Living Stones – Monday, January 15, 2018
Growing until …
Philippians 1:6
He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
One of the questions that older Christians sometimes contemplate when the issue of Christian growth comes up is, how much growing do I have to do? Some of us have been at this for a long time, and we know the words for any hymn they choose, and we know all the verses they like to quote in sermons, and we know all the right words to use in the public prayer, and we know when to say Amen. What more is there left for them to teach us?
We said that our working definition of Christian growth is: an increasing conformity to the character of God as revealed in Christ. This definition is based on the stated object of the Apostle Paul’s work among the Galatian Christians. He wrote to them and when he was reflecting on the circumstances under which he was able to preach the Gospel there, he said, “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you,” Galatians 4:19.
Writing to the Ephesians, in a section outlining what the role of the gifted ministers and workers among us he said, “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;”
So, the goal is the formation of Christ in us, the goal is not that we know the words of many hymns or memory verses or bible stories. All of those are good to know and frankly quite necessary, but knowing these is not an indicator that Christ is being formed in us or that we are growing into the stature of the fullness of Christ.
The questions then are, what constitutes the formation of Christ in us? And, when is this formation completed? Let’s take them in turn.
The first question could be broken down into what this means for the individual believer and what this means for the Christian group. In the letter to the Hebrews, the writer said “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”
Part of the formation of Christ in us is the discernment of both good and evil. Part of the formation of Christ in us is skill with the word of righteousness. Reading the whole context, the writer was dealing with the arguments that they were facing and making the point that they were stuck at first principles and had not moved on to deeper things.
The situation, the writer of the Hebrews discusses, albeit arguments from a context far removed from our own, is a situation that is very common today. So many Christians have not moved beyond the first principles. There is untransformed conduct, flawed character, and inability to discuss or defend the faith through reasoned discourse and personal testimony.
Paul address a number of difficult matters in his letters to the Corinthian church. Included in the issues are deep divisions among the people that bring strife and contentions. So, in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 he points out that individually and collectively they had not grown up, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?”
In the Corinthian passage, Paul strikes directly at the issue of growth by comparing where persons were in their thinking, speech, and actions to the stage that babies are at. He then says that he was limited in the kind and quality of diet with which he could serve them because of their infancy!
But, as we said in our previous Devotional, Colossians 3 captures the very essence of how Christian growth is exemplified. All of these get to the heart of character and conduct. In verse 5, “put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” In verse 8, “But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.”
If we are to drop some behaviours then there are some that we adopt through the Word of God and the Spirit of God at work in us, in verses 12 and 13, “as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.”
The remaining question is, when is this formation completed? Our key verse today makes it very clear, this work of the formation of Christ in us will continue until Jesus shows up, or until we die.
Think on these things:
- Which bad behaviours from among those mentioned in the various passages do you still exhibit?
- Which good behaviours from among those mentioned do you still need to develop?
- Do you think that Christ is being formed in you?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would grow in the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex