GROW!

(2 Peter 1:1-15)

"But grow..." (3:18)

We can sometimes be grateful for wake-up calls - especially when they prevent us missing important appointments. Peter's second (and last) letter to the Christian church is a wake-up call. According to v13 he writes to "stir you up". He knows he is about to die (v14) and delivering this wake-up call is now the greatest priority of what remains of his life. But what is his stir-up wake-up message? The back door is generally a good way in to understanding the epistles of the New Testament. And 2 Peter is no exception. His last verse (3:18) tells us why he wrote the book: to cause us "to grow". That's Peter's entire message - his last will and testament to the Christian church.

The seven qualities in which the Christian believer is to grow are listed in vv5-7. Founded upon the faith that makes a person a Christian, the qualities are successively: virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection and love.

But is the requirement to grow in these qualities really so important? It hardly seems a dramatic message. Yet Peter wants us to understand at the outset that such growth is vital. He makes this point in vv8-9. He says, in effect: 'If you're not growing in the afore-mentioned qualities, you will be ineffective, unfruitful, short-sighted, blind and forgetful of the Gospel whereby you were cleansed from your former sins.' These are terrible words. To be "ineffective" means to be idle or unemployed. It means that a Christian who isn't growing will be unused in the Lord's service. In a church they'll be as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike. Their lives will be "unfruitful" - ie barren. They will have nothing to show for their faith. They'll be "short-sighted" too. Christians who don't grow will never recognize opportunities. The chances of witness and evangelism amongst their families, friends and colleagues will simply pass them by - even when they're written in foot-high letters and pressed closed to their faces. Their myopic eyes just won't see them. Christians who don't grow will thus be "blind" to all opportunities. Indeed, the original language and order of words suggest that the non-grower's short-sightedness is a deliberate self-blinkering resulting from their blinding commitment to the world. And the cleansing of their former sins by the Gospel will be but an embarrassing memory to them - if they are able to remember it at all. Their priorities will lie elsewhere.

Isn't this a terrible picture of the Christian who isn't growing? Barren, blind and forgetful even of the Gospel.. And the tension is striking. These are people who truly have a saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (v8). They are Christians - although one might hardly believe it to meet them. Such is the condition of those who don't grow. A church of such people will lack vitality, vision and victory. Its life will be stagnant and largely useless to God's purposes.

We are saved by grace, not works. Yet the Bible tells us that "each of us will give an account of himself to God" (Rom 14:12). The Christian who isn't committed to growth will be utterly shamed by their ultimate accounting of their lives to God. Some applications:

  1. There is more to the Christian life than conversion. If you thought that entering the Christian life was all that mattered, that growth was simply a desirable 'extra', think again! Christianity is about entering and going on in the Lord. Peter presents the alternative to growth as 'crash and burn'. Compare 3:18 (his command to grow) with 3:17 (the alternative to growth - spiritual collapse). Paul draws the same contrast in Ephesians 4:14-15. Growth isn't an option to the Christian - it's the alternative to disaster.
  2. Growth is not about professional Christian activity. The qualities of vv5-7 are personal qualities of character. Those engaged in or training for full-time paid ministry (of which our congregation has a few) need always to remember that their occupation is not a substitute for personal growth. And the test of such ongoing growth is effectiveness, fruitfulness, vision and commitment to the Gospel pervading every aspect of their real-world everyday lives - not confined within the boundaries of their professional employment. Their home lives will reflect the qualities of vv5-7. And they will be plotting and praying for the salvation of their neighbour next door - not just the delivery of a clever sermon on Sunday!

Whilst the penalties of not growing are unthinkable, the positive advantages of growing are wonderful. A church of growing Christians will have vitality, vision and victories. Its individual members will be effective, fruitful, visionary and committed to having people cleansed from sin. They may hear: 'Well done thou good and faithful servant' when they reach Heaven. Growing is the most important thing that any Christian can do. Not growing is the most disastrous. Commit to grow!

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