"For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. . . . But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." (NKJV)
I’ve been thinking a lot about spiritual maturity lately. It’s actually something that should be on the mind of every serious Christian. Growing toward spiritual maturity is the difference between moving toward God and moving away from Him. It is the mark of the "diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end." Simply put, it’s what we, as Christians, are supposed to do and to be doing each and every day.
So what does it take to start on the path of spiritual maturity? Paul talks about this in Philippians 3:
"What things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind" (Philippians 3:7-15a NKJV).
What are the steps or components of pressing on toward spiritual maturity?
• The things that I once treasured and considered important, I have "counted as loss for Christ"
• Embracing righteousness from God through faith
• Knowing God and the power of His resurrection
• Knowing the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings
• Being conformed to Christ’s death
• Pressing on, forgetting the past, and reaching forward
Whew! That’s a mouthful. For me, I need to deconstruct each one and look at it so that I can clearly understand what it is Paul is saying and what it is that the Lord wants for me.
The things that I once treasured and considered important, I have "counted as loss for Christ"
Just previously, Paul had listed all of his achievements. This man was an overachiever if there ever was one! Definitely a triple Type A personality! He lists both his social and religious status (which came from his family line) and his personal achievements.
He was born a Jew, from the tribe of Benjamin, circumcised on the eighth day according to Jewish religious law. This gave him perfect status as a Jewish man and placed him into that group of one of God’s chosen people. Additionally, being from the tribe of Benjamin, he was from the tribe that was at the "top" of the Jewish social strata. (It might be like saying that you were a Kennedy in America.) He was a full-blooded Jew and thus, much more religiously and socially acceptable than those who were not fully Jewish.
Then, he goes on, saying that he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. It means he came from a family that took being Jewish seriously. They spoke the language, practiced the customs, were fully versed in the history and religious culture. He was, in essence, the perfect Jew.
He says that he was a Pharisee. It was even more than that. He was a favored disciple of Gamaliel, one of the most revered Pharisee rabbis of all time. The Pharisees were the ultimate religious leaders, the ones who had been chosen to establish the kingdom of God (at least according to Jewish thought). Paul was being groomed to take Gamaliel’s place, so he had received the best theological training, had been given the highest positions of authority and responsibility in the Pharisees. The Pharisees were expecting Paul to eventually become their leader.
Paul goes on to say that he took his position among the Pharisees so seriously that when the new "cult" of Christianity rose up, it was his idea—and then his responsibility—to persecute the new Christians, including condemning many of them to death. Paul was willing to be complicit in murder in order to be that "perfect Jew." Paul finishes his description of himself by saying that he had kept every single one of the rules of the Jewish Law perfectly. If it was possible to earn salvation through one’s own actions, Paul would have done that.
In modern day terms, Paul would have been the perfect pastor. He would have been in charge of the largest mega-church with multiple television shows, Internet channels, and a fantastic Twitter account. He would have written books, spoken at conferences, and had his face plastered everywhere, proclaiming himself as the greatest Christian that ever lived.
Paul says, in Philippians 3:7, that the things he once counted as gain, he now counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Paul understood that all the things he had achieved were nothing if he didn’t have Christ. All the position, prestige, and power that he had was meaningless because he wasn’t doing God’s will. The outward traps of "righteousness" were useless because inwardly, Paul was still a sinner destined for hell. And there wasn’t anything he could do to "work" himself out of that situation. Despite all his achievements, Paul was just like all the rest of us! The only thing that could save him was to throw himself on the mercy of God and the blood of the cross. Everything else he had done was useless. And so Paul took all of those accomplishments and turned his back on them. He left everything behind and started to fully follow God on the course that the Father had set.
Paul gave up the things he had treasured, the things that had value in his society and among his friends, in order to pursue Christ. He didn’t just give them up in essence, but actually in fact. He became an enemy of the Pharisees and everyone associated with them. He was subjected to all kinds of torture and abuse because he had turned his back on his culture and his friends. Paul counted all those things as rubbish compared to the joy of serving Christ.
Embracing righteousness from God through faith
Paul literally writes: "that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith."
To be found in Him, to gain Christ. This is much more than simply "believing in Jesus." This is so much more than simply saying the sinner’s prayer. This is pursuing Christ to the extent that, at any moment, when someone comes across me, they will discover that I am in Him! This is taking every effort, every strength, every choice and purposefully moving toward Christ, purposefully choosing to do His will, purposefully wanting to please Him and no one else. When I embrace the righteousness that comes from God through faith, I am no longer interested in whether or not grace covers sin. Paul actually address this issue in Romans:
"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!" (Romans 6:1-2a NKJV).
