Spiritual growth and love

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As our faith in God grows, our love for humanity is supposed to follow suit. It is a false claim to say that you are growing up spiritually or that your faith in God is growing, but your love for humanity is not growing. It is not supposed to be so. The two factors are supposed to go hand in hand. Faith and the growth of faith are supposed to be evident in our love for humanity. If our growth in faith isn't seen in our love for humanity, it means that that growth is false.

Spiritual growth is supposed to transform us to be more and more like Jesus; as Christians, we ought to be more and more like Jesus. If we are not becoming more and more like Jesus, it simply means that we are not growing properly. Proper spiritual growth is supposed to make us more like Jesus.

And if we think about Jesus Christ, we'll see that he expressed great love for humanity. So, if you're growing in the Spirit, which implies that you're becoming more and more like Jesus, you're also supposed to love humanity the way he does.

According to the Bible, we ought to love one another just as Christ loved us. So, if we are growing in the Spirit, we have to obey his commandments. And his command is that we love in the same way that he loves.

One of the greatest attributes of love is tolerance. You must be able to bear the weaknesses of others and be less judgmental. Christ's love will make you more strict and more disciplined within yourself while also making you more accepting of others. You'll tolerate other people's differences. You will be conservative on the inside while appearing liberal to others. Jesus ate with criminals and adulterers without being one of them. In most cases, when people claim to be spiritually growing, they become more judgmental and discriminatory. The discrimination is supposed to be against wrongdoing. You're supposed to be strict with your actions. There are some things you should not do. But you're not supposed to discriminate against other people who aren't at your level of growth. That's why God corrects our mistakes but yet loves us.

If you want to win people over genuinely, it won't be through force. Love and influence will do the work. But how can you influence people when you alienate yourself from them? You only influence people when you have a relationship with them.

That's why in Christianity, God gave us a relationship through Jesus; through the relationship, we can relate to him. And based on our interactions, he can influence us to cause some changes in us.

But by the time you alienate yourself from others, discriminate against people, and refuse to associate with anyone who doesn't dress like you, look like you, or talk like you, you have no way of influencing them. So they're going to remain the same.

Hence, love tolerates; it bears the burdens of others. Tolerance is a great quality of love. Without that quality, you do not yet have love. If you're in love, you're going to have the character trait of tolerance.

When people become discriminatory in the name of spiritual growth, it shows that what is growing is not their faith in God but their faith in themselves. Because when your confidence is in yourself, you will look down on other people. But when your confidence is in the grace that God gave through his son Jesus, you will be more tolerant towards others because you will understand that, despite your efforts, it's only God's grace that can sustain you. In that case, you will not have cause to boast. You will have nothing to boast of but everything to be grateful for.

A grateful heart does not judge; a grateful heart does not discriminate or segregate. A grateful heart is going to accept and nurture others.
Conclusively, if we are truly growing in the spirit, it will reflect in our relationships with others. We will become less judgmental, and what will come is more love for others, because that's how our Lord is.