SPIRITUAL GROWTH
1 Samuel 2: 18,19, 21, 26; 3:19-21
I had in mind, dear brethren, to speak of spiritual growth. This is a matter of importance to every one of us, whether we are young or old, and whether we are babes in Christ or somewhat more advanced. The first passage, in 1 Peter, refers to what one may speak of as the normal growth of the individual believer, starting from his earliest days of spiritual history, and having in view his fitting in as a living stone into the spiritual house in which God is served. The thought in the verses read in 1 Samuel is that there should be growth in view of the prophetic word, the mind of God for His people, being brought in—having in mind nothing less than all God’s saints: “And all Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord”, chap 3: 20. The third scripture has in view the great end for not merely the individual believer but for the whole assembly, and the standard is “till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”. What a measure of stature that is, dear brethren! We all know what it is to take account of natural stature, but what a measure of stature God has before Him in a spiritual sense—“the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ”!
In the first passage which I read in 1 Peter it says, “All flesh is as grass, and all its glory as the flower of grass. The grass has withered and its flower has fallen; but the word of the Lord abides for eternity. But this is the word which in the glad tidings is preached to you”. What follows in the next chapter is based upon that. Hence we start with what one may call the elements of the gospel. It is one of the elements of the gospel that we learn in the light of the cross of Christ that all flesh is as grass, and the grass has withered and its flower has fallen. Men in the world would not take that view of things; they would repudiate it with warmth if you put it to them, but the one who has received the gospel and apprehends the meaning of the death of Christ realises that it is the truth as it stands before God—that not only all flesh is as grass, but that the grass has withered; in other words that the end of all flesh has come before God. It is a good thing to come to it in our souls; while many saints do not deny it as truth, you can hardly say they have come to it. “Wherefore”, says the apostle, “laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings ...”. That is very sweeping. Which of us, save as the Holy Spirit has place with us, does not find hypocrisy in the heart, a desire to make things appear what they are not?
It is not that one would dwell on the detail of these words, but call attention to them as indicating that the apostle is urging us to take up in a practical way the truth we have learned in the glad tidings, that when Christ died for us there was not only the meeting of the question of our guilt but the’ judging in His Person by God on our behalf all that we are as after the flesh—“the grass has withered and its flower has fallen”. Now the truth is not presented in a merely negative way. You will remember that in Luke 3 we read of “all the people having been baptised”. That is, there was an obedience on the part of the people to the ministry of John the baptist; they were admitting that they were under the judgment of death, and the only thing was for them to go in death. Then it says, “and Jesus having been baptised and praying ...”; it was not that Jesus needed to be baptised for Himself, but it was grace on His part to be identified with the people (we have “tasted that the Lord is gracious”); “the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form as a dove upon him; and a voice came out of heaven, Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”, v 21, 22. Now that was not only a word to Jesus Himself, although it was that and conveyed to His own heart the delight the Father had in Him—but it was intended to be a word to us, as it says in Matthew, “This is my beloved Son” (calling our attention to Jesus) “in whom I have found my delight”. The bearing of that is that if we come honestly under the teaching of the gospel, to accept that all flesh is as grass, we come at the same time to appreciate that there is one Man in whom God finds His delight; that Man is to be before our hearts, and we are to grow up to Christ in all things; there is to be no other man before us. The very elements of that are in the gospel we have received; there is one Man in whom God can find all that His heart can delight and rest in, and God has given us the Holy Spirit, so that we are in Christ before God for ever; we need to let the grace of that be in our hearts. Christ is to be the study of the Christian. The gospel of Luke presents Jesus to us as growing up in a perfectly normal way under the eye of God; in grace He became a Man and He grew up before God in perfect normality. Every stage of human life was filled out in sinless, holy perfection under the eye of God in Jesus; all that God would look for in a babe or a child was under His eye in Jesus as a babe and as a boy of twelve, so that it could be said that He grew up, and that He increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and men. Now that is a great study for us when we are young, just as Jesus in manhood is a study for us when we are older. You see Him at the age of twelve with His heart set upon His Father’s business, and He is found in the temple, recognising those who had the position outwardly of teachers of the law, asking them questions. There is the wonderful combination in Jesus of the attitude of mind of One who had His Father’s business before Him and at the same time of an obedient spirit, so that He went down to Nazareth with His parents and was in subjection to them. From then onwards during a period of eighteen years He was quietly, unmurmuringly accepting the circumstances that God had ordained for Him.
