Better Christians
Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
II Peter 3:18
The First business of a Christian is to become a better Christian, to know Christ better, to decrease that He may increase. “That I may know him” was Paul’s supreme ambition.
It is possible to major on the negative side of this matter on separation alone or to stress solely the positive aspect in the victorious life, or Spirit-filled life, so that we develop a fad. The Christian life is Christ Himself. There is the positive, “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ” and the negative, “Make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof,” and it is all simply more of Christ and less of self.
Here is a weak spot today. For all our religious wheels within wheels, we have no time for he cultivation of our souls, no time to know Christ better. How does He become more real? “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (Jno. 14:21). He makes Himself real to the obedient disciple. And the obedient disciple is daily a better Christian than he was the day before.