Paul challenges the Church of Ephesus,“ Until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ”( Ephesians 4:13, NIV). Ephesus was a city of idolatry and immorality. Paul’ s letter to them is powerful, as he was concerned with the progression of the people in the Ephesian church. Paul uses the words mature, measure and fullness to emphasize progression. Desire, devotion and determination are the backdrop of any relationship that is going to develop and progress. With this in mind, let us look at what I call Five Levels of Relationship with Christ.
The beginning level or phase of our relationship with the Lord is called being a believer. It is not about what we can do. Our good works are not good enough( Ephesians 2:8-9) and our righteousness is dirty( Isaiah 64:6). Jesus did all the work by sacrificing His righteous life for us. We must do the believing!
Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ is glorious, life-changing, and wonderful, but that is not the end-all. Believing is good, but the demons also believe in God and tremble( James 2:19). If a Christian only remained in the believing phase of relationship with Christ, he too will tremble, that is, only see one facet of God –– a judge for his rebellion and sin. We must progress in our relationship with the Lord to know Him in all of His many facets. We must move on to a new level of relationship with Christ, called disciple.
As we desire to progress from believer to disciple, there must be a strong desire to get to know God through His Word. Jesus is the Word of God. In any relationship, words are important. If you desire to grow it will take more than a few words spoken once in a while. There must be a constant flow of communication for that relationship to have the potential to blossom. Jesus said in John 8:31( KJV),“ If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed.” There must be a continual, constant interaction with the Word of God to become true disciples of Christ. A disciple is one who is disciplined; one who takes the time to get into God’ s Word and lets God’ s Word get into him( or her). Failure to discipline your life in the Word of God will stagnate you and slow down the progression of your relationship with Jesus. As we develop and grow from believers to disciples, the next phase of a deeper relationship with Christ is called a convert.
There is a beautiful story of an intimate dialogue between Jesus and His friend,
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