Continuing the scripture in 1 Peter 2, it says, “As newborn babes desire earnestly the pure mental milk of the word, that by it ye may grow up to salvation”, v 2. When it says, “as newborn babes” it is not contemplating that we remain in the babe state spiritually; the point is how we desire; a newborn babe is characterised by undivided desire for the milk, so we are to be marked by the same character of desire for the pure mental milk of the word. Our minds must not be a blank, that is where so many amongst us fail; we do not deliberately go in for the things of the world, but the tendency is for our minds to be insufficiently or unprofitably occupied; hence it says, “desire earnestly the pure mental milk of the word, that by it ye may grow up to salvation”. I take it that the idea of growing up to salvation has in mind that we are to be delivered practically from everything that is contrary to God; first of all from the power of the flesh, so that we learn to prefer Christ to ourselves, and it becomes more normal for us to disallow the flesh and to give place to the Spirit, and we move on that line more and more all our days. We see how this works out with the apostle Paul, one who had been caught up into Paradise; he says, “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway”, 1 Cor 9: 27. Even he had still to move, so long as he was here, on the principle of refusing the flesh and moving in the power of the Spirit. Moses said that the Lord would have war with Amalek from generation to generation, see Exod 17, and Paul recognised this, and governed himself accordingly. Amalek represents the power of Satan working through the flesh in the believer, which is incorrigibly opposed to what is of God, see Rom 7: 14, 15, and 8: 7 , 8. The flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, Gal 5: 17. Hence as soon as God’s people had been given the water from the smitten rock, typical of the Holy Spirit given as a result of Christ having been smitten for us, Amalek attacks, and Joshua, typical of Christ known in the believer’s affections as the One to whom he now lives, leads in the conflict and breaks Amalek’s power. But the flesh in the believer remains unchanged as long as he lives; hence the need for recognising that it is not to be surrendered to, see Rom 8: 12, 13. It is as Christ is more and more yielded to, and the Spirit is given His place, that we grow up to salvation, which is not a question of our justification or of peace towards God, but of our being practically delivered from the power over us of the flesh and the world.
Then it says, “If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious”. Everyone here will bear testimony to that. My private exercise is not yours and yours is not mine, but we each prove that the Lord is gracious. Even if we dismally fail, as Peter did, we prove that the Lord is gracious; in this way we become attached to Him. I do not believe there is much progress made apart from attachment to Christ. Take all your difficulties to Him, whether circumstantial or spiritual; cleave to the Lord with purpose of heart. As you do that you will find that He is gracious and you will become attached to Him; then you will begin to judge of things according to Christ. “To whom coming, as unto a living stone”; He is the foundation Stone around whom the other stones are built—“disallowed indeed of men”; now you are beginning to feel how the world stands in relation to Christ. On the other hand, He is “chosen of God, and precious”. Are you going out to the Lord, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious? Or are you going to be identified with that in which the Lord has no place? If you know what it is to go forth unto Him without the camp bearing His reproach, you will know what it is to be built up, “yourselves also, as living stones”. No one is excluded from this; a living stone is an essential part in the structure, which is a living structure composed of people who are capable of being moved in affection Godward. Every brother and every sister is an integral part of this living structure. The sisters, it is true, cannot voice what they have in their hearts when the saints are together, except in singing and in their Amens, but they have this privilege, that in their demeanour they set forth what is proper to the assembly in the way of subjection, whereas the brothers set forth intelligence in the expression of the mind of God. These two beauties are combined in the assembly. It is not that sisters are not living stones; they come with their affections to be moved Godward. The assembly is one body, the Spirit sets us together as one in thoughts and feelings to glorify God and our Lord Jesus Christ. We start with the truth of the gospel that all flesh is as grass, and we have Christ before us as the One in whom God finds His delight; we lend ourselves to the pure mental milk of the word and grow up to salvation, having in view that we should fit into our place as living stones in this spiritual house.
The early part of the first book of Samuel is of the greatest interest to us as presenting very practically the idea of growth, and it is well to take account of the conditions set out in the book. These conditions were outwardly dark; the head of the people and judge at that time was Eli the priest, and he was old and marked by inertia and lack of power. The younger generation were wicked, the older generation having no power to restrain what was coming in. One can easily see the aptness of that in its application to conditions in the Christian profession today. At that time there were those, like Elkanah, who were content to go on with things as they were; but Hannah was not content to do so, she had in view a man child—full growth up to manhood—and she vowed that if God would give her a man child she would give him unto the Lord all his days. What was in view ultimately was that the whole of the people of God should get the good of what God would give through Samuel. The last passage I read says that “Samuel grew, and Jehovah was with him, and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was established a prophet of Jehovah”. It is quite likely that many individuals in Israel were not affected by the fact that Samuel was established as a prophet of Jehovah, but the mind of God was there, available for all Israel. It may be that many Christians do not trouble about the mind of God, but we should at any rate have before us that the mind of God should be available for the whole assembly if they want it. If God gives His mind at the present time in spiritual power, He has nothing less in view than all the saints. Now it is well to see how Samuel moved. It says in chapter 2: 11, that “the boy ministered to Jehovah in the presence of Eli the priest”, and again in verse 18, “and Samuel ministered before Jehovah, a boy girded with a linen ephod”. You will notice that this man who subsequently became such a great prophet started as a child, but he started on the lines of being a priest. I do not believe there is any spiritual growth unless there is exercise on this line of ministering to the Lord. The Lord Jesus was supremely pleasing to God before His three-and-a-half years of public service were entered upon; there were thirty years of previous history in which He was pleasing to God. Samuel was on that line; there began to appear under God’s eye even one boy who ministered what was pleasing to Him. The Lord was before Samuel in his exercises; Samuel “ministered before the Lord” when he was a boy. The very fact that conditions all around are so utterly displeasing to God should be all the more an incentive to you and me to provide what is pleasing to Him.
