Living Things Grow

"Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature." 1 Corinthians 14:20

In my opinion, there is a false assumption many Christians hold about the early church. That assumption is that the early Christians believed the same and had the same level of maturity about the faith. However, I believe that if you take a look at some of the writers of the New Testament, you can see that they had different levels of maturity at the time they wrote their letters.

James

The Apostle James is what I would call an example of a Christian who was immature in his faith or a baby in Christ. The New Covenant clearly teaches that we are not under the law. Yet, you see examples of James promoting and even defending Christians being under the law. James was among the elders in Jerusalem who told Paul, "You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed. They are all zealous for the law ...(Acts 21:20)" Here James is among a group of Christian leaders boasting about thousands of Jewish Christians who are "all zealous for the law." Later, in his letter, James asks the question, "What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him (James 2:14)?" The answer to his question is, "Yes, faith alone does save someone." But, here he is asking the question in such a way as to imply that faith requires work. He solidifies his statement a few verses later when he says, "You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone (James 2:24)." He clearly says a person is justified by faith plus works. This is all a sign of someone who is immature in his faith and has yet to come to a full understanding of the grace of God.

John

John the Apostle gives the impression that he was kind of torn between mixing law and grace. This is a normal stage many Christians go through. I say this because in his letters he can be a bit vague in what he writes. This gives the impression that he doesn't fully understand the grace of God. In 1 John 3:24 John writes, "Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us." This is similar to Jesus saying, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments (John 14:15)." Nobody is keeping the commandments. As I believe Jesus said this so we realize we aren't loving Him and that we needed God's grace and mercy. However, on the other hand, John shows signs of understanding grace when he wrote, "He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2)" and "We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19)." Knowing the complete forgiveness of sins we have because of Christ's sacrifice is evidence that John had an understanding of the finality of the cross. Writing that we cannot love unless we first receive the love of God in Christ is evidence that he was at least aware of the fact we cannot keep God's commandments. These are truths that not too many Christians, even today, understand. Yet, for John to promote the law in one area and then seemingly understand the one event that brought an end to the law, forgiveness of sins, is a bit confusing. To say we must keep God's commandments in order for Christ to abide in us and then say we love because He first loved us is also perplexing. However, it is evidence of someone starting to show signs of maturity despite holding on to aspects of the Old Covenant law.

Peter

The Apostle Peter has been called, "The Compassionate Compromiser." He was more mature than John was in his understanding of grace. However, Peter's downfall was in his inability to stand for the truth that he understood about God's grace. The compromise of Peter was already known when he denied knowing Jesus Christ in the Gospels. It rears its head again when Paul recalls an encounter he and Peter had with some men from James. In Galatians 2:11-12, Paul writes, "But when Cephas (Peter) came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party." Peter knew the freedom he had in Christ which is why he was eating with some Gentiles. But, separated himself from the Gentiles in order not to be condemned by the "legalistic" brothers from James. Peter knew the truth about God's acceptance of the Gentiles when he reported what had happened at the home of Cornelius. "And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way (Acts 11:16-17)?” He confessed not wanting to "stand in God's way" when he entered a Gentiles home to bring them the Gospel. Yet, he "stood in God's way" when he let the "men from James" stop him from standing in the truth he exhibited regarding the grace of God.

Paul

The terrifying truth-teller. That is what the Apostle Paul has come to be known as. He is an example of someone who was mature in his faith although nobody knows it all. It is Paul who said, "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ ... (Philippians 3:8 KJV)"  Despite losing "all things" for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ, he compared them to "dung." Paul's understanding of the Gospel and the grace of God was so unique that he often referred to what he taught as "my Gospel." (Romans 2:16; 16:25, 2 Timothy 2:8) His understanding of the Gospel led him into conflict with James. As James proclaimed faith plus works, Paul said, "For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law (Romans 3:28)." It is as if Paul wrote this verse specifically to counter what James wrote in his letter. While Paul and John seemed to agree on the issue of the complete forgiveness of sins when it came to keeping commandments they differed. Paul wrote, "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (Romans 10:4)." If there is no law for Christians there are no commandments to keep in order to get Christ to abide in us or love us. We have already read where Paul withstood Peter to his face for his hypocrisy. Perhaps, this is why when speaking of Paul's writings, Peter wrote, "Some parts of his letters are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction (2 Peter 3:16)." Even he acknowledged that some of what Paul wrote was difficult for people to understand. Maybe he did as well and that is why it was hard for him to stand for the truth he had come to know.

The church today is no different than the church was at the beginning. We still have the same divisions, misunderstandings, immaturity, and maturity today. And that is just fine. God is still growing His church each and every day. He has never worked with a people that had a full understanding, total agreement, or complete unity. Yet, we are all His children through faith in Jesus Christ. Living things grow and we are all alive in Christ. We will grow because the promise remains that "he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6)."