. For it is impossible to renew to repentance those who were once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly gift, became companions with the Holy Spirit, tasted God’s good word and the powers of the coming age,  and who have fallen away, because, to their own harm, they are recrucifying the Son of God and holding Him up to contempt. For ground that has drunk the rain that has often fallen on it and that produces vegetation useful to those it is cultivated for receives a blessing from God. But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and about to be cursed and will be burned at the end.

We Need Meat:

When we see the Scriptures saying that as Christians we must eat meat, God is not excluding vegans or vegetarians. The writer here is simply pointing out that for children to grow and thrive, they must eventually transition to solid food. Milk is required for a healthy start, but solid food is required to grow a healthy body.

When my wife and I were appointed as missionaries with the International Mission Board, we, and our children also, had to attend an orientation at the Missionary Learning Center in Rockville, VA. This was a full-service campus, including providing daycare or preschool for small children, as well as a school for older children and youth. The children ate separately for lunch, and we had been told to bring baby food for our daughter, who was just one year old at that time. So, we packed several cases of baby food and took it with us to Virginia.

Of course, you can guess what happened. Only days after we arrived, our daughter decided that she wanted to eat regular people food! We were told that as soon as the Missionary Learning Center staff tried to feed her the baby food, she turned up her nose at it! So, she moved on to solid food, and we donated all that baby food for use by future missionary families!

An observable fact in nature is that every healthy creature reproduces, and that every healthy baby grows and matures. For over a decade while my wife and I lived in rural Alabama, we kept a small flock of goats to reduce the amount of grass I had to cut. Over those years we saw several kids born, and invariably, their mothers weaned them from nursing. Sometimes, a nanny goat would just walk away from an older kid who tried to nurse from her. If they didn’t get the message, however, the mama goat would, more or less gently, butt the kid away who needed to be weaned. The point is that growth and maturity is a natural process and it is also a spiritual process as well.

James, the pastor of the Jerusalem church, wrote to his congregation this counsel in James 1:1-8,

Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing. Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. An indecisive man is unstable in all his ways.

Paul also urged the church at Rome to grow up in Christ. In Romans 13:11-14 he wrote,

Besides this, knowing the time, it is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is nearly over, and the daylight is near, so let us discard the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk with decency, as in the daylight: not in carousing and drunkenness; not in sexual impurity and promiscuity; not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no plans to satisfy the fleshly desires.

Like the way that milk builds healthy bones, the milk of the Gospel is our spiritual foundation. We must exercise our spiritual muscles, however, if we are to mature and grow closer to God every day and in every way!

Now, let’s read Hebrews 6:9-12.

Even though we are speaking this way, dear friends, in your case we are confident of the better things connected with salvation. For God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you showed for His name when you served the saints—and you continue to serve them. Now we want each of you to demonstrate the same diligence for the final realization of your hope, so that you won’t become lazy but will be imitators of those who inherit the promises through faith and perseverance.

We Need Motivation:

I knew a fellow once who had many witty and pithy sayings. One that has always stood out to me was what he said about work. “Work fascinates me,” he would say wryly. “I can sit and look at it all day long.”

We must not be lazy in our spiritual growth and development. As I mentioned above, when Michael Jordan relied on his natural talent, he was a flop. After he had worked long and hard to develop his skills and to learn discipline, however, he became the best basketball star we will probably ever see.

Diligence is not a flashy word, but God does affirm it as an important quality for growth. In the Parable of the Talents, Jesus did not correct the man who only doubled the funds given to him by his master. Jesus did, however, commend him for his diligence.

Laziness is not the only factor that keeps us from growth in maturity. Fear can also keep us from moving forward.  I remember the first steps our son took. We were visiting with my aunt, and he was standing next to us, holding onto the couch where we were sitting. He saw my aunt across the room, whereupon he turned loose of the couch and staggered across the room to her chair. It scared him so badly that he did not walk again for two weeks!

