“For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
and abound
The root of the word “abound” is “more.” The idea of “more” is greater quantity. Sometimes this word bears the idea of super-abound (Ro 5:20; 6:1; 2 Co 4:15; Php 4:17; 2 Th 1:3; and in this verse). “Abound” carries the idea of causing a significant increase in the degree of some experience or state. The expansion comes to such a considerable extent that the result is super-abundant. It is one thing to have the “these things” of verses 5-7 as ours, but it is another to super-abound in them.
Ro 5:20, “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.”
Where sin came more and more in the lives of people, grace super-abounded more than they could sin. God’s grace extends to more and more people in abundance.
2 Co 4:15, “For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.”
2 Co 8:14-15, “But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may supply their lack, that their abundance also may supply your lack—that there may be equality. 15 As it is written, ‘He who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack.'”
God provides more than enough to meet our material needs.
PRINCIPLE:
God expects an abounding life, not a life void applying the riches of His grace to experience.
APPLICATION:
Any Christian can draw upon the resources of the seven building blocks of faith whenever they choose to do so. It is one thing to have these qualities exist in us, and it is another for them to super-abound in us.
All seven faith qualities lie resident in the mature believer. First, we have the beginning state (“are”), then we move to super-abounding (“and abound”). Most of us have the potential to walk, but we will not walk until we take the first few steps. The crawling infant may fear the loss of balance and falling. He may fall at first, but later, when he gains confidence in balancing himself, he finds the joy of the powers of walking and, later, running.
The mature Spirit-filled life also overflows to others (Eph 5:18-25). It is like an artesian well whose source is higher than the place of its emergence. The outflow is natural. The source of power for the Christian life is God, the Holy Spirit. The Christian life that does not flow over never blesses others. We cannot overflow until God fills us fully.
Eph 5:18-21, “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit. 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another in the fear of God.”
Both we and others will benefit from that overflow.
