What do you want to be when you grow up spiritually? Bigger? Do you want to be mature in Christ? Or are you happy with your current spiritual size? Are you growing up to be like Christ? Christlikeness in all dimensions of who we are and what we do is our aim.
Practically speaking, our Christlikeness should affect every part of our lives. We should be like Christ in our families, our marriages, our singleness, our jobs, our play, our service. This metamorphosis doesn’t happen in the twinkling of an eye. It takes a lifetime. And it takes work. We are to “work out” what God is “working in.” Did you see that? It’s a workout!
If babies don’t grow up to become adults, we regard it as an aberration. If Christians who are born again don’t grow up, this is an aberration as well. Paul uses the human growth process as an analogy in the epistles. He talks about being a child and speaking, thinking, and reasoning as a child, but then growing up to become a man, at which time he puts childish ways behind him (1 Cor. 13:11). To think or speak as a child is charming and expected of a child, but if we are thinking and acting like children when we are grown, it becomes obnoxious.
Growing Like Jesus
When Jesus went up to the Feast of the Passover in Jerusalem at the age of twelve, he stayed behind to talk with the teachers in the temple as his family left for home (Luke 2:42-43). His parents didn’t realize that he wasn’t with them. When they discovered his absence, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. After his parents found Jesus talking to the scholars in the temple—and He reminded them that He needed to be about His Father’s business—He went home with Mary and Joseph and “was obedient to them” (2:51). The Bible tells us, “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (2:52).
As Jesus grew up, He grew in four dimensions—in wisdom (intellectually), in stature (physically), in favor with God (spiritually), and in favor with people (socially). Jesus grew into perfect maturity, as God intends for us as well.
If all dimensions of growth were necessary for Jesus, they are certainly necessary for us as well. We should have a sensible view of our bodies and keep them as healthy as possible for the Lord’s work. We must grow in wisdom, which includes understanding what is happening in our world in the present and also being aware of our history—as a local community as well as a national and global community. We must also grow socially. We are supposed to learn how to love people and interact in a mature way, not bickering and squabbling like immature youngsters. We are, above all, supposed to develop spiritually.
Paul tells the Corinthians he can’t treat them as adults but must treat them like children because he has to keep repeating the things he’s already taught them. That’s what children are like—you have to tell them again and again until they get it. Does God have to tell you things again and again? These baby Christians were like children, and Paul urges them to stop thinking like children. Are you a child where learning the rudimentary things of God is concerned? Then you need to grow up.
The Spirit of God grows us up. How long have you known Christ? Have you grown, and are you growing up in Christ? Paul is talking to the Philippians about spiritual maturity, but his words apply to all of us. He wants all who know Christ to want to be spiritually bigger than they are.
Paul gives us a clue about how to assess our spiritual maturity. He wants believers to focus all they are on the goal of finishing the race of faith for Christ and His kingdom. This attitude is a mature attitude. Is it yours? Is it mine?
We will know if we are growing in Christ if we are making church, ministry, and spiritual discipline a top priority. We’ll know we are growing if we are putting spiritual things above material things—if we’re praying about a career move, for example, and we find ourselves willing to seek out the right thing, even if it may not be the most profitable thing. We will know we are growing if we step out and offer to serve in ways we haven’t dared to try before, or if we start to mentor someone who needs guidance and a bit of spiritual tender loving care.
A Model of Growth and Learning
Paul is not being arrogant when he says, “Join with others in following my example” (Phil. 3:17). He is not saying that he has finished growing. We never finish growing. “I haven’t attained,” he tells us. “I am not fully grown, but my determination is to grow and grow and grow until my last breath.” He is confident enough of his standing in Christ to say, “I am an example of this principle of maturity. I have cooperated with the Spirit’s work in me, and I want you to do the same.” And then he adds, “I am not the only good example to follow either. There are other mature people you should be taking note of.” He advises his readers to look around and find a person to emulate—someone with this same mature attitude and unwavering passion for God.
You don’t have to look for Christian “stars.” Look around you. As Paul told his friend, “Take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you” (Phil. 3:17). But don’t only look for an example to follow, a mentor from whom to learn. Grow up yourself and become a mentor for others.
Being a model of growth presupposes that you share lessons from your own faith walk with others. It’s good for us to be transparent. I suppose we could call this “the spiritual art of vulnerability.” It’s good for those who look to us to hear about both our failures and our victories.
I have found that when I share the struggles I’ve had in the past, as well as the struggles of the present (advisedly, of course), people tell me, “When you shared that story, I realized that you are human just like me.” Of course, if you only share the defeats and never the victories, then who is going to benefit from your example? I try to use language like Paul’s: “I haven’t attained, but I’m attaining. I’m determined to overcome this or that challenge in my life.” By doing so, you invite dialogue, welcome people into your life experiences, and are able to help people grow up into maturity.
By all means, look for a mentor. Pray about it. Ask God to show you the people you can look to. The mentor who can serve as a good example may be alive or they may be dead, but that’s all right. Most of my early mentors were famous missionaries like Amy Carmichael, Gladys Aylward, Hudson Taylor, and C.T. Studd. Some of these people were alive when I first came to faith, and some weren’t. I read everything I could get my hands on about their lives and relationship with the Lord. These incredible people walked into my life and established a presence that molded my thinking of a world that must be won for Christ. They wrote of their relationship with God and their determination to know Him better. They shared their disappointments in fellow missionaries. They talked of the dark nights of soul, loneliness, and sickness with no doctor near to help. They let me sit in the corner of their lives and watch them grow into maturity. I admired them and saw how they loved God, and I imitated their faith walk as best I could. So don’t pout if you don’t have a wonderful mentor at present. Find one in biographies, mission archives, or church history. Just hang around these grown-up Christians, and let the mist of the mysteries of God rub off on you. Paul was able to say to people, “Watch me and imitate me.”
Taken from Spiritual Arts by Jill Briscoe. Used by permission of Zondervan.
