Growth

“Ye, therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware lest, being carried away with the error of the wicked, ye fall from your own stedfastness. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and for ever. Amen,” — 2 PETER iii, 17, 18.

WE have already defined holiness as health of spiritual life. We were careful to distinguish between perfection of condition, which is holiness, and perfection of consummation, which is the final goal of the holy being. We saw how the youngest disciples of Jesus Christ can be holy, perfect as to condition, but cannot yet be perfect with the perfection of consummation. The disciple who has been following Jesus Christ for years can be holy, but will yet say, and will say to the end of the earthly pilgrimage, “I have not yet apprehended.”

But there is a morning coming which will be without clouds. Then we shall see Him as He is, and we shall be like Him, and shall be able to say at last, We have apprehended that for which we have been apprehended by Christ Jesus. While the figure of the bud and the blosso

that we made use of teaches the possibility of a perfection of condition through all the processes, with equal force it illustrates the necessity for growth and development. Health is not a condition of life beyond which there can be nothing more. Health is the condition for growth, not a reason for its cessation. Holiness is not a condition beyond which there is neither room nor need for development. Holiness is the necessary condition for development. With that subject of growth and development I propose now to deal. I want to deal first with the naturalness of the growth of the Christian life and character; secondly, with the direction of such growth; finally, and principally, with the responsibilities concerning growth which rest upon those of us who have received the life of God, and in whom it is being maintained in health.

First, then, concerning. the naturalness of growth. Growth is dependent upon life and health. Grant these conditions, and it follows naturally and without effort: If these be absent there can be no growth. We may use the word sometimes somewhat carelessly in relation to matters which are devoid of life, but, strictly speaking, it always indicates the presence of life. Boys at their play in wintertime will take a small snowball, and, rolling it in the snow, will watch it becoming larger and larger, until one boy says, See how it grows! No, it is not growing. That is not growth. That is enlargement by accretion from without. Growth is enlargement by development from within. The principle of life is necessary to growth. You may challenge the accuracy of that statement as a general one, but I want to point out very carefully and particularly that the word “grow” in ‘the text is always used in that connection in Scripture. The Greek word is translated “grow” or “increase,” and it is never used save in the realm of life in some form. For instance, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.” “Let both grow together until the harvest.” “Your faith groweth.” “I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.” “Maketh the increase of the body.” The life principle is present whether you think of the lilies, or of the darnel or the wheat, or of the faith of the Christian, or of the development of the whole Church of Jesus Christ. When the apostle Peter charges us in his epistle to “grow in grace” he presupposes the presence of life, and it is of the utmost importance that we emphasise that fact. There can be no growth in Christian character save where the Christ-life exists. The man who is born anew can grow in grace. The man who has not received the gift of life cannot grow. Growth in grace is not the result of the imitation of Christ in the power of the human will.

It is the result of the propelling force of the Christ-life in the soul.

If growth be dependent upon life, it is equally dependent upon health. Arrest of development is always due to disease of some kind. And is not disease itself always due to failure of the life principle to,reach some part of the organism? Are not scientists telling us to-day that “the blood is the life’? We who had our Bibles in our hands knew it long ago. Are not scientists affirming to-day, to use their own method of expression so far as I am able, that the blood is the greatest germicide in existence? If the life principle in the body, the blood, can but find its way to all the parts of the body, disease is made impossible thereby. Doctors may differ as to the accuracy of that statement, but whether that theory represents the truth or not in the realm of the material, it certainly does in that of the spiritual. Wherever there is arrest of development in the Christian life it is due to the fact that, in some part of the life, the life principle of Jesus

Christ is not obtaining and dominant. Some part of the life — the intellect, the ernotion, the will, the chamber of the imagination, the palace of the affection, or the seat of thought — is not wholly handed over to the indwelling Christ, is not answering the call of His life, is not responding to its claims. The tides of that life are excluded from some part of the being, and the result is spiritual disease. The spiritual faculties become atrophied. They cannot work. Then follows arrest of development. But granted the full rushing tide of the Christ-life in all the departments of the believer’s life, granted the presence and dominance of that life in all the complex mystery of his being, then he is in health, and his growth steady and sure.

