How To Grow In Grace

“Some Christians are like wasps,” said Spurgeon, “they are as big when they are born as they ever are.”

This is a tragic truth. Failure to grow in any realm is sad to see. The fundamental law of all life is growth.

Robert Browning said, “Man was made to grow.”

The apostles John, James, Paul, and Peter stressed this great truth also. Peter challenges all Christians to “Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). Verse 17 contains a stern warning, “Beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.” Immediately following the warning appears God’s cure, “But grow in grace.”

Our twentieth century finds the masses of people living and literally dying for material possessions. An unparalleled wealth-fever sickens the populace while spiritual values are ignored. The true measure of success in life is not and cannot be counted in dollars and cents, certainly not in physical or mental accomplishments. In complete contrast, the true and eternal measure of life is found in growth in Christ-like character. You will find this path of life to be a neglected trail for there are no super highways to holiness and growth.

Life Is Essential To Growth

Dead things cannot grow. Before there can be spiritual growth, there must be spiritual life. When a child is born, the first cry indicates life. If there is life, then a boulevard of possibilities beckons to this new baby. If there is no life, then all is vain. A fence post placed in the ground will not grow, but a little seed will grow spontaneously. Drop a stone into the richest soil and it will be exactly the same size years later. Place a seed into the ground and it will spring up and produce stalk and flower. The difference is plain: one has life while the other is lifeless.

This divine life may be imitated but one can usually detect the difference. One is real, the other is false. One is natural; the other is mechanical. The crystal grows from without by addition of new particles, while a living organism grows from within. The crystal may be beautiful but is only a crystal and lacks true life for growth. Dead things may accumulate but cannot grow. Unless men and women have the life that comes from above, religious practices and environment mean nothing. In fact, they cause one to rest in a false hope, making condemnation more sure. To you who have made your decision for Christ, the divine command is “grow in grace.” These to whom Peter is speaking have been “born again,” for remember, dead things cannot grow.

The Need For Growth

“Grow in grace.” The word “grow” is continuous action. There is no time to stop growing. If we do not grow in the physical realm, it is a sad sign. It is a mark of sickness. A mother would be justly alarmed if day after day, and week after week, her baby showed no signs of growth. A farmer would be dismayed if his crops never yielded their harvest. Nature says, “Grow or I will kill you.” A cankered tree does not send forth new shoots. When the human body stops growing, it begins to disintegrate. The fingers of nature begin to pick and to pluck till death claims us. The first law of life is expansion. Grow or decay! Advance or regress! Live or die!

“Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit” (John 15:2).

It is possible for a person to regress to former patterns of behavior. Some become as psychologists term it, “fixated.” They remain the same. For the most part though, we either go forward or backward. Paul said, “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things” (1 Corinthians 13:11). He was going forward.

We need to grow because it is God’s plan for every Christian. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45). Jesus said, “Be ye therefore perfect (mature), even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Paul, speaking to the Philippians, said, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect (full grown). . . but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12–14, RSV). Paul was moving upward and onward. We must continue to “grow in grace.”

How to Grow

1. Naturally, Jesus said, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Matthew 6:28–29).

How do the lilies grow? What is their secret of growth? The lily, according to God’s plan, simply unfolds the life within. You do not tell a lily to grow; it grows naturally. You do not tell a baby to grow; it grows spontaneously. The lily does not fuss or fret, toil or spin, strain or stretch; it just grows. Growth is natural and inevitable when there is life and more so when there is divine life.

The child of God must get in the right relationship with God. We are to be rooted in the Word of God. We are to be warmed by the Sun of Righteousness. We are to make friends of God’s children. See to it that you do not hinder the divine Gardener.

Perhaps there are some who have been missing the joy of salvation. Is it because you are at a standstill? Conversion is merely the beginning of what God wants to do for you. He is “able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20).

The Bible compares Christians to trees. Our roots are to penetrate the topsoil of truth into the great doctrinal rocks of eternal salvation. Then, when the hurricane of God’s wrath comes tearing up the hypocrites and hurling them into the sea of destruction, those trees planted by God will stand.

