The "spiritual growth" concept is another pop phrase I've started reconsidering lately. It's obviously not a phrase actually found in Scripture, though the concept is tangentially there.

The Bible talks a great deal of growth in individual virtues - "grow in stature" or "grow in grace" or "grow in knowledge" or other such traits. Everyone can understand that "grow in stature means developing a more mature frame. Growing in grace means becoming more gracious. Growing in knowledge means learning (and presumably understanding).

But "spiritual" isn't a biblical virtue or measurable attribute. I can tell when someone is very gracious and not gracious at all. But "spiritual"? It's so open for interpretation because the Bible doesn't define it. We see examples of Jesus showing grace and other people not showing grace in Scripture. We don't see examples that say: "This person is spiritual, and this person was not." It's a pop culture word created for convenience. When someone in the world today says "I'm a spiritual person," they mean something very different from when a Christian talks about "spiritual growth."

For the most part, people mean it to be a metric of the maturity of the believer - and that's probably the best and most biblically appropriate use of the phrase. But "maturity" of what? Their "spirit"? Their "spirituality"? They way they "walk by the Spirit"? What does that even mean? Yes, the concept of "walking by the Spirit" is certainly a biblical one (Galatians 5:16-18). But is that, itself, the standard of maturity, or is it merely one aspect of the mature person? Or does it all blend together.

  • Let me sidetrack on that point real fast. Galatians 5:16-18 is an explanation of how we follow the command to "love your neighbor as yourself," as is made clear in 14-15. I show love for myself not merely in gratifying my desires, as is often misinterpreted in the phrase, but also by exercising, developing my career, taking care of my home, studying/memorizing Scripture, making disciples, etc. - as these all benefit me in a variety of ways. In the same way, if I am to love my neighbor as myself, just as I follow Christ as my primary means of loving myself, even as Christ loves me, so also must I disciple my neighbor to help him follow Christ if I am to love him the same way I love myself.

Back on point, many people use Christ-likeness as the standard of "spiritual maturity," which is probably best. But if the target is so clear, why use such an ambiguous phrase as "spiritual growth" when what we really mean is "growing in Christ-likeness"? The answer is, of course, because nobody really wants to sit down and examine what Christ would be doing in their personal situations. Would Christ really be sitting in front of a computer screen typing this post? Maybe. Maybe not. Would he really be playing that video game? Would he really be memorizing verses when his neighbors are out with their kids and he could be talking with them?

  • Another sidenote: this is why I hate the "WWJD" phrase - because some of these things may seem like blind speculation. We don't know what Jesus would do in these situations, but we do know what he did do - and if 1 John 2:6 says that anyone who abides in him "must walk as Jesus walked," that means we don't ask the question of what WOULD Jesus do? but instead ask: What DID Jesus do - and that's what I must now be doing. Yet "spiritual" growth rather than being Christ-like can be attributed to a number of other things that are much less life-changing. And we all know how little Christians actually want to change their lives, despite how much they may talk about it. Really, though: I could walk into most grocery stores, shopping malls, movie theaters, etc. and find it impossible to distinguish the believer from the non-believer because the lifestyle churchianity produces today is in no way distinct from the lifestlye of everyone else in the world. The same "be good people" message churchianity puts out is, on the whole, no different than the moral life lessons even the non-believers convey in TV shows, public broadcasts, books, through counselors, etc. The notion that "by this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" ... it's just not working under the message of what churchianity puts out regarding what it looks like to "love your neighbor as yourself," as Paul is discussing in Galatians 5, per the last aside. That's why there has to be more to it.

Back on track again: all of this begs the question: "what's the metric?" Because the metric for maturity given by most of churchianity is not the one we see in Scripture.

