Let’s continue unpacking the purpose of Christian personal development. We were exploring the reason and intent behind intentionally growing into Christ’s likeness, which is the core purpose of a believer. Why? Because it brings glory to God, just as Christ’s life did. This was always the plan for being created in His image and likeness. Somehow, in the Christian community, we either leave out or ignore this specific part because we aren’t sure what it means or how to live it in our everyday lives.
We’ll begin by examining the why. Take a look at 1 Corinthians 13. This is interesting when you consider that Paul decided to include this point in the middle of his description of love. To the natural eye, it might seem disconnected or like a break in the flow. However, it’s purposeful. He starts by explaining why love is important: “If you can move mountains, have faith, heal, and prophesy, but you have not love, you are just a loud noise.” It’s worthless. You’re just showing off your gift because when you don’t love people, it’s not about them or for them. It’s for your glory, not God’s. Pay attention.
As you read further, Paul starts to describe why love is the primary heart God wants displayed: “Love is patient, love is kind, love does not boast, it is not self-seeking, and it keeps no record of wrongs.” Paul lists these attributes but then says, in the middle of all that, “When I was a child, I thought as a child, I reasoned as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” Then he goes right back into love. That stood out, prompting a question for God. “Why would Paul break the flow. Why did he say that in the middle? Why right there?”
Through good Bible study, the Holy Spirit brought Ephesians 4 to my memory, and it started to come together. This section of scripture in Ephesians gives purpose to Paul’s quick dive into the connection between love and maturity. Ephesians 4:11-16 shows that we must become mature in the Lord and why. John 17:20-26 expounds on the why as well, but we’ll discuss one component at a time.
Pay attention: if you’re not treating and loving people the way Jesus loves, instead choosing to love the way the world loves, you become a participant in loud, pointless noise. Yet call it “love”. Let me remind you quickly: doing good Bible study, praying, and listening to the Holy Spirit will guide your time in the Word so it’s effective in revealing the whole purpose of God’s will for your life. This includes His why.
Let’s get back to Ephesians 4. Starting at verse 11: “And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” Pay attention to verse 13: “Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Why? So that we may “no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, craftiness, and deceitful schemes, rather speaking the truth in love.” Look at this: “We are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head.” Who? “Into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” It all goes back to love!
The question has been answered. Paul put maturity in the midst of describing love because that is the ultimate goal of becoming like Christ. We still have childish understanding, reasoning, and behaviors if we don’t love as God loves. God’s love = maturity.Maturity is met when we have progressed to the full (containing or holding as much or as many as possible; having no empty space; not lacking or omitting anything; complete- Webster Dictionary) stature (quality or status gained by growth, development, or achievement– Webster Dictionary) of the fullness of Christ. His mindset, his character, his heart, his intention, focus, and his LOVE. We are created in his image and LIKENESS.
Real Love Explained
Jesus’s love for the Father is expressed through his obedience to the Father’s will, even to death. That should be the heart of every believer. Yep, #goals. Jesus loves humanity, sacrificing Himself for their greater good—#goals. This two commandments Jesus left: Love your God and love your neighbor supports the objective of living like Christ. You guessed it, #goals. Making that connection brings understanding and insight into the heart and mind of God. God wants us to mature and put away childish things. Paul calls being “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” childish.
We live in times today when people say things with no proof or evidence—it’s simply their opinion. They know people won’t Berean (Acts 17:10-11) that information, therefore people are easily being tossed to and fro, as if we can’t read the scriptures for ourselves. That’s how the Bereans avoided being ignorant in their learning and understanding. They went back to check everything Paul taught. That is what we call in our Bible study group, a practical practice.
If You Don’t Know, You Can’t Grow
Scriptures help us understand why it is important to imitate Jesus Christ. Christian personal development only works when we intentionally pursue maturity to obtain that place of love like Jesus. That selfless, humble, obedient, purposeful, and fruitful life Jesus not only demonstrated but said is ours to have.
If one struggles with loving people, can’t love an enemy, and can’t truly look out for people the way Jesus looked out for people without becoming a people pleaser or trying to fit in, it’s telling evidence that we aren’t pursuing the heart of God. Unfortunately, many Christians would rather be accepted by a world that despises God and His principles. This misguided belief has allowed the world to infiltrate the body of Christ, making us look like them and diluting the potency of the Gospel by some who claim Christ.
