This morning we looked at 1 Tim 6:6 (‘But godliness with contentment is great gain’) as we continued studying signs of spiritual growth and maturity. Godliness (devout piety, sacred awe, reverence for God) is developed within us as we long to be like God in all we are and all we do. As we grow, we become people who have a heart for the things God loves (‘chasing Your heart, just like David did‘, as Phil Wickham sings in ‘Carry My Soul’), people who fear God, love God and desire God. Devotion to God, then, is the mainspring of godly character and this devotion is the only motivation for Christian behaviour that is pleasing to God.

The word ‘godliness’ does not appear often in the New Testament (1 Tim 2:2, 1 Tim 3:16, 1 Tim 4:8, 1 Tim 6:11, 2 Pet 1:6), but the theme permeates our understanding of growth. Godliness is all about living like Jesus lived, about pursuing God with all your heart so that in the end all that is seen is God. Maturity means that people see more of God than they do of us. It’s not the same as perfection (our Bible studies are showing there is no such thing as sinless perfection on this earth for people!). but will be developed in us as we fix our eyes on Jesus and train ourselves, like the athlete or gymnast does.

Contentment is the other aspect mentioned in 1 Tim 6:6. We live in a very dissatisfied age where consumerism has become our culture and it is very hard to escape its tentacles, but Paul’s words in Phil 4:10-13 show us the attitude of the mature. Success comes not from the ‘stuff’ we own or the things we do but from living contentedly as God would have us live. The Message defines contentment as ‘the rich simplicity of being yourself before God.’ For us to be able to live contented lives, free from a love of money and free from this insidious consumer culture which keeps on relentlessly pushing us to earn more so we can buy more so we can have what is necessary for us to be happy, we have to understand that our world view has to change so that we see things the way God sees them. As we learn to pursue God and His heart, we find happiness and satisfaction in Him (Ps 16:11), knowing that He is all we need and all we desire.

In tonight’s Bible study, we looked at 1 John 2:1-2 – the problem of sin and God’s solution! John is writing his letter to his ‘dear children’ (a phrase found predominantly in this letter) so that they will not sin, but he is well aware that we do still sin and so he reminds his readers of the solution to sin: one who is an Advocate, Jesus Christ the Righteous One’ whose atoning sacrifice is sufficient not only for our sins but for the sins of the world!

The word translated as ‘advocate’ is in Greek parakletos, a word used elsewhere (John 14:16, John 14:26, John 15:26, John 16:7) of the Holy Spirit. It can be translated counsellor or comforter, but in the legal sense meant ‘one who pleads another’s cause before a judge, a pleader, counsel for defence, legal assistant.’ (Thayer) Christ pleads our cause against the accuser (Rev 12:10) but also with the Father, not as a judge (for we have already passed from death to life – see John 5:24) but as one who lovingly offers forgiveness to us. Our advocate is Jesus Christ (the name reminds us of both His humanity and His messianic office – see Heb 2:14-15) who is the Righteous One. (2 Cor 5:21, 1 Pet 3:18) No one is righteous before God (Rom 3:10), hence we need One who is righteous to make us right with God: as Martin Luther said, ‘The righteousness of Christ stands on our side; for God’s righteousness is, in Jesus Christ, ours.’

Because Christ is righteous, the offering He makes (known as an ‘atoning sacrifice’ or ‘propitiation’ or ‘expiation’) is satisfactory to God. The means by which God’s wrath is averted is not a bribe; the initiation of propitiation is entirely ascribed to God (1 John 3:16, 1 John 4:10) God’s wrath is not averted by any external gift (as was the case in pagan worship), but by His own self-giving to die the death of sinners. We are therefore reassured that ‘if anyone does sin’, God already has provided a solution for our sin in the sacrifice and character of His Son, Jesus Christ!

Grace is the multi-faceted thread which runs throughout our Christian lives. We are saved by grace through faith (Eph 2:8) and the grace that comes from Jesus Christ continues to uphold us every day of our lives (see John 1:16-17). Paul describes God’s provision of grace as abundant (Rom 5:17) and James reassures us that ‘He gives us more grace.’ (James 4:6) In other words, grace comes in many different shapes and forms, as individual to us as we are unique creations of God.

Eugene Peterson remarks that ‘the “deadly sins” can be numbered; it is virtue that exhibits the endless fertility of creation.’ (‘Working the Angles’, P 163) and goes on to quote C.S. Lewis’s comment that ‘heaven will show much more variety than hell.’ (‘Mere Christianity’) Once we have been on the Christian road any length of time, we soon appreciate the truth of Eccl 1:9: ‘What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.’ Our mistakes tend to have a depressing sameness about them! In the world of the Spirit, however, ‘the forms of grace are not repeated.’ (‘Working the Angles’) God is able to shower grace upon us in new forms, to surprise us by His ingenuity and the sheer variety of the many ways He finds to bless us. Grace may be the common word we use to describe God’s unmerited favour towards us, but it’s a sheer delight to explore the many ways He has of bestowing this on us every day of our lives.