Churchianity's metric of "maturity" is usually based on one or a combination of (1) emotionalism, (2) knowledge, (3) good deeds, or (4) avoidance of bad deeds. But this is an awful metric. A person could despise Christ in their heart, but wanting to fit in churchianity culture still train themselves to become emotional during worship, learn the Scriptures, serve his neighbors, and give up cussing, drinking, porn, etc. Yet he is no more "mature in Christ-likeness" than a pagan. It is a facade. This is why the generic term "spiritual growth" is often unhelpful - because it gives people carte blanche to decide for themselves what it looks like to "grow spiritually" or to look back to ANY life change over the last several years and conclude that it is "spiritual growth," and then people can persuade themselves that they are mature when they are still babes. And this is EXACTLY what we see in churchianity culture today: infants who want to play dress-up as adults.

Thank goodness Jesus gave us an actual metric for maturity: "By their fruit you will recognize them." If we look at the life of Christ, he was constantly producing fruit for the Kingdom. He was sowing seed everywhere he went. You can't fake that because at some point what you're proclaiming to those around you is going to result in fruit. Sow enough seed, something will grow. And you'll see really fast if it's good fruit or bad. And that process of sowing seed and nurturing it to life is evangelism (sowing) and discipleship (nurturing growth).

Paul confirms this in Philippians 3, saying, "Let all of us who are MATURE take such a view of things," meaning he's about to give his test for what distinguishes a "mature" person from an "immature" one. He emphasizes how ABSOLUTELY certain he is about this by adding immediately after: "and if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you," meaning: "There's no way I'm wrong. Argue with me if you want, but God will prove to you I'm right."

He then gives two criteria for maturity: (1) "Only let us live up to what we have already obtained" - that is, mature people know their roles, capabilities, skills, limits, etc. and live in those, not pretending (a) to be more capable than they are, unlike a child who, in his immaturity, tries to act like an adult; rather, a child who is actually mature recognizes he is a child and embraces this as he continues to progress in life ... or (b) to be less capable than we are, failing to live up to the capacities we have attained in life due to sloth, apathy, etc. That is, we know our roles and capacities and we live within them.

(2) "Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you." That is, Paul discipled people at Philippi, showing them his way of life - his "pattern" of living, preaching, bearing fruit - all of it. 1 Thess. 2:8 - "so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well." And just as Paul did this with a wave of Philippians, he writes this letter, saying, "And just as we modeled our lives for them, now let their lives be the model for you," passing down that example through successive generations. And we know that Paul's "model" of life is based on Christ because he spells it out in the way he did this exact same process with the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 11:1 - "Follow me as I follow Christ."

To summarize this passage, Paul says that "maturity" is when someone (1) knows their roles and capacities and lives within them to the fullest, not over-reaching or under-performing, and (2) actively participates in a generational pattern of life-modeling in the art of Christ-likeness.

So, when someone talks about helping others with their "spiritual growth," and yet defaults to churchianity's rubric of (1) feeling more emotionally connected to God, (2) teaching them more knowledge, (3) helping them become better people, or (4) showing them how to avoid sin - I am immediately skeptical because it leaves out the fruitfulness aspect. "By their fruit you will recognize them," we see Jesus quoting in a number of places. A sapling struggles to bear fruit, but a full grown tree produces a lot of it - "30, 60, or even 100 times what was sown," as Jesus says. A tree that trickles out 1 or 2 apples a season would hardly be considered a mature apple tree; but one that produces hundreds ... now that's a fully grown tree. Right?

So, if you're going to help others with "spiritual growth" - what are you doing to prompt them to produce fruit? Because if the person you're "spiritually growing" isn't producing fruit and the things you're teaching aren't being communicated in a way that shows how they are helpful toward the goal of producing fruit, then what are you actually accomplishing? Certainly not maturation or "spiritual growth" at that point. Instead, (a) at worst, we are training them to put on a facade - "having a form of godliness but denying its power" in that God's power is designed for the expansion of his Kingdom, or (b) at best, we are giving them peripheral lessons/skills that could become helpful at bearing fruit if they ever connect the dots, but still failing to connect those dots, making it ultimately a wasted effort, just like giving a tree lots of water while denying it sunlight will still result in a dead, fruitless tree.

"Spiritual growth" - better termed "becoming more Christ-like" - must, then, be focused less on these things and more on what will result in production of fruit for God's Kingdom.