We’ve heard a lot about spiritual growth and the Christian life at both the Honor Academy and in American evangelicalism. But what exactly does spiritual growth look like? What are the marks of a mature Christian? What does it mean to “be filled with fullness of God”?
Is it an intense discipline to rid ourselves of all sin?
Is it an intense prayer life?
Is it relentless self-examination and a desire to constantly do better?
Is it participation in our local church?
Is it not swearing, not drinking and not smoking?
Is it being a Christian leader?
Is it avoiding the appearance of evil?
These things, and more, are often the types of things we are confronted about during our time at the HA.
But what did the Apostle Paul say about this matter? What does it mean to be filled with the fullness of God?
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Eph. 3
You want to have the fullness of God? Forget focusing on the externals – Dive into His love! Let it permeate every part of your life. Not just His love for other people – His deep, incalculable love for YOU.
24 comments:
Let me check my score here:
An intense discipline to rid ourselves of all sin?
Fail
An intense prayer life?
Fail
Relentless self-examination and a desire to constantly do better?
“Relentless” isn’t exactly right. Periodic in light of new discoveries… Yes. Soo 1/2?
Participation in our local church?
EPIC FAIL!!!
Not swearing, not drinking and not smoking?
Fail, Fail, Hey I got one!
Being a Christian leader?
BEYOND EPIC FAIL!
Avoiding the appearance of evil?
I actually tell some people that I *am* evil, so yeah, this is a fail.
“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and *to know this love that surpasses knowledge*—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. “
Definitely a Pass
I give myself an A+, and the same to everyone else.
Thank you RA. I’d hit the “Like” button if there was one.
November 24, 2010 1:44 PM
Natalie said…
I laughed when I read, ‘avoiding the appearance of evil.’
We actually thought that was a standard.
So weird. 🙂
November 24, 2010 4:57 PM
Anonymous said…
you will know them by the fruit of their labor.
where’s your fruit RA?
November 24, 2010 6:38 PM
Anonymous said…
hey RA what ever happened to your twitter account?
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah.
oh mah bad. that wasn’t you! sill me, that was ME!
hahahahahahahahahha.
get a life.
November 24, 2010 10:00 PM
Temp Anon said…
Awkward….
What’s up with the psyco anon’s? Weird.
November 25, 2010 1:02 AM
heartsfire said…
*yawn* Trolls on Thanksgiving? Really? *YAWN*
I do love how they show themselves as hypocrites. I don’t even think the trolls are trying anymore, to me they become comic relief instead of attackers.
November 25, 2010 9:34 AM
Recovering Alumni said…
Normally I don’t indulge trolls, but I’m happy to take this opportunity to say what my fruit is NOT.
It’s not broken bones, long term illness, exhaustion, depression, guilt, fear, condemnation, self-loathing, mental illness, confusion, grief, inability to socialize normally with the outside world, inability to make decisions, refusal to listen to your body or see a doctor, legalism, judgmentalism, and people turning their backs on God.
Just to name a few.
November 25, 2010 11:48 AM
Eric said…
Hey anon, come back when you can show us some love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Oh wait, that’s not the fruit of anyone’s labors… it’s the fruit of the Spirit.)
November 26, 2010 10:14 PM
Anonymous said…This post has been removed by a blog administrator.November 27, 2010 12:19 AM
Anonymous said…This post has been removed by a blog administrator.November 27, 2010 12:27 AM
Anonymous said…This post has been removed by a blog administrator.November 27, 2010 12:37 AM
Anonymous said…This post has been removed by a blog administrator.November 27, 2010 12:40 AM
Lisa Kerr said…
RA,
Thank you for writing a concise, well-constructed post. Many of the traits you mention here that lead to “spiritual growth” were the traits we were taught in Master’s Commission.
In my experience, what type of “fruit” these teachings bear are this:
Instead of ridding ourselves of sin, we rid ourselves of being ourselves. We allow ourselves to hole up in a false “righteousness” for fear that we might be brilliant, artistic, intelligent, outspoken, not manly or womanly enough, etc. We develop a constant feeling of guilt that we’re not being disciplined enough. We bear an ungodly amount of mental and physical stress in order to maintain that “discipline” and we even start taking Paul’s “I beat my body daily” literally.
We believe that we should intensely pray–so intensely that others can hear us in the next building over, or they can see us visibly shaking, or step on our bodies because we’re “so prostrate before the Lord.” We pray so intensely that we develop migraine headaches, cry until our eyes are bloodshot and use up an entire box of Kleenex to soak our tears and snot.