Growth, therefore, is never the result of effort. I remember, ten years ago, when I first set my face to the other side of the sea, my boy, six years of age, said to me as he bade me good-bye, “How long shall you be away?’ I told him two months. He said, “I am going to try hard to grow as big as you are before you come back.” I am not sure that he tried. I suspect he forgot, as children do: so blessedly forget their follies. But if he did try, he did not succeed. No child grows by effort. No man “by being anxious can add one cubit to his stature.’ Growth in Christian stature is never the result of effort. I want to say this emphatically for the comfort of some of my brothers and sisters who have recently given themselves to Jesus Christ, and who, perhaps, are a little disappointed that, notwithstanding their earnest striving after a perfect Christian character, they have failed. It is not by your effort that you grow. Granted life and holiness, then there will be growth and development.

In the second place, it is necessary to notice the direction of growth. Let us look at that wonderful fourth chapter of the letter to the Ephesians, and we must beware here, as always in the writings of the apostle, of confusing the main line of his argument with the side issues.

I am not going to attempt an exposition of the whole passage. It will be enough to extract from it its principal statement by taking verse 7, the first two words of verse 14, and the latter part of verse 15. Everything I miss out is absolutely important, but it is secondary and illustrative. The main declaration of the whole passage is this, “Unto each one of us was grace given... that we... may grow up in all things into Him, Who is the head, even Christ.”

In that great statement we see what is the direction of Christian growth. It is growth into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Where the life of God is received by a soul, and fully yielded, that soul is day by day, hour by hour, yea, moment by moment, growing into the likeness of the Son of God. When presently, by God’s grace, we reach the perfection of consummation, when presently we have done with the bud of promise and the blossom of hope, and have come to the fruitage of realisation, what will that final glory be? The psalmist of old had a fore-glimpse of it when he said, “I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness.”’ The apostle John saw it even more clearly, “Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that if He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him even as He is.” The consummation of Christian character is perfect approximation to the character of Jesus Christ. We shall have reached the fruitage of Christian life when we see Him, and when we are like Him. Growth into His likeness, then, is the line of Christian development.

But ‘there is another truth — no, not another, rather a complement to the one great truth which is also in the chapter in Ephesians. It is that, as I grow up into His likeness, I grow into my true place in His body, which is the Church. I become fitted to fulfil that special function in the Church’s life which is allotted to me by the appointment of Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Thus the double standard by which we may test ourselves perpetually is this: first, am I more like Christ than I was? second, is my union with the Church of Christ such as will help it to become the perfect medium through which the glories of the Head shall be manifest to the ages? Perhaps we had better leave for the present that second half of our consideration, important and vital as it is, and confine ourselves to the first.

The great test question with which the believer should start each day, and with which he should close each day, is this: Am I more like my Lord than I was? This is not a question that a man can ask and answer in dilettante fashion, treating it as he would some trifling consideration of the passing hour. It is a question of fire, testing the motives and actions; a question of arraignment, setting the soul daily before a great tribunal. Am I more like Jesus Christ than I was? Who is to answer the question? I am to answer it, not in the public ear, but in the inner shrine of my ‘ own spirit, and in the presence of my Lord — to tell Him. I know that the nearer a man gets to Christ, the further away he feels himself to be. That is one of the paradoxes of the Christian life. You follow after Him with all your heart, climbing the mountain at whose summit He awaits you; and the distance appears greater with every approaching step. The man, or woman, or little child, and most probably the little child, who has come nearest to the Christ of God, is most conscious of distance from Him.

Yet for all practical purposes we may know whether we are growing more like Jesus Christ or not.. Let me make the question very practical and pertinent by means of a homely illustration, Some years ago, a member of one of my former congregations, a Christian woman of refinement and of great consecration, went to stay in the home of her sister in the country, where she had not stayed for many years, Her sister was a woman of the world, engrossed in worldly pleasures and interests.

When my friend was leaving the home, after a stay of two weeks, her sister, taking her by the hand, and looking into her face, said, “I do not understand your religion, but I will tell you one thing; it has made you far easier to live with.” That is your test. Am I easier to live with? Am I more easily entreated, more tender, more compassionate, more ready to forgive? Is there in my life more of the love that “believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things,” more of the love — mark this well — that “taketh not account of evil”? That is a very commercial phrase. If you will translate it freely you may render it thus: Love does not keep a ledger in which it enters evil deeds. Have I more of that love? Is my heart more compassionate toward the lost? That is only one side of the test. There is another side. Am I more capable than I was of anger against all forms of sin and iniquity? Am I more daring and courageous than I used to be in my opposition to everything that opposes itself against God? If I am more like Jesus

Christ, I am at once more tender and more severe, more gentle, winsome and winning, and more terrific in my denunciation of evil, and in my battle against it. If I am more like Jesus Christ than I was, sinners turning from sin will,seek me out more than they used to do, and sinners persisting in sin will shun me more than they used to do. Am I more like Jesus Christ than I was? Ah me, and alas! for the Christian souls who have to answer No. Alas! for the men and women everywhere who are sighing Cowper’s hymn,

*‘ Where is the blessedness I knew,
When first I saw the Lord?”

