I told a story a few weeks ago about a curious tourist who asked a long-time resident of a mid-western town if there were any famous people born in that town. And the old-timer’s thoughtful answer was, “Nope. only babies!”

And that’s how we all come into the world. Babies. And we know that babies need care and protection and feeding and warmth and hugs and love in order to survive and grow. But that’s what we expect babies to do – grow. In fact, as we explore Bible verses about growing today, we’ll see that God expects the exact same thing from us spiritually.

I wonder how much thought we’ve given to the awareness that Jesus, who came as a baby which we celebrate annually, grew. He grew as a normal child even though it’s hard for us to imagine that he could do so and be free from sin. But the point is, he grew. The Bible says, “The child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him” (Luke 2.40). So much so that when he was 12 years old, he amazed the teachers in the temple courts with his understanding and his answers to questions. (Luke 2.46-47)

But that was not the end of his growing. He returned with Mary and Joseph to Nazareth and was obedient to them. And the Bible makes this further comment about him: “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2.52). That tells me that Jesus kept on growing – physically, psychologically, intellectually and spiritually.

The next picture we see of him in Luke’s Gospel is when he comes to John at the Jordan river to be baptized, which he said to John, was “to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3.15).

Please pause here for a moment and let’s extract some application for ourselves thus far.

• The growth process is ongoing. Yes, we arrive at important benchmarks in our growth, but that is not where we stop, anymore than Jesus did.
• Spiritual growth – growth in God’s plan and purpose for us in terms of both our character and fulfilling his tasks for us is rooted in humility and submission to his authority. It would be easy to miss this in the Scripture, but God’s Word puts it in for a reason: “Then he (Jesus) went down to Nazareth with them (his parents) and was obedient to them.” This is after he has been in the temple and amazed the teachers.

What is it telling us? It is telling us that Jesus, though he was filled with wisdom and favor and the grace of God was on him, he did not regard himself as “all that!” And it is important for us to grasp that in order to develop into the full measure of what God intends for us, we also must when we’re children, willingly submit ourselves to parental authority and whatever other authority God places over us throughout our lives.

The same sort of thing is evident when Jesus comes to be baptized by John. Jesus had no sin to repent of; he did not need John’s baptism for his own personal benefit, but it was important that John’s place in the plan of God be recognized and affirmed by the one who was greater than John.

It is always good when we operate out of humility and acknowledge the place of others, rather than simply plowing ahead to pursue our own agenda, no matter how God-given it might be, or we might believe it to be.

Bible Verses About Growing in the Lord

Jesus grew; we must also grow. But now I’m talking about our spiritual growth. Growing in the Lord. As we shift from the Gospels to the Epistles and look for Bible verses about growing, one of the most foundational passages we find is 1 Peter 2.2: “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby.”

Let’s take that apart a bit and reflect on what it says. “As newborn babes…”

To grow spiritually we must first be born spiritually. I cannot stress this too much.

Spiritual growth is the development and expression more and more, of the life of Christ in us. If Christ is not in us – that is, if we have not yet been born again by his entrance into our lives – we cannot grow spiritually, because there is no spiritual life in us to grow.

Chapter one of Peter’s letter is about becoming a believer, about being born again, about receiving the new life that Jesus Christ offers us. And it is vital that we respond to that offer by opening our hearts and inviting the Lord Jesus to come in.

Chapter two is about growing in that life. So, he says, just as a newborn baby craves milk, as a newborn believer in Jesus we are also to desire the sincere milk of the word.

“Desire.” NIV says, “Crave.” I have seen babies at feeding time. They have an impatient hunger and they want to get fed. God’s Word is telling us here that we are to have a healthy hunger for the Word of God, and as we take it in it will produce growth in our spiritual lives.

One of the things that convinced me of the reality of my conversion and salvation was the enormous hunger I had for the Word of God. I would read and I would pray. And on nights when there was a service in the little church I attended, I would ply the pastor with questions, often until late into the night. I was hungry for God. I was hungry to know God. I am convinced that that hunger was God-given; I am also convinced that it was a significant driving force in my early spiritual growth.

So, let me ask: How much desire do we have for the Word of God? Are we hungry for God? Are you hungry for God? Are you hungry for God’s Word? Because our hunger for God and his Word is going to govern our spiritual growth. Feeding patterns will change as we grow and mature in the natural and it is true also in the spiritual, but we must begin with a desire, a hunger, a voracious appetite for God and his Word!

“…Sincere milk of the word…” NIV says “pure spiritual milk” Pure spiritual milk or the “sincere milk of the word” is the Word the way it comes – not diluted, not polluted. A substance is pure when there are no contaminants in it. Pure gold is nothing but gold. Pure spiritual milk is God’s Word with no additives, either to water it down or to spice it up. But let’s recognize that Peter is talking here about the milk of the Word. Hebrews 5.12-14 talks about strong meat or as NIV puts it “solid food.” This, he says, belongs to those who have both spiritual knowledge (v13) and spiritual experience (v14).

“…that you may grow thereby.” This is the point. God wants us to grow. He has stated that as his goal for us and he has given us the means to pursue it. You’ve tasted that the Lord is good! Great! Desire or crave more of the Word of God. Take it in and it will cause you to grow!

There’s another Scripture that I want us to think about this morning, and it’s also from the Apostle Peter, 2 Peter 3.18:

“But grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

When Peter writes his second letter, he is still concerned about growth. He begins it with the encouragement to keep on adding spiritual qualities (2 Peter 1.5-7) which, he says, if we possess in increasing measure, “they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.” And he concludes it with the exhortation of the verse that we have identified.

Growing in grace is accumulating more and more experience of the goodness of God as we live in and walk with him.

Growing in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is not just growth in intellectual or head knowledge, but also getting to know Jesus as he reveals himself to us, in the Word, in worship, in situations in our lives, in fellowship and in prayer.

The Ultimate Objective of Growth

What is the ultimate objective that God has in mind?

It’s recorded in Ephesians 4.11-16 and the best thing I can do is read it and let the Holy Spirit speak it to our hearts.

“And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”

The goal is not perfection, the goal is maturity. To become stable and steadfast and strong in the Lord and approximate the life and likeness of Jesus ever more closely. Some of the things that go into that are listed here:

• Equipping the saints for the work of service
• Building up the body of Christ – corporate growth, not just individual and personal but also corporate.
• Unity of the faith. We are exhorted in Ephesians 4.3 to “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit.” Here we are encouraged to grow into the unity of the faith.
• To be children no longer. There are ways in which the Lord says we should always be like children, but in understanding, awareness and stability, we are to become adults.
• Speaking the truth in love. The balance of truth and love is so Christ-like! If I had to pick one mark of maturity from this whole passage, this would be it. We need the truth of the Word to grow. We need to speak it to one another in love to make doing it desirable. And it pulls us together when we do.
• Each individual part working properly causes the growth of the body building itself up in love.

God wants us to grow up into Christ-like maturity at the personal level so we can be properly working parts of his whole body. That will maximize the contribution we can make to the overall growth of this part of Christ’s body that we are part of, building it up in love as we build up ourselves and each other.

May we pray.