IT IS TIME TO GROW UP IN GOD.

WRITTEN BY CHARISSA MROWKA

I’m sick of seeing Christians give their approval and ‘likes’
and celebration to worthlessness and sin. 

It is time to grow up in God. 
It is time to stand with His assessments and judgments. 
It is time to stop calling evil good and good evil.
It is time to stop celebrating unrighteousness.

It deeply grieves my spirit when I see one bearing the name of Christ express their comfort and peace in deciding to live in a lifestyle of sin. 
It grieves me when I see a brother forsake walking by the Spirit and choose to instead gratify the desires of the flesh and submit to its passions.

It further grieves me when I see other brothers and sisters approving of,
celebrating and further empowering these ones to continue to walk in such ways.

Many would say they do so in the name of the love of Christ.

But this kind of agreement does not express the heart, desire and love of Christ,
who, “chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.
In love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ,
according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved.”

Ephesians 1:4-6 ESV

It is in His great love that God draws us unto Himself
and makes us holy and blameless in the Son.

We must refuse to be those who itch the ears of those wanting to walk in unrighteousness.
We must be those who refuse to comfort willful ungodliness in our brothers and sisters.

Instead we must stand guard over one another and wage war to see one another conquer and endure to the end.

“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 

As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

2 Timothy 4:1-5 ESV

We must be those who are sober minded. 
We must not approve of teachings which suit and soothe our brothers in their myths and earthly passions.

The Lord has been speaking to me a lot about the importance of what we give our approval to.
It is not enough to not partake in sin.
We must not even approve of sin.
We must approve what is excellent and praiseworthy only.

“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

Philippians 1:9-11 ESV

We can know the love of God is truly abounding in us when it is
full of knowledge and all discernment, actively approving what is excellent in the eyes of the LORD.

In contrast, we know that we’ve exchanged the truth about God for a lie
when we not only practice unrighteousness, but give our approval to those who practice such things.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”

Romans 1:18-32 ESV

It is not a casual thing to give our approval to sin and falsehood. 
A marker of maturity in Christ is refusal to exchange the glory of God for a lie in any capacity
- whether by belief, thought, statement, action or approval.

How well do we really know the Righteous One if we are so willing to approve unrighteousness?
How well do we really know the Holy One if we are quick to comfort unholiness in those who belong to Christ?
How well do we know the One who is the Truth if we are apathetic towards falsehood flowing through His body?

We belong to the One who has loved righteousness and hated wickedness (Psalm 45:7, Hebrews 1:9).
We belong to the One who is full of grace and truth. 

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

John 1:14 ESV

His glory is full of grace and truth!
(Remember that glory the unrighteous exchanged for a lie in Romans 1?)

His grace is not suspended in his embodiment of truth. 
Rather it is by the glory and richness of truth that grace is extended to us;
and that grace is able to empower us to walk all the more in that truth.

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. 

Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.”

Titus 2:11-15 ESV

Love exhorts and rebukes in all authority. 
Love is jealous for God’s people to be a holy possession for Him, a pure inheritance. 

“For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.”

2 Corinthians 11:2-4 ESV

Love submits to and glories in the truth.

“Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.”

1 Corinthians 13:5-6 ESV

Love doesn’t insist on its own way. 
We live in a generation that boasts in ‘my truth’ and ‘you do you’. 

God’s people cannot ascribe to this rhetoric!
God’s people cannot rejoice in this reality in themselves or in others.

Now, we cannot expect the world to walk in truth and in light when they are still in darkness,
but that doesn’t mean we give approval to the world’s line of thinking. 

But we especially cannot afford to give approval
to this kind of thinking towards those who claim to belong to Christ!

We can not empower Christians to walk in darkness. 
We cannot appease or approve of willful submission to sin in a brother or sister!
Did you know we are instructed not to associate with those who bear
the name of Christ yet blatantly rebel against what the Lord has said?

“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.””

1 Corinthians 5:9-13 ESV

Paul writes this is meant to produce a godly sorrow
that leads to repentance and the salvation of their souls! (1 Corinthians 5:5)

It is loving to rebuke sin, as then there is a chance for them to hear, reach repentance and achieve salvation!
Rather than lying and appeasing sin, which has the result of death, we must rejoice in the truth which leads to everlasting life!

We cannot rejoice in what the world rejoices in.
We cannot rejoice in falsehood nor idolatry nor wickedness.
We must rejoice in what is true and beautiful and excellent!

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

1 John 2:15-17 ESV

Love is perfected as we walk in the truth and keep in step with His commandments!

“And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”

1 John 2:3-6 ESV

Love is in anguish until Christ is formed in us.

“Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? … my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!”

Galatians 4:16, 19 ESV

Love desires for Christ to be fully formed in the body of Christ.
It is not unloving to call the church out of sin.
It is unloving to appease the church in its sin.

Do you not know Christ died to take away sin?
Did you not know His blood washes us from all unrighteousness?

His desire is that we would be sanctified by His Spirit,
washed by the water of His Word and presented blameless to Him on the day of His appearing.

Christ desires a Bride who is equally yoked to Him
- a Bride who has washed her garments in the blood of the Lamb and made herself ready for Him!
(Revelation 7:14, Revelation 19:7)

If you do not let Him wash you, you can have no part in Him (John 13:8).
The truth of His Word washes us and prepares us for Him!

“…Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”

Ephesians 5:25-27 ESV

His love sanctifies, washes, and makes us holy and pure.
This is a cleansing love!
He gave Himself up for us that we might become as clean as Him!

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin,
so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

Jesus will have a Bride that is in full agreement
with His assessments, judgments, decrees and truth when He returns.

Those who refuse to stand in truth will simply not make it to the end. 
If you are offended at Him, and let that offense lead you into disobedience,
you won’t be found standing with Him on that Day.

If He speaks and you harden your heart to His voice and refuse to hear His words and let them cut you,
you will fall away.

“Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.””

Hebrews 3:12-15 ESV

You will shrink back from Him in shame from Him
if you don’t continue in Him!

“And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.”

1 John 2:28-29 ESV

Oh, be tender and responsive to His word when it comes to correct you!
Do not close your ears to His discipline!
Do not scoff at His rebuke!

He disciplines those He loves.
He chastens His own.

And those who are truly legitimate sons will
receive His discipline and respond to His words!

“…he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

Hebrews 12:10-11 ESV

For those in sin,
it may be painful to let the flesh die, to let the desires and dreams of the flesh die.
Following Jesus will cost you your former ways, former thoughts, and former treasures.

For those approving sin,
it may be costly to stand with and agree with the truth.

You may lose friends.
You may lose the approval of many.
You will be hated for His name’s sake.

But isn’t He worth it?
Is He not truly the treasure we sell all else to have?

Isn’t the temporary pain and discomfort of discipline and rejecting our earthly passions
worth it if we get to be conformed into the image of the most Beautiful One?

Do not let the love of the world rule
nor the fear of man rule over you.

Let the fear of the Lord and the love of the Father reign in you.

Don’t become indifferent toward falsehood.
Do not give your approval to sin.
Give your approval to what is excellent,
as your Father in heaven does.

“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared;
but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”

1 John 3:2-10 ESV