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"Good Growth"
Growth is part of life. It’s natural to grow. Little babies are expected to gain in both strength and stature and if they fail to do so we become immediately concerned; and with good cause, because the failure to grow means something is wrong.
Growth has to do with increase. Growth is expanding naturally. Swelling is not growth. Natural growth comes in small increments, not in huge spurts. In fact, cancer is growth out of control. We often speak of growth in terms of maturity. “He has really grown up,” we say, meaning that someone has reached a new level of maturity.
Growth is expected– in every area of life. We are expected to make progress in our civility toward others, in our education, in our chosen profession, and especially in that most desirable of all areas, wisdom. We fully expect people who are older to have a certain wisdom based on the fact that they have been around a long time. Actually, they’re “grown up” we might say.
Spiritual growth is the essence of Christianity. When one is born into Christ, he is a babe. He is expected to grow up from that spiritual adolescence, to become more mature, to make progress spiritually. It is the very purpose of the local church to promote such growth, both numerically (Acts 6:7) and individually (II Pet. 2:2).
Paul discusses the subject in Ephesians 4:11-16. First, he says God has given the things necessary to accomplish such growth. To some he gave apostles, to some prophets, to some pastors and teachers– all of them endued with the Spirit– in order that we might have the information we need for our spiritual progress: “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,” all terms have to do with spiritual growth.
Notice that he says the growth is so that we might no longer “...be children, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine.” We must cease to be spiritual babes and grow up into Christ. It takes spiritual maturity to be able to recognize and deal with false doctrine, devices of men and their cunning craftiness. Spiritual wisdom is spiritual growth. It means that we have the word of God so entrenched in our minds that we can handle any invasion from the enemy. It means that we are able to apply the word of God to any situation in order that the best end might result.
By “speaking the truth in love” we grow up into Him. “Why don’t you grow up and act your age,” we ask our youngsters after they have made some foolish, immature mistake. It’s the same with the people of God. “Speaking the truth” means that we use the truth in our lives. It means that the decisions we make are based on how it will affect our relationship with God. “Speaking the truth” means that we do what is right regardless of the consequences, knowing that our use of it will eventually bring good, even if we don’t see it at the time. “Speaking the truth in love is one of the most obvious signs of spiritual maturity.
Growth has to do with knowing your place, too. “From whom the whole body, fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth” speaks to the business of staying in your place and doing what is specially your assignment. That’s a sure sign of maturity. Everyone contributes, but in his own way and in his own time. We don’t run in front of one another, or try to be what we are not. Mature folks have learned where they fit and they don’t try to force themselves into areas where they don’t. They understand their role and that’s spiritual maturity. Such an attitude prohibits envy, retards the competitive spirit, and keeps things in proper working order by keeping down spats and needless little fusses. Mature Christians don’t spend much time on that sort of stuff.
“Maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love” describes the effect of striving toward spiritual maturity. It says what happens when each person reaches out toward a measure of maturity in his own life. The result is that the whole congregation is benefitted, the whole church is edified. Instruction, education, enlightenment are all necessary to spiritual progress and when each part is instructed, each member edified, then the whole is made stronger and better able to withstand the plots and stratagems of the evil forces.
We are to grow in our love for one another (II Thess. 1:3). We are to have a desire for the word that is like a baby’s desire for milk (II Pet. 2:2). We should grow in grace and in our knowledge of Jesus and His word (II Pet. 3:18). We must leave the first principles and press on toward spiritual maturity (Heb. 6:1-2). To neglect to grow is to be myopic, near-sighted, even blind and to forget why we were saved in the first place (II Pet. 1:8-10).
Three things are necessary for spiritual growth: 1) You have to want to do it badly enough that you make a decision in that regard. Nobody does much good without first having decided to do it. 2) You have to pledge yourself to the task. The person who knows he is equal to the task can usually do what he has decided. Have a plan, dream a dream. And believe you– with the help of God– can do it. And 3) Don’t be discouraged at periodic failure. Everybody fails some. It’s not the person who makes a momentary slip and falls who is beaten, however, but the person who becomes discouraged and doesn’t get up again. Keep the goal in mind, know “the joy that is set before you” (Heb. 12:2) and you will persevere to the end. And remember all the while: it’s worth it!