I am not criticising Cowper for writing it, but my heart is always sorry for the cause of his writing it; and more sorry still for the man who sings it, and imagines the singing of it is a sign of grace. Where is the blessedness you knew when first you saw the Lord? It is where you left it, when you turned your face toward the accursed thing, and became a curse to other people because of your disloyalty. The Christian man should grow into likeness to Christ. Every sorrow should leave behind it some added touch of sanctity, and every joy should bring the blush and bloom of the beauty of holiness; and every day should see some advance toward the realisation of the Christian character. If I have to look back and say that ten years ago I was more like Christ than I am to-day, it is high time I began to search for the reason of the decline. It is high time I discovered the point at which the disease entered, which prevented the dominance of the Christ-life, and paralysed my faculties, and robbed me of my power. There should be growth; and growth into the likeness of Christ.

That leads me to the last point. What are the responsibilities of the Christian concerning growth? While growth is the result of life and health, and never of mere effort, there are positive means of grace which must be carefully observed if the soul would grow into likeness to Christ. Let us turn back to that passage in Ephesians, “To each one of us was grace given,” and, keeping that in mind, listen to the words of the text: “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” The text does not mean, grow into the grace, or into the knowledge. It means exactly what it says, and may be stated in this wise: Being in grace — grow. Being in knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ — grow. That is clear when we read verse 17 as well as verse 18, “Ye, therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware lest being carried away with the error of the wicked, ye fall from your own stedfastness. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”’ “Beware lest ye fall,” that is the negative command. The positive command is, “Knowing these things... grow in the grace and knowledge.” You are in the grace, in the knowledge! Grow! Grace is given to every child of God; grow in it. Knowledge of Jesus is the peculiar fundamental quality of Christian life. No man can call Him Lord but by the Spirit; but when the Spirit comes, He is known as Lord. You know Him, grow in that knowledge. You are in grace, for grace is given to each one in order that we may grow up into Him. Answer the grace in which you dwell. Being in the grace — grow. That .is the general statement.

But there is a particular statement. Just now I made use of a phrase which is sometimes misused, I think, the “means of grace.” What are the means of grace? If you speak to me of the Christian sacraments or ordinances, I tell you they are but the emblems of the means of grace. The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is not in itself a means of grace. It is a symbol merely. Baptism in any kind is not a means of grace. It is but an outward sign, What, then, are the means of grace? Simply those laws and regulations which Christ imposed, and which man must observe. Here is the point of our responsibility, and I cannot, I think, better enforce this truth concerning responsibility than by turning again to an illustration from nature. There are three things necessary to the growth of a little child — namely, proper food, proper air, proper exercise. We will take this simple truth, and apply it in the spiritual realm, and the whole ground is covered. Grace is sufficient for spiritual growth.

What then are the means that we have to be careful concerning? First, the supply of proper sustenance to the life we have received. This is only to be found as we are fed day by day on the living Word. Second, the maintenance of a proper atmosphere in which our souls may grow and thrive. It is that of fellowship with God and His Son through the Holy Spirit. Third, the provision of proper exercise for the growing faculties and powers. This is obtained by the co-operation of the whole being with God in His enterprises in the world.

Let us take these things, and deal with them in the simplest way, for the sake of the youngest beginner in the Christian life. Have you atts Growth 71

life, my friend;-my brother? Is that life maintained in health? Now you must observe the means of the grace in which you stand, in order to grow. You must first be a student of God’s Holy Word. You must, secondly, live perpetually the life of prayer, which is the life of fellowship in the Spirit. Thirdly, you must be constantly about your Lord’s work in the world. To neglect the study of the Word is to be unable to make progress toward the perfect likeness. To neglect the work of God is to find the powers, however carefully fed and atmosphered, becoming paralysed, and arrest placed upon development. Remember all these things are necessary. My final words here are not to be of exercise. That in itself is so important that I propose to deal with it later. My last words are to be about these two first things, the sustenance and the atmosphere of the life.

