Keep Growing, Keep Bearing Fruit

“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 (NKJV)

Time passes automatically. Maturity does not.

That is a sentence worth sitting with, because a great many of us assume the two travel together. We have been Christians for fifteen years, therefore we must be fifteen years more mature. But years accumulate on their own. Growth does not.

Peter’s final written words are these: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.”

That is how he closes his second letter, and it is a striking thing to leave as a last instruction. Not “hold on.” Not “survive.” Grow.

Notice the two things we are to grow in, and notice they belong together.

Grow in grace. This is not only about receiving more grace, though that is true; it is about becoming more thoroughly shaped by it. A person growing in grace becomes gentler with other people’s failures, quicker to forgive, less impressed with their own record, and more amazed that they are accepted at all. If someone’s knowledge is increasing and their kindness is decreasing, they are not growing in grace.

Grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Not knowledge in general, and not merely more Christian information. Knowledge of a Person. Peter has spent this letter warning about false teachers, so accurate doctrine matters greatly to him. But the destination of doctrine is Christ Himself.

So growth means becoming more like Him, not simply collecting more material about Him. It is quite possible to be theologically well-read and spiritually stationary.

Now here is a question worth answering honestly today. What is God teaching me in this season?

If you cannot answer that, it may be worth asking why. Perhaps He is teaching patience, and you have been treating the delay as an obstacle rather than a curriculum. Perhaps courage. Perhaps forgiveness. Perhaps He is exposing pride, or an insecurity that has been driving more of your decisions than you realised, or a habit you have defended for years.

And do not rush through the lesson simply because it is uncomfortable. We often try to escape the very circumstance God is using. James says, “let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (James 1:4). Let it finish.

Jesus gave us the definitive picture of how growth works, and it is not a picture of effort. It is a picture of connection. “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me” (John 15:4). And then the sobering clarity of verse 5: “without Me you can do nothing.”

Fruit is evidence of life, not the product of straining. A branch does not grimace. It stays attached.

That is why the fruit listed in Galatians 5:22-23 is called the fruit of the Spirit and not the achievements of the believer. Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These grow where the connection is maintained.

Let me guard two things.

First, growth is usually slow, and that is not failure. A healthy oak does not mature overnight. Do not despise gradual progress; God does not. Paul speaks of being changed “from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18), which is a gradual phrase. If you are more patient than you were two years ago, that is the Spirit’s work, even if nobody has noticed.

Second, the goal is not perfection by tomorrow, and if reading this produces only condemnation you have heard it wrongly. Peter, of all people, knew about failure and restoration. The man writing “grow in grace” is the man who denied Christ three times and was restored on a beach. Growth includes getting it wrong and responding rightly.

So how do you cooperate with growth?

Stay connected. Abiding is not a technique; it is Word, prayer, obedience, and the fellowship of God’s people, maintained over time.

Keep responding when God corrects you. The single greatest accelerator of spiritual growth is a teachable response to correction, and the single greatest obstacle is defensiveness.

And be honest about the season you are in. Ask someone who knows you well where they think you have grown and where you have not. Then listen without explaining.

One more thing about growth, and it is easily missed.

Much of the growth God is producing in you will be invisible to you. You are too close to see it, and you tend to measure yourself against the person you wish you were rather than the person you actually were three years ago.

So ask someone else. A spouse, an old friend, a mature believer who has known you for years. Ask them where they have seen change, and then resist the urge to argue with the answer.

And be encouraged: the very fact that you are concerned about growing is itself evidence of life. Dead branches do not worry about fruit. The concern you are carrying is the Spirit at work in you.

Do not settle for simply being older in the faith. Keep growing in Christ, and let your life produce fruit that other people can actually see.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, I do not want to mistake the passing of years for growth. Grow me in grace, so that I become gentler and more amazed by mercy, and grow me in the knowledge of You, so that I become more like You and not merely better informed. Show me what You are teaching me in this season, and give me patience to let the lesson finish. Keep me abiding, because without You I can do nothing. And when I fail, restore me as You restored Peter. In Your name, amen.

Declaration

Years pass automatically; maturity does not. I will stay connected to the Vine and let the fruit grow.

Pastor Ras

All Nations Community Church

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