THE TIME HAS COME FOR THE CHURCH THE GROW UP
Once we have been born again, we are inherited children of the Spirit. What we miss sometimes is that like our physical bodies, we HAVE to grow up as well…
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1 Peter 2: 2 [NAS95]
life newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.
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Hebrews 5: 12-13 [NAS95]
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.
1 Corinthians 3: 1-3 [NAS95]
And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?
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Hebrews 5: 14 [NAS95]
But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.
Hebrews 6: 1-3 [NAS95]
Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the read and eternal judgment. And this we will do, if God permits.
DO YOU LIVE A LIFE WORTHY OF THE CALLING?
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Ephesians 4: 1-6 [ESV]
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit-just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call- one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Have you ever considered what this means? In today’s “workless” religion, no one would EVER associate following Christ with being worthy. But the more we read and understand scripture, as well as what Christ reveals, we can understand fully what it means to be worthy.
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Philippians 1: 27-28 [ESV]
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God.
This is amazing, here it shows that having a life “..worthy of the gospel of Christ,..” is a sign of one’s salvation AND of the enemy’s destruction.
CALIBER, by definition, means the degree of importance and the quality of character. It’s nothing that can be measured by speech alone, nor our works; it is instead the fruit being the proof of a true relationship with and in Christ. We are to grow in His will towards maturity with our entire lifestyle. We have to exhibit a transformed life that is being filled, strengthened, and guided by the Holy Spirit.