What it means to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18)

What is the grace of Jesus Christ? 
The grace of Jesus Christ is found in people who have had personal encounters with Jesus.  The apostle Paul says in 1 Timothy chapter 1, "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor.  And yet I was shown mercy, because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus" (verses 12-14).  It is the grace of God that transforms someone from what they were to the direct opposite and gives them an identity found in God.
From Ephesians 2:8-10, we know that it is “by grace we have been saved, through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no man can boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which He prepared in advance, that we should walk in them.”  Grace is what  God shows to us ignorant and “dead-in-trespasses” sinners.  It is His kindness toward us undeserving ones.  Yet when Paul wrote these words (and similar words like them in the book of Colossians), he was intending them to be read in the context of the whole church, or body of believers.  Ephesians and Colossians were written about the ideal present amidst the churches because of the good news they had heard and the presence of the Holy Spirit. The same ideal is present in whatever form the “body of Christ” exists in today’s world.
But to be precise, 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  So grace required that Jesus died and that through His death for sin, His resurrection, and thus giving of His Holy Spirit He made a way for “grace to reign through Jesus Christ” (Romans 5).  As verse 17 says, “For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”
So through the giving of Jesus Christ of Himself (and the giving of Jesus by the Father), a new world was started, one where grace reigned and the potential for blessing came to all people—another way of saying this is that Jesus paved the way for a new humanity, one free from sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:11).  This is the providence of God.  Grace for all people originates in Jesus Christ—that’s what 2 Corinthians 8:9 says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”  And chapter 9, verse 15: “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” Also, in Philippians 2, it says “[There is] encouragement in Christ, there is consolation of love, there is fellowship of the Spirit, [there is] affection and compassion.” Jesus was full of grace, and now (since ascending to the heavens) intercedes for His people as a great High Priest (see Hebrews 7:25); as John 1:16 says, “Of His fullness we have all experienced, and grace for grace.”  It was passed down to people after Him, through His apostles, and their teaching in the New Testament.  
Grace also means God is there for us: From Moses to the judges to the kings to the prophets, to Jesus, God is giving Himself away and for His people, claiming them as His own.  As Colossians 1:19-20 says, “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, whether things on earth or things in the heavens.” So it is God’s magnificent grace that reconciles us to Himself.  As verses 21-22 say, “And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusations.”
Also, Romans 5:1-2 is quite clear: “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.”

