SPIRITUAL GROWTH

By

Shelby G. Floyd

March, 2007

 

 

            Our topic of study is about spiritual growth. The apostle Peter declared,” But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:18 NIV.)

 

Spiritual Growth Is a Command of God

 

             Growth in the spiritual realm is an imperative command. It is not an optional matter. If we are Christians, God expects us to grow spiritually. If we do not grow spiritually, then we become dwarfs in a spiritual way.

 

Spiritual Growth Is In Grace and Knowledge

 

            We notice from the text the areas in which we are to grow spiritually. We are to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Grace is God’s favor, unmerited on our part, but yet bestowed upon us from the mercy and love of God. The knowledge here in which we are to grow is that precise and accurate knowledge revealed in the word of God. God doesn’t want us just to grow in a general way, but he wants us to grow in the sense that we have an accurate and precise knowledge of his system of salvation and Christ­ian living.

 

Spiritual Growth Originates In Christ

 

            Then in the third place we notice from whom or where our knowledge and our growth are to originate. It comes from Jesus Christ our Lord and our Savior. Growth in the physical world is natural and it is universal. Everything that we see, either in the vegetable or the animal kingdom involves growth. At the end of the summer, the harvest season, the farmers take their equipment out to pick the harvest of corn, wheat and soy beans, and it is all because they planted the seed, the seed germinated and grew, and then they reap the fruit of all that growth. Also, those who have the apple orchards go out and gather the apples that have been growing all through the summer months. So it is in the animal kingdom. We enjoy our food, our meat, because the animals were born, they ate, they exercised, they drank water and they have grown and then we enjoy the fruit of their growth.

 

WHAT IS SPIRITUAL GROWTH?

 

            Now is it any different in the spiritual realm? I think not. God expects us to grow spiritually. But there is a lot of misunderstanding as to what it means to grow spiritually.  Some people have the idea that a church is a spiritually minded church if the contributions are growing, if the attendance is growing and if the church has a fine expensive building. But if we go to the New Testament, we find that very little is said about the size of any of the congregations. In fact, I don’t know of any of the New Testament congregations where Paul says, “We have so many members, our attendance runs so much for Sunday school and so much for Sunday and Wednesday nights.” We don’t have a single church where this is mention­ed. Now we do read in the beginning, of the Jerusalem church having 3,000 converts on the first day or the beginning of the church. We find out that it multiplied to something like 5,000 shortly thereafter not including the women and children, but after that we have nothing concerning the numbers in the various congregations.

 

            When it comes to buildings, we don’t read, as far as I know, of any New Testament church that owned a building. We read that some of them met in third story buildings like in Acts 20. But the church didn’t own very much property in New Testament times. In the days after inspiration we find that they met in caves and wherever they could find to worship God.

 

            Then when it comes to contributions, there is an emphasis in the Bible upon giving, but very little is said about how many dollars that they took in. Even the great collection that Paul took up from the Gentiles for the poor saints at Jerusalem, doesn’t record as to how much dollars that they gather­ed.

           

            Now there has been an emphasis upon these three things: attendance, new and more expensive buildings and larger contributions. But we need to ask our­selves the question, “Are these things matched by spiritual growth?” God wants us to grow spiritually. That is the emphasis of the Bible, and if we’re not growing to Christ likeness, if we’re not growing in grace and. in knowledge, then God will be displeased with us. So, spiritually we are to grow just like we grow in the physical and the natural realm.

 

THE FOURFOLD GROWTH OF CHRIST

 

            Jesus Christ is the best example that I know of as to the kind of growth that God expects us to make. In Luke 2:51-52, when Jesus returned back to his hometown of Nazareth, at the age of 12, the Bible says that he was subject to his parents, and that he increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and men. This is what we call a four-fold development or growth.

   

Jesus Grew In Wisdom

 

            Jesus increased or grew in wisdom. What is that? Knowledge is one thing, and today we live in an age of knowledge explosion. In fact, they say that knowledge doubles about every ten years, at least the available knowledge. So there is so much to learn and to study today, and we can know very little about any one thing, even if we spend a lifetime studying it.

 

            Jesus increased not only in knowledge but also in wisdom. Wisdom knows how to use the knowledge that you have, it is good judgment or making wise decisions. So Jesus grew intellectually in mind. Today there is an emphasis placed upon going to the university or college and getting a good secular education. Knowledge is good, but it is not only enough to know how to make a living, but we have got to learn how to live. So we need to grow intellectually in mind or wisdom, but that is not enough.

 

Jesus Grew In Stature

 

            Jesus grew in stature. That means that he grew in years or physically in body. You know this is natural. All that we have to do when we come into this world is to eat good food, drink water and exercise and we are going to grow in body. Today, there is an emphasis upon sports, upon recreation and physical fitness. You might go and exercise, lift weights and do all kinds of works to develop your body, but if you have a body that is strong and has grown physically and you have not developed these other areas which we have mentioned then your growth is not complete, it is one sided.

