Deeper Reflection
In making disciples of Christ, we must labour for their growth towards spiritual maturity, that is, Christlikeness. Our purpose in disciplemaking is to “present everyone mature in Christ” (Col 1:28). Reproducing spiritually mature disciples can be described as reproducing disciples of “a certain kind”. As Reverend Edmund Chan explains, “A certain kind is a Christ-mastered kind with depth in grace, growth and godliness, who seeks God’s empowering to fulfil God’s will in God’s timing, for God’s glory.”Christ-mastered disciples fully follow the Lord Jesus Christ by denying themselves and taking up their cross daily (v.23). They willingly subordinate their own will to the Lord’s will. To live like that is supernatural! The work of the Holy Spirit is indispensable to developing a Christlike character and living in a Christlike manner. The Apostle Paul understood this and taught the Galatian Christians to “walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Gal 5:16). If we submit ourselves to the leading of the Spirit and appropriate the desires of the Spirit, He will produce in us “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:22-23).If we do not walk by the Spirit, we will naturally do the things that our flesh craves to do, so as to gratify the desires of our flesh. Such desires and passions include “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies” (Gal 5:19-21). Those who practise such things show that they are not followers of Jesus and therefore do not belong to Him and His Kingdom (Gal 5:24).