Shall we continue in sin? Certainly not! We can never use grace as an excuse to sin! If we are truly saved, if we have truly embraced the righteousness that comes from God through faith, we cannot also embrace sin. We must choose! Sin or righteousness. Death or life. Evil or Christ. There is no middle ground. We cannot continue to live as if there is some kind of morally neutral or gray area in which we can still indulge ourselves rather than pursuing God. We are either moving toward Him or moving away from Him. Grace empowers us to move toward Him. It isn’t the "free ticket" for us to take a day off from righteousness.
Knowing God and the power of His resurrection
Jesus didn’t save us so that we would become nice people. Look at the apostle Paul. Before he was saved, he was a nice person. He fully obeyed the Law, was totally sold out to being the best Jew (person) possible, and used every opportunity to serve others. Regardless of his motivations, he didn’t need to get saved in order to become a "good" person. He needed to get saved so that his sins would be forgiven and he wouldn’t be banished to hell for all eternity.
That is the power of the resurrection!
We have tried to market Jesus like some sort of new anti-aging cream or character-trait book. We have reduced Jesus to the latest guru on relationships or the expert on finances. And while the Holy Spirit does want to influence every aspect of our lives, becoming a Christian isn’t about being good.
We have become so influenced by television that we, as Christians, have become convinced that life is reduced to the "good guys" (us) and the "bad guys" (everyone else). We expect the "bad guys" to act badly so that we can convince them that "accepting Jesus" will turn them into "good guys." Nothing could be further from the truth! There are literally thousands, perhaps millions, of good people going to hell. These people have a sense of right and wrong, they have a sense of morality, and they often live out the trappings of a "Christian" life. They talk about prayer and kindness and paying it forward. They also talk about karma and ghosts and "good" people going to heaven. They have the outward trappings, but inwardly, they are as much sinners as the guy down the street beating his wife.
They are good people going to hell and they see no need for our message that Jesus will make them good because they are already good. What they need to hear is the power of His resurrection!
I think we often forget the reality of what the Lord Jesus did for us on that fateful weekend. We have reduced the cross to jewelry and the resurrection to an Easter-only story. The truth is, we should be singing and shouting and proclaiming the resurrection message every minute of every hour of every day. Death has been conquered! As Christians, we will not die! We will pass from this life into the arms of our loving Savior.
"For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?" The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 15:52-57 NKJV).
If the Lord Jesus hadn’t died and been raised from the dead, there would be no comfort or peace in death. Every single one of us would be facing an eternity of punishment due to our sin. Our lives would be judged by the reality of God’s Law and we all would be found lacking! But because the Lord Jesus paid the penalty for our sin, death no longer holds fear for the Christian. In fact, we need to totally change how we think about death—our own deaths and the deaths of our saved loved ones, because death is which will bring us into the loving arms of our Savior! Death takes us Home! There is no greater journey, no greater reward, no greater joy than to come face to face with Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.
We rarely hear sermons or read books about death anymore. And, unfortunately, many Christians grieve as the world grieves, sorrowing that the person has died and is now gone. Rather than grieving for the dead, we need to be rejoicing that our brothers and sisters are now with the Lord and work harder than ever to compel those who are not saved to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Knowing the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings
The Greek word translated here "fellowship" is koinonia which is the word we use to describe the kind of intimate interaction that Christians are supposed to have with one another. This is the iron-sharpening-iron and bearing-one-another’s-burdens kind of fellowship demanded of the Church. And here, Paul uses that same word to describe that kind of relationship that he wants to have with Christ’s sufferings.
Of course, if we’re supposed to suffer, that ruins every opportunity that we have to try to "market" Jesus to an unsuspecting world. I mean, who wants to join in with suffering? And yet, this very word that Paul uses for "sufferings," pathema, means "the afflictions which Christians must undergo in behalf of the same cause which Christ patiently endured" (Strongs G3804).
The afflictions which Christians must undergo.
This Christian life was never, ever meant to be easy. The moment we become a Christian—a true Christian—we immediately become an enemy to the prince of this world, Satan. We immediately come under attack. And if we are effective in our faith, we will remain under attack until the Lord calls us Home. That attack can come externally through sickness or loss . . . or it can come internally through temptations.