 

Jesus Grew Spiritually

 

            Jesus grew intellectually in mind, he grew physically in body, but then the Bible says that he increased in favor with God and with men. That means that he was able to grow spiritually in his soul toward God. That is where re­ligion comes in. Religion is that system of things that binds man back to God. We have been alienated from God by our sins. The religion of Jesus Christ is de­signed to reconcile us and unite us back to our maker and creator. So we must grow religiously and spiritually in our souls. Many people today have grown intellectually and physically, but they are mere pygmies when it comes to spiritual growth.

 

Jesus Grew Socially

 

            Then finally Jesus increased in favor with men. That means that he grew morally in heart, in life and in relationship with his fellow man.

 

            The story of the Good Samaritan has inspired more people to build hospitals, old folks homes and orphan homes than perhaps any other in the Bible. What is the lesson? We have got to grow and develop in our relationship with other people. So we are emphasizing that spiritual growth involves growing in our souls and growing in our relationships to our fellow man. And after all, Jesus said those were the greatest commandments of all: to love God supremely and love our neighbors as ourselves.

 

            Jesus then is our prime example of the kind of growth that every young boy and girl ought to be experiencing from the time they come into this world, mental, physical, spiritual and moral development.

 

ESSENTIALS OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH

 

            Right here we would pause to point out that spiritual growth involves cer­tain essentials. Without these we cannot grow spiritually. We shall make an analogy from the physical realm to the spiritual. In the physical realm we grow when we have the proper food, the proper exercise and freedom from disease. If we have these three things we will certainly grow in the physical realm. So it is in the spiritual realm.

 

Desire the Milk and Meat of God’s Word

 

            In 1 Peter 2: 1-3, the apostle Peter says,

 

“Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,  as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” (1 Peter 2:1-3 NKJV.)

 

Notice here that we cannot grow spiritually unless we lay aside some things. We have got to lay aside malice. Malice is hatred down in your heart toward other people. Envy desires what other people have and you would like to have it. Hypocrisy is in­sincerity; playing the part or pretending to be something you are not. Evil speaking involves railings and slanderous reports on other people. Peter says to lay these things aside first and then as a newborn baby you can desire the sincere milk of the word in order that you might grow thereby. For instance, an infant is nourished with milk and it is not long until the baby is growing and developing physically. So it is with the milk of God’s word. The milk of the word refers to the first principles of the gospel. When we are born into Christ of the water and the spirit, we’re babes in Christ and we ought to start out on that growth by desiring the milk of the word. So we have got to have the word of God.

 

            In 2 Tim. 3: 15-17, Paul said to Timothy,

 

“And that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.  All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:15-17 NKJV.)

 

If boys and girls do not have a mother like Eunice and a grand­mother like Lois, then they have been cheated. Think about boys and girls today who do not have mothers and grandmothers, fathers and grandfathers that bring them to Sunday school to teach them the word of God. Timothy was a boy that was blessed indeed because of his rich heritage and family background. He knew the scriptures because he had a mother and a grandmother that taught him the word of God.

 

            Today, we need to bring our children to the Bible study on Wednesday night and to the Sunday school classes so that they will grow up like Timothy and know the scriptures, which will make them wise unto salvation through their faith in Jesus Christ. So by teaching them the word of God in Sunday school we are helping them to grow intellectually, spiritually and morally, and those are the things that God wants us to do in bringing up our children. So we can grow spiritually when we give our children and ourselves the proper diet of the word of God.

 

            Paul wrote the church in Corinth, and said, “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” (I Corinthians 3: 1-3 KJV.) People who have grown spiritually can take the meat of God’s word and digest it into their souls. The Corinthians were babes because they had not grown spiritually and they still needed milk when they should have grown and been able to digest strong meat.

 

Exercise unto Godliness

 

            The second thing we need in spiritual growth is exercise. We’ll grow spirit­ually when we exercise and actively engage the principles that we have learned in our everyday living. What good is it to study about how to be a good neighbor, and then when we have an opportunity to be a good neighbor, we pass by on the other side? You see if we ate food physically, and we never did any exercise, we would just grow fat and would not be strong physically.

 

            The design of Christianity is to put into practice what we learn so we will have spiritual muscle power, and the only way we can get that is by living the Christian life. Therefore, Paul said to Timothy, “But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” (1 Timothy 4:7-8 KJV.) You see, Paul is telling Timothy to exercise unto godliness.

