Recently, I had the privilege of speaking to a group of students at Redeemer about spiritual growth. I love seeing so many middle and high school students in our church hungry for Jesus to move in and through their lives! It is evidence of God’s grace to our church, and the result of so many incredible adults (parents and youth leaders) who are investing in them.
There’s a version of the Christian life that a lot of us are secretly aiming for – the version where we finally arrive. Where the Bible stops surprising us, prayer stops feeling like work, and temptation stops surrounding us. If that’s what you’re after, I hate to tell you, but you’ll never get there. The goal of the Christian life isn’t arrival. The goal is growth—continual growth.
A Theology of Growth: Two Gifts
Here’s the theology underneath everything I want to say: your relationship with God comes with two gifts.
The first gift is union. This is the one-way traffic. God saves you by grace, through faith, and joins you to Christ. You didn’t earn it. You can’t lose it. It’s not something you maintain; it’s something you were given.
The second gift is communion. This is two-way traffic. It’s the ongoing, living relationship where you actually know God, grow in the grace you’ve received, and experience him. Unlike union, communion is something you participate in. You cultivate it. Or you don’t.
Let me show you what that difference looks like in two people.
Jim has been a Christian for twenty years, and he’s enjoying God more now than ever. His life isn’t easy – a tight budget, a frustrating job, the normal weight of everyday life. But he’s regularly aware of God’s presence and sustaining grace. After three decades in the Bible, he’s still finding truths in it that move him to worship.
Jan has also been a Christian for twenty years. She’s never doubted her faith, and she shows up faithfully at church. But her relationship with God has gone quietly bland. Her phone gets more of her attention than her Bible does. Her church attendance is strong, but her heart is unsettled, and her passions have drifted elsewhere.
Here’s what I want you to see: Jim and Jan share the exact same status in Christ. Same Father. Same inheritance. Same secure place in glory. Their union is identical. But one of them knows more of God, is more satisfied in God, and is more shaped by God than the other. That’s communion, and it doesn’t happen by accident.
Your union with God is settled and secure. Your communion with God is something you either cultivate or let atrophy. And the daily posture of your heart, what you’re giving your time and attention to, either feeds that communion or starves it.
Growth Never Stops
If you look at the New Testament, maturing in Christ isn’t presented as a high school advanced placement class — a path chosen by the super-devoted Christians, while everyone else coasts. No, It’s the standard, expected shape of a Christian life.
Peter tells us to be on guard, and then to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:17–18). Paul describes the church being built up through gifted teachers and leaders “until we all attain… to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11–16) – and he’s explicit that the alternative to growth is being “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine.” Growth is what keeps us stable. He prays for the Colossians to be “filled with the knowledge of his will” so that they might walk in a way worthy of the Lord, “increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:9–10). And he tells Timothy that Scripture itself is “breathed out by God and profitable” precisely so that the man of God may be “complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16–17).
When we look at the scripture, it’s clear—growth is not a side project of the Christian life; it IS the Christian life. We are either growing in grace, or we are drifting toward worldliness. Put these four passages together, and a pattern emerges: growth is fed by grace, shaped in community, aimed at knowing God’s will, and fueled by his Word.
The Secret Weapon in Spiritual Growth: Discernment
Discernment is the ability to define and act on the difference between right and wrong – or, as Spurgeon said, the difference between right and almost right. That second one is the harder one. Most of the temptations we face aren’t labeled “sin” in bold letters. They’re good things pursued at the wrong time, in the wrong measure, or for the wrong reason. We need discernment because we live in a world that’s constantly bombarding us with messages, temptations, and distractions, all competing for the same thing – our attention and our trust.
So where does discernment, and therefore spiritual growth, come from? It’s cultivated over time. Here’s how:
- Scripture and a devotional life. God’s Word is described as sweeter than honey and a light for our path (Psalm 119:103–105), and as living and active, able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). You can’t discern the truth and walk in the truth with a Bible you never open.
- Prayer. James tells us plainly that if anyone lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously without finding fault (James 1:5). If we aren’t asking and listening for God’s wisdom, the wisdom of the world will shape us. A growing Christian is a praying Christian.
- Mentorship. Paul tells Timothy to take what he’s heard and entrust it to faithful people who will teach others also (2 Timothy 2:1–2). Proverbs adds the warning side of this: walk with the wise and become wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm (Proverbs 13:20). We need wise counselors who have gone before us to speak into our lives. Find a Godly mentor—and call them often.
- Community and worship. You will become the sum of your four or five closest friends. This is why Hebrews urges us not to neglect meeting together, but to stir one another up to love and good works (Hebrews 10:24–25). Maturing in Christ is not a solo sport. Get plugged in, and stay plugged into a healthy local church. Serve and give and you’ll grow even more.
- Putting off sin and worldliness. Colossians 3 calls us to put off “the old” and “set our minds on things above, not on earthly things.” In other words, we can’t grow if we keep feeding sin. Is there a sinful pattern in your life (something you do, listen to, consume, or a place you go) that keeps pulling you away from Jesus? Put it away.
Stay Humble, Keep Growing
Growth is a posture you keep. It’s keeping your heart humble and hungry before the Lord. The moment you decide you’ve got this – that you know enough, you’ve prayed enough, you’ve arrived enough – is the moment communion starts to quietly slip. Jim didn’t get to thirty years of joy by graduating from the basics. He got there by still opening his Bible, still asking, still listening.
So here’s the question I’d leave you with: is there a place where you’ve stopped growing because you assumed you’d already arrived? What would it look like this week to actually cultivate communion with God instead of coasting on your union with him?
