“that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
God did not design the Christian life to be static. If we stand still in our spiritual growth, our lives will become static. Today, we come to the second spiritual fruit of pleasing God: increased knowledge of God.
“and increasing in the knowledge of God”
The word “increasing” indicates that the Christian life is progressive. We never arrive at a complete knowledge of God. We can always learn more about him. The more we know of God, the more we grow in our faith (1 Pet 2:2; 1:5-7; 3:18; Jude 20). The Christian life is activated by a crisis known as the new birth. That crisis triggers a life-long process of knowing more about God. As we “increase” our knowledge of God, we move through spiritual babyhood, childhood, adolescence, and, if all things are equal, we eventually become mature spiritual adults.
There are peculiar temptations to each phase of our spiritual journey toward maturity (1 John 2:12-14). If we do not advance in our Christian life, it may be because we have not grown in our knowledge of God. We may have a case of arrested spiritual development. We are dwarfed and have become a spiritual pygmy. Our knowledge of God should be greater than it was last year.
This “knowledge” is no mere abstract knowledge but knowledge of a person (Hosea 6:3; John 17:13). We must cultivate an appetite for knowing God, which involves His character, promises, and work. If we continue to be spoon-fed in spiritual things, we will remain a baby. We must learn to feed ourselves. If we do so, we will increase in the knowledge of God. There is no way to increase in the knowledge of God without increasing in the knowledge of the Word of God, which involves His promises, character, and work.
Principle:
Our idea of God should grow larger as we grow as Christians.
Application:
Is your idea of God greater today than the day you came to know Christ? The ultimate purpose of creation is to glorify God. How can we glorify God if we do not sufficiently know who he is?
