Here’s a recap of Sunday’s sermon for those of you were not present and others who want a review. It was the first in a four part series titled “GROWTH.” You can also listen to or watch the sermon on the church’s web site, app, and Facebook page.

Text: I Peter 2:1-2

Physical growth and change happen automatically as years pass, but spiritual growth doesn’t work the same way. How much we grow in our relationship with Jesus has very little to do with how long we’ve been a Christian. So if it not primarily a product of time, what does it take for us to grow? Here are some keys to growth:

1. We need to intentionally cooperate with God

God tells us to do specific things. In v.1 we are to take off (like taking off clothes) certain behaviors. In v.2 we are to study God’s word. Both are important to growth, but only happen if we do what God tells Us. We have to obey Him or cooperate with His instructions for growth if we are going to grow.

2. We need to hunger for God’s Word – the Bible

In v.2 we’re told to long for God’s word like infants crave milk so we can “grow in respect to salvation.” Regular Bible study is essential to growth.

Here’s a word of caution. Bible study by itself does not produce growth. We have to cooperate with God by doing what He tells us in order to grow. That is especially true in our relationships and how we deal with people.

3. We need to treat people the right way

Verses 1 and 2 are one sentence. To read verse 2 in isolation from verse 1 is to miss its full meaning. Growth requires us to not only long for God’s word (v.2) but also to put off the behaviors in verse 1. Those behaviors all involve how we treat people. The best measurement of true growth is this: are we getting better at how we treat others. Are we treating them as Jesus would?

4. Growth happens best in a relational environment

Verse 1 begins with the word “therefore”, which points back to the last paragraph in chapter one (I Peter 1:22-25). There we’re told that our obedience to “the truth” (God’s word) means we are to have “sincere love” for other believers. It is to be fervent and come from the heart. In verses 23-25 God’s word is contrasted with everything else in this world – it is eternal while the things of this world perish. It is that “endless” word that was preached to us when we believed. “Therefore” the text continues, telling us to take off the behaviors that hurt people and end relationships while simultaneously longing for God’s word. They go together like a hand and glove.

Remember Jesus’ words: “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

To truly grow in Christ-likeness, we must be willing to work through the mess that often comes with relationships. It is only in relationships that we learn to forgive, be patient, sacrifice, serve, and love. Isolating ourselves by withdrawing from Sunday School classes, small groups, ministry teams, etc stunts our growth.

I ended the message by looking at an episode from Peter’s life described in Galatians 2:11-13. Having a Jewish background, Peter had to overcome some of the baggage from his past. Like all of the first disciples who had a Jewish background, accepting that the gospel was for Gentiles was not easy. Accepting that those Gentiles did not have to be circumcised before becoming Christians was even more difficult. Devout Jews were afraid of becoming religiously defiled if they ate with Gentiles, so they avoided this possibility with what became a legalistic attitude.

In Galatians 2 Paul tells us that Peter was eating with the believers in Antioch, a church that included both Gentile and Jewish followers of Jesus. This is the church that sponsored Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey to the Gentiles in the regions that made up what we today call the nation of Turkey. All was fine until some Christians from Jerusalem showed up. These believers had a Jewish background and had not overcome their cultural and past religious baggage. They created a controversy over any Jewish Christian eating with Gentile Christians. It got so bad that Peter withdrew from the Gentile believers. The church was facing a split. Peter blew it. He was wrong and Paul confronted him.

Peter knew he was wrong. A few years before this God had revealed to Peter that Gentiles could be saved and the Jewish food laws no longer mattered. See the story in Acts 10. But in our current story Peter is too worried about what the believers from Jerusalem will think of him and gives in to their pressure – even though he knew they were wrong.

Because of the controversy, representatives from Antioch traveled to Jerusalem where a church conference was held. During this critical meeting Peter stood up and spoke clearly for the truth. He reminded them of his experience years earlier (Acts 10) and supported the idea that the gospel was for everyone and that Gentiles did not have to be circumcised or obey Jewish food laws. The church formally and publicly agreed.

The time Peter got it wrong in Galatians 2 occured between two times when he got it right: Cornelius in Acts 10 and the Jerusalem Conference in Acts 15. While he messed up, he eventually got it right. He grew!

A key lesson for us in Peter’s journey is this: growth is fluid. There will be some bumps along the way, times when we lapse. But the pattern is upward – not flat and not downward (see the graph below). Yet growth does require us to overcome certain aspects of our past. It also requires that we be teachable.

Peter’s growth happened because he was willing to work through the mess that came with being in relationship with others. He did not isolate himself. Only as he dealt with Cornelius (Acts 10), Paul, the Gentile Christians of Antioch, and the Jewish Christians who held onto their biases did he grow.

One sign of Peter’s growth is the letter he wrote – we call that letter I Peter in our New Testaments. He wrote it to the believers in modern Turkey – believers who were part of the churches started by Paul on his first missionary journey – and the churches those churches then started. These were believers who would have considered the Apostle Paul their spiritual father. But Paul had likely been executed as a martyr for the faith about three years before Peter wrote this letter. They were being persecuted and no doubt were grieved by Paul’s death. But here is Peter – encouraging them. He really had grown. He really had changed. He did it by obeying God’s word and treating other believers the way God told him to treat them. That is how we GROW!

Pastor Steve Hogg