“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen” (2 Peter 3:18).
When Peter exhorts believers to grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ he is stressing the importance of our understanding and believing the truth of Scripture so that we are not led astray or seduced by the error of the wicked. Instead of being led astray and seduced by error, Peter says we must grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. In other words, the only way to avoid falling in the Christian life is to advance; the only way to avoid slipping backward is to go forward; the only way to avoid error and false teaching is by knowing and believing the truth. The word falling doesn’t mean losing one’s salvation. Rather, it means weakness or easily giving in to sin and temptation.
You see, Scripture is very plain … every true believer is preserved in Jesus Christ (Jude vs. 1). The Bible does not teach that you can be saved one day and lost the next. Philippians 1:6: “…being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” John 10:27-28: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.” A hundred other verses could also be cited.
But the Scriptures also teach that the Christian life is active. Yes, God preserves the believer, but He does so by working in us perseverance, and calling us to be diligent in the Christian life. Never forget that God makes use of means. Yes, He provides all our needs, but He does so through our labor. Yes, God gives us wisdom, but He does so as we study His Word and come to Him in prayer. And so we are called to grow in grace and be diligent with our Christian faith. And if you’re not growing then you’re falling backwards and are being exposed to the error of the wicked and setting yourself up for a fall, which will bring dishonor to God and shame before men. And Peter knew something of this after he had denied Christ three times (Matt. 26:75), and so he says, “Grow in grace and in the knowledge that’s in Christ Jesus.”
Are you growing spiritually? Do you desire more and more to be fed spiritually with the Word of God? Do you seek Christ more and more in His Word and through prayer? Do you delight in partaking of the sacraments? Do you long for fellowship with other believers? If you’re truly a branch (a believer) united to the vine (Jesus Christ) then your desire must be like the Psalmist who wrote in Psalm 122: “I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go into the house of the LORD.” And this desire should be ever increasing in the life of those washed in the blood of the Lamb!