Growing Pains
My life is more than half spent but I still remember my
mom’s answer every time I complained about an ache in my body during my
adolescence years: “Nothing to be concerned about; it’s just a growing pain.”
The old familiar expression asserts an important truth in the spiritual realm as
well as in the physical one: growth goes hand in hand with pain.
The Lord purifies His Church with the Baptism of Fire. Recently, during a time
of meditation in God’s Word on the subject of spiritual development, I noticed
the following:
- There is a link between faith, hope, love and
spiritual maturity.
- The development of faith, hope and love in the
life of the believer, is closely related to suffering.
A careful study of chapters 12 and 13 of the first letter of
Paul to the Corinthians, brings to the conclusion that the true mark of
completeness or full development in Christ is the abiding presence of faith,
hope and love. These three virtues, vitally connected one to another, are never
found alone.
I CORINTHIANS 12 AND 13
The Apostle Paul clarifies the use of the Holy Spirit’s
gifts, instructing the Corinthians believers how to operate them among all
members of the Body. The proper, interrelated manifestations of the gifts marks
the unity of the Body, where each member contributes vitality to the
whole, but doesn’t indicate its maturity.
For as the body is one and has many members, but all the
members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.
1 Cor 12:12
Simply the manifestation of the gifts, important as it is, is compared
to the childhood stage of development in Christ. The reading of the following
verses imply that the exclusive exercise of the gifts, do not indicate spiritual
maturity, unless it is accompanied by the three virtues which last for eternity.
But when that which is perfect has come,
then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a
child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man,
I put away childish things… And now abide faith, hope, love, these
three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Cor 13:10-11, 13 (emphasis
added).
A closer look at the meaning of the word
perfect, reveals that Paul is indeed talking about the manhood stage of
the believer as opposed to the childhood one of the preceding verses.
The Greek word for perfect is teleios (Strong # 5046)
which means “complete” (in various applications of labor, growth, mental and
moral character, etc.). The same word is used in Ephesians 4:11-13: “and He
gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors
and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints…”
(emphasis added).
Here we understand that the purpose of the ministry gifts is to bring
the Body of Christ to maturity. Teleios is also used in Matthew 5:48: “be
ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect”..
How can mere man reach the completeness of God? In the
preceding verses, Jesus explains the perfection spoken of in this one. What
makes God’s moral character complete is His unconditional love toward every one,
enemies included. That same love that blesses and does good to those who hate
us, is also the evidence of the spiritual manhood of the believer.
To love one’s enemies defines the “charity” – greater than faith and
hope – of which Paul speaks in I Corinthians 13.
How do we define faith and hope? Faith is the absolute confidence and
trust in God and in His character. This kind of faith brings peace in the
middle of a storm. Jesus displayed this faith when He kept on sleeping in the
bottom of the boat tossed in the stormy sea. Paul and Silas demonstrated the
same faith as they sang praises to God while chained in a prison cell. Faith
looks to God for everything and in everything, with total
abandonment in His faithfulness.
The Bible defines faith as “the substance of things hoped for”.
The Greek word for “substance” is HOPOSTASIS which means “a setting under,
a support”. Without faith, hope has no support, nothing to hold her up. No
wonder it is tested and proved!
What about Hope Is hope just a wishful dreaming? Hoping that
something may come true while it may not??
The Greek word for hope is HELPO, meaning “to anticipate, usually with
pleasure, expectation or confidence (Strong #1680). Someone called hope the
telescope that sees what faith knows. More specifically, Leon Morris, in his
commentary to I and II Thessalonians, calls hope a spark within that promotes
action as we prepare for Christ to be formed in us.
Paul defined hope in very much the same way when he said “……Christ
in you, the hope of glory…” Colossians 1:27.
The same definition is given by John: “…and every man that has this
hope in him purifies himself…” I John 3:1-3. The hope John refers to is
that the believer shall be like Jesus at His appearance. Ultimately, then, hope
is the glorious expectation of being like Him (loving like He does).
