Spiritual growth comes from God. He gives the increase (1 Corinthians 3:6,7), and we must give all the glory and praise to Him for the growth of all believers who are now mature, committed and serving Him well. But according to Philippians 2:12,13 we must also work out what God works in us. And if we were to stop fulfilling our responsibility to grow as we should, we would delay our own spiritual growth and cause ourselves to stagnate.

Sometimes a Christian stops growing because he gets bogged down by the cares of this world. Sometimes he gets tired of keeping up the pace of growth, and he just wants to take a rest, or a "spiritual vacation" away from spiritual things for a while. But Proverbs 6:10,11 says "Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man."

It can actually be quite disastrous for anyone to take a spiritual vacation and have nothing at all to do. It is well known to us that stagnant water breeds mosquitoes, which can spread malaria, a deadly disease with alternating cold and hot feverish spells. What do you think a stagnant spiritual life will breed? It will breed awful things like: Coldness toward God, alternating with feverish spells of lust and sin!

To keep yourself from stagnating, you must keep on going, and growing. Please do not ever regard yourself as having "arrived" at an acceptable level. Like the apostle Paul we should say, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:13,14)

In order to be convinced of our need to grow we are now going to examine some reasons why we must grow unto a perfect man. Spiritual growth is something that you must put all your effort in, for at least six reasons.

We know that because He commands us to grow in at least three verses of scripture: 1 Peter 2:2 – "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby" 2 Peter 3:18 – "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." Ephesians 4:15 – "But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ." These verses leave no doubt at all that it is God’s will for you not only to be a Christian, but a growing Christian.

Every loving parent would have the same desire for his or her child: That the child will grow up normally like all other children. I once went to a pediatric ward and saw a seven year old boy who was doing nothing but lying in a cot wearing diapers and behaving exactly like a baby. He was like that because of some strange disorder that had caused him not to grow normally. And although the parents were not there, I could just imagine the anguish they must feel whenever they see their son like this and then see children of his age playing and learning. If God desires us to grow, in like manner He would be grieved when we do not grow spiritually. Something must be wrong with us. This brings us to the second reason for growing…

Since the Lord wants you to grow, He becomes most concerned if you are not growing. Some parents have a little growth chart stuck to a wall in their home where they can measure their children’s height. And most children love to have their height measured to see how tall they have grown. You can see how happy a child is to hear Daddy or Mummy telling him, "Hey, you have grown about 4 cm. since last month!" But if all he hears is, "Nope, you are still the same height as you were three months ago," the child will be quite disappointed and his parents will be a little worried also, and may plan to bring their child to see a doctor, or review his diet.

And if you are not growing spiritually, you should be worried about your progress too. It means that you have become a stunted or dwarfed Christian. This problem of stunted growth affects many Christians today. There are many who have known Christ for a long time, but who still remain as babes or infants in Christ as the Apostle Paul calls them. 1 Corinthians 3:1 – "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able." This brings us to the next reason for spiritual growth:

Those who have not grown cannot enjoy the blessedness of feasting on good, tasty meat. They still need to drink spiritual milk, and they cannot enjoy the blessedness of feasting on good, nutritious spiritual meat! The same thing is expressed in Hebrews 5:12-13 – "For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."

According to this, if the original readers of Hebrews had grown normally, they would already have been mature enough to teach God’s Word to others. But because they had stagnated, they had not even mastered basic doctrines of the Christian faith and basic principles of Christian living. In fact they had to re-learn the basic principles of the doctrine of Christ – all about His deity and His humanity. And because of the shallowness of their spiritual life and knowledge some of these stunted Christians were even on the brink of departing from the faith and returning back to their old religion!

Maturity has distinct advantages, advantages that cannot be enjoyed by those who are still babes. The mature believer is able to understand deep spiritual truths that delight his soul, and pray intelligently according to God’s will. As a result of this, His worship and praise to God becomes fuller, deeper and more meaningful. Spiritual maturity also makes a believer wiser, stronger, and able to bear his responsibilities well.

