01.24. Chapter 4 Towards maturity
Chapter 4 Towards maturity Christ working in his people As Christ promised, those who receive him receive also eternal life. When the Bible speaks of eternal life, its main emphasis is not on everlasting existence in the afterlife, but on the life of the kingdom of God, the life that is part of the nature of God himself. On receiving Christ, people begin this new life now. It is the life that Christians receive when they come into union with Christ, when they acknowledge him as their Lord and Saviour and enter his kingdom. It will be theirs for ever, because even death cannot break their union with Christ.
Christians’ enjoyment of this eternal life is at present limited because of the natural imperfections they share with everything else in the present world. But Christ, by the perfect life he lived, gave an indication of the quality of life that God desires people to have and that those in his kingdom can begin working towards now. When Christ comes into the lives of his people, he begins the work of changing them to be like him.
Growth is therefore a chief characteristic of the Christian life. The Bible often speaks of Christians’ spiritual growth by means of illustrations relating to physical growth. Because children naturally grow into adults, there is something unnatural about Christians who remain spiritual children. Paul reminds Christians of God’s purposes for them when he says that all who have come into union with Christ should ‘become mature people, reaching to the very height of Christ’s full stature. Then we shall no longer be children’ (Ephesians 4:13-14).
Food that strengthens
Several of the New Testament writers use the illustration of food when speaking of Christian growth. Children begin life by being fed on milk, but they soon move on to solid food. Likewise Christians begin their lives by being given basic teaching, but they soon move on to more advanced teaching. Their spiritual food is the Bible, and they will grow only as they read it, understand it and apply it.
Christians should be diligent in their Bible reading, because through the Bible God makes himself known to them. Without an understanding of the Bible, they will not know what sort of person God is or what he has to say about Christian living. The entire Bible is God’s Word, and although some parts may be easier to understand than others, Christians should not hinder their growth by reading only the easier parts. As physical effort develops the body, so mental effort develops the mind. Christians will find that the more they understand the Bible, the greater is their capacity for further growth. An old biblical proverb says, ‘Wise people get all the knowledge they can’ (Proverbs 10:14), and wise Christians will regularly set aside time to study the Bible. Even when they see no immediate relevance in a particular part of the Bible, they will keep reading. They will not read the Bible as others read the astrology columns of the daily newspaper – looking for words of special guidance about each day’s events. Rather they will read it with the aim of building up their knowledge over as wide an area as possible, so that they will be well prepared no matter what circumstances they meet.
Deciding what to do
One sign of a developing Christian life is the ability to apply the teachings of the Bible to the common issues of everyday life. The Bible gives moral guidelines, but it does not provide clear-cut answers for all the decisions people must make.
If, for example, people are thinking about what occupation they should follow or where they should live, they cannot expect the Bible to tell them. But neither should they think the Bible has nothing to say on such matters. The Bible contains all sorts of teachings about honesty, consideration for others, morality, self-denial and the like, and these should affect the way Christians think. Sometimes all that is needed is a definite ‘No’ (for the proposal may be clearly against the Bible’s teaching); other times there is no easy answer at all.
Christianity does not provide simple formulas to be used for people’s convenience. True, it promises God’s help in life’s decisions, but only to those who make every effort to live to please God rather than themselves. Such people find that through prayer and the Scriptures their outlook on life changes. They begin to exercise their Christian discernment, and the more they do so the more their confidence grows. This Christian discernment is more than common sense, for common sense can be selfish and does not necessarily consider God’s values. Christian discernment is what the Bible calls spiritual wisdom. It is what Paul prayed for when he wrote to one of the early churches: ‘true wisdom and perfect judgment, so that you will be able to choose what is best’. Paul went on to describe the result of this developing Christian maturity: ‘your lives will be filled with the truly good qualities which only Jesus Christ can produce’ (Php 1:9-11).
Becoming like Christ A consistent theme in the New Testament is that the Spirit of God is at work in Christians to make them more like Christ. The pity is that, because the world of Jesus was the world of almost two thousand years ago, people often think of Christianity as something old fashioned. Consequently, they think that to be like Christ means to be out of date and unfitted for the modern world. In speaking about Christians’ likeness to Christ, the Bible is concerned mainly with the quality of Christ’s character that his people should reproduce. When faced with difficult questions, Christians do not necessarily ask themselves, ‘What would Jesus do?’ There are many things that Christian husbands, fathers, mothers, scientists, lawyers and soldiers do that we may not imagine Jesus doing, but that in itself does not make those things wrong. Jesus’ calling in life was unique, but Christians are to be as faithful to God in their callings as Jesus was in his. They are to show the same attitudes as he showed.
Several times Jesus told his disciples that just as he had been persecuted, so they would be persecuted. His behaviour on such occasions was an example to them of the tolerant and forgiving spirit that he wanted to produce in them. He showed that although obedience to God may lead to hardship, suffering and death, they had to learn to say ‘No’ to their own wills and ‘Yes’ to the Father’s will, as Jesus did. People naturally do not like to think about suffering, but it is something that God uses to bring his people to full maturity. A balanced life
Maturity comes not only through the way people endure life’s sufferings, but also through the way they enjoy life’s pleasures. Jesus was not opposed to a full-blooded enjoyment of life, and neither were the Old Testament or New Testament writers. On the contrary, God is the one who ‘generously gives us everything for our enjoyment’ (1 Timothy 6:17). What Jesus and the Bible writers opposed was a wrong use of the things God has given. When people ignore his commandments, think only of themselves or exploit others, they displease God and in the end ruin themselves.
It is true that on one occasion Jesus told a rich young man to sell all that he had and give the money to the poor, but the reason was that the man’s wealth was his god. Jesus did not tell all rich people to sell their possessions. His emphasis was that those who followed him had to be prepared to sacrifice anything if God so required, but he was not opposed to the proper enjoyment of the good things of life. In fact, the religious killjoys of his day constantly criticized him for being too free in the way he lived. The abuse of God’s gifts by some people is no reason for Christians to reject those gifts. Christians should be examples of a sensible lifestyle. They should be neither so anti-enjoyment that they misrepresent Christ, nor so ill-disciplined that they mislead others. Neither attitude is a sign of spiritual maturity. A temptation that growing Christians face is to think that with increased knowledge there is less need for self-discipline. A common feeling in society at large is that it is a sign of adulthood not to be easily shocked by behaviour that breaks God’s moral law. In other words, to be mature means to see no difference between what is wholesome and what is unwholesome. According to the Bible, it is the opposite that is a sign of maturity: the ability to make a discerning judgment, and then act upon it. The mature Christians, the ‘adults’, are those ‘who through practice are able to distinguish between good and evil’ (Hebrews 5:14).