To be like Jesus means to have charity, the greatest of the three
virtues, the love that extends forgiveness and mercy to enemies and
persecutors. Yet this love cannot reach its fullness without faith and hope.
The three interrelate. The person that trusts God and His faithfulness, power,
total sufficiency and grace expects the fulfillment of His promises and his
confident expectation becomes the channel through which love flows.
But faith, hope and love are also closely associated to suffering,
because – in order to grow – these virtues must be exercised and put to the
test. As the old proverb says, “A virtue that has never been tempted, is not a
virtue…it’s an hypothesis’.
It is in times of severe testings and sorrow that Jesus reveals aspects of His
character to us. How would we know Him as the provider if he never suffered
lack? How would we know Him as our healer if we were never sick? It is when we
are lonely that we most cherish His presence, and when we are sorrowful that we
know His comfort. The more we know Him the more we trust Him with hope
abounding.
Great men and women of old knew Him that way. In suffering He proved
His faithfulness and sufficiency to them. Thus they learned how to trust Him
more and more…their faith grew, their hope was established and love flowed..
Much could be said of Joseph, Job, Paul, Stephen. Their faith grew in
tribulation, their hope displayed itself in endurance and their love became
redemptive in forgiveness toward their enemies. But let’s consider Jesus, “the
author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him
endured the cross, despising the shame…” Hebrews 12:2. Jesus was a man of
sorrow and acquainted with grief. He learned obedience by the things which He
suffered. That obedience led Him all the way to the Cross where He displayed
the greatest measure of Love this world will ever know. His faith in the
perfect trustworthiness of the Father was the foundation of His certain hope of
Resurrection. Because He would rise again. His love reached down in
forgiveness toward those who pierced His hands and feet. He recognized that
they were instruments the Father used to accomplish the greatest triumph of
charity ever personified in man.
When we look upon suffering as a means to develop faith, hope and
charity in our path to becoming like Him, light is shed on the testing of the
Body of Christ. He brings His people to perfection.
But while the testings and the trials that God allows are meant to
develop fathh, hopoe and love, Satan would use the very same avenue to prevent,
oppose and destroy the very same virtues. In suffering he seeks to destroy
faith by causing us to doubt God’s love and justice toward us. He knocks down
our hope of ever becoming like Jesus by accusing and condemning us for lack of
faith and forgiveness, and hinders love by filling us with resentment and
bitterness toward those who are hurting us.
The Holy spirit vividly illustrates all the above in Revelation 12.
the woman who is ready to bring forth a man child is the church. She is
to be a visible manifestation of the mature Christian character. Verse 2 tells
us that there is a suffering involved in the process (she cried,
travailing in birth and pained to be delivered. Verse 3 and 4 tell
us that there is a face to face confrontation with Satan whose intention is to
prevent the birth (the dragon stood before her ready to devour). Verse
6 speaks of a wilderness – prepared by God – meant to be a place of communion
with HIM. Verse 7 informs us of a tremendous warfare going on in the heavenlies
and in verse 19 we meet the accuserr, who wants to destroy our hope of
ever becoming like Jesus…but verse 11 tells us that the Image of Christ is
brought forth even as the woman brought forth the man child.
How is it going to happen? Verse 11 has the answer, we overcome by:
- The blood of the Lamb. The blood reminds us
about the New Covenant. God has committed Himself to form the Image of Christ
in us. It’s His work of grace, through our faith, secured by the shed blood of
Jesus. The Almighty God will finish the work He has started and will bring His
people to perfection.
- *The Word of our testimony. The testimony is
the report we give with our mouth about our faith in Him. We must not give a
negative report by confessing doubt, fear, hopelessness. When faced with
accusations and implications, give a testimony of the TRUTH, which is His WORD.
- Not loving our lives unto death. Not loving
our life is our willingness to embrace the suffering of the Cross. In Psalm 23
David writes of the valley of the shadow of death. “Not loving life unto death”
is the willingness to go through the valley of suffering that God allows, in the
firm conviction that without pain there is no growth.
But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal
glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect,
establish, strengthen, and settle you.
1 Pet 5:10 (emphasis added).
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