2 Pet. i, 5-9: And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
*For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
*But he that lacketh these things, is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged form his old sins.
It commences with the seed, the grain, and grows up into the lofty tree.
It is receiving with meekness the ingrafted word, and growing
thereby, or growing in grace and in the knowledge of the truth, or being changed from glory to glory into the image of Christ.
thereby, or growing in grace and in the knowledge of the truth, or being changed from glory to glory into the image of Christ.
As the child of God contemplates the truth, he gradually
beholds in it the glory of the Lord, and falls in love with his lovely character.
beholds in it the glory of the Lord, and falls in love with his lovely character.
Under the influences of divine truth, he sees some beautiful trait in the Christian character and conforms to it, and thus far grows up into Christ and becomes assimilated into his likeness." D. T. BOURDEAU