This is the effect of not knowing the God we serve. How can we make informed choices about life’s decisions when we lack knowledge of God? Like any relationship, if we don’t know someone, we won’t trust them. When we don’t trust someone, it’s hard, if not impossible, to believe them. The same goes for our relationship with God. If we don’t know God, the relationship won’t be strong and most certainly won’t grow and abound. Understandably, this causes breakdowns in our attempts to imitate Christ. As ambassadors of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20), we have to live and share the gospel in a way that is approved by God, not by men. If we’re not doing life God’s way, we’re missing the mark.
Traps That Hinder Christlikeness
When we lack knowing God it leads to one of the greatest deceptions in the faith: thinking we have God figured out. John says that everything Jesus did on this earth couldn’t be contained in the world’s books (John 21:25). We don’t have all the information concerning the complete works of Christ. However, we have enough to live an equipped life. The Bible says we have everything we need to live a godly life (2 Peter 1:3). We’re equipped with the limited information we already have. However, knowing we’re equipped, sometimes as Christians, especially if we’ve been in the faith for a while, we start to believe that familiarity equates to knowing. The truth is that the Holy Spirit gives our remembrance and understanding at an appointed time. True understanding is revealed only when the Spirit unpacks it. We can’t know God outside of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:9-12).
Here’s evidence of that belief:
- Scripture must be revealed. The meeting place of life and truth is found when the Spirit reveals God to our hearts. God uses everything to mature us, but it’s the revelation from God (2 Corinthians 3:18) that gives truth and revelation.
- Our memory of Scripture is given by the Holy Spirit. Many times during Jesus’ ministry, the disciples did not remember certain things Jesus said until after the resurrection, when the Holy Spirit came (John 2:22; John 14:26; Luke 24:6-8) to bring it back to their memory.
As we study the Word, the Spirit moves in our hearts and begins to transform us by renewing our minds. For example, does Romans 12:1-2 mean something different today than it did five years ago? Our experiences are used as lessons that strengthen our understanding and relationship of who God is as we go through life, trials, and tribulations. Think about it. How many times have you gone through something and suddenly remembered a certain story or scripture from the Bible? For instance, Abraham’s story carried the weight of just a good bible story of faith until it became a personal lived experience.
The scriptures resonate differently when we experience different levels of trust in our walk with God building our relationship with him. For example, an increase in faith without doubt, like Abraham, usually comes from an experience of help from the Lord during a time of distress. When God comes through on His promises, we can identify with the lived experiences from biblical lives we’ve come to know through scripture. The same story of let’s stay with Abraham will deepen how we know God. This causes an impact in different areas of our heart in those seasons. This is how we get to know God.
That is why intentionally pursuing to live like Christ requires that we don’t gloss over scripture or believe we have God figured out. That’s not possible, no matter how hard we try (Romans 11:33-36). As we pursue God, we keep in step with the Spirit to align with God’s way. That’s not easy when you want to do things your way, when you are self-centered, or when your heart is not truly open to “God, your will be done.” Those are nice words, but when He calls for that to happen in our life, that’s when the rubber meets the road. Why? God wants us to mature and become like Christ.
Be sure to avoid the trap of thinking we’re too familiar with the Word and have God figured out.
How Do We Get There?
Unfortunately, when we think we have God and the Word figured out, it leads us to think we can gloss over scriptures because we’ve heard them before. Wrong thinking! We must practice digging deep and avoid glossing over anything. It’s our responsibility to dive into the Word. God wants to speak to us and show us how to live Kingdom. His heart is to grow us up. He wants us to mature because the goal is to love like He loves and bring Him glory in the life we live. If we don’t know how to love, we are just noise in the earth. How do we get there? Look at Matthew 11:28-29 when Jesus says, “Come to me.” He is letting us know HE is the source. If our life is not Christ-centered—“Christ who is our life” (Colossians 3:4)—what are we doing?
Are we trying to be popular and famous while putting Jesus’ name on it? If that is our heart, He’s not okay with that. He wants to have a personal relationship with us; that’s why it’s called personal development. It’s personal growth and maturity into the likeness of Jesus, and it’s personal because we all will stand before Him individually- face to face. Everything we believe, align with, agree with, what we’ve said yes to, and how we live this life—we’re going to have to give an account one day. It’s going to all be laid out before Him to judge. To this point, there is no greater treasure than learning and knowing who God is. He’s the best Teacher and example. He already left the blueprint for us.
We use those words, but do we follow through? Are we living that way when we’re mad at somebody or when we are offended? Are we missing opportunities to minister to somebody because we’re offended? Those little trinkets of our hearts and minds matter. Why? It’s evidence of our alignment and agreements. It’s evidence of our convictions. It’s evidence of our maturity. Now, do we have the guts to live in them?
Stick around for part III of this series, Christian Personal Development.
