Hebrews 5:11 (GW) We have a lot to explain about this. But since you have become too lazy to pay attention, explaining it to you is hard.

Up to this point, we’ve explored the problem. Many believers today are spiritually stuck. They’ve remained in a state of prolonged infancy—eternally immature, dependent, and undeveloped in their walk with God. They’ve been in church for decades, but they’ve never really grown up in Christ.

So what now?

The rest of this book will walk through the remedy. Thankfully, we’re not left to guess what to do. Scripture gives us a clear, practical path toward maturity—and it’s laid out with surprising clarity in a passage that is often misunderstood or skipped over.

We’re going to walk slowly through Hebrews 5:11–6:12, a text that moves from gentle rebuke to sobering warning to hopeful invitation. If you want to become a disciple—not just a believer, not just a churchgoer, but a transformed, fruit-bearing follower of Jesus—this is where we begin.

Let’s take a quick overview of the path before we begin to walk it.

The Hebrews 5:11–6:12 Roadmap

• Listen Well – It all begins with hearing. “You have become dull of hearing.” (5:11)
• Make Sure the Foundation Is Laid – “By this time you ought to be teachers…” (5:12)
• Move from Milk to Meat – Don’t stay on the bottle; grow to digest solid food. (5:13–14)
• Take the Warning Seriously – A parenthesis in the passage issues a dire caution: don’t drift. (6:1–8)
• Do the Work – “We want each of you to show this same diligence…” (6:11)
• Imitate the Faithful – “Imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” (6:12)

In this chapter, we begin where Hebrews begins: with listening. The rest of the journey won’t make any difference if we don’t start here. You cannot grow if you do not listen.

Step One: Learn to Listen

The first step toward becoming a disciple is not action. It’s attention.

“We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand.” —Hebrews 5:11

The original Greek is even more forceful: “You have become dull of hearing.” The word used (nōthroi) means slow, sluggish, lazy. In other words: It’s not that you can’t understand—it’s that you stopped trying.

This is the root issue for spiritual immaturity. The people weren’t confused. They weren’t uneducated. They were just no longer interested in listening well.

Jesus: “Be Careful How You Hear”

Jesus made a surprising statement in Luke 8:18:

“Consider carefully how you listen.”

Notice what He doesn’t say. He doesn’t say, “Be careful what you listen to.” He says, “Be careful how.” The problem isn’t just the content—it’s the posture. You can hear every sermon and still not grow. You can read the Bible daily and stay spiritually small. Why? Because growth isn’t about exposure to truth—it’s about receptivity to truth.

Jesus illustrates this in the Parable of the Sower (Luke 8:4–15). The seed is the Word of God. The soil is the human heart. The outcome depends not on the seed, but on the soil.

Same preacher. Same passage. Different outcomes—because people listen differently.

Jesus often closed His teaching with this challenge:

“Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” (Luke 8:8)

Apparently, it’s possible to have ears and not use them.

A Biblical Survey: What Scripture Says About Hearing

The command to listen well runs throughout Scripture. Here are just a few examples:

Deuteronomy 6:4 — “Hear, O Israel…” The Shema, the foundation of Jewish faith, begins not with action, but hearing.

Proverbs 18:13 — “To answer before listening—that is folly and shame.”

Ecclesiastes 5:1 — “Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools…”

James 1:19 — “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.”

Romans 10:17 — “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

John 10:27 — “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”

The Bible treats listening not as an automatic function of the ears—but as a spiritual discipline of the heart.