In last night’s sermon, we looked at the question ‘What does growth look like?’ and the short answer to that might be ‘Jesus‘! As always, Jesus is our example in all matters of faith, so if we want to learn how to grow spiritually, we need to look at His life and ministry. Jesus could have chosen to come to earth as a man, simply to preach and then die for our sins, but instead, He came as a baby, living in relative obscurity for thirty years before beginning His ministry. What was the point of all those years of insignificance and hidden living?

Jesus  is our model in faith. He came as the ‘second Adam’ to show us how life should be lived as well as to die for us to bring us salvation. ‘In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family.’ (Hebrews 2:10-11) Heb 2:18 goes on to say ‘Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.’ Jesus came to show us what a life of obedient submission to God looks like and He showed us that insignificance and unimportance in the world’s eyes do not have to define us. We all have dignity and purpose in this life because we are made in the image of God and just as  Jesus willingly learned obedience from suffering (Hebrews 5:8), so too can we.

We know little about the childhood of Jesus (see Luke 2:40, Luke 2:52), but Jesus obviously grew naturally and in grace and wisdom and favour with people. He understands our humanity and therefore can help us in our weaknesses (Heb 4:15-16). He learned patience through suffering and therefore encourages us to see that spiritual growth cannot be rushed but will come naturally as we develop our relationship with our heavenly Father, just as He did.

Waiting patiently for God is itself a sign of increasing spiritual maturity, but we often find it difficult to do this! Few of us enjoy waiting for God. Abraham got impatient waiting for the son of promise to be born, hence he slept with Hagar and saw Ishmael born. ‘His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.’ (Gal 4:23) Saul got impatient waiting for the prophet Samuel to arrive and offered the burnt offering, even though he was neither a prophet nor a priest: Samuel’s comment was ‘You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time.  But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.’ (1 Sam 13:13-14) Impatience is a natural tendency, but it is one that we have to let go of if we are to grow spiritually. ‘Whoever is patient has great understanding, but one who is quick-tempered displays folly.’ (Prov 14:29) Impatience is a sign of immaturity, but if we are patient, we have great understanding, for we are displaying a confidence in God’s ability to work all things together for good in His timing and in His way.

God Himself is patient (2 Pet 3:9, 1 Pet 3:20, Rom 2:4, Rom 3:25), so it’s obvious that He is going to want to develop patience within us, since His goal is for us to become conformed to the image of Christ. (Rom 8:29) One of the ways that God actually works patience into our characters is to allow difficult circumstances into our lives so that we learn not to rely on ourselves but to rely on Him: ‘this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.’ (2 Cor 1:9) The force of ‘pester power’ (demonstrated in the story of Samson and Delilah and experienced by every parent of a demanding toddler!) does not work on God, however! It requires maturity to accept that we do not understand the whole picture and to accept that God knows best, even when it seems He does not give us what our hearts yearn for. Nonetheless, we need to learn that He loves us so much that He will not give in to our demands if that is not the best thing for us, just as we have learnt that as parents, there are times when we must harden our hearts to our children’s pestering and protect them from themselves. The more we allow God to work patience into our lives, the more we will grow spiritually.

God’s aim for us all is for us to grow up: ‘until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.’ (Eph 4:13) Spiritual growth can only happen when we have experienced spiritual birth, however: “Birth presupposes growth, but growth proceeds from birth,” Eugene Peterson says. (‘Practise Resurrection’, P 3) As Jesus taught Nicodemus, we need to be born again (John 3:6-8) and that birth comes from God. (John 1:12-13)

We start out on our spiritual journey by the work of God’s Spirit in our lives causing our new birth or regeneration. There is only one way to start out, by Jesus Christ (John 14:6, Acts 4:12), and as we are born again by God’s Spirit as faith is ignited in our hearts, so we must continue to walk in the Spirit by faith (see Gal 3:2-3, 14). Growth is ultimately God’s work in us:

God’s Regeneration Outworked With The Holy Spirit

That work of growth is something God produces in us and it is the natural progression intended by Him for every one of us. Eph 4:13-14 in the Message version says ‘God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and to tell it in love – like Christ in everything, so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.’ Growth is not forced in the natural world. The seeds that are planted will grow, providing the conditions are conducive to growth – sunlight, water and so on, as these chilli seeds show:

October 2013

December 2013

In the same way, spiritual growth is a spiritual work which happens in spiritual realms to people who have been born again of God’s Spirit. Our problem comes because growth cannot be rushed and we are often impatient to see progress in our own lives and in other people’s lives. Our instant society with its consumer demands leads us to believe we can have whatever we want whenever we want, but our times are in God’s hands and ‘there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.’ (Eccl 3:1) God works patience into our characters so that we grow through waiting patiently for Him, learning through the trials and suffering life brings (James 1:2-4, Rom 5:3-5).