"Grow in grace" not in one grace only—but in all grace.
Grow in that root-grace, faith. Believe the promises more firmly than you have done. Let faith increase in fullness, constancy, simplicity.
Grow also in love. Ask that your love may become extended, more intense, more practical, influencing every thought, word, and deed.
The world is not our standard for Christian living.
The apostle Paul stressed, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind . . .” (Rom. 12:2 KJV). Again he writes, “And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” (Ephesians 4:24 KJV). In the verses that follow he gives five specific examples of the higher standard of Christian conduct.
The four directions in the text must have my serious attention:
Luke said in his preface, that he had perfect understanding of all things from the very first; so we find that his history begins very early indeed, and describes events that happened before the birth of Jesus.
John the Baptist was born six months before Jesus. In this chapter we have an account of his parents. His father was a priest named Zacharias. His mother Elizabeth also was of the family of the priests, the descendants of Aaron.
“The believer is a new man, a new creation, but he is a new man not yet made perfect,” observes John Murray.
The born again believer still has to deal with indwelling sin. He still sins even though he is growing in Christ likeness and is the subject of the progressive sanctification of the Holy Spirit.
The wise mother of king Lemuel gave her son gracious directions when she spoke these words. It is when we begin to feel the misery into which we have been cast by sin, and thus become ready to perish, and of heavy hearts, that the pure wine of gospel grace is suitable to our lost condition. As the holiness and justice of God are discovered to the conscience, and we are made to see and feel the depths of the Adam fall, we look out of ourselves for a salvation which we could not find in our fallen nature or in our deeply corrupt and unbelieving heart.
The holy Evangelist Luke writes a short preface before his history of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This preface is a kind of letter to Theophilus, for whose use especially he wrote the history. Let us inquire who Luke was, and who Theophilus was. Luke is not mentioned in any of the Gospels; but Paul speaks of him in his epistle to the Colossians, as, "the beloved physician," 4:14. There is reason also to suppose he was not a Jew, but a converted heathen; yet he had the honor of writing a part of the holy Word of God. Theophilus was probably a governor; therefore he was called "most excellent," as dukes are now styled "your grace," and kings "your majesty." Theophilus, though a nobleman, had been instructed in religion by some of God's servants; but Luke wished him to know the history of the Lord still more perfectly. He says in the fourth verse, that he had written this account that "you (Theophilus) might know the certainty of those things wherein you have been instructed."
Bible Reading: Revelation 3:6-11 KJV Key Verse: " Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crow...
