Why is Growth in Godliness Important?

Growth in godliness is the only sure sign of spiritual life.

  • Moving spiritual experiences are no sure signs of spiritual life.
    • "Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, 'Lord, open up to us!'  Then He will answer and say to you, 'I do not know where you are from.'  Then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets'; and He will say, 'I tell you, I do not know where you are from; depart from Me, all you evildoers'" (Luke 13:25-26).
    • For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.  For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned (Heb 6:4-8).
    • It is possible for a person to receive a certain amount of spiritual light without coming all the way out of the darkness.  It is possible for a person to have experienced the power of the Holy Spirit in the assembly of believers and yet not be savingly indwelled by Him.  It is possible to taste the word of God and the heavenly gift and the powers of the coming age, but not swallow and digest them. And it is possible for the same person to have experienced all these things simultaneously, and yet not be truly converted or saved.
    • We know that such people were never saved to begin with because of how the author of Hebrews illustrates his point in vv7-8.  It is only the fruit borne in vv7-8 - not the other signs in vv4-6 - that determines the worthiness or worthlessness of the ground that bears it.  If the ground bears vegetation, it is blessed ground.  If the ground bears thorns and thistles, it might as well be cursed, and it ends up being burned.