It’s a sad truth that many churches are full of people who have professed saving faith in Christ, attended and served faithfully for twenty to thirty-plus years, taught Sunday school, and read their Bibles, but have not been transformed at all. They’ve gained experience in doing Christian things but haven’t actually grown as a Christian. They’ve mistaken experience for growth.

Peter instructs Christians to “Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1:5–8, emphasis added).

In God’s economy, it is the Christian who is constantly growing, not constantly doing who is the most effective. It reminds me of a quote from James Clear in his book Atomic Habits: “Too often, we assume we are getting better simply because we are gaining experience. In reality, we are merely reinforcing our current habits—not improving them.”

We have the capacity to do the same thing spiritually. We think we are growing in the Lord by going to church, attending Bible studies, and reading the Bible. But how many of us have been doing these things for years without any meaningful growth or discernible improvement in our virtues or walk with the Lord?

A NEED FOR APPLICATION

It’s not enough to ask yourself, Do I believe in the Gospel? You must also ask yourself, Am I living in step with the Gospel? Christianity requires not only an assent to the truth of the Gospel but also an application of it to our lives. Our hearts, minds, and lives must be changed. And this changing isn’t a one-time event.

Yes, the Gospel is something “which you received and in which you stand.” It’s the foundation our Christian life rests upon, but it’s also the means “by which you are being saved” (1 Cor. 15:1). In other words, the Gospel is continually at work in our lives, building upon the foundation that is laid.

I’m afraid too many believers have fallen into the same trap as the Pharisees: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:39–40).

Christ affirms to us that you won’t find life by merely reading, studying, or memorizing the Bible any more than you’ll find treasure by merely reading, studying, or memorizing a map. You must actually travel the route the map reveals to you before you end up at its destination. Likewise, we must study the Scriptures with the intention of finding what (or more accurately who) they are pointing to—Jesus.

This should make us wary of determining our maturity by how much knowledge of Scripture we have. There is no life found in Bible memory, knowledge, or trivia. If your knowledge of the Bible doesn’t act as a stepping stone to help you land on the worship, adoration, and reverence of Christ, then you’ve only become more self-righteous, not more holy.

David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock make this same observation in their book Faith for Exiles:

Sometimes we mistake being on the path—say, attending church—for making active progress as a disciple. But many young people (and older adults, for that matter) are dutiful churchgoers while remaining spiritually inert.