First, as to its sustenance. The reading of the Word of God? That is not enough. The study of the Word of God? That is still not enough. The answer of the life to the claim of the Word of God? That is the final thing I say to you with all solemnity, all carefulness and earnestness, if you will find me man, woman, or child who is neglecting the study of the Word of God, I will show you arrest of spiritual development. No other means to growth can take its place. You can no more develop Christian character by service without study of the Word and without prayer, than you can make the thundering locomotive run along the track unless you feed its fires. You cannot live by work in the physical realm unless you have proper food and air. This neglect — and God help me to say it kindly, even though it be a word of criticism — this has been the crying failure of the Christian Church.

Christian men and women in this age of busy fussiness have been, and still are, attempting to develop Christian growth by the things they do, while they neglect the culture of the life itself in the study of the Word of God, and response thereto. I beseech you, steep th Growth. 73

your spirit in its‘letter, and then its spirit shall dominate your spirit. Give time to study it diligently. Begin no day without some verse, or chapter, or book — I care not which. Quantity matters very little. The method matters everything. You say this is a busy age. I know it! Iam in the age, and of the age. Do you have to be at business by a certain hour every morning? How often do you get there without your breakfast? Not often, of course. You cannot work without food. Will you care for the body, and not for the spirit? That neglect means arrest of development. It is absolutely important that you begin the day with God’s Word. Man’s words will be crowding upon your soul all day. Prepare it, then, with the Word of God, that you may measure and estimate rightly the words of men, accepting or rejecting them according to their relation with God’s great Word. Feed your soul upon the Word. It is a means of grace.

But food is not sufficient. A man will soon be unable to take even the very best of food, if he remain in a house from which air is excluded. And so with the Word of God. You will soon cease to study it if you neglect prayer. You do not love your Bible as you used to do. There may be other reasons, but in all probability you have tried to study it as you would study Shakespeare or Milton, and you cannot doit. Ican come to the great poets with the mind which God has given me, and by assiduous application I can catch some of their profound and mighty meanings. I cannot do that with my Bible. I can never open my Bible to write about it in exposition, or to teach it in the school, or to preach from it, without first lifting my heart to God, and casting my utter helplessness upon His wisdom and might. You must live the life of fellowship, the life of prayer. You must find time in the morning, and at noon, and at night, and in any case of need as the day passes over you, to lift your eyes to the height, and your heart to the throne, remembering that your High Priest is always with you; that your altar is erected in your

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soul; that yeur place of worship is wherever you are, on the mart, in the office, in the railway train; on the mountain, or in the valley; in the city or the village. Just where you are, is the mercy-seat, and the Priest, and the altar, and the place of prayer. We must cultivate the habit of prayer if we are to live so as to grow in grace. We must be men and women of fellowship with God, of comradeship with Jesus Christ; familiar enough to speak to Him without preface or ending; breathing out to Him the agony or the joy of the moment; telling Him everything as the day glides by. Habits need to be created in the Christian life as well as in the worldly life. A good habit has to be cultivated, even as an evil habit. So also with prayer. You must cultivate the habit until presently it becomes second nature — no, first nature — the principal business of your life to tell Him everything, to speak with Him at all times. You will tell Him your joys and your sorrows. You will whisper your difficulties, and along the highways, wherever you are, you will commune with Him. Cultivate that habit of fellowship, and you will breathe the atmosphere of God’s great mountain height. The man who would grow in grace — he is already grounded in that soil — must observe the means of grace, receive the sustenance of the Word, live in the atmosphere of prayer, and all the while he must exercise the life he has by co-operation in the enterprises of God. Let me conclude by reverting to the standards already indicated. Are we more like Christ than we were? Let the question be asked by the soul of the Christian in the silent, secret place. Am I more like my Master than Iwas? Am I growing, or has there been somewhere an arrest in my development, so that I am less like Him than I was? If that be so, it is because of failure somewhere. Let us discover the cause of failure, and at all costs let us remove it, the disease of a year ago, or perhaps of twenty years ago. Go back to it,. through the dead and dreary years in which you have lost your touch with God and Christ; go back through. the desolate darkness to the place where you parted company with your Lord, and there, though the journey bruise your feet, and wound your pride, and crucify your ambition, there cut out the things that have spoiled the Christ-life, and hindered your growth; and there you will know that His love is so graciously healing that all the scars will presently be obliterated. So masterfully and mightily run the tides of the Christ-life that He will give you back the years that the canker-worm has eaten, and restore to you all that your unfaithfulness has lost.

But if we can say, Yes, slowly, oh, so slowly, but surely, we are getting more like Him; then let us rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him, knowing that at last we shall see Him and be like Him, and even for us the perfection of consummation will be attained.