Foundations of Faith
SPIRITUAL GROWTH (I)
When my grandson was two years old, often the first thing he would say when he came to our house was, “Play cars.” He could spend hours on end playing with cars. When he was five, he said, “I don’t think I will ever get tired of playing cars, do you?”
Do you still like to play with matchbox cars or dolls? Would you like to retain the body of a 2- or 5-year-old? How about the mind and level of intelligence of one?
Probably most, if not all, of our readers would not want to go back to the body and mind of a child. But how about your level of spiritual growth? Are you happy with where you are right now? Are you content with just being saved and no more, with preserving your childlike faith, with remaining a spiritual baby the rest of your life?
The Bible never suggests that it is normal for a believer in Christ to remain a spiritual infant. Thus, we need to ask ourselves these three questions:(1) “How much have I grown and matured spiritually since I first trusted Christ?” (2) “How much more do I have to grow to be conformed to the image of [God’s] Son (Rom. 8:29)?” and (3) “How can I narrow the gap between where I am and where I ought to be?” Let us see what we can learn about what the Bible teaches us about the spiritual growth of the Christian.
The apostle John writes to three classes of Christians according to their level of spiritual maturity:little children, young men, and fathers (1 John 2:13-27). Let us consider each of these classes, both what they have and what they need.
Little children—what they have:“You have known the Father” (2:13). Similarly:“You have received the Spirit of adoption [or sonship], whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15, 16). Even newborn babes in Christ quickly learn to know the blessed position they have as children of their heavenly Father. Here are some ways God relates to us as Father (May94):
1. He has affection for us, is our Friend (John 16:27).
2. He instructs us in holiness by allowing us to experience trials and testings (Heb. 12:5-11).
3. He keeps us safe and secure for all eternity (John 10:29).
4. He answers our prayers (Matt. 6:9; 7:11; John 15:16).
5. He reveals to us His will for our lives (Matt. 12:50; 16:17).
Little children—what they need:“Even now are there many antichrists…. He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son” (1 John 2:18, 22). The babes in Christ, because they are not yet grounded in the teachings of the Word of God, are particularly vulnerable to false teaching, such as the following:
1. Jesus is a good man and a great prophet, or the highest created angel, but is not God.
2. Jesus is God, but is not human.
3. The Holy Spirit is not a Person but just an influence.
4. Satan is a myth.
5. There is no life after death.
6. The universe and all that is in it came into being by chance.
The little children need to be established in the basic teachings of the Bible, especially concerning the Person and work of Christ. Our passage tells us that the Holy Spirit— “the anointing”—is equal to the task of “teach[ing] us of all things” (2:27). The Spirit often leads an older Christian to take the little child under his/her wing and encourage the learning of the Scriptures (1 Tim. 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:5; 3:15).
Young men—what they have:“You are strong, and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one” (2:13, 14). This, linked with what the little children need, means that the young men have learned the basic teachings of Scripture so that they are not in danger of accepting the false teachings that Satan—“the wicked one”—places before them.
Young men—what they need:“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world…. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (2:15, 16; see Jun00). Even though this class of “young men” know the Scriptures well, they are not fully walking according to them in faithfulness to the One who loved them and gave Himself for them (Gal. 2:20). Their focus is not yet entirely on the Lord Jesus Christ. His power, glory, creation, incarnation, humility, love, sufferings, death, resurrection, ascension into heaven, intercession for us, and coming again do not yet fill and thrill the hearts of these redeemed ones.
Fathers—what they have:“You have known Him who is from the beginning” (1 John 2:13). Who is this? The apostle tells us at the opening of his Epistle that this One is the Lord Jesus Christ “who was from the beginning, whom we have heard,… whom we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life” (1:1-3).
The fathers have what the young men yet lack—a whole-hearted attraction and commitment to their Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. They no longer struggle with “the lust of the flesh.” They have found Christ to be far better than the glitzy but empty attractions of the world, the “lust of the eyes.” all of these. They have become sufficiently “conformed to the image of” God’s Son that they recognize and judge the subtle “pride of life” that once controlled them. The apostle Paul’s desire, “that I may know [Christ]” (Phil. 3:10), is surely the expression of a spiritual “father.”
Fathers—what they need:“You have known Him who is from the beginning” (1 John 2:14). This is exactly the same as the statement in the previous verse of what they fathers already have. Therefore, all the fathers need is to “keep on keeping on.”
While the apostle John presents three classes of spiritual maturity, I would suggest that there are not strict lines separating these three classes. Just as physical growth follows a continuous pattern, so does spiritual growth. Likewise, just as one’s body weight may rise and fall, depending on how much and what we eat, or being afflicted with certain illnesses, so one who has become a “young man” may regress back to a “little child” if he stops studying the Word of God, and a “father” may return to being a “young man” if he gets his eyes off Christ.
Running the Race
Assignment 7: Write out some of the ways you have grown spiritually since you became a newborn (born-again) child of God.