Always Beginning, Constantly Adventuring, Forever Secure
The new life in Christ as Jesus-followers will be increasingly exciting in each season of life if we place Christ first in our lives.
The seasons of life—we all go through them. Someone has said that there are four seasons of life: childhood, youth, young adult, and “you look marvelous!” We know we have reached middle age or beyond when people say “you look marvelous” instead of “Hello.” The ambiguous comment may cover a multitude of wrinkles and gray hair.
Being able to enjoy the season of life we’re in is not easy. So much of life is lived in anticipation of the next season. Experts in human development tell us that if we skip a period of natural growth and experience, we spend the rest of our lives trying to recapture it. The popularity of all the “life passages” books indicates that we all long to understand why we react the way we do at each season of our development as people. There are some of us who are old in attitude and reaction long before our time, and others who never grow up. To be mature in our growing years and viably youthful as we grow old is the challenge of adventuresome living.
What is true for enjoying the human developmental seasons of life is also true for the spiritual seasons of life in our relationship with God and others. The Apostle John wrote to groups of Jesus-followers in the churches in Asia. Let’s note his words in 1 John 2:12-14…
12 I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. 13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, because you have overcome the evil one. 14 I write to you, dear children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young people, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
We can observe in these verses that John addressed three groups of Jesus-followers: dear children, the young people, and the fathers. The usual approach of interpretation of this passage is that John wrote to three different groups. But let’s shift the sails a bit, to catch the winds of the Spirit about this passage.
Let’s imagine for a moment busy streets lined with billboards, each with a person’s name on the top, that continually flash images—the true, uncut contents of that person’s heart. If we have Jesus Christ in our lives, there’s no need to be nervous. The things at our core of our character are headed in the right direction. God is light; God is love; God is life; God is joy; God is purity.
God liberates our heart from the secret condemnation that poisons and shames every human being. We follow those new instincts; and like the apostle John, we will practically itch to lead others into that kind of freedom and kinship with God. Our spiritual senses will sharpen, leading us to seek people in darkness, letting God use us to “work on” them until they know God like we know God.
Seasons of Spirituality
Every church has newborn babes in Christ, those who are the energetic growing Jesus-followers, and others who are the mature, seasoned saints of God. The tragedy is that we lose the best of all three seasons. We often lose the excitement and dynamic warmth of the first experience of being loved just as we are. We can remember when we first experienced the joy of falling in love with Jesus Christ. How easily the delight of the new birth is lost in routine forms of religion without experiencing the deep faith of our traditional Christianity.
It has been said that “traditionalism is the dead faith of the living saints, and tradition is the living faith of the dead saints.” All too often form takes precedence over function. So there must be a quality of discipleship which takes Jesus seriously. We want to follow Christ and communicate his love to others. And then, truly mature Jesus-followers who know the Lord in depth, and know from experience that they are faithful in all life’s circumstances, is a work of God—beautiful to behold and know.
John shares these seasons of spirituality with a challenge. This challenge is to keep together the excitement of becoming a Jesus-follower, the daring of growing up in Jesus, and ripened depth of mature personality under the control of Jesus. We need the best of all three seasons of spiritual growth.
John is trying to capture the basic ingredients of each season of spiritual growth and urges the Jesus-followers to never lose the best of all three.
1. Always beginning
12 I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name… 14 I write to you, dear children, because you know the Father.
John addresses the dear children. Forgiveness is the quality of the dear children in the faith which we should never lose. The experience of forgiveness is the nutritious milk for new babes in Christ. We are set free of the sin and failure of our old life. Acceptance by God through Christ and the cross helps us grasp the amazing fact that the old is gone and we have made a new beginning.
Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17…
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
I can still remember the freshness and freedom I felt when I accepted Christ as my Savior and surrendered my life to him. Life began for me that night as a Junior Higher. It was a triumphant transition in which I became a new person in Christ through the power of forgiveness and liberating grace. At a tender age of 13 I was filled with enthusiasm for Jesus, I wanted the whole world to know the joy of being a new person in Christ.
So as dear children Jesus-followers are always beginning!
2. Constantly adventuring
13 … I am writing to you, young people, because you have overcome the evil one. 14 … I write to you, young people, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
John addresses the young people. Babies are lovely, but it would be a terrible tragedy if we remained a baby all of our lives. The same is true in the Christian life. Growth in the implications of the Lordship of Christ is demanding and sometimes painful. The thrill of being one of Jesus’ followers also means the cost of following him. John knew the challenges of making Jesus as Lord. He understood the testing of the adolescent and young-adult seasons of growing in Christ regardless of the age at which we are “born again.” The implication is not that the battle is completely over, but that there are specific evidences of victory which should give hope and strength to future conflicts. Each new battle is engaged with the knowledge that, if we trust Christ and what he has accomplished on the cross, we too will have victory.
Paul writes in Romans 12:1-2…
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is true worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
It didn’t take but a few years before the experience of Jesus as my Savior flamed into the challenge of following him as my Lord. My mind had to be renewed around Christ’s mind; my emotions needed healing and release; and my will had to be taught the ways of obedience. As a college student I soon had to come to grips with the power of evil in me and others, and in my world. I needed to understand that spiritual adolescence, regardless of my chronological age, is a necessary and unavoidable part of my growing up in Christ. I am never finished with it. I had to grow strong with the word of God living in me. It was during this season of my spiritual growth that I accepted a call into ministry. I was young and strong, seeking the Word of God to live powerfully in me.
