2 Peter 3:18

Next he added a positive exhortation (cf. 2 Peter 1:5-10). Rather than being swept away by error, his audience should keep on growing (present imperative in Greek) in God’s grace. They could do so by consciously depending on His resources (His power and promises, 2 Peter 1:3-4) and by growing in the knowledge (Gr. gnosei) of "our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (cf. 2 Peter 1:11; 2 Peter 2:20; 2 Peter 3:2). They could do the latter by getting more intimately acquainted with Him day by day (2 Peter 1:5-8).

"Christian knowledge fosters fellowship with God and deepens a consciousness of the believer’s obligation to live a life worthy of His grace." [Note: Hiebert, Second Peter . . ., p. 178.]

"The command to grow is an appeal to the will. But growth, in the spiritual as in the physical realm, is not produced by an assertion of the will. Yet the human will plays a decisive part in the experience of spiritual growth. Believers must will to remove the hindrances to growth while actively fostering the conditions which promote growth. When the conditions for spiritual growth are maintained the divinely implanted life will assuredly grow and mature. . . .

"Growing knowledge fosters fellowship with God and deepens the consciousness of one’s obligations to lead a life worthy of His grace." [Note: Idem, "Directives for . . .," p. 338.]

Continuing growth ". . . is the unfailing panacea for all spiritual ills." [Note: H. A. Ironside, Expository Notes on the Epistles of Peter, p. 102.]

"We grow best in a loving family, and this is where the local church comes in. A baby needs a family for protection, provision, and affection. Tests prove that babies who are raised alone, without special love, tend to develop physical and emotional problems very early. The church is God’s ’nursery’ for the care and feeding of Christians, the God-ordained environment that encourages them to grow." [Note: Wiersbe, 2:471.]

The greatest goal for the Christian should be to glorify Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 10:31). Only four epistles end with a doxology, including this one (cf. Romans 16:25-27; Philippians 4:20; Jude 24-25). Normally doxologies glorify God, but this one and two others glorify Jesus Christ (cf. 2 Timothy 4:18; Revelation 1:5-6). Peter’s final words focused his readers’ attention anew on the ultimate priority of glorifying Christ. The day of eternity is the time when we will be living on the new earth (2 Peter 3:13).