Are You A Little Baby?
are you a little baby?
“For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” – 2 Peter 1:5-8
Are you growing in your faith-life?
For anyone who has kids or knows kids, one of the exciting things of watching them grow up is seeing them discover new things and become more knowledgeable and capable. They learn to count, then read, and soon they are discovering how the world works around them. They learn to feed themselves, get dressed, and do different kinds of work.
Your life in Christ is similar, you grow!
You are saved by grace through faith. No doubt about that. No works needed for your salvation. Once you receive faith, you are alive in Christ just like a child is alive once they are conceived and born. However, also like a child, you should be growing in knowledge and actions.
This comes by studying the Bible, praying, meeting with other Christians, and putting what you learn into practice. 2 Peter describes this growth as supplementing your faith so that you are effective and fruitful in your knowledge of the Lord.
In other words,
“Great! You know Jesus as Lord and Savior. You are saved. Now, put that knowledge into practice so you see a lot of fruit for the Kingdom of God.”
It’s good to examine ourselves from time to time to see if we are thriving or just surviving. To be clear, this isn’t a matter of checking our life to see if we are saved. Salvation is by grace through faith alone. It’s seeing if we are growing in our knowledge of the Lord and putting those things into practice as people made alive in Christ.
Note: Putting what we learn about God into practice includes being repentant. We’ll never perfectly follow Jesus, but we can learn to come to Him regularly in confession and repentance. That’s a big part of living out our faith!
Take a few minutes and examine yourself.
What are some areas where you could be growing?
Heavenly Father,
Thank You for saving me solely by Your mercy and grace. I could never earn it. Thank You for the new life You have given me in Jesus. Help me to always seek to know You more, put Your commands into practice, and live a life of repentance.
Amen.
In Christ’s Service,
Pastor Kurt
