“…but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” 2 Peter 3:18
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and it’s the day when we traditionally give special expressions of love to our wives, husbands, boyfriends, and girlfriends. Gifts of flowers, candy, jewelry and cards are all used to show the sincerity of our affections to our loved one.
As the years go by, it’s often true that our love deepens and matures from its first bloom. Love is not a static. It changes in its intensity as one comes to more intimately know the one they love. There’s greater appreciation and affection for the one who’s shared with them not only the first stages of their relationship, but has also grown with them as they’ve gone through life and grown old together.
The very same principle applies to the Christian’s relationship with their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As they come into greater knowledge of His Person and work, the intensity of love for Him invariably grows. And when one’s love for Christ grows, then there are greater manifestations of the fruit of the Spirit, which are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
Let’s see how that works. Try meditating for example on God’s longsuffering towards you through the course of your life. Think of when you were not a believer, but “once walked according to the course of this world” (Ephesians 2:2). Then, all you mostly thought about and tried to please was yourself. You had very little consideration for God. You didn’t glorify Him. You routinely broke His commandments with lying, disrespect for authority, coveting, murderous hatred in your heart, regular disregard for worshipping Him on the Lord’s Day, sexual sins and taking for yourself what belonged to others.
And yet God did not immediately bring down His righteous judgment upon you. Instead, He was immeasurably merciful, lovingly drawing you to Himself with cords of kindness. He opened your eyes to see that you had broken His laws and personally offended Him, not doing what you were created to do, which was to obey Him out of love. He brought godly parents, Christian friends or ministers into your life who pointed you to Christ as the One who is able to meet your greatest need, which is to be reconciled with your Maker. He patiently waited upon you to believe in Christ as the One who not only fulfilled the requirements of the law for you, but also received the punishment that was due to you for breaking the law.
Even now that you’re a Christian, God continues to be longsuffering with you. He doesn’t come angrily crashing down on you when you’re careless in using the gracious means that God has given you for persevering and growing in your Christian walk. Instead, when you neglect prayer, Bible reading, regular coming together with God’s people to worship, or witnessing, He often begins to recover you with gentle nudges and rebukes, only becoming sterner after a long period of time, and even then, sometimes with profound parental restraint.
Just think how our growing in the knowledge of God’s longsuffering, and then prayerfully meditating upon it would cause us to love Him more. Indeed, how grateful and how desirous of serving Jesus Christ we would be. And another marvelous result would be the growth of the fruit of longsuffering in us towards others. Parents would take a different view of their children, raising them to be godly men and women with more patience. Husbands and wives would treat each other differently, graciously overlooking faults in one another. The bearing with our brothers and sisters in Christ would come much more easily.
Paul wrote to believers, “… as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection” (Colossians 3:12-14).
Make it your aim to come into greater knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through sermons, Sunday School classes, Bible reading, books and other Christians. See how God graciously makes this enhanced knowledge become active in your life in greater love towards Him as shown by greater manifestations of the fruit of the Spirit.
Oftentimes, when you feel you aren’t growing as a Christian and have become spiritually stagnant, it’s likely that you’ve let up on your pursuit of the knowledge of God. It’s this knowledge only which can transform the mind and influence the affections.
More about Jesus would I know,
more of His grace to others show;
more of His saving fullness see,
more of His love who died for me.
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and it’s the day when we traditionally give special expressions of love to our wives, husbands, boyfriends, and girlfriends. Gifts of flowers, candy, jewelry and cards are all used to show the sincerity of our affections to our loved one.
As the years go by, it’s often true that our love deepens and matures from its first bloom. Love is not a static. It changes in its intensity as one comes to more intimately know the one they love. There’s greater appreciation and affection for the one who’s shared with them not only the first stages of their relationship, but has also grown with them as they’ve gone through life and grown old together.
The very same principle applies to the Christian’s relationship with their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As they come into greater knowledge of His Person and work, the intensity of love for Him invariably grows. And when one’s love for Christ grows, then there are greater manifestations of the fruit of the Spirit, which are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
Let’s see how that works. Try meditating for example on God’s longsuffering towards you through the course of your life. Think of when you were not a believer, but “once walked according to the course of this world” (Ephesians 2:2). Then, all you mostly thought about and tried to please was yourself. You had very little consideration for God. You didn’t glorify Him. You routinely broke His commandments with lying, disrespect for authority, coveting, murderous hatred in your heart, regular disregard for worshipping Him on the Lord’s Day, sexual sins and taking for yourself what belonged to others.
And yet God did not immediately bring down His righteous judgment upon you. Instead, He was immeasurably merciful, lovingly drawing you to Himself with cords of kindness. He opened your eyes to see that you had broken His laws and personally offended Him, not doing what you were created to do, which was to obey Him out of love. He brought godly parents, Christian friends or ministers into your life who pointed you to Christ as the One who is able to meet your greatest need, which is to be reconciled with your Maker. He patiently waited upon you to believe in Christ as the One who not only fulfilled the requirements of the law for you, but also received the punishment that was due to you for breaking the law.
Even now that you’re a Christian, God continues to be longsuffering with you. He doesn’t come angrily crashing down on you when you’re careless in using the gracious means that God has given you for persevering and growing in your Christian walk. Instead, when you neglect prayer, Bible reading, regular coming together with God’s people to worship, or witnessing, He often begins to recover you with gentle nudges and rebukes, only becoming sterner after a long period of time, and even then, sometimes with profound parental restraint.
Just think how our growing in the knowledge of God’s longsuffering, and then prayerfully meditating upon it would cause us to love Him more. Indeed, how grateful and how desirous of serving Jesus Christ we would be. And another marvelous result would be the growth of the fruit of longsuffering in us towards others. Parents would take a different view of their children, raising them to be godly men and women with more patience. Husbands and wives would treat each other differently, graciously overlooking faults in one another. The bearing with our brothers and sisters in Christ would come much more easily.
Paul wrote to believers, “… as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection” (Colossians 3:12-14).
Make it your aim to come into greater knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through sermons, Sunday School classes, Bible reading, books and other Christians. See how God graciously makes this enhanced knowledge become active in your life in greater love towards Him as shown by greater manifestations of the fruit of the Spirit.
Oftentimes, when you feel you aren’t growing as a Christian and have become spiritually stagnant, it’s likely that you’ve let up on your pursuit of the knowledge of God. It’s this knowledge only which can transform the mind and influence the affections.
More about Jesus would I know,
more of His grace to others show;
more of His saving fullness see,
more of His love who died for me.