For the past five years, God has spoken repeatedly to my heart about what it means to grow in spiritual maturity. The Bible deals with the development of spiritual maturity and points out that we can and should take steps to grow. The problem is many of us have a different idea of spiritual maturity than what the Bible presents. It’s important to have the correct picture of who God is and who He is calling us to become.
When I began my evangelistic ministry nearly twenty years ago, preaching in churches across the nation, I had somehow gotten the wrong idea of what spiritual maturity looks like.
I had mistakenly confused spiritual maturity for an intense and aggressive pursuit of faith. There’s nothing wrong with fasting, prayer, and witnessing—those are great things—but there’s more to spiritual maturity than those disciplines. The Scriptures are clear that spiritual maturity concerns the evidence of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives (see Galatians 5:22-23). We know we are growing in Christ when we are growing in our love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, and self-control.
Love, joy, and peace don’t come naturally.
Love, joy, kindness, gentleness, and patience are not our natural bent.
- We do not naturally want to be kind when we are frustrated by the political opinions of others that we read online.
- We do not naturally want to be gentle when we feel people have the wrong opinions about the world.
- We do not naturally want to be loving when people have hurt us.
- We do not naturally want to be joyful when our world faces difficult times.
But God by His Spirit works this fruit in us, even when life’s circumstances doen’t make sense. The essence of the fruit of the Spirit releases an otherworldly fragrance that draws people to the truth of who we are in God.
God wants us to have both truth and love.
Truth and love are two of the great themes of the Bible, and I like to think of them as the two legs of the Christian—without them we won’t get very far.
God’s truth changes our lives. If we move away from the truth of God’s Word, we move away from the power to save. It’s like trying to watch TV with the power cord unplugged. Without God’s truth, there’s no power to change our lives.
Many Christians, though not all, understand they are to live by the truth. They receive God’s Word as the final authority for their lives by practice. They know that the truth of God’s Word is powerful.
But God’s Word also distinguishes our need for love as well as truth. The Bible tells us often to love, show compassion, walk in kindness and peace, and even to “Let all that you do be done with love” (1 Corinthians 16:14, NKJV).
In order to grow in spiritual maturity and have a Christian walk that impacts others around us, we need to have both truth and love.
In fact, I’ve begun to see that it’s this otherworldly love God gives us that draws people to the truth.
We can grow in love by reading the Bible to get a clearer understanding of God’s love for us and for the whole world. We can also pray and ask God to fill our hearts with His love so we can know it more deeply. Romans 5:5 tells us about this: “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
Many Christians know about God’s love, but they’ve yet to understand that it’s available to experience on a deeper level. This is sometimes referred to as the “eighteen-inch gap”—the distance from the head to the heart. In other words, it’s one thing to gain head knowledge by attending church or reading the Bible, but it’s another thing entirely to experience God’s love in a real way that affects our hearts.
Experiencing God and receiving His love in a deeper way changes everything in our lives.
The more we truly experience the love of God in our own hearts, the more love we have to give to others around us—in our families, in our friendships, in our workplaces, and in our communities.
It will be our love that will draw people to the truth we have in Jesus. Then we can share with them His truth that has changed our lives and filled us with His love.
Matt Brown
Matt Brown is an evangelist, author of Truth Plus Love: The Jesus Way to Influence, host of Think Eternity with Matt Brown, and founder of Think Eternity—a ministry dedicated to amplifying the gospel every day through podcasts, devotionals, videos, live events, and more. Matt and his wife Michelle have three children and live near Minneapolis, Minnesota. You can follow Matt at @evangelistmatt and thinke.org.
18 replies on “Walking in Love Helps Us Share God’s Truth”
Amen and Hallelu’YAH! We needto not only read Scripture but also show love to all in Jesus Mighty Name. We need to try and act like Jesus.
When I read John chapter 14, it’s where I find the very Truth, that is Jesus. He is the image of the invisible God. Trusting in Him bears all the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
Thanks you for sharing and blessings blessings me with a deeper sense of what love really looks and feels like.
Great insight on God’s love and Good explanation about Spiritual Maturity. When we really don’t love God we can’t show love to others.
Jesus is all about love. We need to love each other regardless of race, or sexual preference. The Bible doesn’t teach us to judge. The Bible teaches us to love the way Jesus loves us.
Keep praying that God will soften their heart through his son Jesus and the Holy Spirit and wait patiently. Pray for their success and that only good will come to them through Christ. It will not happen according to your timeline but it will happen if your prayers are sincere toward God’s Glory. Direct your prayers not toward what you want but toward His will for you and your friend.
I believe in the almighty but one question I want to know. When you name a mistake or asked for the individual to forgive you who are supposed to be a Christian and they don’t forgive you but more so stop talking to you. How do you deal with that knowing I’m trying to correct my mistakes or be a better person.
That is such a tough one Marvin. I am sorry that you are in conflict with someone you clearly do not want to in with. Here is my truth as I have learned it from my experiences. When our actions cause someone else pain, anger, sadness, duress, etc., and that emotion is so great they can’t find a way to move past it. Well then this is where we have to take count of the outcome our action produced. More importantly, love the individual through their own trespasses onto you, because if you humbly hear (in detail if need be, depends on how much you truly want to make amends) and acknowledge their feelings, the result can be amazing. If they still want to maintain that distance, then we have no other choice but to accept that for the time being, continue to correct our mistakes and genuinely be a better person!
Thanks for the bread of Life.Inspired me a lot.
I really needed this today thank you
Great article. Short, brief and to the point.
Thank you,
Eric Nelson
I was totally inspired by this reading ..I want to continue growing in LOVE and Truth by praying and trusting God to continue walking with me in this goal…
Amen, when we experience the love of God first hand, it’s no longer about what we heard about what God’s love can do, but it’s personal experience of his love which is a great testimony that impacts others .
Thanks for this great , life guiding and inspiring article.
Amen!
Thank you for sharing the Gospel.
God being Love, He sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth and the Life…the only passport to Himself(Love)!
I feel more encouraged to have such great inspiration. I am exciting to continue receiving the the useful Walking in Love.
God bless this ministry’s objectives.
I feel so much more inspired by the comments. All I want is to grow in the eyes of our Lord Father, I trust in Him forever & always! Thank you Lord for growing inside of my heart <3 <3 <3
This is amazing as I read about Gods love in how the Holy Spirit helps us to walk and his love. We need to know the love of God in our hearts and experience it and a powerful way in then we can share his love with other and a deeper way Amen.