But Grow

2 Peter 3:18 tells us to 'grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.' That's a command. Peter tells us that Paul's letters are hard to understand and some people twist them for their own means, but we, Christians, are to grow as we read them.

So whats your plan for growth?

Jesus has graciously given us means for growth. We have the Bible. if you're reading this from an English speaking country then you are incredibly privileged to have the Bible in a multitude of translations and readily available. We need to pay attention, we need to grow, we need to obey this command to have more of Jesus. What's your Bible reading plan? What's your Bible reading time? I need to read in the morning when i first get up or i really struggle to get it done! Do you read a chapter or day, or four, or ten? It's not important how much you read, but how you read, with our eyes on Christ, and that you read. As Cat Caird puts in two wonderful posts, we need to feast on the Bible.

But we grow in community. Jesus came to earth and started the church. It was His idea, so we really should get on board! It's wonderfully true to say that we have a 'personal relationship' with Jesus, but that's not all that's wonderfully true. We need community, we need to live out our relationship with Jesus in community. That was the idea from the start. In fact, that's one of the reasons that Robert McCheyne came up with the first Bible reading plan, so that his church would all read together and he would know what his people were reading. Church helps us to grow by exposing us to gospel preaching, wiser saints and the ordinances which present the Gospel to our senses.

Hebrews 2:3 asks us 'how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation.' Neglect, not oppose. Drift away from, not walk away from. The tide of our natural affections take us away from Jesus. if we neglect the course of this tide, we'll drown. So we have to swim against this tide. Drifting from Christ doesn't happen mainly by opposing the great doctrines of the faith, but simply by slowly being carried away.

We need more of Christ. Our champion, our standard bearer, our king and husband. What's our plan to grow, to get more of Him?

Richard Sibbes, via Dave Bish, sums it up well:

It should be the study and care of every Christian to study the excellencies of Christ, not only in general, as in the Creed, 'he was born for us of the virgin Mary, was crucified, buried died etc.' which every child can say but to be able to speak particularly of the high perfections and excellencies of Christ.

What is the ability to speak particularly of the high perfections and excellencies of Christ if not Christian growth? And how shall we grow if we neglect the means God has given us?