How Do We Grow in Grace?
We grow in God’s grace by hearing His word in community with others.  So to experience God’s grace, we have to be around God’s people.  It means going to church, Bible Study, or any other gathering of believers with whom we can grow.  As we are around others who are either less mature, about the same as us, or more mature, we give and receive of grace, through each person’s contribution.
As it says in Acts: “And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32).  We become sanctified by making choices existentially, but none of us knows all the answers or truth, but that is why we need to grow not just in the grace of Jesus Christ but also the knowledge (see next part).   So as we grow through choices and as we share with each other this growth—or grow in the fellowship of other believers, we grow in God’s grace, because we are after all, one body of believers.  Churches and communities of believers grow in sanctification together.  Sanctification is a process of becoming more and more separated from sin and set apart for God’s purposes.  Our part includes living for the grace of God and turning away from anything that gets in the way of our relationship with God and our fellow believers. 1 Corinthians 12 shows that the Body grows through the contribution of each individual part.  As verse 18 says, “But now God has placed the members, each one of them, just as He desired.”
(As an aside, it is sad when the place we are expected to receive God’s grace is a place where we find judgment and hypocritical standards instead.  So I understand if not all Christians want to go to church.) 
This is how Jesus lived and His goal was to make His disciples like Himself—to make many “little Christs,” which is what the word “Christian” means . . .  This was Jesus’ prayer in John 17:19-20 “And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.  I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through them.”   
It is God’s grace in Jesus Christ that enables believers to share their gifts with others, as Cooke points out in his profound book Free for the  Taking: The Life-changing Power of Grace, (1)NATURAL POTENTIAL+GRACE= GIFT OF GRACE (p. 155).  This is the impetus for developing our gifts, so that we can be of more use to God.  We all have gifts which were made to be shared, and which bring a blessing on us as we exercise them. This is because as we do so we are taking part in ZOE (Greek for “spiritual”) life, which comes from the Father, through Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
    It is the theme of Jesus’ life, because He is the man who came “for others,”  and by His Spirit leading us, enables us to live “for others” also.   This means deep down, sharing with others because we are “awake” to their needs and by the grace of Jesus, are empowered to meet those needs.   (2 Corinthians 8 . . .)  
Grace is like a fertile soil in which the flowers that we are can take root, grow, and blossom into what we were meant to be.  Change deep down is slow.  I read in Henry Cloud’s excellent book on growth, Changes That Heal, (2) that growth consists of three ingredients: Grace, truth, and time.  So grace is acceptance and love we get from other people, truth allows a personal transformation —the working into our lives of God’s worldview—and Cloud makes the point that there is “good time” and “bad time”—good time being the time where we grow based on a growth which is based in God, and “bad time” as time where we are not growing but simply going through the motions.  So as we make choices to pattern our lives after God’s truth –(Or, as Philippians 2 says,  we are to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling” Philippians 2:11) God works in us like soil getting sunlight, water and nutrients from what surrounds it so that we grow, slowly but surely.  Where do we get this grace? Wherever God has worked by God’s providence to provide ministry to help those who will be recipients of this ministry.  For me I first got a glimpse of this at summer Bible camp.  When I was going into second grade and sat with my cabin-mates around a tree, listening to our counselor talking to us about helping out our Moms with the  dishes and being of use in other ways, there was resonating deep down that this was right—that I was in the right place and was hearing the right things for my life.  We all need to be around people who can be agents of God’s grace to us.  They are God’s original way of meeting our needs.  This is why the Greek word for church is “Ecclesia,” which means “the called out”—we have been called out from a life of immaturity and selfishness to the fullness of life and “abundance” (John 10:10) which we can experience more and more of.  Where God’s people are is where we experience His grace.  It is the place where we can grow in His grace, but a prerequisite to growth is opening up to that grace.  In my own life I had pride and other barriers to break through before I was touched by and really experienced His grace so I could be honest and find acceptance in the people God had placed around me.  
The Greek word for grace is "charis."  When Christians share the gifts that come from God’s grace, they themselves are blessed, as are those around them.   Cooke says, “God in His grace does a great deal more than merely accept the undeserving; He keeps on showering kindnesses upon them; He keeps on giving to them in His bounty” (151).  Cooke also makes the point that being recipients of gifts from God’s grace confer[s] an almost incredible honor upon us.  He says that instead of just shooing us away somewhere where we don’t get dirty, “He leaves it up to us to carry out His purposes in the world. (152)”
So God leaves it up to us to follow His example and be agents of grace in the world.  It is this responsibility that should cause us to take heed to ourselves and our ways, to deny ourselves for the sake of grace.  As Titus 2:11-13 says, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope [of the age to come].”
Along this same line of calling, we as a church have the responsibility of training and guiding those less mature than us.  Every interaction or relation in everyday life where there is knowledge of God and reverence of His Name, can be an opportunity to show grace, and needs to be, because everybody has hard times and trials they go through.  To be an agent of grace and to participate in the work of a church or ministry is a privilege.  Yes, we have to be called to it, but I think sometimes we just have to try something before we know we have a calling for something.  
As a friend of mine once told me, sometimes God builds us up to send us out, but sometimes--on the other hand, God sends us out to build us up . . . We learn in the doing.  This is a way we grow in the grace of Jesus Christ.