Verse 17 describes the sin of the young men, but in contrast to that it says “Samuel ministered before Jehovah, a boy girded with a linen ephod”—as if God is saying, The conditions around are absolutely abhorrent to Me, but by this boy there is something being ministered to Me, in practical righteousness and holiness. God had earlier chosen Aaron and his sons to serve Him as priests, see Exod 28: 41, and compare 1 Sam 2: 27, 28. This involves that in serving God we consider for Him, and what is pleasing to Him, and we are not concerned about pleasing ourselves or others. Now Samuel, though not officially a priest, for he was not of the house of Aaron, was morally one, as providing for God that which the official priesthood entirely failed to afford. In verse 19 we read that his mother made him a little coat and brought it to him from year to year. She recognised that growth would be normal in her child. We should be concerned if this is not the case with the young ones found in all our local companies. Can we say that they need, so to speak, a bigger coat this year than they did last year? When Hannah came up with her husband for the yearly sacrifice she would bring a coat.
May the Lord help us not to limit our thoughts to what we enjoy in the meeting, but to be concerned about what there is for God, growing up before Him, ministering to Him. We need to foster that exercise and to see that growth of a spiritual kind is being promoted. Growth spiritually involves that we are increasing in our appreciation of Christ, and in practical correspondence with Him, in spirit, ways, and intelligence. Hence God is more exacting, so to speak, in what He looks for from us when we are older than when we are young.
It says at the end of verse 21 that the boy Samuel grew before Jehovah. There was nothing abnormal in Jesus as He grew in wisdom and stature, and we have to maintain this exercise of being what we are; young ones have to grow up before the Lord in a normal way. He looks for obedience in a child, the features proper to a child, respect for those who are older; He looks to see that the children value the company of the saints and do not want the world, and as we begin to get older the Lord looks for dependence upon God and confidence in Him, and, too, that we desire earnestly the pure mental milk of the word that we may grow thereby.
“And the boy Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with Jehovah and also with men”, v 26. These are almost the same words as are used of Jesus; it shows that Christ is always before the mind of God as the great standard that He would have before His people as they grow up. The climax of this progress on the part of Samuel is at the end of chapter 3, when it says that Samuel, no longer a child, “Samuel grew”; in a sense he is a full-grown man, yet it says “Samuel grew, and Jehovah was with him, and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, knew that Samuel was established a prophet of Jehovah”. Dear brethren, is not that something to have before us, that there should be growth on these lines so that the mind of God might be available for His people? In the beginning of chapter 3 it says that the word of the Lord was rare in those days, but Samuel was there fulfilling his mother’s exercises and securing that the mind of God should be available to all the people.
The chapter in Ephesians speaks of the exalted, dominant position occupied at the present time by the Lord Jesus: “He that descended is the same who has also ascended up above all the heavens, that he might fill all things”; from that position He has given gifts. One is concerned, and I think rightly, that ministry should be effective, that it should not be so much mere talk, but that it should be effective; all the power of an ascended Christ is behind the ministry. We have not apostles, but we have prophets, we have pastors and teachers; and there are doubtless evangelists; one is not ignoring the broken state of things in the assembly, but the Lord has given the gifts. And what is in view in the giving of the gifts? It is “the perfecting of the saints; with a view to the work of the ministry, with a view to the edifying of the body of Christ”. What a marvellous conception is the body of Christ! The vessel composed of all the saints of God, that in which Christ can give expression to His own affections, His own feelings Godward, His own graces as under the eye of God and for His pleasure; the intention is also that what God is as known in Christ should find expression, as it will do fully in a coming day.
“Until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ”. That is the climax before the mind of God in regard of spiritual growth. All that Christ is in expression as a Man is now to be formed in His body the assembly. There is no less measure than that before the heart of God. When the city comes down from God out of heaven the angel applies the standard, the golden reed, and he finds it all according to measure, fully up to standard. In the meantime, as treasuring Christ personally in our hearts we are to hold the truth in love and grow up to Him in all things.
From Words of Truth 1939