John 1:14 (NASB) 14And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
II Peter 3:14-18 (NASB) 14Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, 15and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, 16as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. 17You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, 18but 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.
We are a people who seem to be obsessed with growth and development, assuming that that road to happiness is a march ever onward and upward to a better life. So when we talk about Christian growth it is easy to picture growth as our becoming a better and better person, or as climbing a ladder of goodness that reaches closer and closer to heaven. Unfortunately, most of us know that is not necessarily so. A Christian is someone who has committed their life to Jesus Christ and whose goal in life is to be like Jesus. Theologically, Christian growth is called sanctification, a good word, but its meaning is obscured by language changes in recent years.
In Scripture, growth is often pictured as a journey. The first words that Jesus said to the disciples were follow me. Peter did that. It is hard to say that he became a better person, but he was different. He had changed because he had accepted the invitation to follow Jesus. Growth is every step we take in that direction, noting the importance of having a direction to our life.
I’m not sure we can always know when we’re on the right track. Obviously, no halo is going to grow over our head. But there are some inward signs and outward markers along the way that help us to know that we are still moving in the right direction. Grace is an inner awareness that we are living in harmony with the life of Jesus. Grow in grace, Peter says, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Knowledge can mean an intimate sharing of our life with another person, but here it seems to mean learning about someone. Before there can be a sharing of life there has to be a time of learning about Jesus. Growth takes perseverance. We receive experiences of God’s grace that encourage us but sometimes those experiences are in short supply. So Peter warns us beware…lest you be carried away and lose your steadfastness. Steadfast means we stay with it and we continue daily and regularly. I know of nothing that makes it easy, yet I know of nothing that pays so rich a dividend for our life.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 31, 1993
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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