After introducing the very important truth that Jesus was called by God as a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, the author of Hebrews desired to immediately explain this doctrine in greater detail. However, his readers had become “dull of hearing” and were not able to understand the more difficult aspects of Christ’s High Priesthood (Heb.5:9-14). They had become slow or sluggish in their ability to hear and understand the deep things of God or to use the author’s analogy, the meat (solid food) of the Word of God. In keeping with this analogy, they had come to need the milk of the Word or foundational doctrines (6:1). They needed to be taught again the first principles of the word of God. Instead of progressing in the Christian faith, they had regressed. By now they should have been teachers, but instead they needed to be taught again the basics of God’s word. They were considered babes in Christ (cp. 1Cor.3:1-3).
Every believer begins as a babe in Christ and requires the milk of the word of God to grow spiritually (1Pe 2:2). As we mature we can gradually eat more solid food – that is understand the deeper things of God – and live more and more in accordance with them. We must not be like some of the Hebrews who became stagnant and had even gone backwards. The remedy is to “nail down” those foundational principles and “go on to perfection” or Christian maturity (6:1-2). We must continually grow in our understanding of God’s word, and through the constant use of it become equipped to discern good and evil (5:14).