•9:00 AM
By Tom Smith, Wooddale Church of Christ
2 Peter 3:18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever.
If we say we have grown in our love for our mate, what are we truly saying?
When we grow in love we usually grow to be more like the person we love. When we get to know the person we eventually marry we spend time with them. People don't just meet someone and instantly say, "Let's go get married". When a couple becomes engaged to be married, usually there is a deep commitment to communication. The agenda is to get to know each other even more and frankly during the engagement the desire to spend time together is generally quite intense.
When we date during the engagement period and at other times, often couples sit across from each other. While looking at someone's face we can see the body language of the person. It also shows commitment on our part.
But what does it mean to grow in Grace and Knowledge of our Lord?
We can probably understand what it means to grow in knowledge but growing in Grace?
Grace is defined as: Favor Kindness Friendship (Gen 6:8; 18:3; 19: 19; 2Tim 1:9 ); God's forgiving mercy (Rom.11:6; Eph 2:5) The Gospel as distinguished from the Law (John 1:17; Rom 6: 14; I Peter 5: 12); Christian virtue (II Corinthians 8:7; II Peter 8:7; 3:18).
We are to "put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph.4:22-24). Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; (1 Peter 1:13).
We are to become more like Christ.
To do this we have to know Christ.
To know Him we have to spend time with Him.
When we spend time with the Lord in prayer we are spending quality time with Him and we are seeking that face to face relationship.
When we spend time in His word, the bible, we are digging to learn more about Him and seeking to get to know him.
When we meditate on Him and what we have learned about Him we are visualizing mentally and forming the reality in our heart and mind of our relationship with Him.
As we pray, study and mediate on what we have read we grow in our grace and knowledge of Him. We are changed by truth and if adversity or temptation has brought us to our knees or to the word then we can say we are transformed by truth, and the renewing of our minds (Rom.12:2).
As we become more like HIM we will show forth more of His love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, balance, and self-control.
HE is the source.
He is our strength and our hope.
Growing in Grace and Knowledge come as a team.
The more we learn about HIM the more like HIM we will become.
When we put on Jesus Christ in baptism (Gal. 3:27) we begin an awesome journey to grow in ways we've never known before.
To become more like Him.
