Section 5 Summation

This section has dealt with the very important concept of how to honestly judge ourselves and to gauge how we have been growing spiritually. We see in the same way God does not give vague commands that cannot be understood He also does not leave us without a means of knowing how we are doing in His sight.

God always provides a means of checking on a regular basis in order we can honestly gauge how we have been doing our Christian life. The first way God has given us to tell how we are doing spiritually has to do with our nature, are we still carnally minded or are we becoming spiritually minded. The easiest way to tell how we are doing spiritually deals with the control we have over our emotions. Are we controlled by our emotions or do we control our emotions? If we are controlled by our emotions, then we are still carnally minded. If we loose our temper easily and say things we are sorry for later, we are being controlled by our emotions. While being controlled by our emotions is not ever good spiritually at least in the beginning of our Christian life, we understand it takes a while to change our nature and our habits, but when years have gone by and we are still controlled by our emotions, it is intolerable in the eyes of God and should be in our own eyes, when a Christian is still a spiritual baby throwing what amounts to temper tantrums.

A carnally minded person is one who is controlled by their physical nature, they are emotion centered. They are still controlled by their emotions and they still react emotionally and quickly without stopping and looking for the way of escape God makes available with every temptation.

We also noticed one of the ways to tell if we have been growing properly is to examine our lives and check to see which type of fruits we have in our lives. If we are growing spiritually then certain spiritual fruits or characteristics will be present and easily seen in our lives. If we do not possess these fruits, then we are not growing as we should be. We need to quit lying to ourselves and repent and change our ways.

Are we gentle, easy to be entreated and humble or are we hard to talk to, rough with people, and arrogant. The answer to this question tells us much about where we stand in our Christian life. If we are spiritually minded, if we have been growing in the way God would have us to grow, then we have the fruits (characteristics) of the spirit. If we are carnally minded, that is emotion centered, then we are still spiritual babies and we need to turn our lives around and start growing in the way God wants us to.

Another way God has given us to judge our lives in regard to where we stand in our process of Christian growth deals with the knowledge and skill one has acquired in the course of their Christian Life. To sum it up, if a Christian has not studied and grown to the point they can understand and teach certain basic topics then they are still spiritual babies. While this is to be expected for a period of time after one has obeyed the gospel, God expects every Christian to grow to the point they are not still spiritual babies within a reasonable period of time. In my opinion, any normal Christian should be able to grow to this point within one to two years.

The list of the first principles is given in Hebrews 6:1-3 as Repentance from Dead Works, Faith towards God, Doctrine of Baptisms, Laying on of Hands, Resurrection of the Dead, and Eternal Judgment. While these doctrines are stated explicitly, this list would also include any other topic that is necessary to understand the explicate list.

The last thing I want to notice that God has given for us to tell how we are growing as Christians is if we have found our place in the Church and how we are fulfilling our function in the spiritual body the Church.

How well we perform our function in the Church is especially important when we realize the interdependency that exists between each member. As a matter of fact, if one member does not fulfill their part other members suffer and may not be able to perform their spiritual work and it could even lead to the spiritual death of other members. And as we noticed in the example of the watchman in Ezekiel, God will hold each of us accountable for the death of anyone who dies because we do not fulfill our work. This is even more important regarding a spiritual death than a physical one, since physical death is only temporary while spiritual death can be eternal.