But there are some who may say, "Well that is all right. I still like to remain as a babe drinking milk, because, I would not have a care in the world. I would not have to be responsible for anything or anyone, and just keep on depending on others to take care of me." In the world of fantasy there is a fascinating character called Peter Pan. He was a boy who refused to grow up, and enjoyed his perpetual childhood with many fantastic adventures. And perhaps some who read about him may also wish that they could remain young all the time and not have to grow up to shoulder all the heavy responsibilities that growth and maturity brings.

But this is only true in fantasy. In real life when a child refuses to grow up, he suffers in life tremendously because he cannot fit into society, and he causes others to suffer as well. Do you know the heartaches of parents who are told by the doctor, "I am sorry, but your twelve year old son has the mind of a four year old." It means that he will never be able to take care of his own needs, and they have the burden of looking after him for his whole life. In the same way, a Christian who never grows will always be a burden to other Christians, who have to constantly worry about them, nurture them, pray for them, watch out for them, and wonder when they will ever grow up! This gives us the next reason why we need to grow spiritually:

Perhaps you may have had the opportunity to baby-sit or to take care of a whole group of young toddlers, all by yourself. Was it easy to look after them? One child pushes another down and the other child starts crying. And while you are trying to pacify the crying child the naughty one goes after another one to push him down. Then another child trips and falls and another child throws up or spills his food all over the floor and makes a big mess! It is a great headache to look after kids like that. It is an even greater headache to be the only spiritually mature Christian in a fellowship or church where all the rest are still babes in Christ!

The apostle Paul encountered such a situation with the church in Corinth, because the members there were mostly babes in Christ, as he wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:1. This church gave him the most problems of all the churches that he ministered to. In v.3 we see some of the things that were going on: "For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?"

Paul had to write about five letters to this church (only two of them are in the Bible), and make 2 to 3 visits to them. He sent Timothy to sort out the problems in the church but he had no success. It was only after Paul sent Titus that things got better. Thus we see what difficulties arise from the failure of Christians to grow. They become a great burden to others. Let us not be burdens, but rather blessings, like the Philippian Church, that sent not only funds to help Paul in his work but even a worker to assist him – Epaphroditus!

One of the constant fears that immaturity brings is the fear that evil people will take advantage of those who are not mature, with deception. How often do we hear of cases of children in school who are robbed or hurt because they trusted in some stranger who offered them a lift or told them that the parents sent them? This is a fact of life that we have to live with because of the dangerous world that we live in. The spiritual world is also dangerous – filled with all kinds of false doctrines and movements that are deceiving! And the ones who are most often deceived and victimised by false teachers are spiritual babes. This brings us to the another reason why we must grow to full maturity:

Ephesians 4:14 tells us: "That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive." This is one of the strongest reasons for us to grow to maturity in Christ, because of the times we live in. There are so many subtle deceptions around us today – more than any time in the history of the church of Jesus Christ! The New Age Movement, the Ecumenical Movement, the Charismatic Movement, etc. plus the proliferation of cults: Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Moonies, Masons. This is an age that calls for spiritual discernment – the most needed quality for living in the last days. Christians today simply cannot afford to remain as spiritual babes. The consequences of doing so can be quite disastrous.

As long as a person does not grow up to physical maturity he is unable to reproduce. He remains sterile and unproductive. This principle applies to spiritual life as well. Only those who are mature, committed disciples are able to bear much fruit and make others disciples. How can a Christian lead someone to full Christian maturity unless he is himself mature?

One excellent example of this principle is Timothy. In the second epistle to Timothy we see that he was already a full grown believer, since Paul wrote in 3:14,15 – "But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus."

And then within the same epistle, Paul instructs Timothy to reproduce (2:2) "And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also." This verse is clearly meant for mature Christians. Spiritual babes need teaching all the time, and hence they cannot teach others and disciple them.

That completes all the reasons why spiritual growth must be of high priority. Please think carefully about these six reasons now, in relation to yourself. They should be sufficient to convince you that you should not remain as you are now, but go on to perfection through knowing, trusting and obeying the inerrant and infallible Word of God. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 – "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works."