The Danger of Growth

1 Thessalonians 3:12

And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:

Growth is a strange thing; we all seek growth in everything we do because we know dying result from not growing. However, there is also a danger in growth. Notice Paul wanted the Lord to make these people increase. This agrees with 1 Corinthians 3:7 where it teaches, So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. God is the God of increase. At the end of the day, in the Christian life, God is the only one to give increase. Increase in church attendance is because of God. Increase in ministry influence is because of God. Increase in finances is because of God. We must never get beyond this mindset that all increase in the Christian life is because of God.

However, there is a great danger once increase comes. Notice Paul said, And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another…. As you increase, you will see more personality conflicts because of growth. God gives increase or growth, but He does so because we work to get it. As you work together with others, you will find friction between good people in the ministry. The danger of growth is that the friction divides good people.

Let me illustrate by using my ministry. The church I pastor has seen tremendous growth, but with tremendous growth, I have had to deal with an increase in personality conflicts. Now, I am not saying that there is division in our church; there are simply conflicts between people as we grow because of responsibilities crossing every once in a while. One of my jobs is to keep everyone in their own area so we can continue to see the Lord’s blessing on our church. Every one of us wants our church to increase, but with the increase, we must beware of the conflict. Now, we are given an admonition on how to avoid this danger of increase.

First, abound in love one toward another. Love gives and does not expect anything in return. So, the best way to keep from having conflicts with each other is to abound in love toward them. In other words, let God’s love flow through you to others. Instead of having a me mindset, you would be wise to have an others mindset for the sake of increase in the Lord’s work. No work continues to increase with people who have a “me” mindset. The best way to allow love to abound toward others is to pray for them. I have found I will have fewer conflicts with those I pray for. You can invest your love in others by praying for them. That means you must get to know them so you can know how to pray for them. When you find out their needs, you pray for them because that is how to allow your love to abound toward them. When both sides pray for each other, our love abounds one toward another, which keeps increase from dividing us.

Second abound in love toward all men. God is teaching the importance of keeping your focus on reaching the lost. The increase of attendance can cause us to lose focus on reaching the lost, resulting in us turning our energies to fighting one another. Keeping a focus on soul winning helps us to keep from turning our energies against each other. However, if we are to abound toward all men, that means we need to increase our soul winning ministries. Don't back up, but increase your reaching of the lost, and that will help to keep growth from causing conflict with each other.