Bible and Spiritual Growth

     Spiritual growth and the Bible can be both one and two different things. They are one and the same because every spiritually mature person is someone who has a good understanding of the Bible. They may be a spiritual teacher, a spiritual shepherd, or a preacher. It would seem impossible for someone who claims to be spiritually mature to be someone who does not know the Bible and lacks a proper understanding of God, Jesus, and the gospel that comes through the Bible. In this respect, the Bible and spiritual growth are related.

But on the other hand, from our experience in the church, we find that there are many people who have a good knowledge of the Bible, but they are not truly spiritually mature, that is, they do not have a life that shows signs of spiritual growth. Some of these people may have read the Bible many times. Some of them may have graduated from a seminary, received a certificate or a degree. Some of them may be experts in some branch of the Bible related to the Bible, history, or theology. Or we find that even some Bible scholars may not have a life that shows signs of true spiritual growth. In this respect, we understand that the Bible and spiritual growth are not related.

So what is spiritual growth? What role does the Bible play in spiritual growth? How can we grow spiritually? This article will examine some of these suggestions.

I. Spiritual Growth

First, let us understand that spiritual growth is the primary goal of being a Christian (or a disciple of Jesus Christ). “Spiritual life” is the personal experience of the believer who has received special grace from God through Jesus Christ, leading to forgiveness of sins, release, freedom, and new life. This spiritual life experience is a special experience, which may seem mysterious and difficult to fully explain. Therefore, we have various metaphors to describe this spiritual life experience, such as being born again (John 3:3, 5 cf. 1 Pet. 1:23), entering into the kingdom of God (Matt. 21:31, 43; Mark 4), dying and being resurrected (Rom. 6:5-11; Gal. 2:20-21), receiving eternal life (John 3:15-16), having abundant life (John 10:10), having a new life, being transformed (2 Cor. 5:17), etc. These metaphors may seem different, but they are metaphors for the same experience, the experience of new spiritual life.

The story of spiritual new life helps us to see the process of spiritual new life as follows:

1) The first process of this experience is the beginning of the experience. In general, believers may begin by receiving grace or understanding the grace of the gospel of Christ. But receiving grace and understanding grace is not enough. It must lead to a decision, a significant part in the covenant to receive grace, which is a decision to be cleansed and accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. The New Testament often views baptism as an important process, symbolizing the beginning of a new spiritual life (Matt. 28:19; Acts 2:41; 8:36-38; 10:47-48) before entering the process of further growth.

2) The process of being changed or developed in life, or what we call “spiritual growth.” This is a very important step. The nature of normal life is to continually change, develop, and grow. The Apostle Paul speaks of change as follows:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, because of God's mercies, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God—your worship with your spirit. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, pleasing, and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)

The passage helps us to understand spiritual change or growth in two ways. The first is the decision of the believer. The Apostle Paul implored the believer to give himself to God to live a holy and pleasing life before leading to a transformed life, including a charge against the believer imitating (following) people of this era. Therefore, the transformation does not happen automatically or by chance, but is the result of the believer's decision, from the intention to give himself, obey, and not live according to the old ways of people in this world. The second is the God's side. This changed way of life is not only the good intentions of the believer, but also from the work of God. The word "be transformed" indicates that the one who truly brings about change must come from God. ¹ Therefore, on the one hand, the believer who grows must decide, intend, devote himself, and devote himself to giving himself to God. But on the other hand, the believer cannot grow by himself; he must rely on God's grace to lead to growth.

3) The goal of growth is to live like Jesus (Rom. 8:29 “become conformed to the image of his Son”; Eph. 4:13 “meet the measure of the fullness of Christ”; 1 Cor. 11:1 “as I follow the pattern of Christ ”).

The New Testament often emphasizes being like Christ—living a life of high moral character , holiness, and dignity that stands in contrast to the corruption of the world. Ephesians 2:10 says, “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works .” 2 Peter 1:4 tells of God’s precious promise that believers will escape the corruption that is in the world.

