Growing Spiritually

Ephesians 4:14-16

Introduction

Too often churches are short sighted as to what their goals are. Some have a focus on evangelism and that is good. But what they sometimes mean is that they want to just get people to a point of salvation. They want people to pray a certain prayer, get baptized and identify as a Christian. Once that is accomplished, then it is time to move on to the next person.

Other churches have a focus on church growth. That may include seekers, brand new Christians or Christians from other congregations. What we need to get are people who are currently not attending our church to start coming. We want empty pews full and some more money in the plate if possible.

I can see the attractiveness of both of these goals. What is good is that they are measurable. We can count people we have prayed with or have baptized. We can measure attendance and giving. 

The problem is that the biblical mandate is discipleship. Discipleship is what we describe in our church mission as growing spiritually. While you can measure numerical growth, it is more difficult to measure spiritual growth. 

That is not to say that it is impossible to program discipleship. There is such a thing as discipleship activity. This might include things like Bible study, prayer and teaching in the area of spiritual disciplines. One of the most helpful experiences for me when I came to personal faith is that I joined a Sunday school class that looked at basic Christian doctrines. It helped to cultivate my love for learning and that is what a disciple is, a learner. I continue to be passionate about teaching. I love to learn new information and pass on that information to others. 

But what if spiritual growth was more than just the passing on of information? What if discipleship went beyond the gaining of knowledge? 

The Apostle Paul was someone who was extremely intelligent. He was able articulate thoughts about God and share them with an audience that is still keeping scholars busy today in their interpretation. But I would consider Paul a practical theologian. He wrote his letters to help real people become better followers of Jesus in the real world. His letter to the Ephesians is one of his most practical books. In this passage, he speaks of spiritual growth and he shares insight that has the potential to transform our discipleship. 

Growing Into Christ

In this passage, Paul warns about those who are tossed to and fro from every wind of doctrine. That is just as much of a danger today as it was then. In many ways the internet makes it worse. Anybody can set up their own YouTube channel and become a Bible teacher. You do not need a seminary degree or credentials from a recognized organization. Too many people get their views from some video that they saw, without any understanding of how it fits with the Bible or historical Christianity.

Of course the internet did not start this problem. In the the 19th century, there was an area of western New York that was called the Burned Over District. It was called that because wave after wave of revival passed through which created a lot of religious excitement but very little spiritual growth. It was out of this that many of the sectarian movements grew because of this problem of the winds of doctrine.

So it would look like what is needed is more teaching. There needs to be more information. For every bad teaching video out there, we need five good teaching videos. We need to ramp up the sharing of solid biblical knowledge. I would agree with this to a certain extent but that is not the final answer according to Paul. He says we are to “grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” For Paul, spiritual growth is about growing into Christ. 

Of course that is going to include knowledge. How can you become more like Christ if you know nothing of Christ? Studying the life of Jesus is key, not just his death and resurrection, but everything about him. The book of Acts tells us that one of the things that the early church did was to study the teachings of the apostles, these were their stories about Jesus.

But what Paul has in mind is not just the gaining of more knowledge the way we might learn about any other historical figure. He is talking about something much more organic. The picture that Paul uses is that of the church as the body and Christ as the head. My hands and feet don’t do just whatever they feel like. They listen to what my brain tells them to do. In the human body, it is the nervous system that passes on the information from the brain to the body. There are major issues if that communication is not happening properly. Although Paul would not have had much understanding of the nervous system, he did understand that the body must obey the head and it does that because they are connected. It is our connection to Christ that allows for spiritual growth. Knowledge will be part of it, but so will worship, prayer, and what Eugene Peterson calls obedience in the same direction. This builds up our spiritual nervous system and removes any blockages.

Building Up in Love

This still leaves us with the question of how to measure this spiritual growth. If it was just a matter of sharing information, we could quiz people to measure their biblical and theological knowledge. But it seems more complicated than that. If spiritual growth happens when the body is connected to the head, how do we know it is happening? If we plant a seed, we know that growth is happening if a little green stalk appears out of the earth. What is the spiritual equivalent?

Paul seems to suggest here that what we should be looking for is love. That is interesting because that is not always what we expect. Rarely do I hear about love in discussions about discipleship. What I was taught was that discipleship was to develop you into a more effective and efficient Christian. It is spoken of as something like military training. We take courses in the army to be better soldiers and so we should spiritually grow to become better equipped to do ministry. If all goes well, that will happen. But it seems as if the immediate goal is to demonstrate love. Spiritual growth may or may not mean there will be growth in how articulate your prayers are or how much Bible background knowledge you have but it must mean there is an increase in love. There is a reason why Jesus summarized the commandments as love for God and love for neighbours. Jesus lived a life of love, a love that took him to the cross. Jesus loved those whom society said were unlovable. Loved was the blood that ran through Jesus’ veins. If we are truly the body of Christ, love should be flowing through us. When we as a church are considering something, the question should not be about how this will immediately benefit us but whether this is the loving thing to do.

Conclusion

Who would like to grow spiritually? I can’t imagine any Christian not wanting to grow spiritually. Some may doubt their ability to grow in this way because they are not gifted at memorizing Bible verses or praying out loud or evangelizing on the streets. The good news is that spiritual growth is about growing in love. Our starting point is not about how to work ourselves up into feeling more loving but rather strengthening our connection to Christ. We are the body, he is the head. We love, not because we necessarily feel like it, but because is what it means to be connected to Christ. Grow spiritually, become a disciple, but make sure that is all aimed at growing in the love that comes from Christ.