“Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you…” (Deuteronomy 6:3)
“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42)
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind…” (Romans 12:2)
“What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.” (2 Timothy 2:2)
“Let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity…” (Hebrews 6:1)
I love how much the people at Second love to hear and study God’s Word. It is a true blessing to preach and teach in that context. But I find myself regularly encouraging us to remember that our Bible studies and Sunday Schools and small groups are not meant primarily for information but for transformation. Certainly, God’s people need biblical knowledge. We cannot love the God we do not know. Yet it is entirely possible to accumulate facts about Christ while remaining largely unchanged by Him. The goal of the Christian life was never simply to know more about Jeus, but in knowing Him more deeply, to become like Him. Underneath every command in Scripture is the same good news: God saves sinners. Everything else - every discipline, every practice, every “ought” - is meant to flow out of that fact, not toward it.
That has always been God’s design for His people. In Deuteronomy 6, Moses does not hand Israel a curriculum to master. He calls them to the Shema (“Hear, O Israel”), not merely a statement that there is one God, but a pledge of undivided allegiance to Him alone. That allegiance was to be loved with all their heart, soul, and might: not partial devotion, but total. And it was to be impressed on their children, diligently and repeatedly until it shaped their conversation when they sat in the house, when they walked the road, when they lay down and when they rose. Moses was not asking for a household with better information about God. He was asking for a gospel groove worn so deep into the rhythms of an ordinary week that a child would eventually trip over it and ask why.
And children and grandchildren do love to ask “why”, don’t they? But are they asking “why” about our faith? Are they seeing in us such a devotion to Jesus in our daily life that it arouses their curiosity? Then that moment gives us the opportunity to respond like Moses encouraged Israel to do; don’t hand them a rulebook, tell them the rescue story of your own life (Deuteronomy 6:20–23). The most durable thing we can pass on to the next generation is not a set of expectations. It is a story of what the Lord has done for undeserving people, retold so often that it becomes the lens through which everything else is seen.
This same pattern continues after Pentecost. The first believers “devoted themselves” to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer (Acts 2:42). Notice that this growth did not happen in isolation. God formed His people together. They gathered around His Word, shared their lives, worshiped, and prayed as one body. We live in a culture that prizes independence and self-expression, but God designed spiritual growth to happen inside covenant community. We need God’s people as much as we need God’s truth. Christ forms us through His body, through the ordinary “one another” commands lived out with people who actually know our name.
At the same time, spiritual formation involves a continual battle for our minds and affections. Paul writes in Romans 12 that we must not be conformed to this world but transformed by the renewing of our minds. Every day the world presses us into its mold, through media, ambition, comparison, fear. We are being formed by something, every day, whether we notice it or not. The question is never whether we are being shaped. The question is who is doing the shaping. God uses His Word, His Spirit, and His people to reshape our thinking, redirect our desires, and conform us increasingly to the image of His Son. This transformation is usually gradual, sometimes almost imperceptible, until one day we notice we love what Christ loves and want what Christ wants.
But personal maturity was never meant to be the finish line. Paul instructed Timothy to entrust what he had received to faithful men who would be able to teach others also (2 Timothy 2:2). In a single verse we see four generations of disciples: Paul to Timothy, Timothy to faithful men, faithful men to others still. Mature believers pour into others, who pour into others, who pour into others. This is why spiritual formation is ultimately about the Kingdom and not merely the self. As Christ forms us, He also sends us. Those who have been taught begin teaching. Those who have been encouraged begin encouraging. Those who have been shepherded begin shepherding.
The writer of Hebrews urges believers to leave spiritual infancy behind and press on toward maturity (Hebrews 6:1). Healthy things grow. Living things mature. There is no such thing as a Christian who is meant to stay exactly where they started.
This is our prayer for the future of Second Presbyterian Church, and it is the same prayer that has shaped how we try to describe a maturing disciple here: a growing devotion to God, rooted in worship and dependence; a growing devotion to God’s people, expressed in love and perseverance within His church; and a growing devotion to God’s Kingdom, lived out in mission and stewardship in the world He loves. These three cannot be separated from one another. You cannot claim devotion to God while having none for His people. You cannot claim love for the church while having no heart for the world beyond it.
Not that we would merely learn more Bible facts. Not that we would simply attend more programs. But that God would increasingly form us into the likeness of Jesus Christ, growing in our devotion to God, deepening our commitment to His people, and advancing His Kingdom by making disciples who make disciples.
For these reasons, we pray:
We pray to be a church of Jesus followers who are being formed into His likeness, growing in our devotion to God, to God’s people, and to God’s Kingdom, and making disciples who do the same.