Why is growing in grace a challenge?
Growing in grace is a challenge because we live with (and are) imperfect people. 2 Timothy 3 is often quoted—that in the last days people will be “lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God . . .” (vv 2-4).  Without a doubt this makes it harder to give, in view of people’s selfishness.  So in the last times, times will be harder, more pressure, more temptation to avoid responsibility and withdraw into selfishness.  This is also why the apostle John, at the beginning of Revelation (1:9), confesses that he is “your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance in Jesus [emphasis mine].”  For Revelation describes the final days where war is waged between God and the powers of evil and darkness—namely Satan and his demons.
In these last days we have more and more to distract us, to pull us away to selfishness, obsession, and addiction.  Therefore we have to be firm and keep our decision to follow Christ continually renewed.  And we need grace and accountability by others in the Body of Christ to encourage us if and when we stumble.  What motivated the apostles to give their lives in the cause of Christ—to even be martyred for His sake?  Obviously they had discovered something more worthy than life itself.  
There is no greater or more important work we are called to—planning opportunities for God’s grace to be felt, to be experienced, reminds me of Romans 8 where it says, “the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace” (verse 6). Romans 8 also says “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law could not do, wherein it was weak through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of human flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”  So Jesus is the ultimate example of grace through His life and death—the reconciling of God to man, and the sending of the Holy Spirit, set apart the church for carrying on His message and ministry.  Cooke writes, “As God’s grace once had to be demonstrated in the person of the living, loving Christ, it now must be demonstrated by living, loving people who have been touched by the grace of Christ and are committed to sharing it” (177).  We all need grace.  And we give and receive grace in Christ’s name.
Maybe this means you, or me, need to be a pastor, a worship leader, camp director, or short- or long-term missionary.  There are any number of things we can be involved with among God’s people, as a way of showing grace to the world.  Set your sights on the goal and go full-tilt.  That is what others have done and what we must do too.  As the Gary Chapman song, “Anything’s Possible,” goes, “Others before have known this is true, and now it’s time for you to know anything’s possible too” Shelter, 1996).
But God is calling together a kingdom of priests, and this goes beyond the realm of church or any other organization.  He calls us to be “steadfast” in our giving of the grace we have received.  We do this because we are being “sanctified,”   As Hebrews says, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy “(Hebrews 10:9-10).   Because He is a high priest who lives to intercede for us, we always have the option of choosing God’s way in any given trial.

What is the Knowledge of Jesus Christ?
The knowledge of Jesus Christ is the other half of what we are to grow in, according to 2 Peter 3:18.  It is also something that helps keep us from being carried away by the error of unprincipled men.  This teaching of men goes against the teaching of Christ.  Unprincipled people can make arguments that sound good to go with a certain behavior.  But we need to think twice before we follow their advice, just because it sounds good.  Growing in the knowledge of Jesus Christ means we are able to not get our way in our relationships with others—family and close friends--those we need to be particularly careful with because they mean so much.  We need to be willing to give up our idea of what we think is right in a certain relationship. We need to be willing to "lose" in learning "a lesson of love" (song by Ashley Cleveland). There is an edifying discourse by philosopher Soren Kierkegaard called "He who wrestles with God and wins because God wins."  
Ephesians 5 talks about being children of light “(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth) proving what is pleasing to the Lord” (Eph. 5). To walk as a child of light is the opposite of living for sensuality and in the lusts of the flesh.  For now we live in various shades of darkness and gray, but we are to pay attention to the words of prophecy regarding Christ and to “pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in [our] hearts”(2 Peter 1:19).  This prophecy calls us to love our neighbor--to do justly, to be compassionate--to love mercy, and let God lead us--walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8).  
Of late I have had to say "I was wrong" in certain various situations.  
There is a way of being "light" in the world, and we do not always have a clear picture of what that is, which is why the Scripture says "proving what is pleasing to the Lord” (Ephesians 5) as we follow His lead.
The knowledge of Jesus Christ means seeing Jesus in someone to whom we are “near by,” or from which the word “neigh-bor” comes—and experiencing the refreshment that comes from “knowing Jesus Christ.”  The French philosopher and professor Jacques Ellul says, “the most important thing we can do socially is to rediscover our neighbor” (quoted in Resist the Powers with Jacques Ellul, (385) (3). The Greek word for knowledge from above is “epignosis.”  It is this kind of knowledge that enables us to see Jesus in our neighbor.  As C. S. Lewis has noted in his essay “The Weight of Glory,” we are all eternal creatures and carry an eternal mark, so we are not just ordinary but bear a “weight of glory” and we need to remember this and thus see our friend or neighbor from a heavenly perspective.  A friend of mine once said that we don’t worry about what people think of us when we have compassion for the hurt they may be feeling inside.  I think we experience Jesus when we are open to people who really need help.  An example of this in Jesus’ teaching is the parable of the good Samaritan. The good Samaritan truly cared about the person who was of a different race and class than him, even from one that hated his kind.  Mother Teresa is one such example in modern times who gave sacrificially to others--whose love flowed from her to others in meeting their needs.  
One thing I’ve thought about is how Jesus’ teaching come from His heart, from His being, as a man in the world of his contemporaries.  So when he says, “Go and do the same” . . . He’s showing us how we can know Him by doing His command.  In fact, He came to create a new human race.
In giving, we first give ourselves to God and then to our neighbor.  Paul knew that his support came from (the prayers) of many people.  To be on a mission of helping people, and joining hands with others in doing this, shows the grace of Jesus Christ.  We do not own each other.  In fact, I think God is even more glorified when we don’t know where our support comes from all the time.  Paul says the Corinthians first gave themselves to God and then to each other, through Him.  The problem is we get impatient and unruly, and become idolaters.  Although we may have benefited deeply from a relationship, a friend, we still cannot put an expectation upon them to always be there, because the biggest tragedy wouldn't be for us to lose a friendship but would be that they end up not knowing the Lord, or fall away from Him somehow, or miss out on "the knowledge of God."  The biggest tragedy would not be that we lose a friend (even if most of the time this isn't permanent)  . . . still, with it all, we need an eternal perspective.  We each will give an account of ourselves to God (Romans 14:10).
(Since starting to write this, I have reconnected with three good, old friends, whom I love. . . . so I am sure that God’s purpose in depriving us is never cruel and never permanent, but may just be a season of our lives that holds specific lessons in it for us.)

