2 Peter 3:17-18

V.17. Ye, therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. V.18. But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen.

We heed the warning of the apostle: You, then, beloved, knowing this before, be careful, lest, carried away by the error of lawless men, (you) fall away from your own foundation.

It is by means of warnings such as these that Christians are enabled to be on the lookout for sectarians that pervert the gracious Gospel of Jesus Christ. They know what they may expect, and they conduct themselves accordingly. They will not permit the false interpretations of godless and impious men to swamp them, to carry them off their feet, to lose their foundation. They have the trustworthy, the solid basis of the Gospel, and they will not risk the shifting sands of man’s interpretation of the Word. The Word interprets itself, and we should be satisfied with the explanation thus offered, and not seek interpretations which are intended to satisfy human reason.

With this thought in mind the apostle concludes: But grow in the grace and in-the understanding of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

That is the Christian’s happiness: to increase in grace, in the conviction founded on the Gospel that we possess the grace of God in Christ Jesus, that His merits have been imputed to us, and that our inheritance is awaiting us above. By becoming more firmly established in this conviction day after day, we also grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; for those facts are the essential facts for this life and for the world to come. Therefore we join the apostle in his fervent doxology in praise of Christ the Savior: To Him be glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.