ESOCS Devotional 5 May 2025 – Growing Properly in the Family of God
MEMORY VERSE: “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you …” Galatians 4:19
TEXT: GALATIANS 4:19-31
My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you, 20 I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone; for I have doubts about you.
21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. 23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, 24 which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar— 25 for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children— 26 but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. 27 For it is written:
“Rejoice, O barren,
You who do not bear!
Break forth and shout,
You who are not in labor!
For the desolate has many more children
Than she who has a husband.”
28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. 29 But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. 30 Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” 31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.
Read Other ESOCS Devotional Here
In every natural family, the offspring of that family are expected to grow and mature as the years go by. It will be a painful thing to the parents if they observe that any one of the children is not growing, developing and maturing well, as that one’s age requires. The family will not be happy if one of them is being corrupted by external influences contrary to their family’s norms, core values and principles of life. It will seem as if their training efforts were being wasted. So, it is with the family of God. Believers in Christ Jesus are children of God and as members of God’s family are expected to grow spiritually and properly develop and mature in Christ.
God has made provisions for our spiritual growth. He has put in place a system and structure by which souls are brought into the family of God (Matthew 28:19). Also, the souls brought into the family are nurtured unto maturity (Ephesians 4:11-13). The mature soul would in turn go out and bring in other souls. Anyone that wins a soul into the kingdom and leads the soul to maturity is like a spiritual parent (1Corinthians 4:15). He can refer to the soul as his child. That was why Apostle Paul called the Galatian believers in our text “my little children” (v.19). Apostle John said same thing in 1 John 2:1. He travailed like a woman giving birth to a child to bring them into the kingdom and he still travailed to see that Christ is formed in them. Beloved, please note that we don’t bring in souls into the kingdom to make ourselves lord over them. NO. But to make them true disciples of Jesus Christ. Apostle Paul was upset that the Galatians were being corrupted with wrong gospel and doctrines. It meant that their growth was corrupted and not done properly. The travail of Paul here is preaching, teaching, exhortation, reprove, rebuke (physically and through letters) and prayers, so that they would conform to the image of Christ.
The two serious points here are, as a child of God you are both a student of Jesus Christ and a teacher of Jesus Christ to other souls. (a) As a student, are you learning the right doctrine from a faithful teacher like Paul, so that your growth would be proper? (b) And as a teacher, are you teaching the accurate and right doctrine of Christ, are you travailing so that Christ Jesus and nothing else would be formed in your children in the Lord Jesus Christ?
CHALLENGES
- Evaluate!
PRAYER POINT
- Father LORD GOD, help me to grow properly in the accurate doctrine of Christ Jesus by the help and leading of the Holy Spirit, in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
FURTHER READING: Judges 20:18-34; 20:37-48; Galatians 5: 1-13
ESOCS Devotional 5 May 2025
