“He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
(Philippians 1:6)
One day in May, 2002, Ralph (a fictional character) became a disciple of Jesus Christ. Sometime after, Suzanne (also fictional) committed her life to following Jesus. Over the years there have been major milestones or life events and circumstances that have caused an increase in their growth toward Christlikeness or some that caused a setback. Naturally, this could be true of any believer on any given day rather than over a number of years. The span over time is simply used to illustrate a point.
A believer who knew Ralph and Suzanne before their life in Christ and up to their first year or two as believers may reasonably agree their conversion was genuine. The “before and after” change would be apparent. The more like Christ we become, the more change we experience and that change is often evident. While change may not always be visible to others, it is nonetheless real and typically manifests in some observable way. Conversely, had another believer only known Ralph and Suzanne for that period of time in which they seemingly digressed in their journey with Christ (say mid-way between), one may reasonably question the genuineness of their conversion.
More could be said about this model and how it may apply to the Christian life. For now, the implication that I see is more than obvious—namely, that we don’t know how our stories will end. Listening to a song we’ve never heard or a movie we’ve just begun to watch, for example, we don’t know the end will turn out. So too, with another’s spiritual journey. These things be true, would it not make sense to hold our conclusions (positive or negative) about another’s story tentatively? Thank God our stories still being written!
See also my post, “Judge Not?“.