Are You Growing as a Christian? | Jude 20-21

If you have been following Jesus for any length of time, here is an important question to ask yourself:

Am I growing?

Not simply, Am I going to church? Am I reading my Bible? Do I know more Scripture than I used to? 

But is my relationship with Jesus actually changing me?

Are there sins that once controlled you that no longer have the same grip? Are you quicker to repent? Are you learning to trust God when life gets difficult? Is your prayer life becoming deeper? Are you becoming more patient, more loving, and more obedient to Christ?

Spiritual growth doesn't happen overnight, and none of us have arrived. But the Christian life was never meant to stand still.

That's why Jude gives believers this simple but important command:

There is something important in Jude’s words that we can easily overlook: we have a responsibility for our own spiritual growth.

God has graciously given us pastors, teachers, leaders, and other believers to encourage us, teach us, and help disciple us. We need the body of Christ, and God uses His church tremendously in our lives. But ultimately, no one else can walk with Jesus for you. A pastor cannot read your Bible for you. A teacher cannot have your prayer life for you. A church service cannot substitute for personally knowing, seeking, and walking with Christ.

Jude tells believers to be “building yourselves up on your most holy faith.” There is an intentionality to those words. Following Jesus isn't passive. We aren't called to simply believe in Christ and then remain spiritually where we started.

God has called us to keep growing.

Think of your faith like a building. Before anything can be built, there must be a foundation.

Thankfully, we aren't responsible for creating that foundation. It has already been laid for us in Jesus Christ. Our faith rests upon the truth of the gospel: God sent His Son, Jesus lived the sinless life we could never live, died in our place to pay the penalty for our sins, and rose victoriously from the grave.

Jesus is the foundation.

Our responsibility is to build upon Him.

Peter gives us a similar picture:

Notice the word “add.”

There should be progress in the Christian life. We keep learning God's Word. We obey what He shows us. We grow in self-control. We persevere through difficulty. We learn to love others more faithfully. As we walk with Jesus, our lives should increasingly look like His.

The Christian life isn't meant to remain where it began.

Peter uses another simple picture in 1 Peter 2:2. He tells believers to desire the pure milk of God's Word like newborn babies so that they may “grow thereby.”

There is nothing wrong with a baby drinking milk. A baby needs milk! In the same way, a new believer needs the foundational truths of Scripture. But imagine if years passed and that baby never grew. We would immediately know something was wrong.

The same should be true spiritually.

God doesn't expect us to know everything overnight, and spiritual maturity doesn't happen instantly. But over time, there should be growth.

Sometimes that growth is dramatic. Often, however, it happens little by little.

Something that once caused you to stumble doesn't have the same power over you anymore. You're beginning to trust God through trials instead of immediately giving in to fear. You're learning to forgive more quickly. Your prayer life is becoming deeper. You're recognizing temptation sooner. You're becoming more patient, loving, and willing to serve others.

You may not notice the growth from one day to the next, but when you look back, you should be able to see evidence that God has been changing you.

The Bible calls this process sanctification—God changing us and making us more like Jesus.

But sanctification doesn't mean we sit back and do nothing while we wait for God to change us. As God speaks through His Word, we obey. When the Holy Spirit convicts us, we respond. When God reveals an area of sin, we repent. When He shows us something that needs to change, we surrender it to Him.

Paul describes this beautifully in Philippians 2:12–13:

Notice the balance.

We don't work for our salvation. Jesus accomplished that work for us on the cross.

We work out what God is already working within us.

God is changing us, strengthening us, convicting us, teaching us, and empowering us through His Spirit. Our response is to walk with Him in obedience.

It's easy to measure our Christian life by church attendance, how long we've been saved, how much Bible knowledge we have, or how involved we are in ministry. Those things can be good, but there is a more personal question we need to ask:

Am I growing?

• Am I closer to Jesus than I was before?
• Is God's Word changing the way I live?
• Am I becoming quicker to obey and quicker to repent?
• Am I growing in prayer?
• Do I love people more faithfully?
• Are there areas of my life where I can clearly see God making me more like Jesus?

We shouldn't become discouraged because we haven't arrived yet. None of us have. But neither should we become comfortable remaining spiritually where we have always been.

Jude's encouragement is simple: keep building.

• Keep opening God's Word.
• Keep praying.
• Keep obeying.
• Keep repenting.
• Keep pursuing Jesus.

The foundation has already been laid. Jesus Christ has accomplished the work of salvation.

Now, beloved, keep building upon Him.