We become master’s at showmanship.
November 27, 2010 12:43 AM
Lisa K. said…
We forget to allow ourselves to be normal, or human. We don’t let ourselves “mess up” and if we do mess up, we get incredibly angry at ourselves. We may get rebuked by others, or we rebuke ourselves. We question everything so deeply that we begin to question our own instincts, motives, and the very nature within ourselves that is so beautiful and unique to begin with. We loathe our quirkiness. We fail to see the richness in our imperfections.
We become elitists–not just participating in our local church, but we RUN the local church. We slave away in it, we pray in it, we live in it. We become disgustingly proud of the fact that we’re more loyal to our church than anyone is.
We become afraid of saying f*ck, or offending someone by doing something that some may see as “Unchristian.” We won’t touch wine, or vodka or beer, and soon we’ll discard any friend of ours who does touch it, becoming more and more foreign to what Jesus looked like. We pity anyone who swears, drinks, or smokes because we “know” we are better than them. We fail to have compassion on anyone who is a true alcoholic and instead insist on judging.
We become a Christian leader, and then we boast and feel proud. We feel above others because we lead them. We’re entitled and we’re mightier because we beat ourselves constantly to the point where no one can see our imperfections or our humanity. We become so righteous no one normal wants to be around us, and we become disgusting with our lack of compassion.
We avoid the appearance of evil, because evil is CLEARLY something that we APPEAR as. For example, we can’t be seen wearing tight jeans or showing our cleavage. We might APPEAR to be a hooker. We can’t appear to be riding alone with a boy who’s not our husband. We might APPEAR to be having sex out of wedlock.
November 27, 2010 12:44 AM
Anonymous said…This post has been removed by a blog administrator.November 27, 2010 1:51 AM
Anonymous said…This post has been removed by a blog administrator.November 27, 2010 1:55 AM
heartsfire said…
Cindy, I will pray for you. Pray that you eventually realize the level of your hate and that nothing like that could ever enter the kingdom of God unless that thing realizes that God and his grace love and willingness to let us be who we are. I pray someday you truly meet that God. I pray that you actually wake up and realize that Christ asked for LOVE not Perfection in his people.
LML
November 27, 2010 8:41 AM
Shannon Kish said…
Dear Cindy, thank you once again for affirming that if there is a God and he/she looked anything like you then I still wouldn’t want to believe in him. Your amazing judgmental, hate-filled comments have definitely reaffirmed my atheism, yet again. If only more people who claim to love the Lord could be as judgmental and filled with so much hate…..oops, there are already enough.
Shannon Kish
Atheist
November 27, 2010 9:47 AM
shiloh said…
@Shannon. I’ve missed you. 🙂 (I haven’t seen you on the blog lately… then again, I haven’t really been on the blog much either… all that to say, love your opinions, glad to see you’re still around. 🙂
@ Cindy? I didn’t read most of your comments cause they were VERY attacking and rude and extremely judgmental. Please stop commenting if all you are going to do is be attacking. It’s kind of a sick thing to do.
At HeartsFire and Lisa – love you both!
At R.A. – Why no new post’s?
November 27, 2010 10:12 AM
Recovering Alumni said…
Lisa – Excellent thoughts! Its true – in our desire to avoid “sin” we often end up obliterating ourselves – the person that God loves and created.
Shiloh – It’s Saturday! And a holiday week! Give a girl a break. 😉
November 27, 2010 11:29 AM
Recovering Alumni said…
Shannon – Please don’t let that person speak for all Christians. I agree with you that if God looked anything like that, I wouldn’t want to have a relationship with him, either.
November 27, 2010 11:44 AM
Shiloh said…
“Shiloh – It’s Saturday! And a holiday week! Give a girl a break. ;)”
haha. After I posted I was like, ‘oh right, it’s Saturday.’
Dang it for not being able to delete post’s.
🙂
November 27, 2010 12:14 PM
Anonymous said…This post has been removed by a blog administrator.November 27, 2010 12:19 PM
Kimberly said…
To Anon who tried to check RA about her fruit.
We must read that scripture in context. When Christ said that you will know them by their fruit he was talking about false phrophets read Matt 7. RA this is a good post because as a body we tend to focus on everything except love when the word says and this is how they will know that ye are my disciples that ye have love one to another.
Great post!
November 28, 2010 5:18 PM