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Introduction Guiding the believer in Jesus Christ to spiritual maturity is strongly on the minds of the writers of the New Testament. Peter writes that believers like newborns should, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. (1 Peter 2:2-3, ESV) Paul is concerned about spiritual maturity when he writes to the church at Corinth, that he could not address [them] as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. (1 Corinthians 3, ESV) He admonishes them with an imagery they can understand, that is that he needs to feed them with milk, when they should long be eating solid food, yet they are not mature enough to desire it. In looking at two passages penned by Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that speak to spiritual formation, Romans 12:1-2 and Ephesians 4-17:20, believers can detect patterns that help them to grow spiritually. Having trusted Christ for their salvation, they have now arrived at a point where the concern is practical application of what they have learned about God. How does God want His people to live? Paul cautions the churches at Rome and Ephesus to let go of the desires to follow the world around them and instead to fully engage with God. Believers today gain much from looking at those that have gone before them to fight the spiritual battle of being fully devoted followers of Christ. Romans 12:1-2 Turning first to the passage in Pauls letter to the Roman church, the shift from teaching about the life-giving salvation through Christ to Christian living that needs to follow suit is obvious. One commentator calls Romans 12:1-2 the practical section of the book of Romans that marks the transition from the theology of Gods redemptive act in Christ Jesus to the ethical expectations that flow logically from that theological base. (Mounce 2001, 230) Paul segues from a long theological treatise, starting with a world that has fallen and blatantly ignores God in 1

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chapter 1 through a reiteration and expansion of what he writes about in chapter 6, the need for believers to present themselves as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification (Romans 6:19, ESV), to a section that gives practical instruction for Christian living. According to one theological dictionary, the Greek term implies the establishment of a positive relationship between two factors. (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, 1964, 455) Hence, spiritual maturity, in Pauls mind, has to do with continuous improvement of the one-toone relationship between God and one of His children. This is not something that happens automatically at conversion, and Paul is pleading with his audience to seek sanctification by yielding to God. To help them in this pursuit, Paul outlines a way of living that shows both God and the observing world around him or her that the believer is seeking and desiring Gods guidance for his or her life. In very practical terms, Paul speaks to the need to leave behind the things of the world and to fully pursue a life in tune with God, thus enabling the believer to discern the perfect will of God. Paul does not stay in vague territory in the twelfth chapter of Romans, but rather line by line provides real, tangible here is how you do it instructions of godly living to the church in Rome. Boa and Kruidenier write in their introduction to Pauls epistle that if the church is going to partner with him in spreading the gospel to Spain, they must know the heart of the gospel and the heart of the apostle to the Gentiles. (Boa and Kruidenier 2000, 41) Yet even more so Paul desires for the church at Rome, which he did not found nor had visited at the time of the writing of the letter, that they would live a God-pleasing life which would serve as a witness to those around them who do not yet know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Ephesians 4:17-20 Writing to the church in Ephesus, Paul expands on the ethical bankruptcy of contemporary paganism (Bruce 1984, 355) he describes in the first chapter of Romans. Ephesus 2

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was a city in deep moral decay. From a house of prostitution in the center of the town to gambling facilities, Ephesus was a city in a state of great depravity. Archaeological finds show fertility motifs that feature "exaggerated sexual features of the Diana statues." (Elwell and Beitzel 1988, 710) Paul most likely wrote this letter while imprisoned at Rome, so he is building on what he already expounded when he wrote to the church at Rome earlier. (Hughes and J. 2001, 588) Paul warns the Ephesian church about emulating the behaviors of the pagan world they see around them. In particular, he cautions them against the hardening of the heart if they follow the thoughts and deeds of the pagans around them who expose themselves to the lustful behaviors of the worshipers of Artemis at Ephesus. Paul desires that the Ephesian church would be discerning and develop an intimate relationship with God. Yet living in Ephesus meant daily exposure to the lust, sensuality and impurity involved in the worship of Artemis. The Greek term Paul uses for sensuality can be translated lasciviousness, license, debauchery, sexual excess, absence of restraint, insatiable desire for pleasure. (Zodhiates 2000) Paul forcefully makes the point that an absence of restraint is not appropriate for a follower of Christ. It can express itself in sexual excess or debauchery or a number of possibly more palatable expressions of worldly behavior. More importantly, not only is the yielding to the desires of the world unfitting for a follower of Christ, but it directly impacts him or her as the callousness towards sin magnifies with increased exposure to it. While Paul makes clear in other passages that he himself is struggling with the temptations of sin, e.g. in Romans 7:21-25, he asserts that giving into sin is not acceptable behavior for a redeemed child of God. Paul uses a Greek term for learning that means to gain knowledge or skill by instruction or learn from someone as teacher. (Arndt, Danker, and Bauer 2000, 615) He does

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not leave his readers without a direct referent to this statement it is no other teacher but Christ Himself. The Roman church had already been instructed by Paul when he wrote to them Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (Romans 7:24-25, ESV) For the Ephesian church, much like for the church at Rome, the advice Paul provides is to keep their eyes on Christ, their Lord, and to emulate His behavior to grow in godliness. To help his brothers and sisters in Ephesus, much like in his epistle to the church at Rome, Paul follows this warning with a clear and concise list of practical Christian living examples. None of these are Pauls original ideas, but rather they stem from what he himself was taught directly by Jesus. Paul shares these not as suggestions, but as concrete instructions on how a Christian lives to give glory to God not just in secret, but in outward living that draws those who do not know the Lord yet. Conclusion Pauls concern for a life that is yielded to God is strongly shown in the two passages reviewed. In writing to both the church in Rome and the one in Ephesus, Paul demonstrates the complete disconnect of lives lived in a worldly manner and those attuned to God. The immediate danger a believer finds himself or herself in when he or she continues to pursue worldly pleasures is made plain when Paul speaks of a growing callousness. It is not that the believer is suddenly no longer under the influence of the world, but rather he or she must chose daily to follow Christ and to put away the old self and put on the new. Allowing sin into ones life allows for the forming of a callousness towards it, and thus it must not be permitted to enter the believers life. Living a godly life is the way that Paul acknowledges as the means of going from

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the infancy of faith to one that exhibits growing maturity and sanctification in the life of a believer.

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REFERENCES Arndt, William, Frederick W. Danker, and Walter Bauer. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. Boa, Kenneth, and William Kruidenier. Vol. 6. Romans, Holman New Testament Commentary; Holman Reference. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000. Bruce, F. F. The Epistles to the Colossians. to Philemon, and to the Ephesians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1984. Elwell, Walter A., and Barry J. Beitzel. Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1988. Hughes, Robert B., and J. The Tyndale Reference Library. Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001. Mounce, Robert H. Logos Library System; The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. electronic. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964. Zodhiates, Spiros. The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament. Electronic ed. Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2000. . The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament. Electronic ed. Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2000.