In the last verse of the last chapter of the last book the apostle Peter ever wrote, he gave us some valuable instruction.  He said, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18 NIV). What did Peter mean about growing in grace and the knowledge of Jesus?

A sermon by famed preacher C. H. Spurgeon helped me understand what Peter was telling us. First, Spurgeon says, “Do not suppose that persons grow in grace according to their years. Some grow faster in grace in five minutes than others do in fifty years.”[1] He learned this from his own experience. “I have sometimes grown more in grace, in one hour,” said Spurgeon, “than I have at other seasons in a week, a month, or a year.”[2]

Second, Spurgeon says that growth in grace is intimately connected with growth in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We may always test whether we are growing by this question—Do I know more of Christ today than I did yesterday? Do I live nearer to Christ today than I did a little while ago? For increase in the knowledge of Christ is the evidence as well as the cause of true growth in grace.[3]

May God grant to you, dear friends, to grow in the knowledge of Christ! Read the Scriptures more. Ask God the Holy Spirit to give you a fresh sight of Calvary;… live with Jesus, and near to Him; and … you shall each one of you grow unto the stature of…Christ Jesus.”[4] [end quote]

Two simple directives: grow in grace, and grow in the knowledge of Jesus, and your life will be transformed. You can start that growth today!

 

[1] https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/growth-in-grace/#flipbook/ , accessed 9-17-20, p. 3

[2] Ibid., accessed 9-17-20.

[3] Ibid., accessed 9-17-20, p. 5.

[4] Ibid., accessed 9-17-10, p. 8.