As trees, we need to throw back our heads and look to Jesus for refreshment. We need to spread our branches out and let the shadow of our holy influence be felt far and near. We need our branches to be laden with fruit in its season. God’s promise is, “he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon” (Hosea 14:5–7).

2. By Eating. All living things eat and what we eat affects our growth. A story is told of a seagull that was shut up in a cage and fed grain for a period of time. The seagull was used to eating soft fish, for the stomach of the seagull is soft. After a time, it died, for the stomach had changed to a gizzard. May God help us not to digest all that we see in our magazines and papers. I fear that many a spiritual stomach has turned to a gizzard. The Bible says, “Eat ye that which is good” (Isaiah 55:2). No book can make you grow like the Bible.

If we would subject the most costly silk to a microscope, it would appear rough and stained. The lily petal under the same lens is flawless. Solomon’s royal robes could not compare with God’s lilies. How do they grow? The lily’s threadlike roots dig down to the minerals and practice selection. Some minerals look fine but in reality, they are poisonous. They are refused. Others are necessary and they are received. This is exactly what we must do to grow in grace. There are appealing things that are deadly to growth. The apostle Peter points out some things to refuse and some things to receive. “Laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,”—these are to be refused, while the following is to be received: “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:1–2). Whatever else it means, it means that the Word of God is a good thing to feed on.

We are to feed on the meat of the Word. Mr. Moody used to hoe potatoes when a boy, and he said that he hoed them so poorly that he always had to mark where he stopped. That is the way some Christians read their Bibles. “Thy words were found, and I did eat them” (Jeremiah 15:16).

3. By Prayer. Our Saviour was a man of prayer. The common atmosphere was stifling to Him. His communion was apart with God.

Prayer is an act of worship. It is to be performed with the utmost reverence; there is to be no familiar carelessness of the tongue. King Solomon said long centuries ago: “Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few” (Ecclesiastes 5:2). Jesus Christ, wiser than Solomon, said, “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them” (Matthew 6:7–8).

We shall grow if there is continual communion with Jesus Christ. He is the Breath of Life. Rubenstein, the great musician, said, “If I omit practice one day, I notice it; if two days, my friends notice it; if three days, the public notices it.” This is an old truth, but still vital. We must “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

Prayer and work form the unbeatable New Testament combination. True prayers never came creeping home.

4. By Resting. This is what Jesus was talking about when He asked, “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?” (Matthew 6:27). Anxiety will not add to your spiritual size. Worry will not add one fraction to our stature.

The Christian life is not a nervous, neurotic hanging on to God, but it is resting in the hollow of His hand. One cannot grow by toiling and spinning, stretching and straining, but rather by yielding completely to Christ’s control.

If there is life and health in the physical body, growth is natural and inevitable. So it is spiritually. If we have been born from above and are healthy Christians, we will unfold naturally as the lily from the bud. The Bible says, “Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him” (Psalm 37:7).

5. By Working or Witnessing. The Bible places great stress on hard work. Show me a man who does not work and I will show you a man who is pulp. If you can work, you will eat, rest, and sleep properly. People often complain that they are not spiritually fed. The reason is they are not spiritually hungry, and they are not hungry because they are not working. Broken-down tissues call for nourishment. So these broken-down in toil for our Master cry out for the Bread of Life. If a man will sincerely work in the vineyard of God, he will grow in grace. We need to think less about our character and more about our duty; less about being somebody and more about doing something for somebody. If you want to grow, begin to work. Practice the truth you know, and many things will become clearer.

Jesus plainly said, “Ye shall be witnesses unto me” (Acts 1:8). A witness is one who tells what he knows. After everything else is said and done, our only excuse for living is witness. Do not permit a day to pass without speaking to some needy soul. Witnessing keeps the prayer life alive and up-to-date. It also challenges one to dig into the Scriptures in search of answers for these to whom you are witnessing.

Since your conversion, have you been growing? Are you glorifying God more this week than last week? Are you nearer the Saviour now than at your hour of decision? Is your delight in the law of the Lord and are you meditating therein day and night?

By God’s grace, let each Christian be like trees planted by the river, spreading forth foliage and bearing fruit. Apart from Christ, mankind is chaff without root and life.

Grow—grow—grow, until that blessed day when we shall see Him and be like Him!