"Grow in the knowledge of our Lord and
Saviour"
"Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ"
(2 Peter 3:18)
“Grow in grace”
- not in one grace only, but in all grace. Grow in that root-grace, faith.
Believe the promises more firmly than you have done. Let faith increase in
fulness, constancy, simplicity. Grow also in love. Ask that yoour love may
become extended, more intense, more practical, influencing every thought, word,
and deed. Grow likewise in humility. Seek to lie very low, and know more of
your own nothingness. As you grow downward in humility, seek also to grow
upward – having nearer approaches to God in prayer and more intimate fellowship
with Jesus. May God the Holy Spirit enable you to “grow in the knowledge of our
Lord and Saviorur”.
He who grow not in the knowledge of Jesus, refuses to
be blessed. To know him is “life eternal”, and to advance in the crowledge of
him is to increase in happiness. He who does not long to know more of Christ,
knows nothing of him yet. Whoever hath sipped this wine will thirst for more,
for although Christ doth satisfy, yet it is such a satisfaction, that the
appetite is not cloyed, but whetted. If you know the love of Jesus – as the
hart pantheth for the water – brooks, so will you pant after deeper draughts of
his love. If you do not desire to know him better, then you love him not, for
love always cries, “Nearer, nearer”.
Absence from Christ is hell; but the presence of Jesus
is heaven. Rest nto then content without an increasing acquaintance with Jesus.
Seek to know more of him in his divine nature, in his human relationship, in
his finished work, in his death, in his resur-rection, in his present glorious
intercession, and in his future royal advent. Abide hard by the Cross, and
search the mystery of his wounds. An increase of love to Jesus, and a more
perfect apprehension of his love to us is one of the best tests of growth in
grace.
C. H. Spurgeon