5 Principles for Christian Growth — J.C. Ryle

J.C. Ryle,

J.C. Ryle (1816-1900)

The words of James must never be forgotten: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). This is no doubt as true of growth in grace, as it is of everything else. It is the “gift of God.” But still it must always be kept in mind that God is pleased to work by means. God has ordained means as well as ends. He that would grow in grace must use the means of growth.

This is a point, I fear, which is too much overlooked by believers. Many admire growth in grace in others and wish that they themselves were like them. But they seem to suppose that those who grow are what they are by some special gift or grant from God and that, as this gift is not bestowed on themselves, they must be content to sit still. This is a grievous delusion and one against which I desire to testify with all my might. I wish it to be distinctly understood that growth in grace is bound up with the use of means within the reach of all believers and that, as a general rule, growing souls are what they are because they use these means.

Let me ask the special attention of my readers while I try to set forth in order the means of growth. Cast away forever the vain thought that if a believer does not grow in grace it is not his fault. Settle it in your mind that a believer, a man quickened by the Spirit, is not a mere dead creature, but a being of mighty capacities and responsibilities. Let the words of Solomon sink down into your heart: “The soul of the diligent shall be made fat” (Prov. 13:4).

a. One thing essential to growth in grace is diligence in the use of private means of grace. By these I understand such means as a man must use by himself alone, and no one can use for him. I include under this head private prayer, private reading of the Scriptures, and private meditation and self–examination. The man who does not take pains about these three things must never expect to grow. Here are the roots of true Christianity. Wrong here, a man is wrong all the way through! Here is the whole reason why many professing Christians never seem to get on. They are careless and slovenly about their private prayers. They read their Bibles but little and with very little heartiness of spirit. They give themselves no time for self–inquiry and quiet thought about the state of their souls.

It is useless to conceal from ourselves that the age we live in is full of peculiar dangers. It is an age of great activity and of much hurry, bustle and excitement in religion. Many are “running to and fro,” no doubt, and “knowledge is increased” (Dan. 12:4). Thousands are ready enough for public meetings, sermon hearing, or anything else in which there is “sensation.” Few appear to remember the absolute necessity of making time to “commune with our own hearts, and be still” (Ps. 4:4). But without this, there is seldom any deep spiritual prosperity. Let us remember this point! Private religion must receive our first attention, if we wish our souls to grow.

b. Another thing which is essential to growth in grace is carefulness in the use of public means of grace. By these I understand such means as a man has within his reach as a member of Christ’s visible church. Under this head I include the ordinances of regular Sunday worship, the uniting with God’s people in common prayer and praise, the preaching of the Word, and the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. I firmly believe that the manner in which these public means of grace are used has much to say to the prosperity of a believer’s soul. It is easy to use them in a cold and heartless way. The very familiarity of them is apt to make us careless. The regular return of the same voice, and the same kind of words, and the same ceremonies, is likely to make us sleepy and callous and unfeeling. Here is a snare into which too many professing Christians fall. If we would grow, we must be on our guard here. Here is a matter in which the Spirit is often grieved and saints take great damage. Let us strive to use the old prayers, and sing the old hymns, and kneel at the old communion rail, and hear the old truths preached, with as much freshness and appetite as in the year we first believed. It is a sign of bad health when a person loses relish for his food; and it is a sign of spiritual decline when we lose our appetite for means of grace. Whatever we do about public means, let us always do it “with our might” (Eccl. 9:10). This is the way to grow!

c. Another thing essential to growth in grace is watchfulness over our conduct in the little matters of everyday life. Our tempers, our tongues, the discharge of our several relations of life, our employment of time—each and all must be vigilantly attended to if we wish our souls to prosper. Life is made up of days, and days of hours, and the little things of every hour are never so little as to be beneath the care of a Christian. When a tree begins to decay at root or heart, the mischief is first seen at the extreme end of the little branches. “He that despises little things,” says an uninspired writer, “shall fall by little and little.” That witness is true. Let others despise us, if they like, and call us precise and over careful. Let us patiently hold on our way, remembering that “we serve a precise God,” that our Lord’s example is to be copied in the least things as well as the greatest, and that we must “take up our cross daily” and hourly, rather than sin. We must aim to have a Christianity which, like the sap of a tree, runs through every twig and leaf of our character, and sanctifies all. This is one way to grow!

