Solid Food

Ricky Ketchum

Oct 08, 2025

How come some people get away with breaking the rules?

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But solid food is for the mature, whose perceptions are trained by practice to discern both good and evil.

Hebrews 5:14 (NET)

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This might be a strange verse to highlight, but it stood out to me during my quiet time last week.

I like the nuance of how mature believers have trained perceptions.

It’s kind of like the difference between a beginner and a master. Here’s what I mean:

Beginners require a lot of rules. They need a clear path and lots of do’s and don’ts. Nothing wrong with that, it’s where they need to start because they’re not mature yet.

But masters don’t need the rules — sometimes they even break all the rules.

Of course, I don’t mean sinning. But I am talking about when master craftsmen or master artists ignore the rigid rules in favor of creating their art.

Hard to describe, but you know it when you see it.

Most of the time you know it because you’re wondering, “how can they get away with that?”

It’s because they’re a master.

Anyway, I feel similar as I mature along in my walk with Jesus.

In the past I’ve had a lot of checklists and rules for how to make good decisions, ways to improve my walk, habits to grow, and ways to avoid sin.

Not legalism, but could look that way from the outside.

Yet as I’ve matured, these checklists and rules have fallen out of favor. Now? I focus much more on my relationship. Some days I’ll spend less time in the Word and more time in Prayer. Or more time in Fellowship and less time in Prayer.

It’s pretty organic, stemming from maturity.

— Ricky Ketchum

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the ESV®Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright© 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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