And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matt. 28:18-20).

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes (Eph. 4:11-14).

Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ (Col. 1:28).

After talking about what mature faith looks like (see the previous post), we are going to begin a series dealing specifically with “Growing in Christ.” Why is it important? What does it mean? Better yet, what does it look like? (That is to say, “How does one grow in Christ?”)

First, in order to grow in Christ, we must be certain of its importance. Why commit to something that has little value? Without assurance that growing in Christ is important, we will see little or no progress, because we will focus our attention elsewhere—and there are plenty of things that already seek our attention.

Jesus and the biblical writers paid a great deal of attention to what we often call ‘discipleship.’ That’s simply a word that means we are disciples of Christ and on the process of becoming like Him. He told His “disciples” to go into the world and make more disciples, “teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.” So, Jesus says that discipleship is our goal while we are here. We become disciples, and in the midst of that process, we go and make disciples. Paul emphasized the importance of discipleship when he reminded the Colossian believers that his ministry was to warn and teach everyone, “that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” The goal of discipleship is maturity.

What does maturity look like? It means that we have attained “unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God . . . that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” Maturity, then, is when we are settled in our faith, not chasing after every new idea or experience. Many Christians today claim to be mature but seek after the next great “spiritual experience,” pick out their favorite pastor or teacher to follow—until he falls from grace. Then the search is on for something new. When we are mature, our feet are firmly on the Rock.

What does it take to become a mature disciple of Christ? Jesus summed it up: A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher (Luke 6:40, emphasis added). The process of becoming like Jesus (our Master and Teacher) involves training. And to answer an earlier question, about the value of discipleship (or training in righteousness), While bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come (1 Tim. 4:8). So, being trained in godliness holds value both for this life and for eternity! 

In addition, Paul told Titus, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Titus 2:11-12). Notice that it is “the grace of God” that not only brings salvation but also trains the disciple to renounce the things of the flesh, teaching how to live “self-controlled, upright, and godly lives.”

Now, every training regimen has standards, else how would we know if we are attaining the mark? Paul tells us both where we can find the training materials and the standards: All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17). So, the disciple of Christ must first look to Scripture as his guide on the road of training in righteousness. One that heeds the teaching, reproof, and correction will be complete, mature, “equipped for every good work.”

There is one other element involved in our training: The Holy Spirit, who indwells us, guides us, and teaches us—often by bringing to mind the words of Scripture that we have studied. Reading Scripture without the illumination of the Spirit can quickly lead to legalism. What’s the difference between legalism and training in righteousness? Legalism attempts to earn favor with God by doing right. Training in righteousness is learning to live in the freedom that Christ has given, knowing that we already have favor with God.

In the next post, we’ll discuss how we use Scripture as our training manual for righteousness.