So as young people Jesus-followers are constantly adventuring!
3. Forever secure
13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning… 14 … I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.
John addresses the fathers. The danger is that we are tempted to think that the growing years of our Christian lives can be finished. Our Lord is at work helping us to be pilgrims all through the years of our lives. We are called to be adventuresome, vigorous, daring followers of Jesus right up to the end. John seems to expect that there should be a discernable result of knowing Christ through the years. That forces us to question the ways in which we are different because of companionship with Jesus through life’s agonies and ecstasies. Paul challenged people to grow up to maturity so we would no longer be like children hurled back and forth by false teaching and crafty ways. Maturity in Christ is becoming like Christ in thought, action, and reaction.
Paul writes in Ephesians 4:13-15…
13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the head, that is, Christ.
So I have discovered over the years in my walk with Christ that age does not insure my maturity. I need to be childlike in my later years, but not childish. I do not want to experience “spiritual senility.” I can major in the minors and cripple the movement of the local church. So I choose to grow up, not merely old emotionally and spiritually. I will always be eternally grateful to God for members and leaders of my congregation who are mature in years and Christian character. A long life in Christ has produced an admirable combination of unfailing hope, ready-for-anything openness, discernment salted with love, and inclusive receptivity to new people and innovative ideas. They are examples to all of us of what God can do with a person who is completely yielded to the Lordship of Christ.
So as fathers Jesus-followers are forever secure!
Now let’s see the perspective of these three seasons of spiritual growth with the following diagrams:
The spiritual life is traditionally seen as moving from developing faith to fruit-bearing and finally to full maturity…
Developing Faith Fruit-bearing Full Maturity
Childhood Young Adulthood Older Adulthood
This view tends to compartmentalize spiritual life into three clearly defined dimensions. Although each of these life periods contains a mixture of developing faith, fruit-bearing, and full maturity, these elements tend not to be balanced or blended. Let’s look at another diagram…
Fruit-bearing Fruit-bearing Fruit-bearing
Full Maturity Full Maturity
Developing Faith Full Maturity
Developing Faith Developing Faith
Childhood Young Adulthood Older Adulthood
William Barclay, in The Daily Study Bible, has a vital summary of John’s seasons of spiritual growth:
All Christians are like little children, for all can regain their innocence by the forgiveness of Christ. All Christians are young men, with glorious and vigorous strength to fight and win their battles against the tempter and his power. All Christians are like fathers; like full-grown, responsible men, who can think and learn their way deeper and deeper into the knowledge of Jesus Christ. It seems…that indeed is John’s wider meaning.
The Christian life is always beginning, constantly adventuring, forever secure. It is for each of us to decide in which season we presently live in our Christian life. Some of us may still be babes and need to grow up. Others are in the heat of the battle to be faithful and obedient as disciples of Jesus. Still others are enjoying the security of having grown to maturity in Christ. We must have the desire to keep the best of all three seasons for all our years. If we become more mature in every day we are privileged to live, we will have the abundant life Christ lived, died, and is with us now to make maximum. The new life in Christ will be exciting all the way through the seasons if we put him first in our lives.
King Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 3:1…
1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.
I would like to pass on three important objects to you before I bring my final message to a close: a staff, a compass, and binoculars.
The staff represents that a new undershepherd is coming to Christ First in God’s timing. Accept this undershepherd, love and follow the lead of Christ’s shepherd to you.
Isaiah 30:21 21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
The compass represents the Word of God. It will lead you in the right direction. Continue to rely on God’s promises for you lives as you take the light of his Word with you along your paths.
Psalm 119:105 105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
The binoculars represent the vision of the church. Continue to bring the things that seem far off into focus with the vision of allowing God to show you “new things.”
Isaiah 48:6 6 You have heard these things; look at them all. Will you not admit them? “From now on I will tell you of new things, of hidden things unknown to you.”
Now a final word and a promise. The principles and examples I have shared with you in my messages over the years are tools to help you focus your energy on what God has for you to accomplish in the seasons of your spiritual life. As you allow the Holy Spirit to lead you, the eyes of your understanding will be opened and God’s vision for you will be revealed. Take the vision God shows you and bathe it in prayer. As you faithfully apply the principles you have learned, you will find yourself moving from where you are to where God wants you to be. God has something better ahead for you if your future is centered on Christ and his Word. Press on and fight the good fight of faith, laying hold of everything God has for you, because God’s best is yet to come!
Jeremiah 29:11 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Prayer: Creative Lord of growth and new life, we praise you for all three seasons of life. Help us to keep all three as we live our days. We long to stay fresh and vital with daily experiences of forgiveness. Give us the power of your Spirit to confront and overcome the frustrations of life. And enable us to grow up to full maturity in every aspect of our faith. Thank you for calling us to a faith journey in which we are always beginning, constantly adventuring, and forever secure. In Jesus our life and Lord. Amen! “Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much”