How do we grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ?
First of all, God leads us.  We come to recognize “Jesus” in those we wouldn’t expect to find Him.  But God is a God of surprises (see 1 Corinthians 2:7-9).
Here is an example of the knowledge of Christ Jesus from Psalm 87: In describing a life of God-worship, the psalmist says, "All my springs are in You."  This correlates with Proverbs 4:23 “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.”  That means that when we follow Christ who worshiped and obeyed without missing the mark, we experience refreshment.  We experience refreshment because of the Holy Spirit in us and in our midst. It talks about this in Ezekiel . . . “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36: 25-26). This is an example of the promises of God begun in the Old Testament and continued in Christ—which the apostle Peter says creates His “heavenly kingdom,” (2  Peter 1:11). He paved the way for this through His entire life here on earth.  He made the way into the spiritual temple, which is God's household of believers.  Here we can experience grace and the cleansing of our conscience that takes place among God’s household.  This is what it means to grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ—to see Jesus in our neighbor.
Knowledge of Jesus brings a comfort as indeed it reads in Ephesians 3, “That you may know the love of  Christ which surpasses knowledge, and so be filled up with the fullness of Christ.”  And I believe there is an assurance in knowing Jesus—we know Him even when times are tough, especially when times are tough.
We repeatedly have to say, “Not my will, but Thine be done.”  The grace of Christ comes from a wide range of resources.  In this case the internet is a good thing in being able to reach a wide number of people without too much trouble.
To say, “I’m going to trust Christ in a way I haven't before,” means that I am going to entrust myself to the grace of God, that I am going to commit myself to God and the goodwill of people.  As a Christian writer and musician, I have a lot to learn, but it means I'm going to experience, not something for nothing, but at least encouragement and feedback on my work from the benevolence of God's household.  We have been given so much through Christ.  We can share with one another and experience grace with people we have never known before.
In Matthew 25 Jesus teaches on the difference between the saved and unsaved at the end of time.  He says, “I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you invited me in; naked, and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.”
When the righteous ask, “When did we do this or that?” the King answers them saying, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least, you did it to Me.”  This is how we know Jesus, and when we follow His righteous commands, in this way, we grow in the knowledge of Him.  We also gain a more accurate and godly world-view.
To grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ means we recognize someone as a neighbor whom we may have had a conflict with in the past, whom we find we can know as a friend because we make forgiveness a way of life.  We can do this because we have been forgiven and recognize our need for grace.  And this is the "refreshment" and wiping away of sins that comes from Christ. (Acts 3:19)  Giving and receiving grace is one of the great privileges of life in Christ.  This is the suffering that comes as part of being a Christian, as Philippians 1:29 says "For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake."
Romans 14 says that the kingdom of God is "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."  This comes as a result of "adding to our faith, goodness, to goodness, knowledge, to knowledge, self-control, to self-control, steadfastness, to steadfastness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, Christian love." (2 Peter 1:5-7)  This is the opposite of living a life of evil desire but a life of being "confident of His calling and choosing us, for as long as we practice these things, we will never stumble" (2 Peter 1:10.). Jesus is who we need the most, and our salvation and blessing is the result of others giving in His name as they cared about and reached out to us, and thus God calls us "into the fields" to work for the harvest just like them with the people we're around.
So Peter calls us to "grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ," which (inherently presumed) is the alternative to being taken into the corruption that is in the world through lust.  This is evident.
By what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved" 2 Peter 2:19.
Christ came to show the way; therefore He is the one we are to listen to, as God's prophet.
That Christ is building His kingdom and has disciples everywhere the Word of faith has gone out to, is a joy to experience.
This is knowledge from above--Paul in Ephesians prays that "God would give [us] a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the true knowledge of Him, that the eyes of your heart being enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints." (Eph. 1:17-18)
And this is the grace that is in Christ Jesus—a manifold grace, according to 1 Peter 4:10.  I have experienced this grace of people giving into my life, and as I have shown, I think developing our gifts and then sharing them builds up people as a gift of grace.  
Right now I am learning how to work together with the members of my family in helping out an aging family member.  In the midst of this, I don’t always have to get my way, and I’m glad for that.  As Ephesians 5:8-10 says, “For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light [consists] in all goodness and righteousness and truth), proving what is pleasing to the Lord.”  I’ve heard this process called “group grace,” where you learn as a group and grow as a group.  Ephesians (in chapter 4:16) says that this is part of the body “building itself up in love, through the proper working of each individual part.”

