But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
2 Peter 3:18
The context of the above verse is that it is the last words in Peter’s general epistle/letter to all believers. He was using this message to admonish those who have trusted in Christ for salvation to stay faithful to the Lord and to beware of false teachers and immoral people who would try to lead them astray. This is certainly a needed message in our world today as there has been an explosion of false teachers who promote and condone immorality and wicked lifestyles that are in total opposition to the transforming grace that Jesus provides. The remedy and protection from falling into false teaching is to make it a priority to grow in grace/favor/power and knowledge of Jesus Christ. This means we are to make it our life focus to trust in Jesus and His Word more each day and to grow in our understanding of Him and His ways. This is accomplished by the discipline of daily Bible study and prayer so we can detect truth from error. A research study from several years ago found that the #1 most common trait of those who identified as growing and faithful followers of Christ was the practice of daily Bible study. Daily reading and application of God’s Word, the scriptures, is one of the essentials to a growing faith that is protected from deceptions. To fail to read and apply oneself to God’s Word daily is to make yourself very vulnerable to being misled. If we have Jesus as our Savior, we also have the Holy Spirit in us to help us to understand and live out the truth of our Creator. Jesus stated that He was “the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” (see John 14:6) Let’s all be sure that Christ alone is our only hope for life and truth and that we grow in our understanding and faithfulness to the One who gave Himself fully to redeem us. Blessings!
Love in Christ,
Pastor Gary Houdek