^ The capacity of growth is that which, more than anything else, distinguishes one mind from another.^
2. Here we are told to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Now the text does not mean, grow into the grace, or into the knowledge. It means, being in grace — grow ; being in knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ — grow. That is clear when we read verse 17 as well as verse 18. "Ye therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware lest, being carried away with the error of the wicked, ye fall from your own stedfastness. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." "Beware lest ye fall," that is the negative command. The positive command is, " Know- ing these things . . . grow in the grace and knowledge." You are in the grace, in the knowledge ! Grow !
The figure is that of infancy advancing to the full stature
of manhood. The gods of the ancients were born full-grown.
Minerva is said to have sprung all armed and panoplied from the
forehead of Jove. But Christians begin as babes in Christ and
^ John Ker, Thoughts for Heart avd Life, 27,
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196 GROWTH
advance through certain conditions of normal growth to the "measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."
^ You hold in your hand a " corn of wheat," and you know there are in that seed untold possibilities. It is planted, it ger- minates, rises from the tomb of darkness to the light of day, and steadily advances to golden fruitfulness. There is first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. By culture you draw out the mysterious forces of the seed, call to higher energy its potencies of life, and so bring the seed to fuller manifestation of its latent and dormant powers. So the soul is a seed of un- developed possibilities. There are in it high powers and faculties, mysterious and immeasurable energies of life, that may be de- veloped, but may remain in the germ, may lie unawakened, or may be irregularly or only imperfectly developed. In the soul there are wonderful possibilities of aspiration and humility, of courage and faith, of wisdom and prayerfulness, of holiness and service ; and the education of the soul means the calling forth by judicious culture of all these various powers and qualities to their harmonious and effective operation and co-operation. In this way the soul comes to itself, to blessed self-realization.
I.
The Kind of Gkowth Commended.
" Groio in the grace and knoivledge of our Lord and Saviour" These are the qualities in which we are to grow. They are the starting-point and goal of the Christian life. They are exhibited in their fulness in Jesus Christ, and if we are vitally united to Him we shall grow into His likeness.
1. What is g7'ace ? The root of the Greek word is a verb which means to rejoice, or be glad. Grace is that which makes the heart glad with pure gladness ; the grace of God, the grace of Jesus, is the graciousness, the gentleness, the harmony of life in God and in His Son. You speak to a graceful person — you cannot define the grace that is in him ; but it is something which gives more than satisfaction, it gives pleasure ; you recognize a spiritual thing even when you see it in the human form, yet more when you see it in. the gracious acts of one man or one woman towards another. There is harmony between the being of the one and the being of the other — the recognition by the one of the same nature
2 PETER III. i8 197
and the same needs in the other ; and the same readiness to be met, to be pleased, or to be hurt ; to be sorrowful or glad ; the submission of the one nature to the demands of the other nature — that is grace, that is graciousness.
We have, first, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unde- served love and favour which God in Jesus Christ bears to us sinful and inferior creatures ; and, next, we have the consequence of that love and favour in the manifold spiritual endowments which in us become " graces," beauties and excellences of Christian character. So, then, one who is a Christian ought to be continually realizing a deeper and more blessed consciousness of Christ's love and favour and manifesting it in his life.
Thus the word " grace " sums up the manifold Divine gifts, gifts of the grace of God — the gift of holiness, the gift of love to God and love to man, the gift of spiritual energy. All the blossoming aspirations, all the budding spiritual hopes, all the ripening fruits of holy endeavour are due to the Divine life within, are through the grace of God in Christ. As the sun shines forth in his radiant strength, thaws the frozen earth, and causes the seed to spring up, the leaves and fruit to appear, so when the sun of God's grace shines upon the soul, then in the soul will increasingly appear those graces that are an image, however faint, of the Divine grace ; and holiness and righteous- ness and love will " grow from more to more," manifesting them- selves in purer beauty, richer fruitfulness, and nobler power.