Foundational Principles for Spiritual GrowthSample

PRINCIPLE#3 - WHAT - FRUITS BEFORE GIFTS OR ACCOMPLISHMENTS

The principle of what asks the question, "What is the evidence that I am growing or becoming more mature?"

Since we are concerned with the internal life of the Christian, then how we measure progress must be aligned to this goal. The question is, “What evidence can we look for of growth in maturity?” Often, we confuse a greatly gifted or accomplished leader with a mature person. It is an unfortunate truth that one can have quite a bit of success and notoriety and hold a significant leadership position without being mature. One has only to consider the many examples of leaders (secular and Christian) who have poor characters but are very successful (and even popular) to realize that this is a poor measure. We are not saying that leaders must be perfect. We are simply making the point that one cannot measure maturity by a person's title or their ability to eloquently teach great biblical truths.

The evidence that we look for in ourselves (and others) is the fruit demonstrated in our relationships as defined in Galatians 5:22-23 - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Even when looking at these fruits we can easily (mistakenly) judge with external eyes. For example, we could say that John and Jane have been faithfully married for 30 years and therefore are quite mature. But further examination may reveal that they look like a happy couple in public but in the privacy of their homes they do not speak to each other with kindness or gentleness, they are frequently unfaithful in thought and word and there is no joy in the marriage. The fruit of maturity, therefore, is more often tasted by your closest relationships and over a significant period of time. Another mistake is to measure fruit in absolutes. I may be kinder than my neighbour, but I have been saved 20 years and she got saved last year and has already seen more improvement in that short time than I have in a lifetime. Do not compare your fruit with others, compare yourself with your fruitfulness a year ago.

We want to be becoming more loving, more joyful, more full of peace, more patient, more kind, more full of goodness, more faithful, more gentle, and more self-controlled year by year. Every fruit is important. If we use this measure, we will have our eyes trained on the right prize.