The Limitations of Individual Spiritual Growth:
You Won't Get Far Solo
© 2012 by Dick Wulf
Below will be many references to our 65 Togethers of Scripture. These are categorizations of hundreds of Scriptures detailing what God wants from us when we are together. Full explanation of The Togethers is found at our other website www.ChristiansTogether.org. Perhaps after reading this article you would like to explore ChristiansTogether.org.
I define “spiritual growth” as growing more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ. And, you won’t get far along that journey if you usually travel alone.
Much of what we settle for in the way of growing as a Christian is only the means to get to someplace else. Thus, Bible study, Bible meditation, Bible memory, and a number of other things we do that make us feel like we are making progress must find their way into both relationship with God and relationship with one another to bring life-changing spiritual growth.
The clearest biblical evidence for this is 1 Corinthians 13:1-3: "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." All individual spiritual growth must lead to love, which happens only in relationship.
What we invest our time in must produce in us Christlikeness. We are told in 1 John 4:8 that God is love. Therefore, to become more loving is to become more like Jesus, and that is spiritual growth which really counts.
The point of all this is that you cannot become very much like Jesus in solitary Christian pursuits or collective things like group Bible study where participation is usually not collaborative. In fact, there will be only a little spiritual growth in easy, simple, and comfortable interactions with other people.
"Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." (Romans 5:3-5 ESV)
Spiritual growth can come much more solidly in the deeper relationships with Christian friends, a spouse, and one’s family. These relationships are frequent and often complicated. If what God wants is taken into account, those “inner circle relationships” will always have a challenging aspect. That’s because God wants those 65 things we call the Togethers of Scripture, a categorization from hundreds of Bible verses and passages. And, doing the Togethers is not easy. The Togethers cause us to stretch ourselves into the likeness of Jesus.
Think of the expectation of God that we will be honest with each other recorded in Ephesians 4:15: "Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,..." We define the Together “Speak to One Another Truthfully and Helpfully” based on this verse as the instruction “Helpfully present the truth even when it is being avoided, but always with love and pure motive.”
This is not easy to do. But, when you learn to do it well with your friends, with your spouse, and with your family members, you will truly have become more like Jesus Christ and significantly grown spiritually.
If you are struggling with this concept that spiritual growth requires relationship, let us look at Bible study and how it fits into more expansive spiritual growth within the context of collaborative relationships with other believers. Let’s consider the conditional promise of 2 Peter 1:5-8: (The words in parentheses are ours, and brackets are to emphasize the plural Greek words used.)
"For this very reason, make every effort to add to your (corporate) faith, goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep (all of) you [the church] from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
The promise is that if we grow spiritually together, we will be kept from being ineffective and non-productive in our knowledge of our Lord. This becomes clearer if we take into account 1 Corinthians 2:16: "For who (alone) has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we (together) have the mind of Christ."
Since only together do we have enough of the mind of Christ to understand the Word of God adequately, it makes sense that we must grow TOGETHER in goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love. There can be no brotherly kindness and love, the end products of 2 Peter 1:5-8, without other people! The promise cannot be activated by an individual. The promise is for each of us, but only if we are working together!
Each of the 65 Togethers of Scripture are acts of worship in that they all reflect back to God his own character. In the same way that we sing the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy” and proclaim his character back to him, the Togethers allow us to reflect God’s wonderful character in action. Therefore, each and every Together is Christ-like. We can grow continually into Christlikeness if we grow in doing the Togethers with other Christians. Read the list and you will see that each of us can use our lifetime to grow into obedience to those hundreds of Scriptures represented in the 65 Togethers.
Each of the Togethers of Scripture are the results of Christians acting together.
Allegorically, individual spiritual growth is like practicing our one particular musical instrument. Its purpose is for practicing (corporate spiritual growth) for the orchestra to play under God as the conductor. Until the orchestra plays there really isn’t the music God wants.
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If you are concerned about the same things we are, we invite you to join our Advisory Team. This means that we will occasionally send you emails asking your thoughts about an issue we are thinking through. If you would like to be a part of our team, please email Dick Wulf at Dick@Wulf.com and let him know of your willingness to help.
If you are concerned about the same things we are, we invite you to join our Advisory Team. This means that we will occasionally send you emails asking your thoughts about an issue we are thinking through. If you would like to be a part of our team, please email Dick Wulf at Dick@Wulf.com and let him know of your willingness to help.
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Copyright 2012 Dick Wulf, Colorado, USA
Copyright 2012 Dick Wulf, Colorado, USA