The writer of Hebrews condemns the spiritual immaturity of his recipients (Heb. 5:11-6:3), telling us that believers need significant growth, change, and life development. This growth is not simply about knowledge, faith, or devotion to God, but about good character. The apostle Paul condemned the Corinthian church for being spiritually immature, saying that they were like the flesh, because they were “envying one another and having dissensions” (1 Cor. 3:3). He was referring to the works of the flesh that were against the Spirit, the corruption of the world: “fornication, uncleanness, debauchery, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, dissensions, factions, envyings, drunkenness, revelries, and the like” (Gal. 5:19-21).

Therefore, we can see that this spiritual growth is something that the believer himself must take responsibility for. We can see that on the one hand, spiritual growth is a personal matter. It is the result of relationships and help from God, which are very important. But on the other hand, this spiritual growth is not that the believer is only interested in the private world . Because those who grow are those who demonstrate a life that has beautiful relationships with others. ^2. There is love, kindness, and compassion for others in a concrete way. The important question is, how does the Bible have a part in this spiritual growth?

II. Reading and Studying the Bible

For us believers to grow into spiritual maturity, the process of true life transformation comes from God and His revelation through the Bible. Jesus’ parable of the sowing of seed (Matt. 13:18-23; Mark 4:13-20; Luke 8:11-15) gives us an idea of ​​the process of spiritual growth as the growth of the seed of the Word that falls into the hearts of those who hear it and leads to fruition. ³ However, in reality, we will find that many believers who read and study the Bible are not transformed or are not spiritually mature. Where is the problem? How is Bible study important? In what ways does Bible study contribute to proper understanding? In this regard, we can divide Bible reading into two aspects: 1) academic and 2) application. Both aspects are important for solid spiritual growth; neither aspect can be lacking.

1) Academic study means studying to understand the Bible properly. In this aspect, we focus on the understanding of the writers and the original recipients (in the past). First of all, we ourselves must admit that the Bible is difficult to understand! There are many passages that are very difficult to understand! At the same time, some passages of the Bible are easier to understand than others. But when we think that it is easy to understand, many times we misunderstand and misunderstand. Even though we believe that the Bible is God who came to us, but in order to understand correctly, we ourselves must first adjust our attitudes that each book of the Bible has a source of recording, has a background history, has human writers, has specific recipients, has language, culture, values, attitudes, worldviews that the writers and original recipients understand each other, has a literary form that the writers use to record and transmit, and the recipients access the content and meaning of the writers. As for us, Thai believers in the 21st century, we may be considered second-hand recipients. That is, the writers do not know us, do not intend to write or communicate the message to us, never think of us. Therefore, it is difficult for us to understand what the writers who are from different eras, languages, and cultures from us have. Therefore, we need to work hard, conduct research with the aim of helping us truly understand "what the writer wants to communicate to the recipient", what the writer wants to mean, and what the writer's purpose is, before concluding that the text in the scriptures that we read will help us reach God. Or understand what God's will is to communicate to us believers.

Lack of proper research can not only lead us to choose easy-to-understand Scriptures, but we can also misunderstand easy-to-understand Scriptures. For example, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 talks about the quality of beautiful love, which many believers read and preach about on weddings. In fact, the author of this Scripture, the Apostle Paul, wrote 1 Corinthians 13 to an audience, the church at Corinth, which was a new church, a church with a large number of Gentiles and multicultural people. This church was facing many major problems. They were a group of people who were rich in gifts from God (1 Corinth 1:7), but they were like spiritual children (3:3), facing many problems. There were immoral adultery among believers (5:1-2, 6:17), quarrels and lawsuits (6:1-11), family problems (7:1-40), and especially disunity (1:10-17; 11:17-22). In the context of 1 Corinthians 13, the apostle Paul did not intend to define a beautiful love for use on marriage or young love. Rather, he was admonishing the church at Corinth who were lacking love, who were divided, sectarian, boastful, and arrogant about their gifts and abilities. The qualities that Paul listed in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 were qualities that the church lacked and that needed to be developed. 