What these words mean coming from Peter:
The prophetic message “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased,” is what Peter, James, and John heard on the holy mountain (2 Peter 2:18).
In John 21, in Peter's last interaction with the risen Christ before He ascended into heaven, He asks if he loved Him more than these," to which Peter says, "You know that I love You." Two times Jesus asks Peter if he loves ("agapeo," or Christian love, in the Greek) Him and Peter answers that he "loves him"--(phileo, or brotherly love), and the third time Jesus gets to his level and asks "if he loves (phileo, brotherly love) Him, and Peter says, "You know all things.  You know that I love (phileo, brotherly love) You. " To each of these answers Jesus responds, "tend [or shepherd] my sheep.”  So Peter knew what it was like to encounter Christ, and be changed in Him--what he encourages his recipients to do in these verses in 2 Peter.  The impetuous and untrustworthy Peter at the end of his life calls his recipients to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, whom he once knew as Savior and now knew fully as Lord.  He calls them to "grow," which is the opposite of being entrapped in the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Peter 1:4).  He calls us to be participants of divine nature, because through His own glory and excellence He has granted to us His magnificent and precious promises (2 Peter 1:4a).  Because of His promises we have encouragement to keep trying even when we miss the mark (the meaning of sin), to keep working at becoming sanctified and “showing up” with all that we are, seeing that we have already been justified by God’s grace.  And because we have the knowledge of Christ, we know where to look when we are at our wit’s end, we know where to find Jesus—in our neighbor—as it says in Proverbs, "Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away," (Proverbs27:10) and because we work to carry on His Great Commission “[we know that] the grace that is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of  thanks to abound to the glory of God” (2 Corinthians 4:15).  So be it. Amen.

1) Joseph R. Cooke, Free for the Taking: The Life-changing Power of Grace, Fleming H. Revell Company: Old Tappan, 1975.

2) Henry Cloud, Changes That Heal. Zondervan: Grand Rapids,1992.

3)Charles Ringma. Resist the Powers with Jacques Ellul. Regent College Publishing: Vancouver, 2009.