Open The Word | Fungua Neno

⏱️ 3 minutes.

Hello friends,

Let’s take a moment to grasp some tips on how to diagnose spiritual growth:

“But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern both good and evil.”

Hebrews 5:14

It is very common for us as believers to have certain metrics that we use to gauge spiritual growth. Sometimes we check for the number of times a person goes to church or attends church events. Sometimes we look at how humble a person appears to be to judge how grown they are spiritually. Other times we look at how many verses of the Bible they have memorized to check the state of their spiritual growth.

While all these can be indicators as to someone showing some degree of maturity, the author of Hebrews gives us a simple litmus test to assess a believer’s state of spirituality. The test is: Discernment of both good and evil.

It’s quite evident that the self-proclaimed Christians of today would not point to discernment to assess their spiritual growth. Having been carried away with the rituals of false religion, the church today has altogether tossed out this measurement device for spiritual growth, opting instead for pursuits of false promises of the health and wealth gospel, mysticism, and all forms of legalism.

The author of Hebrews says solid food is for the mature. This implies that there are some deep spiritual truths that cannot be well handled by those who aren’t yet mature. The mature have had their senses trained to discern both good and evil.

The character of a spiritually mature believer is that they can tell truth from falsehood; they can clearly tell what is from God and what is not from God.

These are ones who are mature and can then handle the solid food that the immature cannot handle.

“I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you have known Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”

1 John 2:12-14

Here are some questions to ask yourself to test if you’re spiritually mature:

• Do you believe there’s absolute truth?
• Can you discern what is evil and what is good?
• Do you find yourself conflating good and evil, finding excuses to call evil good and good evil? (Isaiah 5:20)
• Can you discern between truth and error? Are you comfortable accepting what is true even when it means moving out of your comfort zone in order to follow what is true?
• Do you call out error when you see it in order to stand for truth?

Let’s use this metric to assess our spiritual health, and through prayer and meditation on God’s word continue to strive for spiritual growth in our lives.

Blessings, Paul.