"GROW!"

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2 Peter 3:18
“but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.”

IMMEDIATE CONTEXT: 2 Peter 3:14-18.

Sometimes the main point to make is fully said and emphasized at the very end. In this case, it is the commission to grow! What is not growing is dying. 2 Peter 3:18 expresses the end of many important truths the apostle had taught. Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord, because:

• There is a great day coming (2 Pet. 3:10-13).
• The Lord is not slack concerning His promise but is longsuffering (2 Pet. 3:1-9).
• There will be false teachers among you who can lead you astray (2 Pet. 2:1-22).
• The prophetic word is confirmed (2 Pet. 1:12-21).
• One is fruitless without such graces of virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love (2 Pet. 1:5-11).
• God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through Christ (2 Pet. 1:1-4).

Questions:

Have I grown more this year than last or am I flat or perhaps digressing? What am I doing to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord? Am I easily distracted from attaining personal achievement in the word by things in the world? Is my measure of growth concurrent with my measure of diligence? Surely, we are never diligent in what we are disinterested.
Therefore, consider our highlighted passage in light of these segments from 2 Peter:

• “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge” (1:5).
• “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble” (1:10).
• “Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless” (3:14).

Context:

2 Peter 3:14-18

14 Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless;
15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you,
16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.
17 You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked;
18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.