Therefore, academic study of the Bible is a study of the background of each book, understanding its historical context and literary context, in order to clearly understand the world of the author and the reader. The scholar or researcher must work hard, must research to understand the truth, starting with doubt (not belief), asking questions, finding answers with principles and reasons, with the aim of understanding the facts of the content of the Bible that are of interest, what the author wants to convey to the original recipient. This study is called "Exegesis". ⁴ This type of study may not focus primarily on belief. On the contrary, it emphasizes doubt (positive) to encourage questions and find answers. Because the starting point is to want to understand the truth from the worldview of the author, not just what we, the reader, understand. For example, from 1 Corinthians 13, we might start by asking the question: Is it true that Paul is writing a beautiful definition of love for us? Why does 1 Corinthians 13 not mention marriage or family relationships? Why does 1 Corinthians 13 mention speaking in tongues and prophesying many times? Etc. These questions or doubts do not make us lose confidence in the Bible. Or stop believing that God has revealed to us through the Bible. On the contrary, it is a question to prevent us from being fooled, thinking for ourselves, drawing our own conclusions based on our imagination or worldview (which may differ from the meaning of the author), and then concluding that this is the meaning that God is revealing to us. Preachers and teachers of the Bible themselves should be aware of the danger of interpreting the Bible in a way that favors oneself, which can easily happen to those who do not interpret it carefully. ⁵

2) Appropriate application (reading for spiritual growth) means reading with a purpose that leads to life-changing results, which goes beyond simply receiving correct information or understanding the correct meaning. Reading or receiving the word for transformation is the true goal of reading the Bible, and academic study is a great tool to help achieve this purpose.

If the study of a subject emphasizes on raising doubts and questions, the application aspect emphasizes trust and finding appropriate conclusions . If the study aspect emphasizes understanding the meaning that the writer in the past is communicating, the application aspect emphasizes bringing this understanding to use in a concrete way in the present. If the academic aspect emphasizes evidence of data analysis and facts of the recipient in the past, the application aspect emphasizes having emotions, listening attentively, and leading to reflections for the readers in the present.

In order to access transformative reading appropriately, we need to read in a structured manner. We may be able to adapt this scripture reading process from a traditional Bible reading skill passed down from the time of the 3rd century church called Letio Divina (Divine Reading). ⁶   This reading consists of four steps:

1. Careful listening
2. Reflecting on the meaning that comes to us (Reflective thinking)
3. Honest praying
4. Obedient living

These four steps may not be strictly separate, nor may they follow a strict sequence, but may simply be guidelines to guide us in reading the Bible with a purpose for change.

The first step is to listen or read carefully, understand, and grasp what the author is communicating. In this regard, we need to consider two things: First, let us consider that the Bible was written for readers to understand and be transformed in life. This means that the author did not write these writings for us to study, analyze, or search for theology or find some hidden meaning. On the contrary, the author carefully wrote for the original readers (or listeners) to have an experience that would lead to life-changing experiences ^{. 9} Therefore, we should always assume that the original readers would easily understand the content, be inspired, be instructed, be involved emotionally, and lead to a direct response with God at the center, so that we can correctly understand what the author is communicating. Second, let us consider the characteristics of literature that the author used to record the Bible in each different book. ¹⁰ Each literature has a different focus. For example, if it is a narrative literature (such as Matthew), it tells the story of events, characters, conversations, and responses. Therefore, when we read (or listen to) a story, we should act as if we were the original readers (listeners) who were interested in what the narrator was presenting. What we focus on is the main point of the story, awareness of the sequence of events, participation, and emotional involvement in the events that occurred, access to the roles of the characters, conflicts, and responses of the characters. and the results that occur from the events that occur, etc. Let's read the story as if we were reading a novel, joining in with the emotions and feelings of the characters so that we can understand the main points and receive various lessons.