d. Another thing which is essential to growth in grace is caution about the company we keep and the friendships we form. Nothing perhaps affects man’s character more than the company he keeps. We catch the ways and tone of those we live and talk with, and unhappily get harm far more easily than good. Disease is infectious, but health is not. Now if a professing Christian deliberately chooses to be intimate with those who are not friends of God and who cling to the world, his soul is sure to take harm. It is hard enough to serve Christ under any circumstances in such a world as this. But it is doubly hard to do it if we are friends of the thoughtless and ungodly. Mistakes in friendship or marriage engagements are the whole reason why some have entirely ceased to grow. “Evil communications corrupt good manners.” “The friendship of the world is enmity with God” (1 Cor. 15:33; James 4:4). Let us seek friends who will stir us up about our prayers, our Bible reading, and our employment of time, about our souls, our salvation, and a world to come. Who can tell the good that a friend’s word in season may do, or the harm that it may stop? This is one way to grow.

e. There is one more thing which is absolutely essential to growth in grace, and that is regular and habitual communion with the Lord Jesus. In saying this, let no one suppose for a minute that I am referring to the Lord’s Supper. I mean nothing of the kind. I mean that daily habit of communion between the believer and his Savior, which can only be carried on by faith, prayer and meditation. It is a habit, I fear, of which many believers know little. A man may be a believer and have his feet on the rock, and yet live far below his privileges. It is possible to have “union” with Christ, and yet to have little if any “communion” with Him. But, for all that, there is such a thing.

The names and offices of Christ, as laid down in Scripture, appear to me to show unmistakably that this communion between the saint and his Savior is not a mere fancy, but a real true thing. Between the Bridegroom and His bride, between the Head and His members, between the Physician and His patients, between the Advocate and His clients, between the Shepherd and His sheep, between the Master and His scholars, there is evidently implied a habit of familiar communion, of daily application for things needed, of daily pouring out and unburdening our hearts and minds. Such a habit of dealing with Christ is clearly something more than a vague general trust in the work that Christ did for sinners. It is getting close to Him and laying hold on Him with confidence, as a loving, personal Friend. This is what I mean by communion.

Now I believe that no man will ever grow in grace who does not know something experimentally of the habit of communion. We must not be content with a general orthodox knowledge that Christ is the Mediator between God and man, and that justification is by faith and not by works, and that we put our trust in Christ. We must go further than this. We must seek to have personal intimacy with the Lord Jesus and to deal with Him as a man deals with a loving friend. We must realize what it is to turn to Him first in every need, to talk to Him about every difficulty, to consult Him about every step, to spread before Him all our sorrows, to get Him to share in all our joys, to do all as in His sight, and to go through every day leaning on and looking to Him. This is the way that Paul lived “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God.” “To me to live is Christ” (Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:21). It is ignorance of this way of living that makes so many see no beauty in the book of Canticles. But it is the man who lives in this way, who keeps up constant communion with Christ—this is the man, I say emphatically, whose soul will grow.

- J.C. Ryle (1816-1900)
taken from: Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots.

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The Primary Means of Christian Growth — A.W. Pink

“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” — John 17:17

Pink,

Arthur W. Pink (1886-1952)

It was not the sanctification of the apostles’ persons that Christ prayed for, nor the sanctification of their nature, but rather of their walk. As to their persons, God had set them apart in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4); as to their nature, that had been sanctified when (at the new birth) a principle of holiness had been communicated to them; and neither the one nor the other admitted of any improvement. Now in connection with the sanctification of the walk–a term which includes much more than outward conduct–the Word is the great means employed by God, working effectually with and by it on the hearts of His people. By the Scriptures the Spirit continues to enlighten the understanding, convict the conscience, inflame the affections, and move the will. By them He conveys to us a fuller and clearer knowledge of the amazing grace of God and love of Christ toward us, and how it becomes us to act in return. Not that our hearts then become more sanctified, but they are more influenced by Divine things and exercised before God.

Many and varied are the Scriptures which treat of this particular branch of our subject: the place which the written Word has in the practical sanctification of the believer. From them we select the following: “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever” (Psa. 19:7-9). “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to Thy Word” (Psa. 119:9). “If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free” (John 8:31, 32). “Now ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you” (John 15:3). “I commend you to God, and to the Word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified” (Acts 20:32). “Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word” (Eph. 5:25, 26). “Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:1, 2). But let us enter more into detail and show wherein the believer is sanctified by the Truth.

First, by imparting to us a knowledge of God’s will. That which He requires of us can be ascertained in no other way than through an acquaintance with the teachings of Holy Writ. It is for that reason God has given to us His Word: to set before us His standard of conduct, to make known to us what He hates and what He loves, to expose the sophistries of Satan and the vanities of the world–in short, to provide us with a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. “To the Law and to the Testimony: if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isa. 8:20). The believer is sanctified experimentally just to the extent that he is brought under the illuminating and commanding influences of the Word of Truth. Personal holiness is our conformity to its requirements. Practical holiness is separation and abstention from evil, and association with and performance of that which is good; and only from the Scriptures can we fully discover what is evil and what is good.

From what has just been pointed out, it necessarily follows that all human rules and regulations for godly living are worthless, and the Christian must steadfastly refuse to be brought into bondage by them. Men have devised a great variety of prohibitions and observances in which they suppose holiness to consist, and by attending to the same have appeared to themselves and to others to have attained a very high degree of sanctity. The Pharisees were guilty of this, adding to the commandments of God their own traditions, such as the ceremonial washing of their hands and vessels in order to avoid moral defilement. Roman Catholics have followed in the same track, by inducing many of their deluded victims to retire entirely from the world to the “holy” solitude of monasteries and convents, binding themselves to devote most of their time to the repetition of prayers and other “sacred” exercises.

There has always been an element in Protestantism–those temperamentally disposed toward asceticism and mysticism–who have pursued this same will o’ the wisp. Supposing that the same would produce a greater deliverance from sin and secure a closer walking with God, they have submitted themselves to frequent fastings and other penances, taking upon them vows of poverty and celibacy, depriving themselves of the ordinary comforts and innocent recreations of life, and having sought to exist on the sparsest possible diet…But as the Holy Spirit tells us in Colossians 2:20-23 these ordinances of “touch not, taste not, handle not” are but “the commandments and doctrines of men, which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body,” but, as it is added, “not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.”

The aesthetical austerities advocated in varying degrees by Keswick and other “Victorious Life” platforms, are little better than those of the poor Roman Catholics, and we may say of the one what Luther said of the other, “they are nothing else than spiritual sorceries.” How thankful should we be, then, that God Himself has placed in our hands a perfect and complete revelation of His will, an unerring standard by which we may measure all the plausible theorizings of “nice” and “good” men!

As we cannot serve God by doing what He has not commanded and still less by doing what He has forbidden (bringing ourselves into bondage to modern Pharisees-A.W.P.) so it is presumptuous to expect God’s blessing upon means which, being introduced as supplementary to His ordinances, very plainly import that in this respect man is wiser than He is (John Dick).

We have dwelt longer upon our first division because we were most anxious the reader should clearly perceive that the written Word is the chief means used by God in the practical sanctification of His people, for it–and it alone–imparts to us a knowledge of His will, discovering the things to be shunned and revealing the things which are to be followed. Just so far as we, in our quest after piety, substitute for the teachings of Holy Writ the sophistical reasonings and dictatorial edicts of men, shall we forsake the substance and vainly pursue the shadows. On the other hand, just so far as we abstain from what God has forbidden and perform what He has enjoined, are we really treading the Highway of Holiness. How it behooves us, then, to test our views and ideas by the Word of Truth!

Second, by its influential considerations. The Word of Truth not only defines our duties, but it also presents many considerations which are calculated to work powerfully upon our affections and wills. The Scriptures do more than set before us bare precepts–they exhibit them in all the loveliness of example, in the history of saints, and particularly in the life of Jesus Christ. Moreover, the precepts are accompanied by encouraging promises (2 Cor. 7:1)–the value of which is realized only so far as we are conscious of our weakness. When called upon to “purify our hearts” (James 4:8), we are ready to exclaim, “How is it possible for me to cleanse myself from the pollutions of indwelling sin?” In this state of despondency the Scriptures afford relief by assuring of supernatural grace: James 1:5; 4:6; 2 Corinthians 12:9. When bidden to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, we are informed “for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12, 13).

Third, by strengthening faith, for the Word is its appointed food: “nourished up in the words of faith and good doctrine” (1 Tim. 4:6). There are many of God’s dear children who long after and pray for an increase of their faith, but it is idle to do so while they continue to neglect the means provided for its nourishment. Trust in God will only be developed by feeding on His Word: “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart” (Jer. 15:16). When the Devil challenged the faith of Christ, He set His people an abiding example by replying, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). Faith is strengthened by clearer apprehensions of the Truth. Hope brightens at the glorious prospect of life and immortality which the Gospel displays. Love grows warmer as the love of God is better known. All the graces of the Christian thrive under the beneficent influences of the Truth.

Fourth, by making us better acquainted with Christ. The more our minds are opened to take in the Truth concerning the Person and work of the Redeemer, the more is the soul perfumed therewith, and the more are its faculties influenced thereby. A deeper experimental knowledge of Christ enables us to rest upon Him more simply for the whole of our salvation. It is through the Truth that we become more firmly persuaded of the Father’s love to us in His Son, whereby is “the heart established in grace” (Heb. 13:9). As our first believing of the Gospel had a most powerful effect upon the heart, so our continued apprehensions of other portions of the Truth produce beneficial results in the soul. It is because we shall have a perfect knowledge of Christ in Heaven that there we shall be perfectly holy.

Fifth, by its sacred awe upon the soul. “For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner (critic) of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). There is a pungency to the Holy Scriptures possessed by no other writings; often the wicked are conscious of this, and therefore refuse to read them. But far more are the regenerate aware of it: to them their utterances are the voice of God Himself, and they “tremble at His Word” (Isa. 66:2). Its denunciations of sin, the exposure of its infinite enormity, the announcement of its eternal punishment, the exhibition which the Scriptures give of the Son of God dying upon the Cross in order to make an atonement for it, cause the believer to walk more and more softly before God. While the character of God as revealed in His Word–His majesty, His power, His holiness, His wrath–exerts both a restraining and constraining influence upon its readers.

It is this very quality of the Scriptures–to sanctify–which supplies the Christian with the surest witness of their Divine origin. “When ye received the Word of God . . . . which effectually worketh also in you that believe” (1 Thess. 2:13). Ah, it is not “the testimony of the Church” nor the witness of Christians, but a personal acquaintance with their sanctifying power which conveys certainty to the soul. It is well to heed the testimony of the Lord’s people first, just as we take a medicine on the recommendation of others who have found it helpful; but we must not rest there. “For our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance” (1 Thess. 1:5): this is what supplies convincing proof–as it was with the Samaritans who came to Christ because of the testimony of the woman at the well, saying to her, “Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard Him ourselves” (John 4:42).

Alas, the great majority in Christendom receive the Scriptures on no better ground that the Muslims believe the Koran–because it is the tradition of their fathers. O labour, my reader, for something better than that, and “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15). In order for that the Scriptures must be read, searched, studied, meditated upon; and, above all, received by faith. Note how “through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the Truth” (2 Thess. 2:13) are linked together. The Truth has no power on us further than it is believed by us. The Word worketh not without an act on our part, as well as God’s. Solemn is that warning, “The Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it” (Heb. 4:2). Where faith is active the precepts awe and the promises cheer. When tempted to evil, faith says, Shall I thus requite Christ for dying in my stead?

It is at this very point that we may perceive the great and vital difference which exists between social respectability and real piety or practical sanctification. The one is produced by moral education, according to natural principles, without any spiritual knowledge or heart desire to please God. Many are upright, truthful, honest in commercial transactions, obedient to civil laws and restrained from outward wickedness, who yet have no true grace. But all real practical sanctification is inclined and regulated by the Scriptures. Only that is personal holiness when we submit and conform ourselves in heart and life to the will of God as it is revealed in His Word. “He that doeth Truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God” (John 3:21): he tests himself by this rule and measures his conduct by this standard.

taken from Arthur W. Pink, Studies in the Scriptures, January 1937.