Tuesday, June 1: Grow up!

Have you ever noticed that if you are in your comfort zone, that you are not growing? Growth is one of those aspects of life that should begin at birth and not finish until death. Oliver Wendell Holmes once said,

“The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.”

Certainly, this applies to each of us even more strongly in our Christian walks. Peter was one who displayed an inordinate amount of growth. When he was walking with Jesus, Peter often acted rashly or spoke without thinking. He is known for bragging that he loved Jesus more than the rest, and then Jesus revealed to Peter that Peter would deny Jesus three times within the next few hours. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter was ready to defend Jesus from the mob of Jewish leaders, took out his sword, and sliced off the ear of Malchus. If Jesus had not healed Malchus, Peter would not have written any books in the New Testament. He was courageous, but certainly rash.  Tradition tells us that when Peter was to be martyred, he asked to be crucified upside down, for he did not feel worthy to suffer the same death as his Savior. Peter grew immensely, and we can see that growth in the words of 1 Peter and 2 Peter.


5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; 11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:5-11


We come to the Lord with faith, and should add virtue to that faith. Virtue can be moral excellence or chastity. Next, comes knowledge, and the important knowledge is of the Word of God. Following knowledge is self-control, the ability to abstain from the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. We add perseverance on to self-control, finding the ability to keep on keeping on, through whatever struggle God allows in our path. Now we are getting to the advanced aspects of the Christian walk, as godliness comes next, with the outpouring of that godliness becoming brotherly kindness. It all ends in the greatest attribute, love! Love is everything! When people treat you badly, do you respond in love? I know I don’t always, which shows that my growth has not yet finished! Don’t let the love in your life be like a tennis term, where love is nothing. It needs to be the beginning and the end, the best of you and the worst of you, the greatest gift. Love is God and God is love.