John 15:1–11 teaches that to grow like Christ, we must abide in Christ. As we depend on him, his words shape our desires, prayers, and obedience, and he invites us to share his joy—a joy grounded in his love for us even when growth is slow and life is hard.

Romans 8:28–30 teaches that God is making us like Jesus, and he will finish what he started. God’s ultimate purpose is not merely to save us from sin and condemnation, but to conform us to the image of his Son. He works all things together for our good, even suffering and disappointment, to accomplish that purpose. And because our salvation rests on God’s unbreakable promise, we can be certain that one day we will be fully and finally like Christ—not because we got ourselves there, but because God did.

2 Corinthians 3:18 teaches that we become like Christ as we behold Christ. God removes the veil of sin so we can see his glory in Jesus, and as we continually behold him, the Spirit transforms us into his image from one degree of glory to another. We mature not by trying harder to change ourselves, but by fixing our eyes on the crucified and risen Savior who saves us and sanctifies us.

Hebrews 5:11–6:2 warns us that it is possible to grow older as a Christian without actually growing up in Christ. God calls us to pursue maturity, developing a deeper appetite for his truth, learning to feed ourselves and others, and having our lives increasingly shaped by his Word. Yet we mature not by graduating from the gospel, but by building our lives more deeply upon Christ, whose perfect obedience and saving work assure us that we are already fully loved by God.

John 13:31–35 teaches us that the distinguishing mark of a follower of Jesus is love for one another—a love expressed through costly attention, service, forbearance, and forgiveness. As we experience how deeply Jesus has loved us, especially through the cross, we are empowered to love others so that the world might recognize that we belong to him.

Hebrews 11:32–12:2 gives hope to weak and weary people whose hearts are prone to wander. Because Jesus is the founder and perfecter of our faith, we can lay aside every weight and sin, run with endurance, and fix our eyes on him who will bring us to the end.

Judges 20–21 teaches us that rejecting God’s rule does not make us free to rule ourselves, but leaves us under the enslaving reign of sin. In a world where we want the freedom to determine what is right in our own eyes, Jesus Christ came as the true and better King who gave his life to set us free from sin’s rule, so that we might discover true freedom by bending the knee to him.

Prone to Wander XXII: When People Become Objects (Judges 19:1-30)