Two Secrets of Christian Growth
Why Don’t All Christians Grow in Christ-likeness?
Why do some Christians who claim they love Jesus show so little fruit? How come some believers remain harsh, critical, proud and judgmental?
The life-changing power of Christ is absent. These Christians are spiritually stunted.
Why is that?
Other people accept Jesus as Savior and over time, their lives are completely transformed. They become kinder and more compassionate. When the Holy Spirit prompts them, they’re quick to respond.
What’s the difference between these two groups?
My Own Story
I used to think God didn’t even exist. I thought believing in God was just a psychological crutch some people needed to get through life.
Obviously I don’t think that way anymore.
In 2 Timothy, Paul addresses this issue;
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people. (2 Timothy 3:1-5 NIV)
When Paul writes “having a form of godliness but denying its power” I think he means the power of being changed inwardly into Christ’s image.
Not All Believers Grow in Godliness
Why do some Christians keep growing more Christ-like, while other believers don’t change at all?
The main reason may come down to their salvation experience.
Before I came to Christ, I had been a teenage atheist for several years. But in college, I met some real Christians who loved Jesus and followed Him. He was Lord of their lives, as well as their Savior.
These Christians stunned me. They responded to other students in a unique way. None of them were perfect. But these Christians loved Jesus and sought to walk with Him by obeying His Word and doing what the Holy Spirit’s prompted them to do.
These people weren’t “playing church.” Instead, Jesus was the main focus of their lives.
The Key to Growing Up Spiritually
I received Jesus as my Savior and Lord when I was twenty. Since then I’ve discovered what a born-again Christian believes about the Holy Scripture is critical.
Either the Bible is God’s inspired word, the earthly source of all divine knowledge or it’s just a ancient book, written by a bunch of grumpy, middle-eastern guys.
Dismiss the Bible as a book of fairy tales and immediately Christianity is drained of all its life-transforming power. Only God knows how to set us free from bitterness, insecurity, greed, pride and shame. The Holy Spirit acts as our life coach, but the Bible is the major way He speaks to us.
Agreeing mentally with the truth, however, isn’t good enough. Our lives change only when we obey the truth we’ve been given.
Below are three diagrams, illustrating three different types of Christians.
The First Type of Christian
This graphic shows the cycle a new Christian goes through if Jesus’ Lordship is modeled and taught by older Christians and the Bible is believed to be God’s inspired word.
Start int the center, go straight up to the dark blue hexagon. go clockwise, traveling from green to the light blue hexagon saying “Begins cycle again.”
In the Bible, almost every miracle of God first requires an act of human obedience. Naaman the Leper is a good example.
Naaman’s Healing
The Prophet Elisha’s servant told Naaman that his disease would be cured if he dipped himself seven times in the Jordan River. Naaman was furious. He thought, “Dunking my body underwater in a muddy river wouldn’t cure my leprosy. How idiotic!”
Perhaps he believed the prophet meant for him to look stupid. As commander of Aram’s armies, Naaman served an enemy king, who was hostile toward Israel.
Maybe Elisha just wanted to make a fool of him!
He almost ignored the prophet’s simple instructions and stormed back home. If he had, Naaman would have died a leper. But his servants talked him into obeying Elisha’s words. Six times he plunged his body under the water and nothing happened. The seventh time, his body rose up from the water completely cleansed of leprosy.
Being miraculously healed changed this hostile general’s heart toward Israel’s God Yahweh forever.
15 Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. So please accept a gift from your servant.”
16 The prophet answered, “As surely as the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will not accept a thing.” And even though Naaman urged him, he refused.
17 “If you will not,” said Naaman, “please let me, your servant, be given as much earth as a pair of mules can carry, for your servant will never again make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other god but the Lord. (2 Kings 5:15-17 NIV)
Naaman couldn’t buy his healing. Instead it was given freely as a gift by Israel’s generous God, who saw Naaman’s suffering and cared enough to heal him.
The Second Type of Christian
The Christians in this group are halfhearted. Yes, they believe in the Holy Scriptures. They may even have prayed and asked Jesus to be their Lord. Yet deep inside, these believers retain full control.
They aren’t serving their divine Master wholeheartedly. Instead these believers retain the right to veto any command that’s too uncomfortable.
This Christian’s heart says, “I will follow You if…”
- What You are asking me to do is not too scary.
- It’s not too painful.
- It doesn’t cost me too much personally.
- Your command makes logical sense to my mind.
These Christians may know the Lord’s will, but they often refuse to walk in the direction He tells them to.
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. (James 1:22-24 NIV)
The Third Type of Christian
These are the people who say, “I tried Christianity once and it didn’t work.” They often say this to believers who have a vibrate relationship with the Holy Spirit and are actively being transformed into Christ’s likeness.
I believe these are the people Paul talks about in 2 Timothy 3:5, “having a form of godliness, but denying its power.”
Jesus may be their Savior, but He’s not their Lord. Often they try to remake Christ into their own image, instead of conforming to His. They don’t bother reading the Scriptures, because the Bible has no value for them. Any godly command they disagree with, they dismiss. Handicapped by their high level of unbelief, they never step out in faith so they seldom experience God’s goodness in a significant way. Their inner self is never transformed.
My personal opinion? I think these people are saved.. But spiritually they stay impoverished.
My Spiritual Point
What are the two secrets to radical, life-changing Christian growth?
- Accept Jesus as Lord of your life.
- Believe the Bible is the divinely inspired word of God.
When I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior, the sin of pride had deep roots planted in my soul. So the Holy Spirit attacked this sin first. As a baby Christian, He required me to go back and apologize whenever I offended someone.
People, it wasn’t pretty.
I’d stomp grumpily up to the person, mumble “Sorry I hurt you” and then storm off. I was an irritable, unloving mess—but I obeyed. Why? Because God told me to. Each apology humbled me. Of course, I didn’t do it well because proud people don’t apologize. So I had no practice.
Do you know what the fruit of that obedience was? The stranglehold of pride got broken in my life. I’m not easily offended anymore. After forty years of practice, many of my apologies are now gentle and heartfelt.
Of course, I still hate apologizing and always will.
But I’ve improved with decades of practice.
My Final Point
Trust me when I say this; there is nothing emptier than spending your entire life resisting the God who loves you and has called you to grow into something greater.
