1 Thessalonians 4:10

1 Thessalonians 4:10

Christian Growth.

I. In what are we to increase? There is little or no advantage in the increase of some things. It but increases our danger, and, adding to our cares, lays weightier burdens on the back of life. More riches will certainly not make us happier; and perhaps, paradoxical as it may sound, they may not even make us richer. Nor is the increase even of wisdom, though a higher and nobler pursuit, without its own drawbacks. It is harder to work with the brain than with the hands; to hammer out thoughts than iron. It is not increase of these things at which the text calls us to aim; but of such riches as makes it less difficult, and more easy, to get to heaven; of the wisdom that humbles rather than puffs up its possessor. It is the increase of those spiritual endowments which are catalogued by St. Paul as being the fruits of the Spirit.

II. How are we to increase in these? (1) We are to increase equally. All our graces are to be cultivated to the neglect of none of them. If one side of a tree grows, and the other does not, the tree acquires a crooked form, is a misshapen thing. Analogous in its results to this is the unequal growth of Christian graces. The finest specimen of a Christian is he, in whom all the graces, like the strings of an angel's harp, are in most perfect harmony. (2) We are to increase constantly. Slow and silent growth is a thing which you can neither see nor hear; while the higher a believer rises, his ascent becomes not more difficult, but more easy, he never reaches a point where progress ceases. Begun on earth, it is continued in heaven; the field that lies before us, stretching beyond the grave, and above the stars, illimitable as space, and endless as eternity. (3) We are to make efforts to grow. While all our hopes of salvation centre in the cross of Christ, and all our hopes of progress hang on the promised aid of the Holy Spirit, let us exert ourselves to the utmost, reaching forth to higher attainments, and aiming at daily increase in every holy and Christian habit.

T. Guthrie, The Way to Life,p. 264.