Daily Bible Reading: 2 Peter 3, 1 John 1
Devotional Thought: But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. 2 Peter 3:18
Don’t be led away by the error of the wicked and fall from your stedfastness BUT GROW! I was told many times as a teenager that you will either moving forward or rolling backwards but it is impossible to park on a hill in your Christian life. This verse seems to support that cliche, even thought I have heard many other cliches that are not Biblically sound. This point is also illustrated in looking at fruit removed from the vine. At first is resembles the fruit on the branch but over time it will become apparent it is dying.
As one Christian writer put it, ““The antidote to deception and destruction is growth in the grace and knowledge of Christ. The contrast between 2Pe 3:17 and 2Pe 3:18 is between, on the one hand, a tree which does not grow and so loses its stability in the earth and is blown over by a wind of false teaching and dies, and, on the other hand (v18), a tree which keeps its roots planted in God’s grace and so grows and stays healthy and stable and does not get blown over by false teaching.”
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. Most people only hear this word “grace” when referring to the flare prayer before a meal. What an absolute shame! We need to grow in grace which at least means we should grow in our understanding of what grace is! This is done while, as it is said in v. 18, growing in our knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is a very weak illustration but you would have a very hard time learning about Bill Gates without learning many things about computers. You can not embark on a study Jesus of Christ without discovering the treasure chest of God’s grace!
Someone has devised the following acronym which is not a bad “definition” of grace…G (God’s), R (Riches) A (At) C (Christ’s) E (Expense). The definition I prefer is “God’s grace is his active favor bestowing the greatest gift upon those who have deserved the greatest punishment.”
The message of 2 Peter is that the joy of hope is the power of godliness. Today I desire to know Him more! As my understanding of grace grows I do not have a growing desire to live a life of sin, God forbid, but I desire to live life from the inside out! I study of grace that leads to sin is a not a study of Jesus Christ. I know grace as I grow in my knowledge of Christ and it is only possible to know Christ by His grace!