The second step is to seek the important meaning that has come to us. We have a Thai proverb that says, "Watch a movie, watch a drama, and then look back at yourself." This is a natural truth in reading literature or literature because when we read literature, we will first realize that this literature does not directly address us. But at the same time, we can receive lessons directly from this literature. In the same way, the Bible speaks directly to its original readers (listeners), but these things all have important lessons, understandings to us as if God spoke to us through events or writings to God's people in the past. At this stage, we seek meaning or understanding that we can apply to our lives. To achieve the goal of what this passage means to us, the readers, today, it may mean taking time to reflect on three things roughly: what happened in the past, the meaning that affects us in the present, and the development of our lives in the future. ¹¹ For example, Jesus told the parable of the lost sheep with concern for the little ones (Matt. 18:10-14). The meaning that is passed on to the present is to see God's will for the little ones, those who may have inferiority complexes, have done wrong, have lived away from God, are away from worship and have left the church, and the development of our lives in the future. It may be an exploration of our own lives that Who are we like in this parable? If we are like the shepherds or members of the church who are not lost, let us not despise or neglect those who are lost or lost. Instead, let us examine our hearts to see if we care for the little ones as Jesus did. What can we do to improve our lives in this area? Who can we have a part in following or caring for them? And so on. Let us always be aware that this step is very important. It takes time and development so that we can come back and examine our lives more precisely.

The third step is to pray with truth. This step helps us to always be aware that the reason we want to change our lives, or not just because we want to be better people, have a better life, but also helps us to always be aware that what we read and meditate on is the word of God that comes to us, and we ourselves need to rely on Him so that we can receive the change in our lives according to this word. On the one hand, we have a hunger or a strong desire to achieve the change in our lives according to the word of God. But on the other hand, we are aware of our weaknesses, our lives that are under pressure, trials, and struggles with our own fleshly desires. This step is for us to pray to God, asking for His mercy. We can pray while reading and meditating. We can pray after we meditate or finish everything. The most important thing in prayer is sincerity, which means revealing the truth in our hearts to God. We don't have to pretend, we don't have to try to save face, or use fancy words, but we have to admit it to Him. For example, we still lack understanding about God. We still can't do what He teaches. We are still weak. We lack faith. We still do wrong. We have something to confess. We want to do what He says but we lack the courage to find the truth. We feel guilty. We need a helper. We seek answers from Him, for example. We always find sincere prayers in the Psalms, which express real emotions and feelings before God. It is this sincere prayer that allows us to be cleansed and to live openly before God.

The fourth step is to live obediently. What we should always be aware of when we read the Bible is that we are coming to a tangible life change. This change may not be a forced pressure or a burden that we must change because we fear punishment, but it should come from a basic understanding of God's grace and a response to grace, like a child who understands the grace of his parents and wants to do things that make them happy, proud, and honorable. This change often does not happen automatically, but comes from intention, planning, and changing our way of life. It may mean rejecting ourselves, doing things we do not like, but we do it because we know that it will lead to good results or that it pleases God. Or it may mean that we intentionally do not do things we like to do but do not do them because we know that it will lead to bad results or that it displeases God. Obedience may not be complete. Today we plan to change our lives. Tomorrow we may fail. The day after tomorrow we may forget what we have learned. On the one hand, we may need to find tools to help, such as journaling, finding a mentor to remind us, etc. But on the other hand, let us have freedom in God, rely on Him, and always be ready to develop. Even though we are not perfect, we may have to go through the same lessons and fail over and over again, but let us be sincere and in the process of developing a close relationship with God.

In all of this, we all need God's grace and a close relationship with the Word of God. May God graciously help us to live a life of steady spiritual growth together, leading to blessings together.