GROWTH!

The Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart is a fascinating place. Not only is the architecture and layout of the building remarkable, the history of automobiles (from Daimler eyes, of course) can be followed in concrete detail through the eight floors of the Museum. From the humble belt-driven car of the late 1800s to the fancy half-a-million-dollar SLR-class vehicles (the fastest automatic transmission cars in the world: 0–60 in 3.2 seconds) is an evolution that involved technology, anthropology, sociology, and economics.

Daimler AG (Mercedes’s parent company) has come a long way since Karl Benz’s creation of the first car in 1886, to become a $150 billion outfit. Growth!

In the process of this growth, Daimler has made some significant contributions to the automotive industry: first passenger car with brakes on all four wheels (1924); “safety cage” construction with front and rear crumple zones (1951); anti-lock brakes (1978); airbags (1980); pre-tensioners to tighten seat-belts instantaneously in the event of a crash (1981); traction control (1986); 7-speed automatic transmission (2003); etc. Fruitful growth!

To the company’s credit, almost all of the safety features they introduced, Daimler has licensed for use by competitors. Selfless growth!

There’s theology in there, somewhere! Growth, fruitful growth, and selfless growth—the marks of a maturity in a believer in Christ.

Growth in Christlikeness.

… we are to grow up in all aspects
into Him who is the head,
even Christ.
Ephesians 4:15

Growth in fruitfulness.

… so that you will walk
in a manner worthy of the Lord,
to please Him in all respects,
bearing fruit in every good work and
increasing in the knowledge of God.
Colossians 1:10

Growth in selflessness.

... and may the Lord
cause you to increase and
abound in love for one another,
and for all people ….
Now as to the love of the brethren,
you have no need
for anyone to write to you,
for you yourselves are taught by God
to love one another;
for indeed you do practice it
toward all the believers …..
But we urge you … to excel still more.
1 Thessalonians 3:12; 4:9–10

Indeed, the writer to the Hebrews expects—nay, demands—a degree of growth of readers of that epistle, a maturity in discernment that enables them to be teachers who contribute, in turn, to the growth of others.

For though by this time
you ought to be teachers …,
mature, who because of practice
have their senses trained
to discern good and evil.
Hebrews 5:12, 14

Peter agrees. Diligently seek to increase in these cascading characteristics, he urges.

Now for this very reason also,
applying all diligence,
in your faith supply moral excellence,
and in your moral excellence, knowledge,
and in your knowledge, self-control,
and in your self-control, perseverance,
and in your perseverance, godliness,
and in your godliness, brotherly kindness,
and in your brotherly kindness, love.
For if these qualities are yours
and are increasing, they render you
neither useless nor unfruitful in
the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:5–8

And—lest we forget—such growth is not only an individual enterprise, but a collective, corporate engagement …

… until we all attain
to the unity of the faith,
and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
to a mature man,
to the measure of the stature which
belongs to the fullness of Christ.
Ephesians 4:13

May we be constantly growing … together.

… grow in the grace and knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To Him be the glory,
both now and to the day of eternity.
Amen.
2 Peter 3:18

And, “Amen!”