We are so wrong when we believe that the purpose of salvation is so that God will shower us with blessings in this life:
"Now we hope for the blessings God has for His children. These blessings, which cannot be destroyed or spoiled or lose their beauty, are kept in heaven for you. God’s power protects you through your faith until salvation is shown to you at the end of the time. This makes you very happy, even though now for a short time different kinds of troubles may make you sad. These troubles come to prove that your faith is pure. This purity of faith is worth more than gold, which can be proved to be pure by fire but will ruin. But the purity of your faith will bring you praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is shown to you." (1 Peter 1:4-7 NCV).
Our blessings are being kept for us in heaven where they cannot be spoiled! How amazing is that and how awesome. Do you think we will care what car we drove or what house we lived in once we get Home? Do you think we will be thinking about that great job with the super abundant paycheck or that big screen TV that dwarfed our family room? Or do you think we will be focused on how much we had learned to live in God’s perfect will now that eternity is here? Our blessings are being kept for us in heaven! What a marvelous promise.
Meanwhile, we will be asked to endure trials and temptations. Paul even embraced the sufferings of Christ. He wanted to understand, even in part, how much the Lord Jesus had to endure to save him. Paul wanted to be a part of that process, even a minute part. And we, as the Body of Christ, are invited to participate in that! Imagine! The Lord is asking us to participate with Him in the salvation process. Not that we can save anyone, but we can have fellowship with the Lord in experiencing our sufferings for the same cause that He experienced His! He put Himself in direct opposition to Satan and allowed Satan to murder Him for the cause of salvation. We can put ourselves in direct opposition to Satan and, through the power of the Holy Spirit, endure trials and temptations for the cause of salvation. And while our endurance doesn’t save anyone, it will point others to Christ and to His amazing work on the cross.
Being conformed to Christ’s death
Paul became probably the greatest Christian that ever lived, and yet, he didn’t see himself that way. Paul says in Philippians 3:12, "Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me." Paul had to continually, each day, press on.
The first step of spiritually maturity is pressing on everyday. Christianity isn’t an activity where you can have a day off. You need to continually be pressing on toward the goal of serving, loving, and desiring the Lord. A "day off" is a step backward. The problem that we have in our society is that we are trained, almost from birth, to "days off." Days off from school, days off from work, days off from the responsibilities of life. And we look forward to the days off because those are the days when we are giving permission to indulge ourselves. Indulging the flesh.
"In the last time there will be scoffers, indulging their own ungodly lusts. It is these worldly people, devoid of the Spirit, who are causing divisions" (Jude 18-19 NRSV).
Indulgence is always tied to the three categories of lust: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life (1 John 2:16). Indulgence leads to lust, leads to sin. There is no other path for indulgence. And there are so many names for this: taking time for ourselves, taking care of ourselves, having fun for a change, letting go, relaxing, being ourselves, enjoying life. All of these phrases—and more—hide within them the idea that we are taking a day off from our responsibilities of life and using our time and resources to please ourselves.
We can’t do this! Each "day off" is a day we fail to press in, a day we fail to move toward God, a day we fail to reach toward the prize of resurrection promised in the Bible. And each day that we do this, it becomes easier to do it the next day. Pretty soon, we live for "days off" rather than living the disciplined life that we must live if we are to press on toward God. Paul wrote in Romans:
"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?" (Romans 6:1-2 NKJV).
When we conform to Christ’s death, we die to sin. And if we have died to sin, how can we live any longer in it? How can a dead person sin? If we are truly conformed to Christ’s death, we will choose not to sin, and when the Holy Spirit does reveal sin in our lives, we will immediately repent of it, seek forgiveness, and turn from our wicked ways. We will not embrace it to do again and again and again.
Pressing on, forgetting the past, and reaching forward
"forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus"
Paul "forgot" about his great achievements, his possible fame and position as a great Pharisee rabbi. He even forgot about his enormous sin of persecuting the Church, even having Christians murdered. Paul forgot about all that lay behind him and reached forward to the things that were ahead.
What was ahead? Suffering, trials, opportunities for ministry, worship of the One High God, daily pressing forward toward the prize! These were the things that Paul thought about, the things he wrote about, the things he worked toward. Pressing forward, pressing in, pressing on. Daily, pressing, pressing, pressing. No days off. No time for himself. No recreation. Only pressing in to God, doing His will, looking forward to Heaven.
This is the beginning of spiritual maturity, learning moment by moment, day by day, year by year to constantly and consistently press toward God, moving toward Him and never away from Him, giving up all we had (or thought we might have) to gain all that is His. This is the beginning of spiritual maturity! The question is always going to be, each moment, each hour, each day . . . do we want to become spiritual mature or do we want to remain babies in Christ?
"I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Is that your desire today?
© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.
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