Articles
Growing Like Jesus
We may or may not be familiar with the story of the young Jesus; most of what we know is about His adult life and, in particular, the last three years of His earthly life. What little we do know about His youth speaks of His birth and the time immediately following that, and then the occasion when He and His family went to Jerusalem when He was 12 years old.
In Luke’s account, when Jesus was still an infant, His parents brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (Luke 2:21, 22), and after they were done, “they returned to Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth,” and it is then said, “And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him” (Luke 2:39, 40).
The next thing Luke records is that time when Jesus was 12 years old and His family is again in Jerusalem. This time, Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem when His parents began their return to Nazareth; when they realized He was not with them, they went back to Jerusalem to look for Him and found Him “in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions” (Luke 2:41-46). Eventually, they all returned home together and it is again said of Jesus that He “increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:51, 52). These statements may seem almost incidental to the story of Jesus, but they are there for a reason; the reason is, we need to be like Jesus!
As Christians, we of course strive to be like Him in every way. The apostle Paul reminds us he established within the church certain ones such as “apostles,…prophets,…evangelists, and…pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,” with the goal of coming “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children,” but that all disciples might “grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ” (Eph. 4:11-15). It is expected, and disciples are admonished, to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18) and that we are to “not be children in understanding…but in understanding be mature” (1 Cor. 14:20).
Clearly, disciples are expected to grow and mature spiritually, so would it not be best if we grew like Jesus grew? I do not argue that we can ever reach the same level of knowledge and wisdom of our Lord, but we most certainly can follow His pattern in this and grow and mature as much as possible! In fact, I believe God’s word tells us [as noted above] that is exactly what we should be doing. Consider:
Growing Strong. The original text does not include the words “in spirit,” as some translations read, so the phrase that follows [“increasing in wisdom”] is the qualifier. Albert Barnes noted this simply means Jesus grew “In mind, intellect, [and] understanding.” [Barnes’ Notes] As disciples of Jesus, this should be our goal, too; we should be ever striving to become wiser every day, but not in just anything. We should be seeking to become wiser in the ways of God, rather than in the ways of the world. It is that very goal behind the words of Peter when he wrote, “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby” (1 Pet. 2:2). Jesus became stronger in this, and we fall short of His example when we are not striving to become strong in God’s wisdom.
Spiritual maturity requires a growing knowledge of God’s ways, but it also requires a growing degree of wisdom — the application of the knowledge we gain. This is not something that comes with the mere passage of time and us getting physically older; we have to want to grow. Those who do not will remain “babes in Christ” (1 Cor. 3:1) and prime targets of our spiritual adversary (1 Pet. 5:8). This means we must seek to have our “senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb. 5:14) and become spiritually mature enough to make wise choices and to recognize and defeat temptations. Wisdom is needed to know how to prepare to stand against temptations and know “the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13). That means having the wisdom to also acknowledge whatever temptations may come to us are because of our “own desires” (Jas. 1:14), and then prepare accordingly. When it comes to our spiritual growth, let us grow like Jesus!
Growing in Favor. Let us note, first, that when Luke wrote that Jesus was increasing “in favor with God,” that does not mean He was ever out of favor with God; in all Jesus said and did, He was pleasing to the Father. But that is exactly the point here: Every day and in everything Jesus did, He chose to do and say that which was pleasing to the Father and, because he chose the Father’s will each time, it only increased His favor with Him. Every choice He made was one that brought Him closer and closer to a life of perfection, until it could be said that, in His final act of obedience to the will of the Father, He was “perfected” [He completed the will of the Father] and “became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him” (Heb. 5:8, 9). Throughout His earthly life, the words of the Father would be true: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17).
As His disciples, pleasing the Father should be a daily and choice-by-choice goal. In fact, the apostle Paul said it plainly, “we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him” (2 Cor. 5:9). As disciples, this should be a given for, as Paul also wrote, “if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ” (Gal. 1:10). It is when we would rather please men than God that we fall short of the example we must be, and end up denying our Lord instead of confessing our faith in Him (John 12:42, 43). May we always seek the favor of God over the favor and praise of men!
Yes, Jesus also grew in favor “with men,” but that doesn’t mean He sometimes chose the worldly things just to win favor with certain ones. This simply means Jesus so lived that others would recognize a godly life being lived by Him, with no cause for any accusation of wrongdoing, but rather a cause for praise.
It is when we disciples “abstain from fleshly lusts” and have “conduct honorable among” those of the world that others might “glorify God” (1 Pet. 2:11, 12). For this reason, let us do our utmost to ensure we grow like Jesus! — Steven Harper
