Growing in Grace and Knowledge
Mar 14, 2025
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:5-8 (NIV)
Today's scripture is a call to self-improvement. Not for the purpose of personal gain, but for a much higher and nobler cause: our spiritual growth and maturity. We learn that we must add to our faith a list of virtues that culminate in love - the highest virtue of all.
The metaphor of spiritual growth runs throughout the Bible, reminding us that faith, like any living thing, must be nourished and cultivated for it to flourish. So how do we step into this journey of growth? It's not by our human strength or perseverance but through the grace and power of God in us.
This passage encourages us to be proactive about our spiritual development. We're urged to add to our faith goodness, to goodness knowledge, and so forth. This implies that our faith won't grow automatically. We have a role to play in cooperating with God's work in us.
Notice the end goal is not just to possess these qualities but to increase in them. For if such qualities are ours in increasing measure, it will keep us from being ineffective and unproductive. Let's commit ourselves to this spiritual growth process, trusting that it will make us more like Christ each day.