Spiritual Development

by L.A. Hickling | Category: General | Sept 1990

As month succeeds month and year succeeds year we develop in maturity and experience in the natural course of things. How about our spiritual maturity? Can we look back over a year and see any spiritual development?

The apostle Paul had to write to the Church of God in Corinth and say with sorrow that they had not grown spiritually, in spite of their abilities. How much more must it grieve our Lord and Saviour if we fail to make

spiritual growth.

The way to spiritual growth is indicated in James 1:19-27. Those to whom James was writing had experienced the new birth by faith in the Lord Jesus as their Saviour. The means by which they had been brought to this new birth was by the Word of truth. It was by that Word too that we were brought to the new birth, and it is by this same Word as the Spirit of God uses it that we have our continued growth. So we must be swift to hear. Too often we are ready to speak before we have taken time to listen: too busy with service to draw aside and take time to hear the Lord speaking to us.

The Word of God is to be implanted, and for it to be effective in growth the ground must be cleared of the things that would hinder growth. So the hindering things that may have overflowed from our old manner of life must be put away:

Wherefore putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls (Jas. 1:21).

The New International Version translates as follows:

Get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent.

Wrathful thoughts need to be put away too, for they are among the things that choke spiritual growth; then we are to receive the Word with

meekness, taking it in glad submission, whatever it says to us in regard to the conduct of our lives. How prone we are sometimes to want to mould it to fit in with our own pattern of thought instead of allowing God's will to mould us! Simply hearing God's word is not enough:

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves (v.22).

The expression "be ye" here carries the meaning of "make sure that you are". What has been implanted must be allowed to bear fruit in action. In illustration of this James cites the case of men who look in a mirror. One man looks, sees his face, but soon forgets what he saw. If perchance the mirror showed up some blemish that really should have been attended to, nothing was done about it. Another man looks intently and takes action on what he sees. So it is with the law of liberty. We need to look intently, to look continually, and to let that law be reflected in our lives.

What is the law of liberty? It is the Word of God, and as we look intently and continually into it we are liberated from the pull of our own sinful natures and brought into the true freedom of doing the will of God.

If ye abide in My word, then are ye truly My disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:31,32).

L.A. Hickling | Sept 1990
General