From - Into - By Means Of

There is no mystery to growing spiritually. Spiritual growth follows a simple pattern: from – into – by means of. We move from an old way, into a new way, by means of a catalyst. 

We find this pattern described in the book of Ephesians: “You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24). Using the imagery of changing clothes, the writer spoke of putting away or taking off our former way of life – from – and putting on (“clothe yourselves”) the new self – into.

Growing spiritually involves moving from an old way of thinking and living – your former way of life, vs. 22. This old way of thinking and living was how the world trained us to think and live. It was patterned after the ways of the world and lives out of the self-indulgent, what’s-in-it-for-me spirit that permeates human interactions. Growing spiritually involves putting away this old way of thinking and living.

Growing spiritually moves us into a new way of thinking and living. We put on a new self. This new self is shaped by the Spirit, patterned after the character of God and the ways of God. It reflects the servant spirit of Jesus.

The catalyst to this change is being “renewed in the spirit of your minds,” vs 23. Putting off and putting on, moving from and moving into happens by means of learning to think differently. The Spirit guides our thinking, teaching us God’s wisdom (1 Corinthians 2:7-13). We learn to think with the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). We are “transformed by the renewing of your minds” (Romans 12:2)

The Spirit orchestrates these experiences of spiritual growth. “All of us … are being transformed … from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit,” 2 Corinthians 3:18. But these growth experiences require our active cooperation with what the Spirit is doing. Progress requires us to consciously choose to embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.

We can derail these experiences of spiritual transformation at two different points.

The first critical point is when the Spirit seeks to teach us a new spiritual truth. A characteristic of our human nature is that we cling to that which is familiar and comfortable, resisting that which is new and different and unfamiliar. We use what we already think to judge any new concept. If it aligns with what we already think, we accept it as true. If it challenges what we believe, we reject it. What the Spirit seeks to teach us challenges how we think and live. We naturally resist it and the change it requires.

The way we overcome this innate resistance is by embracing a teachable spirit that is willing to think, examine, and explore the “new” with which we are confronted rather than automatically rejecting it. If it is authentic spiritual truth, the Spirit will confirm it as aligning with the character of God and the spirit of Christ. That authentication calls us to embrace the new way of thinking as our own.

Embracing the new, Spirit-guided way of thinking brings us to second critical point in the process. As we embrace the spiritual truth the Spirit has taught us, the attitudes of our heart – which govern how we treat others - are revealed. We are then faced with the choice of turning loose of our old attitudes, allowing the new understanding to shape our lives, or stubbornly clinging to them and remaining unchanged.

We see these two challenges in Peter’s experience recorded in Acts 10. The Spirit taught Peter that he was not to call unclean what God had made clean (Acts 10:15, 28). Rather than immediately rejecting this new way of thinking - one that challenged what his religious culture had taught him - he was willing to explore it. The new understanding then challenged Peter’s attitude toward the Gentiles. It called him to change how he viewed the Gentiles (Acts 10:34-35) and how he treated them (Acts 10:44-48). The new, Spirit-guided way of thinking led to embracing a different attitude – a cleansing of the heart. The transformed mind led to a cleansed heart. The transformed mind and cleansed heart resulted in a change in how Peter related to the Gentiles.

Peter moved from an old way of thinking about and treating Gentiles into a new way of thinking and relating to them by means of a new, Spirit-taught way of thinking. He put off a part of his old self - an attitude that his religious culture had taught him - and put on that which reflected the ways of Jesus.

This Spirit-designed, Spirit-orchestrated pattern is the means by which our lives are transformed into the likeness of Christ. And it begins with the renewing of the mind – learning to think under the guidance of the Spirit, with the wisdom of God, and the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:7-16).