1 John 2:12-13 “I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake. (13) I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, because you have known the Father.”
Spiritual growth is very similar to natural growth. In the natural we are born into the earth as babies and from that point on we develop and grow until we reach full maturity. As we grow in the natural we progress through the various stages of growth, i.e. babies grow to become young children, young children grow to become teenagers, and teenagers grow to become adults. During every stage of our natural growth we are held to an ever-increasing degree of account for our actions and our behaviour. When we are babies we are held accountable for nothing, but as we grow up we are then held more and more accountable for our actions. And so when we finally become adults we are then held accountable for all of our actions, because by that stage it is expected of us to have full knowledge of what acceptable behaviour is. In the spirit it is very much the same. In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit places the saints into three main stages of spiritual growth, for He refers to children, young men and fathers. And so when we first come into the kingdom the Lord deals with us as babes in Christ, for that is what we are, and as such there is a lot that we do and say that the Lord does not hold us accountable for, because He understands that we don’t yet know what is acceptable to Him. But as time goes by, as any parent would, the Lord expects us to begin to grow up, because of which He then starts to hold us more and more accountable for our actions. And so we find that sin that was previously overlooked because of our ignorance is no longer ignored by heaven.
Hebrews 5:12 “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.”
Although they are similar, there is a difference between natural and spiritual growth however. The difference is that in the natural, growth takes place automatically, for it is plainly evident in the natural that one who is born as a baby behaves completely differently thirty years later when they become mature adults. Sadly this is not the case in the spirit however, for in the spirit it is entirely possible for a believer to remain a babe in Christ for thirty years, never maturing at all. This is an indictment against that particular believer but nevertheless it does happen. When the Holy Spirit wrote the above quoted passage of scripture to the church at Jerusalem they were the oldest existing church in the earth at the time. And so even though this church had been in existence for over forty years we see in this passage that they could only digest the milk of God’s word because they were still babes in Christ. The question is then asked, does the Lord allow the Christian, who refuses to grow up, to continue in sin and not hold them to account because they are still babes in Christ? Not at all, for the Lord deals with us at the level of maturity that we should be at, not at the level of maturity that we are behaving at due our own refusal to grow in the things of the Lord.
Hebrews 12:5-11 “And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: "My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; (6) for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives." (7) If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? (8) But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. (9) Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? (10) For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. (11) Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
At the outset of this section let me say that if we are unable to walk free from sin then God would be unjust to chasten us for our sin. God is not unjust. And so when He chastens us for our sin it is because we are more than capable of walking free from sin. We have seen in the previous section that the Lord Jesus holds us more and more accountable for our actions as we grow spiritually. So how does He do that? The passage of scripture quoted above teaches us that the Lord chastens His children. And so we see that it is through chastening that the Lord holds us accountable for our sins. In context this passage of scripture is talking about correcting sinful behaviour in the life of the believer, for it refers to us becoming partakers of the Lord’s holiness as a result of our chastening. This passage declares to us that every child of God can expect to be chastened by Him. Many Christians struggle to reconcile the concept of a God of love with one who would chasten His children. The reason they struggle with this truth however is because they have a distorted view of love. In this passage Jesus said that as many as He loved, He rebuked and chastened, and that those who are not His sons are the ones who do not incur His chastisement. And so we see that if God did not love us He would leave us to continue in our sins thus allowing us to ultimately be condemned with the world.
Revelation 3:19 “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore, be zealous and repent.”
We have seen thus far that God uses chastening to correct our sinful behaviour. In the passage of scripture quoted above our Lord Jesus again tells us plainly that those whom He loves He also chastens. In this passage the Lord tells us that the reason He chastens us is so that we will repent of our sinful behaviour. And so we see that when we walk in unrepentant sin that the Lord is ultimately forced to chasten us to bring us to a place of repentance, so that He can forgive us our sins and we can once again walk in His holiness.
Proverbs 23:13-14 “Do not withhold correction from a child, for if you beat him with a rod, he will not die. (14) You shall beat him with a rod, and deliver his soul from hell.”
In the passage of scripture quoted above the Lord counsels parents on how to raise their children in the natural. If God counsels parents in the natural to correct their children’s behaviour through the use of the rod, then we can be assured that God most certainly disciplines His own children in the same manner? And so we see that God’s counsel is completely opposite to the spirit of disobedience that is in the world today, which teaches that any form of painful punishment is evil. Satan wants souls in hell and he knows that to convince people to disobey God in this area will accomplish exactly that, for notice that chastening delivers the soul from hell. And so it can just as easily be said that a lack of chastening delivers a soul to hell. God does not want any of His children in hell and so He most certainly chastens us when necessary.
Michael E.B. Maher
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