To improve, or not to improve, part 3

Let me start today by asking you a question. Why do you love your spouse? Let me share two possible answers that I could give.

First answer: I love my wife because when I get home from work, she cooks dinner—and she is a great cook. She does all of my laundry. She runs the kids here and there, does all of the grocery shopping, and keeps track of everybody’s schedule. Oh, and she cleans the house.

Second answer: I love my wife because she has integrity. She is honest, kind, and truly caring. She loves the Lord very much and sets a positive Christian example for our sons. She is extremely loving, understanding, and forgiving of my many faults. Also, she is very pretty. She is beautiful, both “on the inside and the outside.”

Hopefully you can identify the key difference between the two answers (both of which are true), but I’ll say it anyway. The first answer focuses on what my wife does for me, while the second answer focuses on her virtues or attributes—who she is.

I finished Part 2 of this mini-series by asking how and why a church, or an individual Christian, can and should improve in its/his/her spiritual growth. I’m not going to focus too much on the question of why . . . perhaps I’ll take that up in some future blog entry. Suffice it to say for now that the Bible teaches that we should be growing and maturing in our Christian faith (see Hebrews 5:12 and 2 Peter 3:18 for starters). Instead, I want to focus for a few minutes on the question of how we can and should improve in our Christian lives.

Now, if you’ve read my profile, or my personal story (series of blog entries starting last September), you know that I have a passion for studying and teaching the Bible. So it should be no surprise that my answer to how Christians should improve in their spiritual growth is by studying the Bible. If you want to know who God is, study the Book that tells us all about Him, right? However, there is an important caveat here. You see, there are different approaches that one can take in learning about God by studying the Bible. And two of these approaches parallel the question I asked above.

On the one hand, we can look at all of the wonderful stuff God did for people in the Bible, and apply that to ourselves. I call this the “magic genie” approach. God is our magic genie in a bottle who is there to do a lot of stuff for me (or our church). God is the one who gives me a house, and a car, and a job. God is the one who makes me feel better when I’m sick, or helps my son to get good grades so he can get into a good college. Some of these things are no doubt sincere desires and worthy to be taken before God in prayer. But do you see how it all centers around what God does for me?

On the other hand, we can get to know God more and more intimately by studying what the Bible says about His attributes—who He is. God is holy. He is perfect. He is our creator and sustainer. He is just. He is angry. He is jealous. He is eternal. He is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. He is triune.

Do you see how the second approach can lead to a much more substantial and vibrant Christian life? The more we find out about God, the more we want to learn. And the more we learn about Him, the more we love Him. And the more we love Him, the more we want to serve Him. And the more we serve Him, the more glory He receives and the more mature we become as Christians.

And before you know it, the church—individual Christians and the corporate body—is experiencing unbounded spiritual growth. In other words, Little Grove Church is no longer the same today as it was five years ago. To bring my story full circle, you will recall me saying back in Part 1 that my 5k and 10k running times did not improve because I didn’t do the things necessary to experience improvement. Studying the Bible with an eye toward learning more intimately who God is will cause a church to experience spiritual growth and improvement.

In my view, the best way to achieve this is by teaching Christian theology and doctrine. This probably sounds boring to most people. After all, churches are flooded these days with “Bible studies” about parenting, divorce recovery, financial management, you name it. And don’t get me wrong. I think some of these types of studies are legitimate and even necessary. But again, they ultimately focus on what God can do for me, not who God is.

The study of theology and doctrine starts with the question, “Who is God?”, and moves on from there. It introduces, or reintroduces a person to God and sets him or her on the path to knowing and loving Him more and more intimately for who He is. It’s by no means the only answer to the question of how a church can experience spiritual growth and improvement, but it sure is a huge step in the right direction.