 

            In the first letter to Timothy Paul tells Timothy, “Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” (1 Timothy 4: 12 KJV.)  How can Timothy be an example? By practicing these things just mentioned. So we must learn to exercise ourselves unto godliness. Think about the statement in Hebrews, where the writer was talking to people who had been in the church twenty or thirty years, and he said to them,

 

“For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” (Heb. 5: 12-l4 KJV.)

 

Now notice that, “strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age...who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” Here were people in the church who had been members for twenty or thirty years, and they ought to have been teaching others, but they needed to be students themselves. Why? They had not grown and developed spiritually, and they still needed to be fed with milk instead of meat. Why? They had not exercised their senses where they could discern or make a judgment between good and evil.

 

            It is sad to say that many members of the church are still like that today. Like a little child, they want somebody to tell them everything that is right and wrong. But people who have matured and grown spiritually are able to make judgments in the spiritual realm because they have not only taken in the milk of God’s word, but the strong meat. They have exercised some spiritual muscle, and they are strong and able to go out and teach others.

 

Watch Out For Spiritual Disease

 

            In the third place, we must have freedom from disease. The body, if diseased, will not grow and develop as God designed for it to grow. Therefore, if someone has cancer or other diseases, if they cannot be cured by medicine, then the only answer is to cut it out. So it is in the spiritual realm. If there is sin in the church, there may be a time when it is necessary to cut out the cancer. Paul talked about those who were like a cancer upon the church and he said to avoid such and to stay away from them. (2 Tim. 2: 16-18.) He also taught about the moral evil that was in the church at Corinth, and said, “Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?” He taught that Christians should have no company with the leaven of evil. (1 Corinthians 5:11-13.) Why? Because that disease will spread like a canker and destroy the spiritual nature of the church.

 

Neglect is a Spiritual Disease

 

            There are spiritual diseases that we can contact as members and one of them is neglect. The Bible says,

 

“Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience recieved a just recompence of reward; How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.” (Heb. 2: 1-3 KJV.)

 

Neglect has destroyed many a soul. Why is it that attendance will not be as great for the evening service as it is the morning? Neglect! Why is it that many people do not practice what they hear and what they study and learn? They neglect the great salvation. Why is it that many do not bring their children to Sunday school and to Wednes­day night Bible classes? They have other things on their minds that are more important, and they neglect that which is the most important of all. Neglect then will destroy spiritual growth.

 

The Climax and the Anti-climax of Growth

 

            Now in physical growth we have what we call the climax and the anti-climax, that is, physically we grow and mature and develop, and ultimately we begin to grow old and we begin to die a day at a time. But that is not true in the spirit­ual realm. In the spiritual realm there is no anti-climax. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:16, “But though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” So we continue to grow and develop spiritually even though physically we enter into that anti-climax. But that is not true spiritually.

 

FOUR DIMENSIONAL SPIRITUAL GROWTH

 

            Now I want to point out four dimensions in which we grow. Spiritual growth is four-dimensional.

 

We Grow Upward

 

            We are to grow upward: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:1-3 KJV.) So, after we have been raised with Christ in baptism we should set our affections on things above and start growing upward.

 

We Grow Downward

 

            Then we are to grow downward. In Colossians 2: 6, Paul says, “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanks­giving.” So we are to be rooted and grounded in the faith, and that means that we are to grow downward. The mighty oak tree is distinguished among all God’s trees, but for every giant oak tree that you see there is a great root system almost as large down under the earth that is unseen. If we expect to be spirit­ual giants then we must have a spiritual root system that is largely unseen by man, but which is there nevertheless. Rooted and grounded and drinking in of God’s truths as the trees drink in the water and the nourishment from the soil will make us strong spiritually.

 

We Grow Outward

 

            Then we have got to grow outward. In Galatians 6:1-2, the apostle says, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” Then in verse ten he says, “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” How do we grow outward? By reaching out and being a good neighbor, doing good to all men, but especially to those who are members of the body of Christ.

 

We Grow Inward

 

            Then finally we have got to grow inwardly. How do we do that? In Ephesians 4: 15, the apostle said, “But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.” And he says that we are complete or full in him. Now we grow inwardly by growing up in Christ and becoming Christ like. He left us an example that we should follow in his steps, and we can be like him by growing inwardly.

 

            So spiritually we want to grow upward, downward, outward and inward. I close with this challenging statement by Edward Markham who said,

 

                  We’re all blind until we see

                  That in the human plan

                  Nothing is worth the making if

                  It does not make the man.

 

                  Why build these cities glorious

                  If man unbuilded goes?

In vain we build the world unless

The builder also grows.*

 

*Shelby G. Floyd delivered this sermon February 18, 2007 at the Heartland Church of Christ, 2455 Fairview Place, Greenwood, Indiana. Copyright © 2007 Shelby Floyd All Rights Reserved