The third man in the Parable of the Talents gave into his fear. He was so afraid of doing something wrong that he did nothing at all with what his master had given him. We must not bury our talents, but instead we must use them, and yes, we will fail when we use them. Again, Michael Jordan failed before he succeeded. As the saying goes about the turtle, he doesn’t get anywhere until he sticks his neck out. 

When we take risk for God, we are not walking a tightrope without a net. God will catch us when we fall, and then He puts us back on our feet, and pushes us out of the nest again. I know these are mixed metaphors, but they help explain that when we embrace growth and maturity in the Lord we have nothing to fear but fear itself (sorry . . . yet another cliché!).

So, sometimes we are lazy, and sometimes we are fearful, but sometimes we just tell God, “No.” That is a risky thing to do but we still do it. We need to develop the same understanding and wisdom that a high school friend had. He told me once that instead of praying, “Lord help me want to be more like Jesus,” he had to pray, “Lord, help me to want to want to be more like Jesus.” 

We must remember what the writer of Hebrews said in chapter 2:1ff:

We must, therefore, pay even more attention to what we have heard, so that we will not drift away. For if the message spoken through angels was legally binding and every transgression and disobedience received a just punishment, how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

Blessedly, we have someone who can help us with all these failings. Let’s read Hebrews 6:3-20,

For when God made a promise to Abraham, since He had no one greater to swear by, He swore by Himself: I will indeed bless you, and I will greatly multiply you. And so, after waiting patiently, Abraham obtained the promise. For men swear by something greater than themselves, and for them a confirming oath ends every dispute. Because God wanted to show His unchangeable purpose even more clearly to the heirs of the promise, He guaranteed it with an oath, so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us. We have this hope as an anchor for our lives, safe and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. Jesus has entered there on our behalf as a forerunner, because He has become a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

We Need a Mentor:

As we already observed, Michael Jordan did not blossom as a basketball player until he had the help of a coach and a mentor. The same is true of Christians. We cannot achieve maturity on our own, but we need help outside of ourselves. That help comes to us from Jesus, who is the Greatest Mentor.

Jesus, of course, was a rabbi, which means teacher. It actually means more than that, because He chose disciples who would live with Him, learn from Him, and become like Him.  We are to become His disciples too, and He can teach us in the same way that He taught those who followed Him on this Earth. We have records of His lessons, and how He applied those lessons in the lives of those who followed Him. When we read and meditate on the Gospels, we, too, can sit at the feet of Jesus. We can ask Him questions in prayer, and like James said above, He will give us wisdom.

If that is all we had, it would be enough, but in fact, Jesus multiplied Himself. He sent out his disciples to make more disciples and to teach these new disciples all that He had taught them. In modern sports, we would call this a coaching tree.

The coaching tree that I am most familiar with is that of Nick Saban, the retired head coach from the University of Alabama. At one point, over two dozen former assistant coaches who were mentored by Saban were head football coaches at the collegiate or professional levels. When the 2025 NCAA National Championship playoffs reached eight teams, five of them were coached by former Saban assistants. Of course, Nick Saban did not materialize out of the ether as a coach; he was mentored by Bill Belichick, when Belichick was head coach of the Cleveland Browns and Saban was one of his assistants. 

Jesus has a coaching tree also, as we see in Hebrews 4:11-13:

And He personally gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the training of the saints in the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.

Paul was our model for how God’s coaching tree works.  As 2 Timothy 2:1-2 tells us,

You, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

Finally, we need to remember that Jesus sent to us the Holy Spirit, to mentor us from inside our lives. The Spirit enlightens God’s Word, and He reassures us of God’s Presence. He also gives us spiritual gifts to do ministry that no coaching or practice will qualify us for. 

In all these ways, Jesus transforms weak babes in Christ into people of faith who Paul says are “more than conquerors in Christ Jesus our Lord!”

Conclusion:

The invitation to us is clear:

• Have you got milk?
• Have you begun eating solid spiritual food?
• Have you reignited your motivation?
• Have you committed yourself to coaching by the Greatest Mentor?

What will our response be?

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt