People sometimes imagine that spiritual growth can happen passively. Some act as if simply keeping a Bible on a nightstand will somehow let its truth seep in overnight, as if understanding could be absorbed through proximity alone. Others hope that sleeping near scripture will eventually produce wisdom without effort. Neither approach actually works.
Genuine engagement with scripture requires action. I believe the first step is reading the text itself; there is no substitute for actually going through the words. Second, we need to meditate on what has been read, asking what the passage is the passage saying to me personally. Third, belief has to follow understanding; it isn’t enough to read words without trusting what they say. Fourth, the teaching must be applied to one’s own life, not used as a measuring stick for someone else’s behaviour. Finally, obedience completes the process; knowing and believing scripture means little without acting on it.
It’s part of our relationship with God. Although I gave five steps, I wrote this as an example, not something to be taken as a cold-cognitive process.
Do you read God’s word daily?
But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not just hearers who deceive themselves.
In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul observes that an unmarried person tends to focus more fully on pleasing the Lord, while a married person inevitably divides attention toward pleasing a spouse. This might suggest singleness is universally the better spiritual path, but that conclusion oversimplifies what Paul actually teaches.
Singleness only proves spiritually advantageous for those who have specifically received the gift and calling for it, since scripture explicitly describes this as a particular gift from God rather than something suited to everyone. Forcing singleness onto someone not designed or gifted for it tends to create significant struggle rather than spiritual benefit, a reality illustrated tragically by the historical consequences of mandatory celibacy imposed within certain church traditions over the centuries.
For those genuinely designed for marriage, marriage represents the healthier and more appropriate path. Paul’s point was never that singleness grants freedom to live independently without accountability, but rather that those equipped with this specific gift can devote undivided attention to gospel work without the competing responsibilities marriage naturally brings.
Yet I wish that all men were even as I myself am. However, each has his own gift from God, one in this way, and another in that.
Let’s consider sin within the Christian life. It’s worth emphasizing how scripture distinguishes between sin’s ultimate consequence for unbelievers and the ongoing experience believers face even after salvation.
While sin’s wages remain death for anyone outside of Christ, those already forgiven through faith continue wrestling against sin’s pull throughout their earthly lives, a struggle that itself testifies to genuine spiritual transformation rather than indicating a lack of salvation.
This recurring biblical theme reassures believers that internal conflict over sin is not evidence of spiritual failure but rather confirmation of authentic new life within them, since only those possessing God’s Spirit experience this particular kind of resistance against wrongdoing. Recognizing this distinction helps believers avoid both unwarranted despair over continued struggle and false confidence rooted in misunderstanding grace.
The hope offered throughout scripture is that this present tension will ultimately resolve completely when believers receive glorified bodies in eternity.
Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
God’s forgiveness brings freedom, and believers are called to enjoy the inheritance He has given them in Christ. The Christian life is meant to be marked by joy rather than a constant appearance of burden and sadness.
Faith is not simply a list of activities or duties. It is the reality of Christ living through His people. Because God has set believers free, they can live with gladness and confidence in Him. A joyful life reflects the work of Jesus within and serves as an example for those who have not yet come to faith.
It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.
You may feel tension when you see the state of the world. Governments pass unjust laws. Authorities act corruptly. Culture drifts further from the values of scripture. And in that tension, a question rises: is it right, even righteous, for Christians to resist, to protest, to engage in acts of civil disobedience?
Paul wrote to the Romans about this. He spoke of the Christian’s relationship to governing authority in all of the New Testament. Paul writes with clarity: be in subjection to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God. He goes further. Whoever resists the authorities, he says, resists what God himself has appointed. That is a statement with weight. It does not simply ask us to tolerate government; it grounds governmental authority in the ordering of God himself.
Paul returns to this theme in his letter to Titus, instructing believers to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable and gentle, showing humility to all people. Notice the posture Paul is describing. It is not passive indifference to injustice. It is an active, costly peaceableness. It is the disposition of someone who remembers what they once were, foolish, disobedient, deceived, driven by various lusts, and who now lives differently because of grace. We were once like those whose conduct we might be tempted to condemn. That memory ought to soften us, even as it emboldens us.
Now, this does not mean that Christians are called to silence. The call to avoid rebellion is not a call to abandon conviction. We may vote. We may stand publicly for what is right. We may uphold morality, speak the truth, and above all, carry the gospel into every corner of society. These are legitimate, honourable means of engaging the world and its systems. What we are not called to be is rebels. We are not called to take up the spirit of the age, which shouts and protests and tears down, and wear it as though it were a Christian garment. It is not. We are a force for peace in a world convulsed by conflict.
The deeper question underneath all of this is one of testimony. What does the watching world see when it looks at the followers of Christ? Do they see people who have been transformed by a grace that makes them peaceable, humble, and gentle, even under pressure? Or do they see people who have simply adopted the tactics of whatever political movement they most favour, dressed in slightly different colours? The apostle’s vision is far more subversive than any protest: a community of people so changed by the gospel that they stand as visible, living evidence that another way of being human is possible.
Let your gentle spirit be known to all people. The Lord is near.
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